Open Mike 21/08/2018
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6:00 am, August 21st, 2018 - 182 comments
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- No confidence without transparency
On Tuesday, RNZ published a major story about the police killing of Shargin Stephens, which suggested that the police had engaged in a sustained campaign of their harassment against their victim, then lied to the IPCA about it, as well as manipulating evidence of the killing. The allegations are serious ...18 mins ago - They Say We Want A Revolution – But Do We?
5 hours ago - Congratulations to the real Team of New Zealand and farewell to the fakers
The management gurus say ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. And what we saw over early breakfasts this morning was New Zealand’s Black Caps showing the world the best of team culture, admirable character and a group that not just carries the silver fern as representatives of this country, but does ...14 hours ago - Legal Beagle: First draft of a submission on the counter-terrorism legislation bill
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Could a backlash to “woke politics” be the basis for the revival and return of New Zealand First? The Winston Peters-led party held its first post-defeat conference in the weekend, in which the main theme was NZ First’s very clear focus on culture wars issues as a way to rebuild ...19 hours ago - Urgently upgrading NZ’s Covid-19 response
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- Todd Muller gets crushed
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- Laurel Hubbard is a trailblazer
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- The problem of police dishonestyRNZ has a major story this morning about the police killing of Shargin Stephens in Rotorua in 2016. The "Independent" Police Conduct Authority of course cleared police of any wrong-doing, and found police actions "reasonable" and the killing justified. The police are now using that finding to prevent a coronial ...3 days ago
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The Green Party is urging Wellington City Council to pass an ambitious Spatial Plan that sets Wellington up for action on the housing crisis, allowing for more new homes close to the city centre. ...3 days ago - Housing solutions, accelerated
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- Alert Level 2 in Wellington, Wairarapa and Kāpiti CoastAlert Level 2 measures are now in place for Wellington, Wairarapa and Kāpiti Coast to the north of Ōtaki, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. These measures are precautionary, following the potential exposure of New Zealanders to a COVID-19 case from Sydney. The person visited a range of locations in ...2 days ago
- Speech to the India New Zealand Business Council Summit5pm, Wednesday 23 June 2021 [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] Tuia te Rangi e tū nei Tuia te Papa e takoto nei Tuia te here tangata Ka rongo te pō, ka rongo te Ao Tihei Mauri Ora Introduction Namaskar, tēnā koe and good evening. Thank you for your kind invitation to ...2 days ago
- Financial support for caregivers widenedChildren’s Minister Kelvin Davis has welcomed changes that will make it easier for caregivers looking after children outside of the state care system to access much-needed financial assistance. The Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill will also allow these caregivers to access further benefits previously unavailable to them. ...2 days ago
- Agencies to have powers to secure maritime domainA Bill introduced to Parliament today aims to prevent serious criminal offending at sea, including transnational offending and organised crime, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced. “Aotearoa New Zealand will be better placed to keep our maritime environment secure against threats like drugs trafficking, wildlife trafficking and human trafficking with the ...2 days ago
- Critical support for New Zealand’s budding researchersFellowships to attract and retain talented researchers in the early stages of their career, have been awarded to 30 New Zealanders, Associate Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “I am pleased to congratulate these researchers, who will be receiving funding through the MBIE Science Whitinga Fellowship. ...2 days ago
- Bill to stop taxpayers having to fund oil field decommissionsThe Government is preventing taxpayers picking up the bill for the decommissioning of oil fields, says Energy and Resource Minister Dr Megan Woods. “After the Crown had to take responsibility for decommissioning the Tui oil field, it became clear to me that the current requirements around decommissioning are inadequate and ...2 days ago
- Quarantine Free Travel from New South Wales to New Zealand to pauseNew Zealand’s Quarantine Free Travel from New South Wales to New Zealand will be paused while the source of infection of new cases announced in Sydney is investigated, says COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. There are 10 new community cases of COVID-19 today in New South Wales, taking the Australian ...3 days ago
- Milestone reached for Iwi Affiliation Population CountsIwi affiliation data released today provides updated population counts for all iwi and addresses gaps in Māori data originating from the 2018 Census, says Associate Minister of Statistics Meka Whaitiri. “The release of the 2018 Iwi Affiliation Estimated Counts is a really important step, and I acknowledge the hard work ...3 days ago
- Ngāti Rangitihi Claims Settlement Bill passes first readingTreaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little welcomed Ngāti Rangitihi to Parliament today to witness the first reading of The Ngāti Rangitihi Claims Settlement Bill. “I know it took a lot of hard work, time and patience by all parties involved to reach this significant milestone. I am honoured to ...3 days ago
- Speech to the Sustainable Healthcare and Climate Health Conference AotearoaMihi Tēnā tātou katoa Kei ngā pou o te whare hauora ki Aotearoa, kei te mihi. Tēnā koutou i tā koutou pōwhiri mai i ahau. E mihi ana ki ngā taura tangata e hono ana i a tātou katoa, ko te kaupapa o te rā tērā. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ...3 days ago
- Infrastructure Acceleration Fund opening for businessCriteria to access at least $1 billion of the $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund (HAF), announced in March, is now available, and an invitation for expressions of interest will be released on 30 June, Housing Minister Megan Woods has announced. “This is a key milestone in our plan to accelerate ...3 days ago
- Bringing back the health of Hauraki GulfNew marine protection areas and restrictions on fishing are among a raft of changes being put in place to protect the Hauraki Gulf for future generations. The new strategy, Revitalising the Gulf – Government action on the Sea Change Plan, released today, draws on input from mana whenua, local communities, ...3 days ago
- Speech to AI Forum – Autonomous Weapons SystemsAI Forum New Zealand, Auckland Good evening and thank you so much for joining me this evening. I’d like to start with a thank you to the AI Forum Executive for getting this event off the ground and for all their work and support to date. The prospect of autonomous ...4 days ago
- New Zealand boosts support to Fiji for COVID-19 impactAotearoa New Zealand is providing additional support to Fiji to mitigate the effects of the current COVID-19 outbreak on vulnerable households, Foreign Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “Recognising the increasingly challenging situation in Fiji, Aotearoa will provide an additional package of assistance to support the Government of Fiji and ...4 days ago
- Round 2 of successful energy education fund now open$1.65 million available in Support for Energy Education in Communities funding round two Insights from SEEC to inform future energy hardship programmes Community organisations that can deliver energy education to households in need are being invited to apply for the second funding round of the Support for Energy Education in ...4 days ago
- New Ngarimu scholarships to target vocational trainingAssociate Education Minister Kelvin Davis today announced three new scholarships for students in vocational education and training (VET) are to be added to the suite of prestigious Ngarimu scholarships. “VET learners have less access to study support than university students and this is a way to tautoko their learning dreams ...4 days ago
- Recognising the volunteers who support our health systemNominations have opened today for the 2021 Minister of Health Volunteer Awards, as part of National Volunteer Week. “We know that New Zealanders donate at least 159 million hours of volunteer labour every year,” Minister of Health Andrew Little said in launching this year’s awards in Wellington. “These people play ...4 days ago
- Drug Free Sport supported to deal with new doping challengesDrug Free Sport New Zealand will receive a funding boost to respond to some of the emerging doping challenges across international sport. The additional $4.3 million over three years comes from the Sport Recovery Fund announced last year. It will help DFSNZ improve athletes’ understanding of the risks of doping, ...4 days ago
- Government support for South Auckland community hit by tornadoThe Government is contributing $100,000 to a Mayoral Relief Fund to support Auckland communities impacted by the Papatoetoe tornado, Acting Minister for Emergency Management Kris Faafoi says. “My heart goes out to the family and friends who have lost a loved one, and to those who have been injured. I ...5 days ago
- Celebrating World Refugee DayWorld Refugee Day today is an opportunity to celebrate the proud record New Zealanders have supporting and protecting refugees and acknowledge the contribution these new New Zealanders make to our country, the Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi said. “World Refugee Day is also a chance to think about the journey ...5 days ago
- Face to face meeting delivers significant progress on NZ-UK FTANew Zealand and the UK have committed to accelerating their free trade agreement negotiations with the aim of reaching an agreement in principle this August, Trade Minister Damien O’Connor announced. “We’ve held constructive and productive discussions towards the conclusion of a high-quality and comprehensive FTA that will support sustainable and inclusive trade, and ...6 days ago
- Government taking action to protect albatrossNew population figures for the critically endangered Antipodean albatross showing a 5 percent decline per year highlights the importance of reducing all threats to these very special birds, Acting Minister of Conservation Dr Ayesha Verrall says. The latest population modelling, carried out by Dragonfly Data Science, shows the Antipodean albatross ...7 days ago
- Adoption laws under reviewNew Zealand’s 66-year-old adoption laws are being reviewed, with public engagement beginning today. Justice Minister Kris Faafoi said the Government is seeking views on options for change to our adoption laws and system. “The Adoption Act has remained largely the same since 1955. We need our adoption laws to reflect ...1 week ago
- Wider roll-out of cameras on boats to support sustainability and protect marine lifeUp to 300 inshore commercial fishing vessels will be fitted with on-board cameras by 2024 as part of the Government’s commitment to protect the natural marine environment for future generations. Minister for Oceans and Fisheries David Parker today announced the funding is now in place for the wider roll out ...1 week ago
- Plan for vaccine rollout for general population announcedNew Zealanders over 60 will be offered a vaccination from July 28 and those over 55 from August 11, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. The rollout of the vaccine to the general population will be done in age groups as is the approach commonly used overseas, with those over ...1 week ago
- New Zealand introduces Belarus travel bansNew Zealand has imposed travel bans on selected individuals associated with the Lukashenko regime, following ongoing concerns about election fraud and human rights abuses after the 2020 Belarus elections, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has announced. The ban covers more than fifty individuals, including the President and key members of ...1 week ago
- NZ economy grows driven by households, construction and business investmentThe Government’s efforts to secure the recovery have been reflected in the robust rebound of GDP figures released today which show the economy remains resilient despite the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Grant Robertson said. GDP increased 1.6 percent in the first three months of 2021. The Treasury had ...1 week ago
- Milestone 250th tower continues to improve rural connectivityThe Government has welcomed the completion of the 250th 4G mobile tower, as part of its push for better rural connectivity. Waikato’s Wiltsdown, which is roughly 80 kilometres south of Hamilton, is home to the new tower, deployed by the Rural Connectivity Group to enable improved service to 70 homes ...1 week ago
- Quarantine Free Travel pause with Victoria to lift on TuesdayFollowing a further public health assessment of the COVID-19 outbreak in greater Melbourne, New Zealand’s Quarantine Free Travel pause with Victoria has been extended to 11.59pm on Tuesday 22 June, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. It has been determined that the risk to public health in New Zealand continues ...1 week ago
- Prime Minister mourns passing of Dr Sir Ian HassallPrime Minister Jacinda Ardern is mourning the passing of Dr Sir Ian Hassall, New Zealand’s first Children’s Commissioner and lifelong champion for children and children’s health. As a paediatrician Sir Ian contributed to a major world-first cot death study that has been directly credited with reducing cot deaths in New ...1 week ago
- Watch live: Jacinda Ardern visits tornado-hit Papatoetoe
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has walked along the streets in Papatoetoe that suffered the worst impact from the tornado that hit the suburb last Saturday morning. ...26 mins ago - My stars of Matariki are wāhine Māori
Writer Sarah Sparks on feeling inspired by nine stars of Matariki – namely the wāhine Māori that feature on the cover of a new issue of Woman magazine.I would like to imagine that the Matariki cover of Woman magazine, out this week, has set a precedent for the industry. When ...1 hour ago - We’re hiring: The Spinoff seeks commercial managerThe Spinoff is seeking an experienced commercial manager to join its fast-growing team. The Spinoff is recruiting a commercial manager, who will work closely with The Spinoff editorial and podcast teams to assess commercial partnership opportunities, and with our sister content studio Daylight Creative to bring them to life.Partnerships are integral ...1 hour ago
- Bernard Hickey: A pyrrhic and partial victory in WellingtonLast night Wellington City Council voted for a spatial plan that will allow some intensification of housing, but the problems run much deeper, writes Bernard Hickey. This story was originally published in Bernard Hickey’s email newsletter The Kākā and is republished with permission.The apparent partial defeat of nimby councillors in Wellington’s spatial ...1 hour ago
- Waikeria Riot Inmate Compensation: Slap In The Face For Victims Of Crime
The announcement that prisoners are now going to ‘receive compensation for a crime that’s been committed’ is a slap in the face for the many thousands of victims of crime who struggle to get a cent of reparation from those very offenders who sit ...2 hours ago - Covid masks encouraged in all public places, but not mandatory – PMPrime Minister Jacinda Ardern says people in Wellington should wear masks whenever possible, after a Sydney man with Covid-19 visited numerous locations in the capital. ...2 hours ago
- UCG’s Small Business Suppliers To Get Business Services BoostTelecommunications services corporate UCG (Universal Communications Group) is providing a huge boost to its New Zealand Delivery Partner subcontractors by signing them all up as full members of the EMA (Employers and Manufacturers Association NZ) to enable ...3 hours ago
- Back up the dawn raids apology with repeal of racist laws, say Pacific leadersFollowing the government’s decision to make a formal apology for the dawn raids of the 1970s, academics, activists and community leaders have called for it to be followed up with further action. “Dad was an overstayer,” says Alf Filipaina. The Auckland councillor and former cop says his father could have been deported ...3 hours ago
- Hate speech: Govt plans new law, tougher penaltiesHate speech will become a criminal offence and anyone convicted could face harsher punishment, under proposed legislative changes. ...3 hours ago
- _Homo_ who? A new mystery human species has been discovered in Israel
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Langley, Senior Research Fellow, Griffith University Yossi Zaidner An international group of archaeologists have discovered a missing piece in the story of human evolution. Excavations at the Israeli site of Nesher Ramla have recovered a skull that may represent ...3 hours ago - We found traces of humanity’s age-old arms race with coronaviruses written in our DNASource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yassine Souilmi, Visiting Investigator, Australian National University NIAID-RML, CC BY-SA A coronavirus may have swept across East Asia more than 20,000 years ago, leaving traces in the DNA of people in modern China, Japan and Vietnam. Our research, published in ...3 hours ago
- We found more than 54,000 viruses in people’s poo — and 92% were previously unknown to scienceSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Hugenholtz, Professor of Microbiology, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland Shutterstock Research published today in Nature Microbiology has identified 54,118 species of virus living in the human gut — 92% of which were previously unknown. ...3 hours ago
- The sentencing of George Floyd’s killer has lessons for policing in Australia and New Zealand tooSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Mehigan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Canterbury www.shutterstock.com The imminent sentencing of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 murder of George Floyd will be closely watched around the world. While the crime happened in the ...4 hours ago
- Australia’s media industry shed 5,000 journalists to survive – what does this mean for those who...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin University Lukas Coch/AAP In the 2000s, the internet shredded the media’s business model. The media’s influence fragmented and many employees paid the price. Between 2012 and 2016, thousands of Australian journalists lost their ...4 hours ago
- Novavax is absent from Australia’s 2021 vaccination schedule. But it could be a useful booster lat...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Berry, Professor of Viral Immunology, Murdoch University Novavax recently released excellent results from phase 3 clinical trials, finding its COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated 90.4% efficacy overall after two doses given three weeks apart. The results, from close to 30,000 people in the ...4 hours ago
- US scheme used by Australian farmers reveals the dangers of trading soil carbon to tackle climate ch...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Simmons, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, University of New England Shutterstock Soil carbon is in the spotlight in Australia. A key plank in the Morrison government’s technology-led emissions reduction policy, it involves changing farming techniques so soils store more carbon ...4 hours ago
- Podcasting overcomes hurdles facing unis to immerse students in the world of workers’ experiencesSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mim Fox, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of Wollongong Shutterstock Podcasting is helping to revolutionise tertiary education. Universities have found themselves caught between shrinking budgets and an official insistence that they make graduates job-ready. Academics have had to be ...4 hours ago
- COVID has disrupted our big cities, and regional planning has to catch up fastSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Byrne, Professor of Human Geography and Planning, University of Tasmania Blaine O’Neill/Flickr, CC BY-NC Since the 1950s, the world has experienced a sixfold increase in the number of people living in cities. City dwellers now outnumber rural residents globally ...4 hours ago
- Vital Signs: how to halve serious injuries and deaths from teenage driving accidentsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Shutterstock Teenage drivers are a risky bunch. They are inexperienced and don’t always drive carefully, sometimes with tragic consequences. Various studies indicate 15-30% of teens have an accident in their first year of driving. ...4 hours ago
- Covid-19 forced govt to cut back defence spending – Peeni HenareThe $20 billion spend-up on defence is the latest Covid-19 casualty, with a range of options to scale it down now before the finance minister. ...4 hours ago
- Local VC becomes first in NZ to adopt global diversity pledgeWith much of the investing world still the domain of white males, a New Zealand VC fund has adopted a contractual pledge to bring more Māori and Pasifika into the sector.A New Zealand venture capital fund has become the first of its kind to adopt a BLM-inspired diversity pledge. Hamilton ...4 hours ago
- Live updates, June 25: No new Covid-19 cases, but further location of interest identifiedWelcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for June 25, bringing you the latest news updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nzWe’re doing our utmost to keep you updated on all the Covid-19 coverage. We can’t do it without the generous support of our members. If you want ...4 hours ago
- Defence spend to reflect Labour values – Peeni HenareThe $20 billion spend-up on defence is the latest Covid-19 casualty, with a range of options to scale it down now before the finance minister. ...4 hours ago
- The Bulletin: Australia’s outbreak and the bubbleGood morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Australia’s outbreak and the bubble, Wellington council makes changes at punishing spatial plan meeting, and Treasury making noises about big philosophical change on government spending.Over the course of this week, the Covid situation in Australia has started to look increasingly ...4 hours ago
- Women miss out on retirement cash by being risk-averse, report finds
A report on the gender divide finds women are collectively missing out on $750 million at retirement. The report by ASB Bank indicates women have better everyday financial wellbeing than men, as they spend less and save more, despite an average 9 percent gender pay gap. Despite saving more, women have ...5 hours ago - An Insult To Everyday KiwisFirst they gave us only 9 days to make submissions to the Select Committee on changes to the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Bill. In spite of this, 2,434 New Zealanders and Groups had made a submission. The vast majority of these ...5 hours ago
- This week's best-selling books
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias FICTION 1 Bug Week by Airini Beautrais (Victoria University Press, $30) Number one for the sixth consecutive week - a miracle for a collection of short stories. 2 Loop ...5 hours ago - March Of Migrants – Postponed To 10 JulyThe March of Migrants II – Postponed The Covid pandemic has seen the migrants, onshore and offshore, play a significant role as frontline workers, essential workers, and generally being caring members of the team of five million. Therefore, we fully ...5 hours ago
- Rod Oram: Next, sort fishing and the oceans
The Government has massive reforms underway on resource management and three waters - but its next environmental priority should be a new fisheries and oceans policy, writes Rod Oram ...6 hours ago - Vaccines and our irrational natures
In our search for herd immunity, Nicholas Agar looks at factors making people reluctant to accept safe and effective vaccines, arguing we should focus on modes of delivery less likely to provoke anxieties At the outset of the pandemic, there were fears that finding a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 might turn out to ...6 hours ago - Changing South: Ōamaru: Moving forward by looking back
Ōamaru turned its historic Victorian-era buildings into a major tourist attraction but more recently it has added a retro/futuristic twist by embracing steampunk. Could it now be the steampunk capital of the world? Out of adversity comes ... goggles, airships, watches and waistcoats, brocade and boots. Every June, visitors head down to ...6 hours ago - The day of the vaccine
On Wednesday morning, at the same time as news filtered out of a positive Covid-19 case going on a tiki tour of Wellington, an operation was being executed with military precision at a retirement village in the Auckland suburb of Remuera From 5.30am, a steady trickle of vaccinators, pharmacists and ...6 hours ago - Long-awaited iwi data released after census failure
After more than two years of waiting, iwi finally have access to current data on their people. However, doubts remain over the next count in 2023. Official data on iwi affiliation is now available, after the botched 2018 census left Māori and iwi organisations empty-handed. The new information, released by ...6 hours ago - Newsroom's daily sudoku, Friday 25 June
...6 hours ago - Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 25 June
Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions. ...6 hours ago - Every pudding in the Edmonds cookbook, cooked and rankedCatherine Woulfe stocks up on white sugar and Granny Smiths and kills pudding for her family forever.“The Edmonds Cookery Book needs no introduction,” says the 1998 edition of the Edmonds Cookery Book, in the introduction.What it does need is a ranking. So turn straight to the Puddings section, where you’ll ...7 hours ago
- Bernard Hickey: How hope for a generation was lostKids born after 2008 into rentals were already hamstrung. Now their hopes for secure, healthy homes for their own whānau and futures are gone. Bernard Hickey explains how the housing market bolted and destroyed the dreams for our youngest people. And why there’s no real prospect our leaders can (or ...7 hours ago
- Lead, arsenic in soil at up to 400 Defence houses
An urgent briefing to the defence minister revealed that up to 20 percent of the military's housing estate could have soil contaminated with lead and other harmful materials. ...7 hours ago - Climate plan just shifts industry overseas while Government grandstands
Minister for Climate Change James Shaw says the Climate Change Commission’s “blueprint” for a net-zero carbon economy pathway is the only game in town. But a net-zero target that ignores imported carbon is conceptually dishonest. And unless ...7 hours ago - Travel bubble worth the disruptions – tourism firms
Tourism companies say bubble has been the "light at the end of the tunnel" ...7 hours ago - Teen swimmer's feel for the water takes her to Tokyo
There's something special about New Zealand's youngest Olympian in Tokyo, teenager Erika Fairweather - both in the water and out. Erika Fairweather has an astute feel for the water; a gift not all swimmers have. “You can’t coach ‘feel’,” says Gary Francis, Swimming New Zealand’s Olympic team manager. He describes the 17-year-old ...7 hours ago - Grattan on Friday: Blowin’ in the wind with BarnabySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison is fond of telling his troops they’re in a boat. On Thursday he said Barnaby Joyce was “a wind in the sails”. Perhaps better described as a gale hitting the craft, ...11 hours ago
- Fiji may be facing heavy covid disaster within month, warns health officialBy Michael Field of The Pacific Newsroom Fiji could face around 600 covid-19 deaths within about eight weeks, and 50,000 active cases, unless decisive government-led action is taken quickly on controlling the epidemic. Diplomatic sources have told Pacific Newsroom that increasing alarm in Australia and New Zealand has prompted their ...14 hours ago
- AJF, RSF and other media freedom watchdogs condemn China’s ‘suffocation’ of free pressPacific Media Watch newsdesk Apple Daily has announced its imminent closure in a dark day for Hong Kong’s press freedom and democracy, sparking condemnation by global media freedom watchdogs. The Australian-based Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, Reporters Without Borders in Paris and the Committee to Protect Journalists were among the watchdogs ...14 hours ago
- Cardiac arrests in young people — what causes them and can they be prevented or treated? A heart e...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Orchard, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centenary Institute; and Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney Wolfgang Rattay/AP/AAP On June 12, 16,000 spectators at Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium and millions of viewers around the world watched in shock as Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen’s heart ...15 hours ago
- Politicians criticising women for ‘outsourcing’ parenting need a reality check. Here it isSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Associate Professor in Sociology and Co-Director of The Policy Lab, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock During a heated exchange in a Coalition party room meeting about childcare subsidies, a male MP stated working women are “outsourcing parenting”. The ...15 hours ago
- 'A mark of shame for the profession': Former Russell McVeagh partner guilty of misconduct
A former Russell McVeagh partner has been found guilty of misconduct over accusations of groping summer clerks, in a ruling the legal profession’s disciplinary tribunal says sends a clear message there is “no place for objectification of women or indeed any person” within the law. James Gardner-Hopkins, who can for ...18 hours ago - Cramming cities full of electric vehicles means we’re still depending on cars — and that’s a h...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kurt Iveson, Associate Professor of Urban Geography and Research Lead, Sydney Policy Lab, University of Sydney Shutterstock This week, the NSW government announced almost A$500 million towards boosting the uptake of electric vehicles. In its new electric vehicle strategy, the ...18 hours ago
- If I could go anywhere: the ‘cathedral’ at Blythburgh that rises from the marshesSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miles Pattenden, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry/Gender and Women’s History Research Centre, Australian Catholic University Shutterstock In this series we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel ...18 hours ago
- UNESCO has always been mired in politics and squabbling, but this shouldn’t detract from its workSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Hill, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong Australia’s Great Barrier Reef made the international headlines this week. It was not good news for the reef, described by David Attenborough as “one of the greatest and ...20 hours ago
- Business is Boring: How to sell a fast-growing companyScroll Media founder Jane Ormsby joins Simon Pound to talk innovation in the online ad industry and share some tips for selling a business.Follow Business is Boring on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.The internet turned media publishing and advertising upside down, and continues to shake it around. ...20 hours ago
- It takes a village: why sending your kid to childcare isn’t ‘outsourcing parenting’Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurien Beane, Course Coordinator, Queensland Undergraduate Early Childhood, Australian Catholic University Shutterstock A Coalition party room meeting this week debated the A$1.7 billion childcare package announced in the budget, which would increase subsidies for families with more than one child ...20 hours ago
- Locked Gates Over Unformed Legal Roads"The law is clear that landowners cannot put lock gates over unformed legal roads", says Walking Access Commission chief executive Ric Cullinane. Landowners cannot put gates, locked or unlocked, on unformed legal roads without the permission ...20 hours ago
- Robertson relishes responding to patsy questions and enthusing about the economic outlook – but is...
Grant Robertson, perennially exuberant as finance minister when it comes to telling the country how well the government is handling the economy, has been in top form on the subject in Parliament in recent days. Whether the same buoyancy is being felt in every sector of the economy could be ...21 hours ago - Survey Of Those Arriving In New Zealand Since The Onset Of COVID-19 Helps Assess Economic ImpactA survey of people arriving in New Zealand since the initial COVID-19 border restrictions has been carried out to find out more about their intentions and needs. This release presents the first findings from the Survey of New Zealand Arrivals, which surveyed ...21 hours ago
- How online bank transfers are being hijacked for harassment and abuseAn unexpected loophole is being used to target and intimidate victims of domestic violence – one that has the banking industry scrambling to fight back. Writing a silly joke or lewd message in the odd online payment is nothing new, and – other than potentially jeopardising your chances of being approved ...21 hours ago
- Will the government’s new plan save Tīkapa Moana/Hauraki Gulf?The culturally and ecologically significant marine area on Auckland’s doorstep has been in decline for years, but the government has a new strategy to restore it to health.It’s finally happened. After four years of waiting, the much-anticipated plan for the future of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park/Tīkapa Moana/Te Moananui-ā-Toi (the ...21 hours ago
- Mahuta cracks down on crime at sea while Williams counts the cash and assets ($500m) seized from cr...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta is another member of the Ardern government who believes in the power of the law to eliminate criminal or undesirable behaviour. But she seems to be aware that laws have their limitations: a Bill she introduced to Parliament yesterday “aims” to prevent serious criminal offending ...22 hours ago - Further Charges Filed Following INZ Construction Sector Compliance WorkImmigration New Zealand (INZ) has filed further charges over the use of unlawful migrant labour in the building and construction sector. Four charges have been laid against an Auckland-based employer under section 350(1)(b) of the Immigration Act ...22 hours ago
- PM Jacinda Ardern announces more support for Ashburton after floodingPrime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the government is injecting a further $4 million to support flood-affected Canterbury farmers. ...22 hours ago
- Registrations Grow For Asia Harm Reduction Forum 2021Interest is building ahead of the 4th Asia Harm Reduction Forum (AHRF). This year, as a virtual event, it promises to be dynamic gathering of global Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) advocates with significant developments to discuss. Registration and participation ...22 hours ago
- Good bye and good riddance to Auckland’s worst live music venueWhen a concert venue shuts down, it’s usually a bleak day for New Zealand’s entertainment industry. But in the case of the Logan Campbell Centre, Chris Schulz couldn’t be happier.First published on Chris Schulz’s newsletter Boiler Room.At the beginning of 2018, in the middle of an absolutely legendary run of summer ...23 hours ago
- Prison For Directors Who Fail To Report On Climate Risks Unduly Harsh, Says The Institute Of Directo...Directors should not face jail time for failing to comply with proposed new climate-reporting standards, stressed the Institute of Directors (IoD). The IoD appeared before the Economic Development, Science and Innovation select committee today to present its ...23 hours ago
- Chief Human Rights Commissioner Should Stay In His LaneThe Free Speech Union says that Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt wasn’t hired to tell artists what work they can and can’t produce. He should start defending human rights, not stand against freedom of expression. A spokesperson for the Union, ...24 hours ago
- Eat it, haters. NZ are the champions, the greatest test side in the worldHistorically, Black Caps tragics have not had an easy time of it but today’s result confirmed how dramatically that had changed. Now, finally, is the time for unbridled joy, writes Samuel Flynn-Scott. Drifting in and out of a fitful sleep, I stopped resisting and picked up my phone one last time. ...1 day ago
- Safer Drinking Water Key Issue For New ZealandersWater New Zealand says events such as the Havelock North contamination crisis and the frequent number of boil water notices in some parts of the country have led to drinking water becoming identified as our number one infrastructure issue. Chief ...1 day ago
- Taxpayers’ Union Calls Out “coding Error” ExcuseThe Taxpayers’ Union is calling BS on claims that inappropriate spending of parliamentary funds by MP Harete Hipango was the result of a “coding error”. Union spokesperson Jordan Williams says, “A number of our staff used to work at Parliament and would ...1 day ago
- Employment Indicators: Weekly As At 21 June 2021The experimental weekly series provides an early indicator of employment and labour market changes in a more timely manner than the monthly employment indicators series. Key facts The 6-day series includes jobs with a pay period equal to or less than ...1 day ago
- We just watched the Blackcaps make cricket historyThe Offspin’s Alex Braae celebrates the Blackcaps’ monumental overnight World Test Championship victory, and the culmination of six days of intense early-morning podcasting.Follow The Offspin on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.Six nights of tension. Two years of dominating the international circuit. Eight years of cultural reform and ...1 day ago
- New Report Reveals New Zealanders' Views On Infrastructure IssuesOver 23,000 New Zealanders have called for action to address the country’s infrastructure issues in a new report published today by the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga. ...1 day ago
- NZ Needs To Sign Up To International Law Making Workplaces Free From Violence And HarassmentA new international law to keep workplaces free from violence and harassment comes into effect on Friday 25 June. "The International Labour Organisation (an agency of the United Nations) adopted the Violence and Harassment Convention , 2019 (190) ...1 day ago
- NZ’s housing market is broken and we’ve got the maps to prove itInspired by a map of the US housing market, analyst Emma Vitz created a graph showing how much people needed to earn to afford a property in their region. It quickly went viral.From the comfort of my 23 square metre apartment that I most definitely do not own, I mapped ...1 day ago
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Call to action – disabled need basic access!!
https://www.accessalliance.org.nz/add_your_name_to_support_our_stories
Support Access Alliance presentation at Parliament
On September 4 the Access Alliance (of which DPA is a member organisation) will gather at Parliament to present Minister for Disability Issues Carmel Sepuloni with a giant-sized version of a booklet full of stories from the disability community.
These are stories about access barriers which an Accessibility Act could help to remove. We are calling on Minister Sepuloni to listen to our stories and to prioritise accessibility legislation within this Parliamentary term.
The alliance has been working hard to make sure that your stories and your support for an Accessibility Act are reaching the decision-makers in Parliament. For over a year campaigners from the disability community have been busy meeting with their MPs, sharing their stories, and explaining why we need an accessibility law at the heart of a more inclusive Aotearoa. Others have been meeting with Ministers and starting to figure out how the Access Alliance can work together with our elected representatives to co-design this new law.
The presentation on September 4 is a chance to celebrate the progress we’ve made to date, but also a call for our Minister for Disability Issues to tell us how she will ensure that this law is prioritised within this term of Government.
Accessibility Legislation would ensure everyone benefits from an accessible NZ – it would be great to have lots of people at Parliament to show just how important we believe this is.
When: Tuesday 4 September, arrive at 11am – finished by 12pm
Where: Outdoors on Parliament Lawn, by the Seddon Statue – enter from Molesworth St
The event will be NZSL interpreted and the spot where we are gathering is wheelchair-accessible. Please email Áine Kelly-Costello at akelly-costello@blindfoundation.org.nz if you will be driving and need a Mobility carpark as Parliament Security have advised that these are limited.
Even if you can’t be there on the day, please click here to add your name to the booklet to support prioritising accessibility legislation. The same form will also ask you to RSVP if you can make it.
The presentation will be streamed live on the Access Matters Facebook page from 11:30am.
Let me guess, Garth McVicar didn’t get an invite to Andrew Little’s justice reform summit…
Of course not. He is perhaps the most disgusting person in the country….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/noelle-mccarthy-swallowed-vomit-for-15.html
Every now and then, Don of the Deadbrains slips up and accidentally dishes out advice worth acting on. In one of his recent sprays of shitter-twitter he said “Study the late Joseph McCarthy”. You should. You really should, in order to understand who and what is the new McCarthy and the new McCarthyism. This Politico piece summarises it.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/19/trump-mcarthyism-joe-mccarthy-219373
Interesting indeed. So the link, Roy Cohn: “he died from AIDS as a man who denied to the end that he was gay”. Populism being the cultural relevance, that tertiary part of the political terrain that the binary left/right frame can’t explain.
From the viewpoint of trying to work towards a more inclusive accepting society, it always bothers me that Cohn’s sexuality and public denial of it always takes a prominent place in pieces about Cohn. Yet it’s crucial to the understanding the power of othering, understanding Cohn’s use of othering, and I’ll guess his fear of it being applied to him.
Feedlots.
It’s a conversation New Zealand needs to have.
How much cruelty do we accept as a society?
Is profit our country ‘s only priority?
Checkpoint highlighted the issue.
Rachel Stewart continued.
“Anything to say @BeefLambNZ about feedlots, and how we’ve suddenly turned into America? You knew. Why didn’t everybody else?“
And Jonathan Maze added.
“Unbelievable, I had no idea this awful kind of “farming” was happening in NZ..”
Don’t panic, go organic.
Retail brand is Wakanui Beef – this is the About page:
The marketing and reality seem slightly divorced from each other, maybe?
Stockists to avoid (or not) I’ve made a copy in case some businesses unexpectedly disappear – especially the restaurants:
http://www.wakanuibeef.co.nz/stockists
Meh – I grow my own beef anyway – it taste better and my cows have a happy life right up to the end.
So you say.
What do the cows say? Bet no one has even asked them:
“If you knew that the whole raison d’etre of your existence was to be barbecued by James, rate your happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is ‘delirious with joy’ and 1 is ‘a bit miffed'”.
They dont think beyond the current day.
Your views are classic anthropomorphism
What about Montaigne and his cat?
At least he was basing the question on direct observational evidence.
Yes good point. There’s nothing to suggest that the cows think they are farming James
Exclusive covert video from one of James’ barbecues where one of the cows weighs in on that very topic.
is it better to exist and be barbecued, or to never exist at all?
Wow! That reminds me of being in love…
Have you written or emailed all the stockists of this meat yet? Or are you all mouth and no trousers.
Marty – should I refer you to 3.2.1 on yesterday’s Daily Report? If you are addressing Ed, he did it there, with another list further down.
All good. Ed says he cares but he wants others to do the work. Shows he doesn’t care at all.
Funny, they never covered this on Country Calendar…
All the animals live happy ever after on Country Calendar… not even a stock truck in sight
Last night I searched for an audio link to put up here of the Federated Farmers reply to the accusation of bad farming but RNZ only had the one about SAFE.
I put up the link to the page which had an onsite link but thought it interesting that this large and important body (Fed Farmers) wasn’did not have full audio coverage.
This is very much a knee jerk reaction, these cattle are having their needs met, warm and dry, not knee deep in mud, correct nutrition adequate vitamins and minerals as opposed to grass fed animals, not being fed toxic members of the cabbage family.
Worm free without having to be drenched.
Effluent collected and composted not leeching into aquifers.
What will be next horses in stables dogs in kennels.
Of course
Are you conditioned by looking after others in confined conditions? Perhaps it has blunted your sensivities Psych Nurse. These animals would be safe and happy in a fenced paddock, no need to keep them confined and standing disconsolately waiting for something to eat besides mud porridge, with dainty blades of grass occasionally.
Peter Dunne on MPs pay: set it at the start of a parliamentary term, to remain at that level until the next term. Damn good idea. He told the AM show that the current level is about right. Retired, he can afford to be honest about that…
Retired from the position of leader of a party with a caucus of one, with a significantly enhanced pay package from that “leadership” position.
But yeah, he’s right. Set what it’s going to be pre-election and fix it for the term. Preferably also tie it to a measure of pay relevant to the population as a whole, such as some multiple of the 25th percentile income.
Govt will be revising the way the remuneration authority does its thing apparently, so your suggestion may get taken up. I agree it ought to be related to some kind of indicator of the average income (agnostic on how to do that).
What we pay [them] is what they get.
But it’s not quite that simple, is it?
https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/pay-and-entitlements/
True. Entitlements are residue of empire & patriarchy, best eliminated. Can’t expect women to take a political stand on this. Too subtle. Female politicians probably enjoy the perks of office as much as males.
Can’t expect women to take a political stand on this. Too subtle.
I think your misogyny is hanging out again.
I was hoping to flush out a bunch of female deniers to liven up the day. Reckon it’ll work? If I’d just framed it as a privileged institutional thing, people would get bored to death.
Oh, “female deniers”. What are they denying again?
Chocolate.
That women haven’t been targeting the residual patriarchy for removal. Last time I pointed that out onsite here it was in relation to the judiciary & got total denial in response (mostly via evasion of the point).
women haven’t been targeting the residual patriarchy for removal.
Oh my god, you mean that the men get the goodies and not the women?
Incredible though it may seem, I mean what I say. I don’t mind if that seems so old-fashioned that it contravenes postmodern conformity.
I really don’t know what you think you are saying. It looks to me like you just put a dig in against women because women.
And i have no idea what might mean by “postmodern conformity”?
Anyone who has spent most of their life watching the progressive trend toward liberation of the human spirit in general, and the feminist project as in integral part of that, is keenly aware of the part of the establishment that has yet to be rectified.
So I’ve spent years expecting feminists to get the job done. Don’t get complacent due to perception of victory when it’s mostly done. If they can see the glass ceiling, how come they can’t see the most entrenched parts of the patriarchy??
Right, so men got the perks for a long time before women got access to them so it is up to women to get rid of them. As i said:
It looks to me like you just put a dig in against women because women.
Your words betray your mindset dennis. Not cool your misogyny, not cool at all. You should have a long look in the mirror imo.
Have enjoyed all your contributions so far, Dennis, but it does appear to me that this time you picked out only feminist MPs when criticising a fault applying to all MPs.
Dennis I don’t think feminists or any females want to see through the glass ceiling the most entrenched parts of the patriarchy.
Actually.
Seems to me a perception thing, In Vino. Media reports of women pointing out the glass ceiling effect have been a continual stream in recent years, and I haven’t noticed any of those interviewed ask for male help to rectify the problem.
Their confidence that the feminist project can succeed via the solidarity of women is not misplaced, imo. Sharing that confidence, I’ve wondered why they don’t also target other manifestations of the residual patriarchy. Of course men ought to help co-create the equity required.
Any reason you could think of that ‘female’ polititians should enjoy the perks of the office less then that the ‘males’?
No. Just my way of alerting all to the prolonged perpetuation of the ancient privilege system integral to democracy. It was good to see feminism breach the ramparts back in the day, but I kinda get the impression that there’s a `job done’ syndrome at play. Delusion, not reality.
Oh for goodness sake! You show no understanding of the breadth and depth of feminist thought, politics and activism.
If they can see the glass ceiling, how come they can’t see the most entrenched parts of the patriarchy??
Citations needed of such a reduction of the state of feminism to be in the least bit credible. Who is this “they”? You write as if feminists are a collective, hive mind focusing on one symptom of patriarchy. That may be true of liberal/capitalist feminists as favoured by the mainstream, corporate media.
But feminism is wide ranging. There have been many theorists, like bell hooks, Sheila Rowbottham, and many more who examined the deep-rooted and all-pervasive nature of patriarchy.
And many activists have been informed by their work – in campaigning against sexual and domestic violence (very successful from setting up refuges and putting the issue on the agenda), to feminists working within unions for low paid and precarious workers, to the African American women who first coined the term “intersectionality” to explain the complex nature of their oppression, to women working to change the nature of western political and other institutions.
Back to the point: lack of feminist political action to eliminate the entrenched privilege-based residual patriarchy. Why this lack? The problem will persist until the solution is applied…
Maybe you could begin by differentiating between different feminist schools of thought. (Liberal, anarcho etc)
Would you say that there has been no political action to eliminate privilege based residual patriarchy by men?
And if you wouldn’t say that, then why say it in relation to women? Do you honestly believe that the sum total of feminism is liberal feminism?
I’m not into being distracted from the point I’m making – it’s too important to allow that. Others may find such digressions informative, I understand that. Just not me.
Read and learn – just some of the ways women have organised to change the system, since way back – and still get largely ignored by the MSM.
https://www.thecut.com/2018/03/the-uprising-of-women-in-red-states-is-just-beginning.html
You haven’t got a point to get distracted from. And you haven’t even tried to establish one.
Does that mean you haven’t read 5 & 5.1.1??
You just said:
Back to the point: lack of feminist political action to eliminate the entrenched privilege-based residual patriarchy. Why this lack? The problem will persist until the solution is applied…
The only point you’re making is one disparaging liberal feminists for being liberal feminists in a liberal environment, while denying that any other strand of feminism exists.
You’re saying that the politics of MPs, who obviously accept the political environment they operate within to varying degrees, are the only possible or imaginable politics people can have.
No, Bill. Those assertions of yours are your ways of applying your personal spin to what I wrote. Nothing to do with me.
It’s you who says it is lacking. That doesn’t make it so. If you’ve got your head in the sand, and only take the surface of corporate media as your main source, I can’t help you.
For a start: there’s Sue Bradford who has been fighting patriarchy and capitalism from within many campaigns for decades.
There’s Elizabeth Warren – famous for “she persisted” as a feminist rallying cry- and go read Ad’s post on her today.
There’s Metiria Turei who go crucified by our mainstream media, and those from within the entrenched capitalist-patriarchal system.
If you can’t help with the enormous task of tackling patriarchy, throwing stones from the shadows does nothing to shed light on the situation.
I’m helping by specifying the entrenched part of the problem, in the hope that the governmental review of the MPs remuneration body will not allow it to persist.
Everything else you mention here is irrelevant to that. Privilege-based perks must be eliminated. MPs have no valid basis for retaining them.
So mps travelling around the country on parliamentary business shouldn’t have travel costs provided, and the fact those travel costs are still provided is the fault of feminist inaction?
They get so much money they can fund their travel costs & still be wealthy. It would incentivise them to restrict travel to only that which is necessary. Same as the rest of us.
I get my travel paid for when I have to travel for work. I even get meals reimbursed.
I guess I’m just another tool of the patriarchy
Gosh, who would have known? Hope it doesn’t cause a personality crisis or switch of identity politics… 😁
What you’re arguing for is that rural MPs should be paid less than the MP for wellington central, who can walk everywhere or take the cable car.
So you are saying that “the women” – cause feminism – should refuse the perks the men have enjoyed ever since, cause feminism?
Really?
So you are saying your wife should get paid less then her male counterpart cause feminism?
How about you write a concerned letter to all the men, – current and retired – that enjoy benefits that they are entitled to for nothing more then sitting in parliament getting done fuck all – Bill English, Peter Fucking Dunne, The Hologram Syemor, No Bridges Simon, Nick Smith, Shane Jones, etc – to rescind their perks for the better of the country and while you are at it, ask them to forgo pay increases until every worker in NZ is at the very least on a minimum wage.
Do not ask the women to forgo what men take for granted.
No, I’m not saying any of that. I’m advocating for the removal of the privilege-based part of parliamentary democracy. The status quo provides those perks due to tradition, which derives from the patriarchy. It ought to be a job like any other. Do you really believe parliamentarians are a caste above us?
Dear, they are a caste above us.
As are the overpaid bobbleheads in the media – print, radio, TV.
The overpaid cops, the overpaid lawyers, overpaid Winz workers, ACC Case workers etc etc etc. In short anyone who can affect your life without a care and a thought. .
Even the white people in this country are in a caste above brown people.
Men are in a caste above women and children.
To repeat:
It is not the womens job to clean up after men, it is not the womens job to refuse a perk, a pay, a benefit that men would never refuse just to satisfy your need for purity.
It is the womens job to look after themselves, create happiness and a fulfilled life after their own desires, not bound by obsolete ideas of yesteryears or the needs of lazy men.
I think i am starting to get your point:
1. Power and privilege today has its roots in power and privilege in the fast
2. Patriarchy is an aspect of past power and privilege
3. Feminists, them fight the patriarchy so it is their job to fight to get rid of MP perks.
I guess then that the only solution, if we are to make progress on anything, is to get the whole of the left to identify as feminist.
Wtf Dennis?
I’d say there are two types of people, those who take advantage of any and all perks, and those that don’t.
True. So all those women in parliament who do, how do you feel about their reluctance to admit that they are colluding with paternalism by not opposing the privileges granted them by the residual patriarchy?
I’m not blaming them for enjoying the baubles of office. They’re being pragmatic in accepting what the system provides. However, along with current enjoyment of the perks, why not organise collectively to eliminate them?
Parliamentary representation ought to be a job like any other. I don’t see any merit in continuance of a privilege ranking system. Other hierarchies have been eliminated in the past 20 or 30 years (corporations, mostly). Time for that to happen in governance.
Dude, I’m concerned that you are creating a debate out of gender. Something I won’t buy into.
If you want to talk about MP’s collectively, then am happy to engage. But I’m not into gender division in this instance because it totally misses the point and is not needed.
You’re acting like some belittling Victorian man who blames everyone else for your mistakes. Unpleasant.
Bro, are you implying that men are incapable of changing the system?
Way to piss off everyone.
I would say that ‘feminists’ have enough work tackling gender inequality.
I expect feminist-supporting men to collaborate in eliminating the entrenched privilege system. The gender red herring doesn’t apply.
Colluding? Wtf – you are losing all the commenter capital youve built up. Just another old pale sexist wanker. Go away.
Bullshit. And I’m not here to build up any sort of capital. Sexism is your subjective impression – nothing to do with me. Collusion exists and operates tacitly. It will continue to operate until folks become aware of it. To solve this problem, one must first point it out. Shooting the messenger is just another form of denial.
Dennis, you made it very clear that you were just looking for attention….
“I was hoping to flush out a bunch of female deniers to liven up the day. Reckon it’ll work?”
Not just that. The whole point of operating as a social catalyst is to energise consciousness-raising towards the collaborative solving of the target problem. Whatever rhetorical devices are used in the process, the trick is to get the process happening. Human nature to get distracted onto the personalities involved, but eventually people realise it’s better to play the ball than the man.
When everyone does so, the game of politics deepens into collective problem-solving. Some players may remain frivolous (distracted by irrelevancies) but group psychodynamics gell most of them into a task force. Can take years, but someone has to do it (to actualise the progressive agenda, actions replacing words).
Whatever. You really need to stop digging.
Thanks for ignoring decades and of collective and widespread feminist effort, and, on the basis of no real research, coming here to tell feminists what we have been doing wrong.
We are SOOOO grateful.
Lol sure – you thought you were in control but your ‘authority’ is in your own head – on here you have what you say. And you said it didn’t you? Collusion is your term and your issue – look in the mirror fella.
I have no control or authority on this issue, Marty. I’m puzzled as to why you think I do. Those two things are elements of the privilege-based part of parliamentary democracy that I’m advocating the removal of!
The collusion problem is tacit. All who support the status quo have that collusion operating in the unconscious part of their psyche. To solve the problem, first they must be made aware of it.
Okay I’ll leave it. I think the way you raised this issue was inflammatory and provocative – I felt sad and let down by you for doing that. Just so unnecessary to raise any issue by offending groups of people especially groups marginalisd by the system you get advantage from just by being male – it actually nuliffies any point being made. Surprised that you seem surprised by this – you have strong experience – probably made it worse imo.
I understand. People react on a feelings basis to the written word and sometimes the reactions baffle me but I realise that different generational perspectives drive this stuff. Plus the personal histories of other commentators creating a subjective stance too.
Nah ya don’t get to hide behind your generation status. A misogynist is a misogynist in any generation.
So you come here to call people inaccurate names, eh? You get off on that delusional behaviour?
Careful, Dennis. Such punctilious nit-picking and persistence set my troll-alert bells ringing.
Dennis
You may be partly right but once you underrate the effort that women have put in to improve their position then the irritation grows.
It has been a hard slog and that should not be forgotten even if more could have been done at some stage or another. It’s better to remember there are plenty of other issues that are waiting.
Ok, In Vino, why not consider how you would feel if, after supporting women’s liberation your entire adult life, someone called you a misogynist. Why would you decide it appropriate to allow them to get away with misrepresenting you??
Dennis
I know just how to answer that one and drop myself in it.
You are talking about women and who can understand them, you just have to love them.
And of course there is a unisex fit to that argument; turn it round and it applies to men. There just has to be a limit to the foibles and faults that each gender will put up with, so there will be further opportunities to write another chapter of Arms and the Woman.
While looking up the term this essay showed up so I’ll put it up to keep restive fighters occupied.
(http://www.bopsecrets.org/PS/women.htm
I don’t know all the past history, Dennis. It just seems to me that you provoked all this by singling out feminists at the start, when your question should have applied to all beneficiaries or bludgers or whatever we like to call them – regarding parliamentary perks.
Made synthetic cannabis legal in NZ ?
Dunne’s greatest achievement ?
Revolution and the Third World: Exploring the Radical Ideas of Anti-Imperialist Economist Samir Amin
1080 I am guessing there may be a link with Kauri Dieback and 1080 IMHO ?
1080 may be damaging the kauri roots which opens up a site for phytopthora to enter the tree via the feeder roots ?
You got any evidence beyond your guessing?
Consider: the active substance in 1080 is produced by some plants as a natural defence against grazing animals, and breaks down in soil due to a variety of naturally occurring organisms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_fluoroacetate
Consider also: my property and neighbouring properties are heavily affected by kauri dieback, yet 1080 has not been used in the area within the past several decades, if ever.
Isnt most 1080 distributed in ‘bait traps’ , and only a few areas is it spread by airdrops by helicopter ?
How does it affect roots when its not spread over the forest floor. of course possums are responsible for their own tree diebacks
Dunno what the breakdown is between bait traps and aerial dropping, or if the different application methods have different effects on the forest floor.
But my folks’ farm has a decent-size bush block with kauri and no evidence of die-back, and there’s been plenty of 1080 poison in bait stations around that bush block over the last three decades.
So that’s two points of anecdata, my place with lots of dieback and no 1080, and my folks with lots of 1080 and no dieback.
Hey, maybe 1080 is actually a good prophylactic for kauri against dieback, so we should just chuck tons of it around willy-nilly all through kauri forests to protect the kauri. /sarc
Probably not.
1080 mimics the poisons produced by some plant species, it is deadly to animals, and birds are less affected, though their low body mass means they die anyway.
Kauri dieback is a fungal disease, as was the cabbage tree dieoff. https://www.kauridieback.co.nz/science-and-research/understanding-the-disease/
It could create imbalances in soil fauna – but there are other causes as or more likely.
Strictly speaking phytophthora is not a fungus. Its cell walls are made of different materials than fungus cell walls. It’s possibly called a water mould because on a macro scale it looks and acts like a fungus.
Fungal disease is a fair description of its effects, and gives some idea of what treatment might be required. It is likely susceptible to heavy metal poisoning of the sort created by Bordeaux mixture, though that is a temporary solution, and silver compounds are vastly more mycotoxic. More promising long term solutions lie in competitive or inoculating fungal treatments.
As I understand it, the treatment being trialled to try to slow* the disease (and I’ve applied to the kauri at my place) is borrowed from the avocado industry for managing their phytophtora problems. I’m not aware of it being used for fungal problems, but that’s way outside my expertise, so my lack of awareness doesn’t mean anything. The treatment is injecting a phosphite solution into the trunk using spring-loaded syringes.
* It’s not a cure. At best using this treatment will buy time until an actual cure is found.
No shit Einstein ?
Where did you study microbiology, you are FOS ?
What are you full of Ngungukai?
The concentration of 1080 in each pellet has reduced over recent decades and so has the amount of pellets per hectare. So I think we would have seen an obvious problem much earlier if there was a link.
Also like Andre says, there are going to be quite a few areas with dieback that have never been anywhere near 1080. In the scheme of things I think it is only used on something like 2% of DOC land.
Flag-worshipping, saluting, camouflage gear on the sidelines, jets flying over the stadium: Why don’t sports organizations just ban these goons altogether?
“The dire prospect that opens, therefore, is that America is going to become a mega-banana republic where the army will have more and more importance in Americans’ lives… [D]emocracy is the special condition – a condition we will be called upon to defend in the coming years. That will be enormously difficult because the combination of the corporation, the military, and the complete investiture of the flag with mass spectator sports has set up a pre-fascistic atmosphere in America already.”
—-Norman Mailer, 2003
http://inthesetimes.com/article/21393/sports-military-patriotism-corporate-war-baseball-football-hockey
Bread and Circus.
What would they do without Bread and Circuses. it worked since the times of the Roman. Also i find it funny that those that have never served, have managed to dodge the draft not once but several times are often the loudest patriots.
The last refuge of the scoundrel is patriotism.
And also the machine needs to recruit its Kanonenfutter, how else to feed the bank accounts if no one wants to do the dying?
Very true, Sabine. I note that we are following this dishonorable practice in N.Z.—one Willie Apiata was featured visiting the All Blacks’ dressing rooms during the last RWC.
Gotta admit though f16 jets flying low and in formation is pretty cool
Sounds good.
“His character, Cassius “Cash” Green, a low-level telemarketer, learns that, in order to succeed at work, he has to put on a white voice. This does not mean a nasal affectation, along the lines of that corny old nerdy-voice stereotype that mid-level black comedians do. It means putting into your voice an embrace of the ease that white privilege brings. It means sounding as if you’re entitled to the good life. It means feeling calm way down in your soul. It means never having to be afraid someone will call the police on you just because you’re breathing.”
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/19/sorry-to-bother-you-is-this-the-most-anti-capitalist-film-ever
This seems awesome – What do current resident dunner commenters think? As a mosgiel/dunners boy I love strong community iniatives from the south. I hope this is all that.
“After almost five years of planning, work is set to start soon on Dunedin’s first co-housing project.
Run by Urban Cohousing Otepoti Ltd, it will provide more than 60 residents with shared spaces and 22 units.”
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/survey-precedes-co-housing-project
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12110366
‘The South African government has begun the process of seizing land from white farmers.
Local newspaper City Press reports two game farms in the northern province of Limpopo are the first to be targeted for unilateral seizure after negotiations with the owners to purchase the properties stalled.’
Can’t see how this will end up anyway different to Zimbabwe
White refugees turning up with their feet broken with iron bars yet? Still a long way short of Mugabe.
I’m pretty sure its not a race any country wants to win
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/young-boy-forced-to-watch-mums-repeated-violent-sexual-assault-in-south-africa-farm-attack/news-story/09785cd0d06c221eab6b6c6115057a7a
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5534449/South-Africas-white-farmers-likely-killed-police.html
Hundreds of years of oppression do not lend themselves to good or stable governance.
Only a sick mind and heartless soul would view as such But hey freedom of speech and at least you show your true colours
Good. These scum need cleaned out.
“A businessman who liquidated his company after being fined almost $430,000 for exploitation has become personally liable for the $120,000 outstanding.
The Employment Relations Authority joined Jujhar Singh to his previous company, Binde Enterprises, after a Labour Inspectorate investigation found the company owed 75 workers on a vegetable farm in the Bombay Hills nearly $210,000 in wages.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/106432489/businessman-who-exploited-migrant-workers-must-pay-120k-after-liquidation
agree!
They’re finally cracking down after years of doing SFA (even when they get evidence and witnesses handed to them on a plate).
I’d suggest Jujhar Singh spend a little more time at the temple reacquainting himself with a few values.
It’s good to see a more victims prepared to come forward in the knowledge that something might actually be done.
A friend took a trip and commented that the organisers said to stand near the buffet table while there was a pre-eats welcome or the food would be gone before getting to the table. This was the case, and it brought to mind how those
very fast and thorough clearers made their money. It could be imagined that they grabbed all they could from some industry they controlled.
The aristos said let them eat cake; the nouveau riche think, what the heck I’ll take all I want and if others miss out, hard luck.
Yayyyyyyy!!!!!
Dutton has resigned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not even close: “Malcolm Turnbull wins the leadership – 48 to 35”
Really ???
Yes Turnbull won the leadership – AND Dutton has resigned from Cabinet.
Mr Dutton has now resigned as Home Affairs and Immigration Minister after losing the challenge and will move to the backbench.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/364564/malcolm-turnbull-wins-leadership-challenge
His resignation as Immigration Minister is well worth celebrating.
You really have lost the plot today, DF – in more ways than one.
Nope, I’m right on track! Job needs doing. People flying off the handle in all directions ain’t my problem. 😁
Very astute DF
The media love the hype but its a reasonable victory for Turnbull. So theres internal dissatisfaction…its Australia… thats nothing new.
If I was the existing leader of a ruling political party and I didn’t have the primary support of 35 out of 83 of my followers, then I’d be very concerned. This ballot reconfirmed his leadership- it wasn’t a new ballot with new contenders. One of the contenders was the incumbent. Turnbull did declare the leadership vacant but 42% preferring another candidate is a sign of a large internal dissatisfaction. 58% of his party MPs supported him. Less than 6 out of ten.
Then the loser doesn’t pledge his loyalty having lost- he resigns from cabinet, rather than work with Turnbull, or was it to avoid the risk of sacking by a wrathful Turnbull?
Neither looks good after this stoush.
My take is that Turnbull is spooked by current polling. The other dork thought it was a good time to strike but got proved wrong. Labour will win an Oz election held in both short & medium term, eh? So the dork will wait & strike again when Turnbull gets defeated. Is there a better contender who could defeat the dork?
Even the Greens in Australia have serious infighting that would be unthinkable for the Greens in NZ.
The point is, all politics in Australia is highly personal, where its me me me.
Im just surprised some here get caught up in all the hype and what it means when they should see it all in context.
Yes Dutton is doing exactly what his mentor Abbott did; skive off to the back bench and engage in a guerrilla war with Turnbull.
No-one is happy with the state of Australian politics at the moment; in the past decade all three of the major parties have sustained damage over illegal immigration and climate change. It’s taken a rough toll on everyone, even the Greens have taken a few dents.
Business leaders are pretty pissed off with the lack of clear policy, and overhearing two conversations this afternoon (if either can be considered representative) many ordinary voters are discomforted by the lack of any credible visible leadership.
And after their last performance in power, no-one here should crowing about the prospect of the ALP forming a government … the underlying tensions have not gone away.
No many thought not having the support of your caucus colleges was an issue here during the cunners comedy hour I think Cunliffe would have been estatic with those percentages
Not many thought not having the support of your caucus colleges was an issue here during the cunners comedy hour I think Cunliffe would have been estatic with those percentages
Turnbull’s only chance now is to damn the torpedoes and deal resolutely with his caucus rebels.
Fifty years ago Russia and their Warsaw Pact allies put a stop to the Prague Spring reforms that included giving citizens the opportunity of self determination, free travel, ending censorship of the press, and political surveillance by the secret police.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DlEHJdkXcAAb9ZF.jpg
In case you haven’t thought about Donald Trump for a few hours just a runthrough of an old Philomena Cunk cover on it.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4vuUfnTEkg
Dismal Panel Guests
No. 1: GRAHAM BELL
A crude and ignorant bully, this blustering ex-copper was firmly put in his place one day by fellow Panelist Gordon Campbell. Sadly, few others have been brave enough to take him on….
Possibly the best compendium of Bell-esqueries ever made….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWCGxYVc9sI
Dismal Panel Guests is a compilation of the worst guests to appear on RNZ National’s light chat show over the last thirteen or so years. It is compiled by Hector Stoop for Daisycutter Sports, Inc.
Please include Stephen Franks
He most certainly is in the series, Ed. I might include the threatening email he sent me as well.
Oops….posted on yesterday’s OM in error.
I’d be interested to hear what others think:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/364586/public-service-performance-bonuses-scrapped
Not a bad idea (for starters)
Maybe bring them back when senior management / CEOs actually start performing (or not), instead of running Ministries and Departments like their own little feifdoms.
Can anyone think of a Ministry or Department that’s actually been run well over the past decade?
Most public servants work in spite of their senior management masters rather than because of them.
In the Newshub story on this in tonight’s news, Hipkins was asked if he thought departmental CEO salaries were okay. His reply: “They’re being paid what they’re being paid.” Such brilliance sets an extremely high bar for other government ministers to measure up to, let alone the poor CEOs. The rocket science industry will be dead keen to recruit him asap.
Dennis, I think you should be careful about using rocket scientists as a benchmark for brilliance. What happens if we are inflicted with the presence of a rocket scientist who is clearly stupid?
The default exemplar for “clever” used to be “brain surgeon”. But then Dr Ben Carson came along. He was one of the dimmest of the dim bulbs that ran, or more accurately sleepwalked, for the 2016 Republican nomination. He was allegedly, you may remember, a brain surgeon.
Hipkins might be fucking up bigtime, but if Ben Carson is any yardstick, he probably would be good enough to be a brain surgeon, if not a rocket scientist.
🙂 Hypothetical, stupid rocket scientists, but did bring to mind the brilliant portrayal of Werner Von Braun by Peter Sellers in Dr Strangelove!
I think Peter Sellers actually played that part quite straight.
When I see people from Trump’s cabinet of grotesques on the television occasionally, Dr. Strangelove appears by comparison comfortingly sane and rational.
Is your government killing you?
We have an app for that
Jenny, that report is written by the notorious Danny Gold, who files stories from Jerusalem about “contested” neighborhoods. He is dodgy, and if you were smart, you would have nothing to do with his work.
Sobering statement from the herald on socialism when it goes wrong and the money runs out
“Venezuela was once among Latin America’s most prosperous nations, holding the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but a recent fall in oil prices accompanied by corruption and mismanagement under two decades of socialist rule have left the economy in a historic economic and political crisis.”
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
A lot of z Ed dear but still not as many Zs as the zero on the Venezuelan Currency Now go have a chicken sandwich and chill
OK Ed … I spent much of the first six months of this year working alongside some colleagues from Colombia. (A really interesting and deeply underrated Latin nation.). Their response to anything to do with Venezuela was quite different from the torpor you affect.
Soviet Russia, Maoist China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Albania, Cuba, and now Venezuela … there is always an excuse for the humiliating, catastrophic failure. ‘It wasn’t proper communism’, ‘ the leaders were corrupt’, ‘ the reactionary pigs sabotaged us’, ‘the capitalist running dogs …’ and on and on.
Always the same bloodless denial of anything wrong with the fundamental idea of unconstrained marxism.
Did any of your Colombian “colleagues” support the death squads employed by Senor Uribe? What’s that? All of them did?
Colombia has it’s own problems. If you imagine I’m ignorant of them, then you were not with me at the plant I was at last year, pock-marked by rebel bullets and guarded by armed platoons 24 hrs per day. But there is way more to the country than drug lords, death squads and gross inequality. Like most developing nations it’s changing for the better, and while it’s patchy and messy as always … it’s not the place it was even a decade ago.
Unlike Venezuela which from the conversations I had with one man, whose home is not too far from the border, what’s happening is not pretty. Yes I’m sure black propaganda exists; but not in a vacuum. When you hear first hand stories from people affected it’s not so easy to dismiss them with ‘zzzz’s.
Great, RedLogix. You seem to be a serious and astute judge of the situation.
I do disagree, though, with your statement: “I’m sure black propaganda exists; but not in a vacuum.” As we have seen with the baseless, fantastical attacks against Jeremy Corbyn, black propaganda is often a tissue of lies, with no link to reality.
If Corbyn got his hand on the levers of power in the Uk for 20 years it to would mirror Venezuela. Note the herald just sums up the impact of socialist and Marxist economics and societies over the last 100 years History tells you that as does redlogix highlights May I suggest your additional reading is just to find something to deny the obvious and support your fragile beliefs in a totally discredited ideaology
As I suspected, you are ignorant, and defiant in your ignorance. Don’t suggest anything about my reading; you haven’t a clue.
Tough my friend, i suggest you need to read more widely and far more critically You appear to read only what satisfies an extremely lop sided view of reality
I disagree Bewildered. Corbyn is not a marxist revolutionary; in a historic context he’s pretty much a middle of the road post-war leftie. While the Overton window shunted right-wards during the 80’s and 90’s, Corbyn wedged firmly in his rather moderate 70’s political space.
Fair enough maybe Venezuela is a stretch but 1970s Britain was not to flash, it led to the rise of Thatcher that managed to turn the uk fortunes around
‘The United States was the first country to recognize the independence of the nascent republic, sending the U.S. Navy to prevent Colombia from retaking the territory during the first days of the new Republic. In exchange for its role in defending the Republic, and for constructing the canal, the U.S. was granted a perpetual lease on the land around the canal, known as the Panama Canal Zone, which was later returned to Panama under the terms of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties.’-wiki
and Torrijos was killed of course.
Thanks for that, my friend!
Idiot. You need to actually do some serious reading, and stop rehashing black propaganda.
Na I think the herald sums it up quite nicely
As I said before, you’re an idiot. The Herald is the LAST publication anyone with an I.Q. above room temperature, never mind a conscience, would trust. It’s been delinquent for many generations….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/four-days-before-kristallnacht-herald.html
Historic my arse.
Published in 1942, John Gunther’s Inside Latin America described Venezuela fifteen years into the oil boom. Because of the obstructionism and feudal social systems of the landed classes, the land-owners had refused to modernise production methods, preferring cheap and plentiful labour, and when the poor fled the countryside to work in and around the oil-fields, domestic production collapsed.
Consequently, Caracas had the highest cost of living in the world with food prices typically 20-30 times higher than in the US because most food, along with almost every other sort of goods, was imported, heavily taxed, and levied with tariffs to prop up the local agricultural sector.
And despite the astronomical oil revenues earned by the ruling classes since the twenties, Venezuela at the time had no industrial base.
https://screenshots.firefox.com/TsknNr9tzpzIDYDy/trove.nla.gov.au
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/1860766?zoomLevel=1
Don’t waste any more time addressing him, Joe. You’re attempting to argue in good faith; that troll is not.
Thanks for those excellent links.
That scenario is indeed typical of almost all Latin American countries in the post-war era, extremes of inequality, ossified hierarchies and entrenched oligarchs. Often propped up by a malign dominance of US interest in the region. All this is understood.
But does anyone try to justify the horrors of Stalinist Russia by pointing to the feudal backwardness of Czarist Russia?
RedLogix, there is no comparison between Stalinist Russia and democratic Venezuela. For any person to suggest there was a comparison would put that person into the realm of such intellectual luminaries and conspiracy theorists as Leighton Smith and Alex Jones.
Comparison’s are never exact; yet certain patterns do emerge. Venezuela is probably a good example of what happens when entrenched inequality outstays the capacity of the dispossessed to tolerate it, and the reaction instead of evolving incrementally, kicks over the existing order with poor regard to what does and does not work.
Whether revolutions are triggered by force or ballot box isn’t really germane to the outcome. The historic context is different so I don’t imagine Venezuela will descend into the nightmare of the gulags, although the risk isn’t non-zero. The fact is the country we’re talking about has not seen it’s ‘democratic socialist revolution’ usher in a new era of prosperity and contentment.
What will most likely happen is that after a period of turmoil lasting perhaps a decade or so, and if they manage to retain some form of democratic accountability , they’ll move toward more moderate political settings.
The Venezuelan government is democratic. It’s been under sustained assault from Colombia and the United States, aided and abetted by the implacable Venezuelan extreme right wing oligarchies, for almost two decades now. There was a coup against the democratic government in 2002; it was reversed after massive civil protests made it impossible for the U.S. backed plotters to operate.
Venezuela does not operate death squads; the Colombian government did and probably still does. There is no way whatsoever that you could suggest the possibility of democratic Venezuela “descending into the nightmare of the gulags.” I’m interested, by the way, that you did not choose a more relevant example for political repression—like the United States gulag of torture and disappearance sites, starting in occupied Cuba and extending all round the globe.
They did, and more recently, the Operación de Liberación del Pueblo has been accused of doing Maduro’s dirty work.
https://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k2/americas10.html
https://warisboring.com/cops-in-skull-masks-carry-out-state-terror-in-venezuela/
I hesitate to link to anything because I just know you’ll reflexively dismiss anything and everything as ‘black propaganda’ … but here goes:
https://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/venezuela.html
It’s consistent with what I heard first hand from a person living close to the story. It’s not credible or helpful to persist in denying basic facts on the ground … the plain matter is the country is in a deep crisis.
Certainly there will be external regional players, hostile to what is happening. No quibble. But the left does itself no justice when it forever blames everyone and everything else for it’s repeated failures.
I hesitate to link to anything because I just know you’ll reflexively dismiss anything and everything as ‘black propaganda’
I do not do that “reflexively.” That suggests something automatic and mindless, as opposed to arriving at a conclusion from having studied the matter seriously. You use “reflexively” like Jim Mora uses the word “virtuous”—as a denigration and belittlement.
Contrary to your attempt to render my viewpoint into something cartoonish and easily dismissed, I do not pretend that the Venezuelan government is a paragon of virtue, or even moderately well run. From the time of Chavez, the government has made some terrible decisions, choosing to grandstand with stunts such as supplying free fuel to the poor in certain parts of the United States in order to show up the Bush administration. I am also very angry at their loutish attacks on “bourgeois” culture, including Venezuela’s world-renowned El Sistema. Such actions are similar to Castro’s monstrous attacks on Cuba’s world renowned architects in the 1960s for no other reason than they were “bourgeios.”
So your suggestion that I “reflexively dismiss anything and everything as ‘black propaganda'” is baseless, as well as insulting.
It’s not credible or helpful to persist in denying basic facts on the ground … the plain matter is the country is in a deep crisis.
Indeed it is. You’re stating the obvious, and implying that I do not recognize that fact.
Certainly there will be external regional players…
That’s an anodyne and determinedly benign spin on the bloody insurrection that is being openly aided and abetted by the United States and its most brutal accomplice, Colombia.
It’s instructive to contrast your condemnation of democratic Venezuela with your positive, optimistic tone towards its internationally condemned terrorist neighbour, which you insist is “Like most developing nations …. changing for the better, and while it’s patchy and messy as always … it’s not the place it was even a decade ago.” (in 19.1.2.1.1)
I don’t think even silly old Sir Geoffrey Palmer, that dupe of Alvaro Uribe, would be so dishonest as to describe South America’s most repressive state in those terms.
You make a number of fair points there and I accept them in good faith.
My point is simple, the left has a terrible record at successful socialist revolutions. And it’s not always someone else’s fault.
Fair comment, my friend!
In one of the clearest clues yet about Washington’s latest meddling in the politics of Latin America, CIA director Mike Pompeo said he was “hopeful that there can be a transition in Venezuela and we the CIA is doing its best to understand the dynamic there”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cia-venezuela-crisis-government-mike-pompeo-helping-install-new-remarks-a7859771.html
Consider the sanctions as part and parcel of the ‘war’ against V…
Defaulted on debt, and reset currency to petro-commodity, hinged to a crypto-blockchain. Sounds good. Hope the Green Investment Bank are following how to do all this. Could Turkey be next? They are taking up crypto-fast, and have recovered all their gold reserves back from the US, earlier this year…
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-19/venezuela-chaos-after-maduro-announces-massive-95-devaluation-new-fx-rate-tied
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-20/lira-collapses-turks-are-piling-cryptocurrency
https://www.globalresearch.ca/gold-leaving-us-vaults-signs-of-upcoming-currency-war-and-armed-conflict-turkey-repatriates-its-gold/5651111
Asia Argento seems to be in serious trouble now,
but let’s bear in mind that she has also done some very good things.
I, and many others, have criticized the #MeToo divas for “forgetting” to speak out in support of the heroic Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi. But some of those women have indeed spoken out. One of them was Asia Argento….
https://twitter.com/asiaargento/status/949772023865233408?lang=en
Shite critisim from you morrissy would be a badge of honour for most people and confirmation they are probably on the write track, hence your feedback on Venezuela is appreciated 😊
You’re an idiot. Go and call a talkback station—that’s your level.
Good evening Newshub can you see it we are talking about reforming our justice system and what do you not the gangs start playing up is this hard for some person’s who are against our justice reforms. Who’s view on maori is that we are savages they are out there and it’s not very hard for these red neck to pull off this attempted interference of our justice systems reforms.
And now Duncan you are blowing up the whole issue you are just being played with. The WHOLE of Papatuanuku is watching our Justice systems reforms there is a documentary crew from America filming this all the under privilege native people are watching Aoteraroa why because maori are not the only tangata whenua to be pushed into hardship locked up dieing on the streets and treated as second class people .
Who Australia America Canada Hawaii and there are many other nation’s who’s native cultures are in dire straight’s . So Aoteraroa will lead the Papatuanuku once again to the correct path of treating native people all people the same as the majority European cultures. Did you see that reality Duncan the other topic’s we have lead the world with Wahine vote Nuclear Free many more .
Ka kite ano P.S look like Loyd is trimming down
The Am Show The giant squid we caught one when I was fishing it was huge we no more about the Marama than Tangaroa’s beautiful creatures that’s a fact.
The government is being fiscally responsible in freezing mp pay’s and the high payed public servants this goverment is not going to —– on the mokopunas future’s buy loading them with Dept throwing them in jail or poisoning there enviroment .
Ka kite ano P.S got to go and work my favorite charity
The sandflys have been swarming with there actor’s since I exposed there bad behavior at the hospital .
You see its quite easy to read there body langue as I am looking for these people all the time I know that when ever I go out they are inplay how if a person walks past you they will scan you to see if you are a threat or not if they don’t look at me they no me need I say more and if you flip them the bird to a stranger they will give it back 10 fold .
I have been reading there body language since gisborne man started his personal vendetta 18 years ago I last seen him with Richard Prebble in the computa repair shop last year
One day I was walking past a group of sandfly’s contracted actors how do I spot them well they were talking about Ngati Porou historical issues and what do I know we are in Te Arawa whenua they should be talking about Te Arawa issues I can not even find many books on Ngati Porou Book’s in the Rotorua library.
When I walked back past this group I spoke loud enough so they could hear I said they were muppets with no morels you should have seen they duck for cover muppet puppets .
And to day they get one of there contracted lairs in Kamart to try a play with my daugther how do I not this person is a contracted liar because I know its history and I know that the sandfly shine there shiny badge and will let people off charges give them thosands of dollars get them jobs they do what ever it takes to get ——-on Eco Maori and its all false .
They don’t care just so long as the shut up that savage Eco Maori who’s action are letting every body know how flawed the New Zealand Justice is Ana to kai .
Back up your contracted lies come and arrested me and I will preform Rua Moko in the court house all over your lies and watch your ass burn on the hot coals of the court house Ka kite ano p.s the positive thing to Eco Maori is they are leaving a lot people alone because they are busy playing marball’s with them selves trying to frame Me
Eco Maori send’s condolence’s to Gregg Boyded Family he was a cool Kiwi and will be missed
Good Evening The Crowd Goes Wild James & Mulls I did not realize that the NRL are having Wahine tangata whenua League team ka pai .
James you got that accent down to a T.
Yes Tiger I ignored my elder’s who were letting me know about the aches and pain’s one get’s when you get long in the tooth.
Mulls I thought you were going to kiss the shield.
Ka kite ano P.S my challenges to obtain my birth right continues meanest kayaking I have ever seen