The official term for piracy is now “taking control”
Israeli Navy boards Gaza-bound ship ‘Estelle’
by YAAKOV LAPPIN, The Jerusalem Post 10/20/2012 18:16
Navy seizes Swedish ship carrying 30 pro-Palestinian activists after it refused to change course, tows it to Ashdod. PHOTO: COURTESY IDF
The Navy took control of a Swedish ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists towards Gaza on Saturday, and towed the vessel to Ashdod instead.
The activists refused all Israeli requests to divert their course, and had declared that their intention was to violate Israel’s naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. ….
Ah, yes. But of course, there are always two sides (at least) to a story. I aw the Al Jazeera version on my TV this morning, as in the video here, aor with the print report here.
“The Estelle is now under attack – I have just had a message from them by phone,” Victoria Strand, a Stockholm-based spokeswoman for the Ship to Gaza Sweden campaign told the AFP news agency on Saturday.
According to Dror Feiler, another spokesperson, the SV Estelle, whose passengers included five parliamentarians from Europe and a former Canadian politician, was boarded at around 08:15 GMT.
“Five or six military vessels surrounded the Estelle. Soldiers wearing masks are now trying to board the ship. The attack took place on international water: N31 26 E33 45,” Feiler said. The Israeli military confirmed that the ship was boarded.
Thanks for that, karol. I posted a brief and polite response on the Jerusalem Post comments section. I wrote: “‘Taking control’—the new term for piracy.”
Instead of being immediately published, as no doubt all the racist and bloody-minded anti-Palestinian posts were, my comments were “put into moderation”.
No wonder their comment section is so overwhelmingly pro-government. And no wonder the Jerusalem Post is dismissed by thinking people as Israel’s Pravda.
Israel, politically, has long enjoyed the full backing of the United States. (I have no argument with the Israeli people as a whole). To his credit, Obama has been distancing the brutally minded Netanyahu in more recent times, especially on that man’s pressing desire to attack Iran. (It is Israel that possesses the nuclear weapons, not Iran). Now we should really worry with Romney looking a possibility for President. The Israeli government will welcome him with glee. With Romney the world would become, generally, in greater danger (not to mention the rich becoming richer and yet more powerful). This would be likely worse than the rule of George Bush. Yes, yet again, we have to bewail the short memories of human kind!
Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
Despite this they persisted.
In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
Despite this they persisted.
In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
Well, well, well – will the opposition be able to level the “nanny-state” at this administration at last. There are clubs up and down the country that have as one of their door raffle prizes “An annual membership” which will be worth a lot more than this $500 limit.
Key is going to get an avalanche of correspondence on this one and watch him try to get it dropped immediately … his mates in golf clubs will be livid.
Now thats a shame as it just puts the kibosh an a great week end. Yes there’s some big prizes but everyone has the same chance. Unlike Pokies where the machine has the best chance, and will break up families. Yep thats the Anti Nanny state at work, break up the family, get more Pokies out there. Don’t allow the fishing comps to continue, they are against the Anti Nanny State.
I found myself totally in agreement with him. Rachel has a low key but direct approach to interviewing that IMHO produces much more information than otherwise.
I am just watching her discuss with a panel including Kennedy Graham and Federated Farmers William Rawlston discussing carbon credits. She effectively showed how shallow Fed Farmer’s rationale for opposing Farming being part of our system. Their rationale is if we make it more expensive for farmers production will flood overseas to countries with less carbon efficient farming techniques. There is no analysis of how much more expensive, or the relative cost of production in different countries compared to her, just a bald statement that if they have to pay a modest ETS price all farms will shut down.
Kennedy Graham had the perfect response. He said shocks have happened in the past and how some countries, notably the Social Democratic countries, are reducing emissions. In NZ they are growing. He talked about the need for behavioral modification change.
He also talked about how countries could be world leaders, fast followers, apathetic spectator or willful obstructionists. He thought NZ was somewhere in the middle. I believe he meant that NZ is between apathetic spectators and willful obstructionists.
Micky and what would you suggest we do about our 0.2% contribution, which won’t put further pressure on our major export industry, followed by higher consumer prices, which will hit those who are already struggling most?
Climate change isn’t the issue. NZ will do very well out of climate change, thank you very much. Liquid fossil fuel depletion is.
Its when diesel goes up to $4/L – $5/L which is the problem. Without massive socio-economic restructuring NOW, our transportation, farming and industrial systems grind to a halt and unstoppable pressure comes on to convert coal to diesel and go deep sea drilling.
No, tallow isn’t viable simply because raising that many cows isn’t viable. Electricity, on the other hand, is – except for the exporting, for that we’ll be using sail.
Um Muzza you are making the exact mistake Federated Farmers made.
The rationale you present is that if farmers have to pay for greenhouse gas emissions they will immediately become unprofitable and will have to flood overseas and defoliate large parts of the Amazon so they can set up farms under a more benign administration.
Whereas it seems to me that farming in NZ is extremely profitable and all that we will be doing is reducing private profit slightly.
And yes we only contribute .2% of the world’s GHGs. But we comprise only .06% of the world’s population.
Of course we should do our bit. If we do not then why should anyone in the world do “their bit”?
Of course we should do our bit. If we do not then why should anyone in the world do “their bit”?
Except they’re not going to do that are they, and if NZ does or does not is hardly an influence!
And the mistakes being made are by people swallowing copius loads of BS on all sides!
@ CV – Yeah about that liquid fossel fuel depletion – Making sure NZ loses access to its own oil/gas reserves, certainly assists in ensuring that NZ continues to be at the mercy of those who control those resources globally!
We need to restructure the dependancies, but thats not on the cards currently is it!
So you think that we should do nothing to save our planet from environmental ruin because we are only doing a bit of damage (albeit at the rate of three times as much as the rest of the people on the planet) and besides some others are not doing their share either?
So you think that we should do nothing to save our planet from environmental ruin because we are only doing a bit of damage (albeit at the rate of three times as much as the rest of the people on the planet) and besides some others are not doing their share either?
Many times I have repeated a stance on the pollution/destruction which is wrecking this planet, so ill say it again.
Absolutely it needs to stop, only it won’t, not under current systems/conditions that control all aspects of our lives, it should become very clear by now that TPTB are not especially interested, for the time being!
Especially as all those other farmers in the social democratic countries overseas are doing their bit, it’s a disgrace that our farmers are being let off.
Of course, focussing just on farmers is bullshit. As it is, only two more generations of farmers (max) will have access to large quantities of fert and the diesel needed to spread it with. One way or another, NZ farming is going back to its low intensity roots.
What I want to see is for more city dwellers to give up their personal transport. And to quit buying stuff which has to be made and shipped from 10,000 km away.
For all of these things to happen without major unpleasant disruption we need to seriously restructure our entire economy and economic infrastructure NOW.
Change our export industry to one that’s less damaging. Of course, we have to do that anyway as we have to cut down the number of farms so that we can clean up our rivers and lakes and bring NZ back to having a pristine environment.
You can stream parts of The Nation here
They usually have most of the show up in segments on saturday or sunday – Hone was on this week talking asset shares.
Bernard Hickey is onto the UK Starbucks’ tax evasion story today, and asks if we should be getting onto such evasions in NZ.
Google, for example, made losses for tax purposes in New Zealand in the last two years, despite advertising industry estimates that last year it made revenues from NZ of more than $100 million. Last year it paid just $109,000 in tax in NZ.
Perhaps it’s time NZ consumers and taxpayers targeted companies such as Google and Facebook that don’t pay their fair share of tax globally.
Meanwhile, speaking of Facebook and business, Dotcom shows he’s not really aligned with the left, but with making money out of social networking.
Hopefully no one mistook Dotcom to be “aligned with the Left”. We just need him to help hold crony politicians to account, whether they are Left, Centre or Right.
A really good colunn from Matt McCarten today about the destruction of our local communities by shopping corporations like the Warehouse. It reminded me how much has changed in the 20-odd years I’ve lived where I do. I particularly miss the little gardening shop in my local shopping centre. A mine of local and more general gardening information, and quite a social spot. It shut down about ten years ago, and since that time, other than the chain-shops, cheap import outlets, and the op-shops, very few retailers have survived. There are always a few empty shops at any given time. Businesses regularly start up, but sadly you know it’s probably not going to be long until the closing down sale, and it seldom is.
Recently, I started making more effort to buy from old-fashioned grocery, butchery, and fruit and vege shops rather than the ubiquitous supermarket. I have to admit the first thing I noticed was how much dearer pretty much everything was, and I wondered if I could afford to shop according to my conscience. Not without cutting back, anyway.
The problem is this very viscious circle in which, due to a variety of community-destructive practices, supermarkets, the Warehouse etc. are significantly cheaper, and out-compete and drive out community enterprises. At the same time wages are down and unemployment is up, many people are struggling, and those cheaper prices are an essential part of making ends meet. And the big chains employ fewer people the the old community shopping centres did, at reduced wages, in worse conditions………….. and so it continues.
In the closest main center to me, you simply cannot buy any hardware materials within any reasonable walking distance of the city center. And there was, until very recently, only one greengrocer’s…located in a suburb about an hour’s walk away. Things moved forward with the establishment of a single non-supermarket outlet for vegetables within walking of the city center.
And to think that in the township I live there used to a butcher, a baker, a post office, a general store…all gone bar the dairy. Thankfully, at least the dairy owner is committed to serving the locals and sourcing stock accordingly – as opposed to stocking the vastly overpriced tatt from the usual dairy store suppliers.
Lower priced peripheral land being exploitable due to a car culture won’t last forever!
As American suburb dwellers are being forced to discover. With no footpaths in many suburbs, no where to go even if there were, $5/gallon gasoline is going to be a real shock for them. (Even though I think we basically pay that in NZ now, the US has been sheltered from the true price of fossil fuels due to theirs being the oil reserve currency of the world).
Only observational : But it is here !!!
Ater the property bubble of the 2003-7 we experienced perhaps even a 10% rebalancing. Over the last 6 months + there has been a marked increase in properties (excluding mono plastered properties) Just review local Auckland property presses and the lack of properties with stated selling prices – Tender & Auctions dominate the means of addressing pricing. Banks have returned to past practices plenty of cheap money flowing into NZ reflecting in extremely low rates of NZ just above 5%. http://www.interest.co.nz/borrowing http://www.3news.co.nz/Housing-bust-could-be-looming/tabid/421/articleID/260837/Default.aspx
I have seen properties selling 20% above expectations Valuations/vendor and estate agents. I know Key struggles to remember what he voted on 2 months ago http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841405
Yet here we are 5 years on and forgetting what happened last time. We worry about selling a few $ of SOE assets yet here we are indirectly selling so much more of NZ offshore, only here it is disguised in bank loans. Should the market collapse NZ equity is lost as the banks have 1st claims on any sales obtained and then able to repay their backers. And if times get really tough “To Big to Fail” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_big_to_fail
Labour’s Shane Jones and the Greens Gareth Hughes are on Q&A discussing New Zealand’s approach to declaring parts of the Ross Sea off limits for commercial fishing.
Murray McCully was invited to attend but said that he was too busy. His Government is in the unusual position where its proposal is less protective than the United States position.
The Government should not be too concerned, Jones is doing a good line of trotting out their lines and defending their position. Apparently the science is settled and reducing the number of tooth fish by about half is somehow “sustainable fishing”.
As Mike Smith said recently Jones needs to work out if he is a Labour Party MP or a sea lord MP.
October 21st 2015 is the day, the greatest
day in the History of Earth, no day on
earth will be happier for all the earth’s humans.
You see October 21 2015 is the day that (according
to the movie back to the future 2) we finally get
HOVERBOARDS!!!
Sure, here on October 21 2012, some physics
professors,such as Michio Kaku might say, “We
aren’t that advanced yet and we won’t have
Hoverboards by 2015”
Well I say “Not with that attitude”
I believe in Marty, Doc and Jennifer, I believe
the date October 21 2015 was picked for a
reason, I believe that on every corner of the
planet, we will have Hoverboards, some
might even have pitbulls, and the future
will be here.
We won’t have flying cars, or clothes that
dry themselves, or any other gadget like
that, but we will have HOVERBOARDS!
So to the world’s scientist’s, to the Geeks,
to the engineers, to the brainiest people
on earth, stop worrying about creating
what you have been creating, it is now, October
21 2012, you have three more years, three
more years, till you give the people of earth,
the greatest invention in HISTORY.
Kabbalah seems to be more exclusive than that, and tied to the Khazars who are possibily impersonating being “Jewish”.
Whatever it is thats going on, it gets played out in hollywood, on, and off the screens on a regular basis. The history of abuse, murder, and the overt in your face numerology, and paganistic symbolism in movies/tv, not to mention the satanic overtones which have become so blatant in the pop music industry of late!
Im still hopeful, maybe not like the movie, but maybe in 40 years time, some multi billion dollar theme park will create that controlled indoor environment.
Section 156A replaced (Minister may merge schools)
Replace section 156A with:
“156AMinister may merge schools
“(1)Subject to sections 156B and 157, the Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, merge 1 or more State schools (merging schools) that are not integrated schools with another State school (the continuing school) that is not an integrated school, if the Minister is satisfied that—
“(a)each board of a school concerned has made reasonable efforts to consult the parents of students (other than adult students) enrolled full-time at the school about the proposed merger; and
“(b)the consultation that has taken place has been adequate in all the circumstances; and
“(c)the creation of a single school by the proposed merger is appropriate in the circumstances.
supports the uptake of early childhood education by allowing a national student number to be allocated to children who are identified as being likely to benefit from attending an early childhood service, but who are unlikely to attend such a service;
The next time Monsieur Matthew Hooton gets on radio, he should be asked how deep Natz MPs will be reaching into their wallets and handbags to fund the next election.
“… the National Party has started to realise that potential donors and its traditional donors are not committing to its donor fund for its fighting fund … as it builds up towards the 2014 election.
“National party MPs have been requested by the party apparatus to contribute $30,000 over the next year – to contribute to the fighting fund for 2014. (Labour at its worst was – its MPs were asked to contribute around $5000.)
“These people [ie Natz] are running scared and that information is from the inside.”
But to continue with it as Banks and certain others did, a decade later, when Ellis and his legal team (with overwhelming public support), were pushing to have his named cleared, well frankly that defies political commonsense. Its a behaviour that just doesn’t add up; unless of course one factors in the possibility that there had been other powerful stakeholders with interests and agenda’s of their own in judicial mix….which, readers, is not that uncommon in New Zealand; a remarkably small group of people have held far to much power for far to long, and they’ve all been intent on selfishly protecting their thrones.
In cases of wrongful conviction in New Zealand there are always dangerous undercurrents hidden from sight. People and events that are concealed and protected from the public’s steely glare. We believe that in the Peter Ellis miscarriage of justice case, perhaps more than any of its contemporaries, this “protection racket” may be behind Mr Ellis’s inability to obtain justice. Post trial and Ellis’s release from prison (starting with the ‘Eichelbaum Report‘) the events, the officials attitudes, the politicking and the governments actions have never quite stacked up (at least in the minds of the intelligent Kiwi’s we’ve spoken with); the question is why?
And still these same people are wrecking lives, and still the apathy of Kiwis allows it to continue. Yet more excellent work from the LF Team, on “No Corruption NZ”
UHT milk tastes foul, I don’t blame the kids for not drinking it. Fonterra should maybe have done a bit of market research to see whether what they are offering is going to be palatable to those receiving the milk.
C73 you continue to prove new research showing right wingers have simplistic answers for complex problems while claiming at the same time to be better educated and more intelligent than the the rest of us.
Selfishness is all your up to nothing more!
Then stop complaining about what they eat (or lack of) if they were in such a bad way as Labour likes to crow about then drinking some UHT milk wouldn’t be such a hardship
You might have a point if none of the kids drank the milk.
As it is, it would seem at least some are hungry enough to drink milk that they don’t like.
Weak tory effort to pretend that if some are not in hardship, none are in hardship springs to mind. By your logic if someone quits a job, nobody is unemployed and really looking for a job.
Boo hoo if the milk they don’t pay for isn’t what they like. Its free, its good for them so maybe they should be a little more greatful
This is one of the problems of the left, a company gives out free milk (yes its good publicity but its still free milk) but some kids don’t like the taste because its not what they’re used to (now if it tasted like an energy drink…) so its blame the company
To paraphrase Bob Jones: If $50 dollar notes fell from the sky you lefties would complain it wasn’t $100 dollar notes
Hey chris73, I thought you liked the idea that the ‘customer was always right’ and that it was important to take feedback into account to ‘continuously improve the service that one provides’.
Good private sector values, you know. Try using them sometime.
Well, from my perspective is that an ill-suited corporate marketing ploy is being operated in place of any government efforts in the area. And that tories like you are arguing that a high dropout rate in this imperfect pilot scheme is evidence that there is no problem that the government should be addressing.
Of course, if you weren’t such a blinkered arsehole you’d know that the success of any scheme involves providing the good or service in a manner that is appropriate to the audience, not just in the manner that’s convenient for the supplier.
Don’t worry Chris73, some children are so hungry they really appreciate this horrible tasting milk, so please don’t scorn this initiative and perhaps stop it.If you had read further down the article you would have found this information and not needed to post such a sarcastic comment.
Several schools, although having seen numbers level off, consider the programme a massive success.
At Manaia View School at least 90 per cent of the children have milk every day.
“I’ve got lots of kids who ask for more as a reward,” said Ian Bird, the teacher in charge of milk.
At Kaitaia Primary School milk was reaching those most in need.
“We are decile 1C for a good reason.
“We have a number of families who struggle financially, and with the cost of fresh food and milk they just can’t afford it,” principal Brendon Morrissey said.
Chris73, please notice the sentence “We are decile 1C for a good reason.”
I knew a simple minded, cynical, wanna- play- Nact -mindset would pick this badly written, misleading, dogwhistle article up and try to present it’s headline and first part as ‘evidence’ that children are not hungry. Shame on you. Try and aim for higher morals Chris and a more becoming point of view. Perhaps the journalist who wrote this could think a little more too, rather than ‘muddy the waters and end up writing what I have heard are “coloured” articles. In this case, it was coloured navy blue and faded yellow.
I’m picking the whole thing is ‘a have’ that will not incidentally benefit Fontera on the publicity front. Y’know, roll out a system that is deliberately set up to fall over so that in the future, when somebody raises the issue of milk in schools, the finger can be pointed at the ungrateful ingrates who refused to drink the milk those nice guys at Fontera provided ‘last time we tried that’.
Meantime, why not Fontera’s best approximaton of real milk alongside the necessary refrigeration (which would cost sweet f.a. in the scheme of things) and whatever flavourings that might have been necessary in order that the kids considered it palatable or potable?
“I am beginning to wonder if kids are so used to sugar that they don’t want to drink milk anymore,” said principal Barbara Bronlund.
Or it could be just that milk is just really horrible to drink.
… putting recycling programmes in place for the packaging, which has also unexpectedly proved a problem.
No, it didn’t “unexpectedly proved a problem” it’s that the numbskulls putting the scheme in place didn’t think about the natural results of supplying more rubbish to the schools. Now, if we still had milk in glass bottles the recycling wouldn’t be such a problem.
When Josh Fattal and I finally came before the Revolutionary Court in Iran, we had a lawyer present, but weren’t allowed to speak to him. In California, an inmate facing the worst punishment our penal system has to offer short of death can’t even have a lawyer in the room. He can’t gather or present evidence in his defense. He can’t call witnesses. Much of the evidence—anything provided by informants—is confidential and thus impossible to refute.
2 good items in todays Sunday Star Times.
one says that kweewees diamond has lost its shine and the other is a large leader on the govt CEO pay.
it says that the justifications for the sums being payed to these presumed titans and would be captains of industry are just piffle.
what more can one say.
its our money and National is just handing it out to their mates for no good reason.
time to reign them in.
bring it up at the next Labour Party meeting you attend and dont let go.
Interesting that 3 News included this story in it’s 6pm bulletin tonight. And Dunne at the end acting all surprised..?!
New research reveals tax dodgers are ripping off the country at up to 150 times the rate of welfare fraudsters, but are being jailed much less often.
So why are our courts showing more tolerance to tax evaders? One is not giving what you should; the other is taking what you shouldn’t.
They also had a report on the anti-austerity demo in London this weekend. But why use a report from US TV and not one from the UK? Or even Al Jazeera?
Nurses, cleaners, librarians and ambulance drivers were among those who joined the march and a rally in London’s central Hyde Park, in one of the biggest anti-austerity protests this year. Organisers estimated that 150,000 people took part.
Marches also took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Glasgow, Scotland. Police said the London march had passed peacefully and they expected to report a low number of arrests in a bulletin later.
Trade union leaders are trying to use the rally to pile more pressure on Cameron, telling protesters the government’s economic plan has failed and only prolonged Britain’s recession.
Its cause TV3 aim towards younger viewership. Older people lean towards the UK, younger people towards the USA.
In the end there is little difference. UK & USA are both imperialistic forces which shape our current form of liberal democratic capitalism. Ignoring that Fox News comedy channel, BBC and USA news are not that much different.
Al Jazeera and RT are worth a watch.
“Hey chris73, I thought you liked the idea that the ‘customer was always right’ and that it was important to take feedback into account to ‘continuously improve the service that one provides’.
Good private sector values, you know. Try using them sometime.”
I don’t think the customer is always right (I’ve spent a few years in customer service) I think the customer is generally a greedy, grasping moron.
But that aside a customer is defined as:
A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product, or idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier for a monetary or other valuable consideration.
So unless the kids or schools are paying (I don’t think the free publicity counts) for the milk they ain’t customers.
If Fonterra was using “Good private sector values” they’d be charging the schools but they’re not
“If Fonterra was using “Good private sector values” they’d be charging the schools but they’re not”
Just shows your simple mind. See, what they did was identify a need that the government refuses to acknowledge. They use the “oh look, we’re being nice to the kiddies” to make its consumers feel better about being reamed by a near-monopoly.
Such a shame their programme is a bit off the mark. What’s the humanitarian equivalent of “greenwashing”, I wonder?
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Anew study in Nature Sustainability incorporates the damages that climate change does to healthy ecosystems into standard climate-economics models. The key finding in the study by Bernardo Bastien-Olvera and Frances Moore from the University of California at Davis: The models have been underestimating the ...
In a recent interview with RNZ (14th of January), NZ Council of Civil Liberties Chair Thomas Beagle, in response to Simon Bridges condemnation of the post-Trump Twitter purge of local far Right and other accounts, said the following: “Cos the thing about freedom of expression is that it’s not just ...
Let’s be clear: if Trump is not politically killed off once and for all, he will become a MAGA Dracula, rising from the dead to haunt US politics for years to come and giving inspiration to his wretched family of grifters and thousands of deplorables well into the next decade. ...
Since its demise as an imperial power, and especially its deindustrialisation under Thatcher, the UK's primary economic engine has been its role as a money laundry, using its network of overseas territories as tax havens to enable rich people around the world to steal from the societies they live in. ...
Last month OMV quit the Great South Basin and surrendered its offshore exploration permits outside of Taranaki. This month, Australian-owned Beach Energy has done the same: Beach Energy Resources New Zealand has decided to abandon all of its oil and gas exploration permits off the South Island coast, including ...
The new Northland case has been linked to the South African strain of Covid-19, one of a number of new, more contagious Covid variants. Here’s how they emerge and why. Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA ...
MARVIN HUBBARD, US citizen by birth, New Zealand citizen by choice, Quaker and left-wing activist, has been broadcasting his show, "Community or Chaos", on Otago Access Radio for the best part of 30 years. On 24 November last year, I spoke with him about the outcome of the 2020 General ...
This is a guest blog post by Daniel Tamberg, Potsdam, co-founder and director of SCIARA GmbH. The non-profit organisation SCIARA is developing and operating a flexible software platform for scientific simulation games that allows thousands of players to explore, design and understand possible climate futures together. Decision-makers in politics, business, ...
Yesterday's Gone: Cold shivers are running up and down the spines of conservatives everywhere. Donald Trump may have gone, but all the signs point to there being something much more momentous in the wind-shift than a simple return to the status quo ante. A change is gonna come. ONE COULD ...
Is it possible to live and let live in the post-Trump era? The online campaign to vilify Christopher Liddell, ex-White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to Trump, makes for an interesting case study. Liddell is a New Zealander whose illustrious career in corporate America once earned him plaudits ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 17, 2021 through Sat, Jan 23, 2021Editor's Choice12 new books explore fresh approaches to act on climate changeAuthors explore scientific, economic, and political avenues for climate action ...
This discussion is from a Twitter thread by Martin Kulldorff on 20 December 2020. He is a Professor at Harvard Medical School specialising in disease surveillance methods, infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety. His Twitter handle is @MartinKulldorff #1 Public health is about all health outcomes, not just a single ...
The Treasury forecasts suggest the economy is doing better than expected after the Covid Shock. John Kenneth Galbraith was wont to say that economic forecasting was designed to make astrology look good. Unfair, but it raises the question of the purpose of economic forecasts. Certainly the public may treat them ...
Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they do not always stop actual ...
Joe Biden seems to be everything that Donald Trump was not – decent, straightforward, considerate of others, mindful of his responsibilities – but none of that means that he has an easy path ahead of him. The pandemic still rages, American standing in the world is grievously low, and the ...
Keana VirmaniFrom healthcare robots to data privacy, to sea level rise and Antarctica under the ice: in the four years since its establishment, the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund has supported over 30 projects.Rebecca Priestley, receiving the PM Science Communication Prize (Photo by Mark Tantrum) Associate Professor ...
Nothing more from me today - I'm off to Wellington, to participate in the city's annual roleplaying convention (which has also eaten my time for the whole week, limiting blogging despite there being interesting things happening). Normal bloggage will resume Tuesday. ...
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponscame into force today, making the development, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal in international law. Every nuclear-armed state is now a criminal regime. The corporations and scientists who design, build and maintain their illegal weapons are now ...
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
A Waitomo-based Jobs for Nature project will keep up to ten people employed in the village as the tourism sector recovers post Covid-19 Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “This $500,000 project will save ten local jobs by deploying workers from Discover Waitomo into nature-based jobs. They will be undertaking local ...
Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw spoke yesterday with President Biden’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. “I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with Mr. Kerry this morning about the urgency with which our governments must confront the climate emergency. I am grateful to him and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta today announced three diplomatic appointments: Alana Hudson as Ambassador to Poland John Riley as Consul-General to Hong Kong Stephen Wong as Consul-General to Shanghai Poland “New Zealand’s relationship with Poland is built on enduring personal, economic and historical connections. Poland is also an important ...
Work begins today at Wainuiomata High School to ensure buildings and teaching spaces are fit for purpose, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. The Minister joined principal Janette Melrose and board chair Lynda Koia to kick off demolition for the project, which is worth close to $40 million, as the site ...
A skilled and experienced group of people have been named as the newly established Oranga Tamariki Ministerial Advisory Board by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis today. The Board will provide independent advice and assurance to the Minister for Children across three key areas of Oranga Tamariki: relationships with families, whānau, and ...
The green light for New Zealand’s first COVID-19 vaccine could be granted in just over a week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. “We’re making swift progress towards vaccinating New Zealanders against the virus, but we’re also absolutely committed to ensuring the vaccines are safe and effective,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
The Minister for ACC is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to join the Board of ACC on 1 February 2021. “All three bring diverse skills and experience to provide strong governance oversight to lead the direction of ACC” said Hon Carmel Sepuloni. Bella Takiari-Brame from Hamilton ...
The Government is investing $9 million to upgrade a significant community facility in Invercargill, creating economic stimulus and jobs, Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene have announced. The grant for Waihōpai Rūnaka Inc to make improvements to Murihiku Marae comes from the $3 billion set ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
Upscaling work already underway to restore two iconic ecosystems will deliver jobs and a lasting legacy, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “The Jobs for Nature programme provides $1.25 billion over four years to offer employment opportunities for people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession. “Two new projects ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea’s biggest hospital is straining to provide medical services to the growing population of the capital Port Moresby – with an estimated growth rate of 3 percent annually, a medical executive says. Port Moresby General Hospital chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Nationals who attend Thursday’s memorial service in Tweed Heads for Doug Anthony, who died last month aged 90, may muse on the contrast between the state of their party when he led it and now. ...
Returning to quarantine-free travel in 2021 doesn't just need a vaccine, but a way to check whether arriving passengers are actually immune to the virus. A smart Kiwi science start-up is working with a global biometrics giant to make that happen. A deal signed between Kiwi research and development company Orbis Diagnostics, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlyn Forster, PhD Candidate, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney This summer’s wetter conditions have created great conditions for flowering plants. Flowers provide sweet nectar and protein-rich pollen, attracting many insects, including bees. Commercial honey bees are also thriving: ...
Lotto scratchie tickets featuring the pop band Six60 are being withdrawn after a public backlash. In a statement, Lotto NZ said there had been a mutual decision made with the band to remove the tickets from sale following the negative feedback, and it offered an apology. The band faced criticism, both ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Russell Dean Christopher Bicknell, Post-doctoral researcher in Palaeobiology , University of New England Shell-crushing predation was already in full swing half a billion years ago, as our new research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals. A hyena devouring ...
Vodafone has suspended advertising on the radio station amid calls for talkback host John Banks to be taken off air after yet another racist outburst. Alex Braae reports. In an alarming segment of talkback radio, former Auckland mayor John Banks endorsed the views of a caller who described Māori as a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Welch, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland When a COVID-19 case was found in Northland last Sunday, Aotearoa’s second-longest period with no detected community case came to an end. ESR scientists worked late into Sunday night to obtain a whole genome sequence ...
He has the perfect moustache, an exceptional mullet, and he uses terms like ‘face hole’ on national TV. Who or what is Dr Joel Rindelaub?I was drawn in by the moustache, but it was the mullet that really kept me there. Watching TVNZ’s Breakfast yesterday morning I was fixated. Often, ...
We’ll never be royals with nearly a quarter of declined baby names featuring “Royal” in some form or another. Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs has released the list of names declined in 2020 by the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and ...
After a raft of inquiries delving into and recommending what should be done about the politically beleaguered Orangi Tamaraki, along with the briefing papers we suppose he has been given, we imagined Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis would have no more need for expert advice. Wrong. He has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University There’s a common assumption men take longer than women to poo. People say so on Twitter, in memes, and elsewhereonline. But is that right? What could explain it? And if ...
Just as sexuality is a spectrum, so too is asexuality. In Ace of Hearts, members of New Zealand’s asexual community talk about the challenges and misconceptions of identifying as ace.First published November 17, 2020.Ace of Hearts is part of Frame, a series of short documentaries produced by Wrestler for The Spinoff.“A ...
Sam Brooks wasn’t allowed to watch kids TV as a kid. Now, as a 30 year old man, he watches it for the first time.My mother’s approach to parenting was unorthodox. I wrote weekly book reports on top of my actual homework, I did maths equations in Roman numerals and ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk More leading Indonesian figures have made racial slurs against Natalius Pigai, former chair of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) – and all West Papuans, says United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda. “Since the illegal Indonesian invasion in 1963, Indonesian ...
“The Government’s failure to even conduct a standard cost-benefit analysis for the most expensive infrastructure project in New Zealand’s history is mind-bogglingly arrogant,” says New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke. “A ...
The Ministry of Health is today drawing backlash from the local New Zealand vaping industry following its release of proposed regulations for the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act. Vaping Trade Association New Zealand (VTANZ) President, ...
Sophie Gilmour and Simon Day are joined by special guest Hugo Baird, co-owner of Grey Lynn’s Honey Bones and Lilian, to talk about opening new pub Hotel Ponsonby.Auckland is a city of many bars but few really good pubs – the kind of places you’d be just as comfortable going ...
The appointment of an advisory board for Oranga Tamariki is welcome and should be a step toward a total transformation of the care and protection system to a by Māori, for Māori approach, Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft said today. Minister ...
Taking control of your financial wellbeing can have cascading positive impacts for your life and it can also be fun. With the help of the team at Kiwi Wealth, we’ve compiled some simple tricks for balancing your books in 2021. There’s something about the beginning of a new year, especially after ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kris Gledhill, Professor of Law, Auckland University of Technology As we know, getting into New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult. There are practicalities, such as high airfare and managed isolation costs. And there are legal requirements, including pre-flight testing, mandatory ...
New Zealand faces the risk of a generation being locked out of the housing market unless land is freed up and more houses built, National Party leader Judith Collins says. ...
On Sunday, Stuff published a months-long investigation by Alison Mau detailing allegations of harassment and exploitation within the local music industry.The piece, ‘Music industry professionals demand change after speaking out about its dark side’, includes allegations of inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power by male artists, international acts and executives; ...
“The Government is all at sea on timelines for Australia and New Zealand’s respective vaccine roll-outs, with the worst news coming from the mouth of Pfizer Australia CEO Anne Harris,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “Yesterday, under increasing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Higgins, Senior Research Fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised the US would demonstrate “global leadership on refugees”. Once elected, he pledged to vastly increase refugee resettlement in the US. If history is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Baumann, Casual Academic, School of Social Sciences & Psychology, Western Sydney University Among the many hard truths exposed by COVID-19 is the huge disparity between the world’s rich and poor. As economies went into freefall, the world’s billionaires increased their already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jan Lanicek, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History and Jewish History, UNSW On January 27 communities worldwide commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz — the largest complex of concentration camps and extermination centres during the Holocaust. This is the first year the International ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorinda Cramer, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Australian Catholic University The summer break is over, marking a return to the office. For some, this ends almost a year of working from home in lockdown. Some analysts are predicting it might also mark an enduring ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 27, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur members make The Spinoff happen! Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato New Zealand has a strong history of protecting and promoting human rights at home and internationally, and prides itself on being an outspoken critic and global leader in this area. So, when the most ...
Good morning and welcome to the Bulletin. In today’s edition: Collins outlines the plan forward for National, no spread of Covid spotted yet in Northland, and students return for climate protest.In front of a Rotary Club at the Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, National leader Judith Collins yesterday set out her ...
*This articlefirst appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. The tourism industry isn't holding its breath for a trans-Tasman travel bubble being in place after Australia temporarily closed its borders to New Zealand. New Zealanders could be waiting even longer for a full trans-Tasman bubble, with the ...
We continue our week-long examination of New Zealand writer Roderick Finlayson with an essay by Anahera Gildea on cultural appropriation Every night at 7pm sharp, my Irish Catholic father and his eight siblings would have to kneel on the carpet of the living room, facing the freshly polished nudity of ...
Children's Minister Kelvin Davis will have independent eyes and ears across Oranga Tamariki over the next five months as the Government tries to change the work and practices of the ministry. The Government has created a Māori-led watchdog to oversee how the children's ministry, Oranga Tamariki, deals with parents and ...
A Covid reset will force costly and inflexible cities to take a hard look at their planning systems, or people will vote with their feet. Broken urban planning systems make for misery even in the best of times. If land use and housing regulations prevent metropolitan areas from growing up or out as ...
When an Auckland school classroom went up in flames in December last year, exploding asbestos over neighbouring houses, five separate government agencies were involved. Yet stressed residents dealing with the aftermath on their homes say the response felt chaotic and uncoordinated; even local MPs who got involved couldn't get the information they wanted. Hundreds of thousands of ...
The pandemic has accelerated the trend of doing our banking online instead of in person. This rapid digital embrace has, in turn, sped up the closure of many smaller bank branches. But, as Mark Jennings writes, there are new branches springing up with a different look and purpose. Auckland’s Wynyard ...
Corrina Gage has represented New Zealand in a trio of water sports. But it's her love for waka ama - and the opportunities it gives paddlers from 5 to 85 - that keeps her racing and coaching around the world. Lake Karāpiro is quiet and still now. But last week, it was all noise ...
Telling a Rotary Club audience that housing is a serious problem and they should care deeply about it landed flat but took some daring from the National leader, writes Justin Giovannetti.Judith Collins’ level of control over the National Party is still a question best answered by a shrug.Elevated to her ...
A gang turf war gripped the South Auckland suburb in late 2020, forcing schools to lock down and armed police to patrol the streets. Community leaders are now warning the cycle of violent retribution could continue in 2021, unless radical interventions are made.The violent altercations that loomed large in Ōtara ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
Auckland writer Olivia Hayfield* explains how she resurrected 16th-century playwright Christopher Marlowe to star in her new novel, Sister to Sister. Olivia Hayfield is a pen name. Real name: Sue Copsey. When I’m planning my modern retellings of historical tales, I read widely on the characters and see who leaps out at ...
The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine could be approved as early as next week, Marc Daalder reports Medsafe will be asked to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 on February 2, the Government has announced. The Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee (MAAC) is an independent panel that provides advice on some medicine approvals in ...
COMMENT:By Bryan Kramer, PNG’s Minister of Police who has defended Commissioner Manning’s appointment today in The National My last article, announcing that I intend to make a submission to the National Executive Council (NEC) to amend the Public Service regulation to no longer require the Commissioner of Police to ...
The Point of Order Trough Monitor was triggered today by the announcement of a $9 million handout for Southlanders – sorry, some Southlanders. The news came from the office of Grant Robertson who, as Minister of Finance, prefers to invest public money rather than give it away – especially when ...
Few people outside of her campaign team gave Chlöe Swarbrick any chance of winning in Auckland Central this year – but the Green Party MP was too busy to listen. Here’s how they turned the electorate green.First published November 12, 2020.Three Ticks Chlöe is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Interactions between parents and healthcare providers could have a big impact on the wellbeing of our children, according to new research. The way parents and healthcare providers interact has lasting implications for children’s health, new research has found – and that includes immunisation uptake.Released today, the report is based on research ...
The Opposition starts the political year calling for emergency, temporary legislation to free up house building National leader Judith Collins has set five priorities for her party over the next three years - but excluded climate change, education and Crown-Māori relations. Giving her first 'state of the nation' speech as party ...
One of the biggest challenges facing the Ardern government is in public health. New Zealand may have escaped the pressures heaped on other health systems by the Covid-19 pandemic but its health service has had its problems, not least those exposed in the first report from Heather Simpson and her ...
New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has revealed that 14 close contacts of the Northland community case have returned negative test results. Yesterday he announced two close contacts – her husband and hair dresser – were negative. In his tweet, Hipkins described the news as “encouraging”. However, New ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the arbitrary and opaque experiments that Google is conducting with its search engine in Australia, with the consequence that many national news websites are no longer appearing in the search results seen by some users. The Australian, ABC, Australian Financial ...
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says councils can take stronger action against companies dumping contaminated waste water, even though they have identified loopholes in the law on fines. ...
Drag Race Down Under, part of the popular RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise, is filming in New Zealand. In their own words, local drag talent share what drag means to them and how it might be impacted by the show.RuPaul’s Drag Race is, quite simply, a television phenomenon. Love it or ...
For a long time, weighted blankets were considered a specialist device. Now they’re popular with even the most normal sleepers.Growing up, Temple Grandin spent time on her aunt’s cattle ranch in America, watching cow after stressed cow enter a squeeze chute and come out calm as the dead sea. She ...
Increased provisional tax thresholds, immediate low-value asset write offs and allowing the deferral of tax payments and use of money interest (UOMI) write offs were the most popular tax measures introduced by the Government to help businesses survive ...
The latest fleeing driver statistics show the numbers of incidents sky-rocketing out of control through 2020 with Police deciding the only tactic is to give up on chasing altogether, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The inconvenient truth is ...
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The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again, on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “COVID-19 may have stopped us in our tracks in the past. However, I tend ...
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http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=288598
The official term for piracy is now “taking control”
Israeli Navy boards Gaza-bound ship ‘Estelle’
by YAAKOV LAPPIN, The Jerusalem Post 10/20/2012 18:16
Navy seizes Swedish ship carrying 30 pro-Palestinian activists after it refused to change course, tows it to Ashdod. PHOTO: COURTESY IDF
The Navy took control of a Swedish ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists towards Gaza on Saturday, and towed the vessel to Ashdod instead.
The activists refused all Israeli requests to divert their course, and had declared that their intention was to violate Israel’s naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. ….
Read more from Israel’s Pravda by clicking here….
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=288598
Ah, yes. But of course, there are always two sides (at least) to a story. I aw the Al Jazeera version on my TV this morning, as in the video here, aor with the print report here.
Thanks for that, karol. I posted a brief and polite response on the Jerusalem Post comments section. I wrote: “‘Taking control’—the new term for piracy.”
Instead of being immediately published, as no doubt all the racist and bloody-minded anti-Palestinian posts were, my comments were “put into moderation”.
No wonder their comment section is so overwhelmingly pro-government. And no wonder the Jerusalem Post is dismissed by thinking people as Israel’s Pravda.
Democracy in Israel has long long since gone. And a lot of Israeli’s are very unhappy about it.
Israel, politically, has long enjoyed the full backing of the United States. (I have no argument with the Israeli people as a whole). To his credit, Obama has been distancing the brutally minded Netanyahu in more recent times, especially on that man’s pressing desire to attack Iran. (It is Israel that possesses the nuclear weapons, not Iran). Now we should really worry with Romney looking a possibility for President. The Israeli government will welcome him with glee. With Romney the world would become, generally, in greater danger (not to mention the rich becoming richer and yet more powerful). This would be likely worse than the rule of George Bush. Yes, yet again, we have to bewail the short memories of human kind!
Interesting .that many Jewish people world wide now refer to Jews who live in Isareal as Israelies.
Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
Despite this they persisted.
In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
Despite this they persisted.
In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/us-academic-noam-chomsky-visits-gaza-for-conference/
Oh, why am I not surprised? 🙁
Well, well, well – will the opposition be able to level the “nanny-state” at this administration at last. There are clubs up and down the country that have as one of their door raffle prizes “An annual membership” which will be worth a lot more than this $500 limit.
Key is going to get an avalanche of correspondence on this one and watch him try to get it dropped immediately … his mates in golf clubs will be livid.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841884
And aren’t the hunting lobby United Future’s constituency?
Now thats a shame as it just puts the kibosh an a great week end. Yes there’s some big prizes but everyone has the same chance. Unlike Pokies where the machine has the best chance, and will break up families. Yep thats the Anti Nanny state at work, break up the family, get more Pokies out there. Don’t allow the fishing comps to continue, they are against the Anti Nanny State.
Where is there any evidence of involvement from the government in this? Just seems like a department enforcing laws already on the books.
Owners of pokie machines complained. Government Department protecting the interests of pokie machine owners. Corporate Fascism.
The Wynne “Sensible” Gray Award for Pretentious Writing
Entry No. 1: JACK TAME
Jack Tame: Slow down that war
It was as quiet and calm as a cliche. Somewhere distant a train click-clacked in steady rhythm. Birds hopped between leafy old trees. ….
Read more, if you can bear it, here…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10841827
Brian Edwards yesterday posted praising the interview ability of Rachel Smalley on TV3’s the Nation.
I found myself totally in agreement with him. Rachel has a low key but direct approach to interviewing that IMHO produces much more information than otherwise.
I am just watching her discuss with a panel including Kennedy Graham and Federated Farmers William Rawlston discussing carbon credits. She effectively showed how shallow Fed Farmer’s rationale for opposing Farming being part of our system. Their rationale is if we make it more expensive for farmers production will flood overseas to countries with less carbon efficient farming techniques. There is no analysis of how much more expensive, or the relative cost of production in different countries compared to her, just a bald statement that if they have to pay a modest ETS price all farms will shut down.
Kennedy Graham had the perfect response. He said shocks have happened in the past and how some countries, notably the Social Democratic countries, are reducing emissions. In NZ they are growing. He talked about the need for behavioral modification change.
He also talked about how countries could be world leaders, fast followers, apathetic spectator or willful obstructionists. He thought NZ was somewhere in the middle. I believe he meant that NZ is between apathetic spectators and willful obstructionists.
Absolutely right, John key and his bunch or traitors are ruining this country.
Why can’t we have an ETS for our farmers when all those other countries have got one in place.
Why can’t we have a government who is actually prepared to do something about climate change when all those other countries have one.
Exactly.
There’ll come a time in the near future when key and his gang will be put on trial for their crimes against NZ and the environment.
Micky and what would you suggest we do about our 0.2% contribution, which won’t put further pressure on our major export industry, followed by higher consumer prices, which will hit those who are already struggling most?
Climate change isn’t the issue. NZ will do very well out of climate change, thank you very much. Liquid fossil fuel depletion is.
Its when diesel goes up to $4/L – $5/L which is the problem. Without massive socio-economic restructuring NOW, our transportation, farming and industrial systems grind to a halt and unstoppable pressure comes on to convert coal to diesel and go deep sea drilling.
We should be thinking about alternatives now.
http://www.esrla.com/pdf/tallow.pdf
No, tallow isn’t viable simply because raising that many cows isn’t viable. Electricity, on the other hand, is – except for the exporting, for that we’ll be using sail.
Um Muzza you are making the exact mistake Federated Farmers made.
The rationale you present is that if farmers have to pay for greenhouse gas emissions they will immediately become unprofitable and will have to flood overseas and defoliate large parts of the Amazon so they can set up farms under a more benign administration.
Whereas it seems to me that farming in NZ is extremely profitable and all that we will be doing is reducing private profit slightly.
And yes we only contribute .2% of the world’s GHGs. But we comprise only .06% of the world’s population.
Of course we should do our bit. If we do not then why should anyone in the world do “their bit”?
Except they’re not going to do that are they, and if NZ does or does not is hardly an influence!
And the mistakes being made are by people swallowing copius loads of BS on all sides!
@ CV – Yeah about that liquid fossel fuel depletion – Making sure NZ loses access to its own oil/gas reserves, certainly assists in ensuring that NZ continues to be at the mercy of those who control those resources globally!
We need to restructure the dependancies, but thats not on the cards currently is it!
So you think that we should do nothing to save our planet from environmental ruin because we are only doing a bit of damage (albeit at the rate of three times as much as the rest of the people on the planet) and besides some others are not doing their share either?
You go girl.
When the greens and labour get back into power we’ll show the filthy farmers and Key and his mates how to lead the world in clean green living.
Many times I have repeated a stance on the pollution/destruction which is wrecking this planet, so ill say it again.
Absolutely it needs to stop, only it won’t, not under current systems/conditions that control all aspects of our lives, it should become very clear by now that TPTB are not especially interested, for the time being!
Especially as all those other farmers in the social democratic countries overseas are doing their bit, it’s a disgrace that our farmers are being let off.
Of course, focussing just on farmers is bullshit. As it is, only two more generations of farmers (max) will have access to large quantities of fert and the diesel needed to spread it with. One way or another, NZ farming is going back to its low intensity roots.
What I want to see is for more city dwellers to give up their personal transport. And to quit buying stuff which has to be made and shipped from 10,000 km away.
For all of these things to happen without major unpleasant disruption we need to seriously restructure our entire economy and economic infrastructure NOW.
Change our export industry to one that’s less damaging. Of course, we have to do that anyway as we have to cut down the number of farms so that we can clean up our rivers and lakes and bring NZ back to having a pristine environment.
Attempted to watch The Nation on TV3 this morning but they seem not to be broadcasting today. Neither are 4, 9 and 8. What gives?
I had to re-scan the channels to get them back (couple of times this week)
You can stream parts of The Nation here
They usually have most of the show up in segments on saturday or sunday – Hone was on this week talking asset shares.
Bernard Hickey is onto the UK Starbucks’ tax evasion story today, and asks if we should be getting onto such evasions in NZ.
Meanwhile, speaking of Facebook and business, Dotcom shows he’s not really aligned with the left, but with making money out of social networking.
Hickey is a damn good guy.
Hopefully no one mistook Dotcom to be “aligned with the Left”. We just need him to help hold crony politicians to account, whether they are Left, Centre or Right.
Well said CV, “Good Civilised” is party independent …..
The fact that he generously contributed to John Banks’s mayoral compaign should give people a litttle clue about his poltical views.
That should have been fairly obvious from the fact that he donated to Banks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841815
A really good colunn from Matt McCarten today about the destruction of our local communities by shopping corporations like the Warehouse. It reminded me how much has changed in the 20-odd years I’ve lived where I do. I particularly miss the little gardening shop in my local shopping centre. A mine of local and more general gardening information, and quite a social spot. It shut down about ten years ago, and since that time, other than the chain-shops, cheap import outlets, and the op-shops, very few retailers have survived. There are always a few empty shops at any given time. Businesses regularly start up, but sadly you know it’s probably not going to be long until the closing down sale, and it seldom is.
Recently, I started making more effort to buy from old-fashioned grocery, butchery, and fruit and vege shops rather than the ubiquitous supermarket. I have to admit the first thing I noticed was how much dearer pretty much everything was, and I wondered if I could afford to shop according to my conscience. Not without cutting back, anyway.
The problem is this very viscious circle in which, due to a variety of community-destructive practices, supermarkets, the Warehouse etc. are significantly cheaper, and out-compete and drive out community enterprises. At the same time wages are down and unemployment is up, many people are struggling, and those cheaper prices are an essential part of making ends meet. And the big chains employ fewer people the the old community shopping centres did, at reduced wages, in worse conditions………….. and so it continues.
In the closest main center to me, you simply cannot buy any hardware materials within any reasonable walking distance of the city center. And there was, until very recently, only one greengrocer’s…located in a suburb about an hour’s walk away. Things moved forward with the establishment of a single non-supermarket outlet for vegetables within walking of the city center.
And to think that in the township I live there used to a butcher, a baker, a post office, a general store…all gone bar the dairy. Thankfully, at least the dairy owner is committed to serving the locals and sourcing stock accordingly – as opposed to stocking the vastly overpriced tatt from the usual dairy store suppliers.
Lower priced peripheral land being exploitable due to a car culture won’t last forever!
As American suburb dwellers are being forced to discover. With no footpaths in many suburbs, no where to go even if there were, $5/gallon gasoline is going to be a real shock for them. (Even though I think we basically pay that in NZ now, the US has been sheltered from the true price of fossil fuels due to theirs being the oil reserve currency of the world).
Only observational : But it is here !!!
Ater the property bubble of the 2003-7 we experienced perhaps even a 10% rebalancing. Over the last 6 months + there has been a marked increase in properties (excluding mono plastered properties) Just review local Auckland property presses and the lack of properties with stated selling prices – Tender & Auctions dominate the means of addressing pricing. Banks have returned to past practices plenty of cheap money flowing into NZ reflecting in extremely low rates of NZ just above 5%.
http://www.interest.co.nz/borrowing
http://www.3news.co.nz/Housing-bust-could-be-looming/tabid/421/articleID/260837/Default.aspx
I have seen properties selling 20% above expectations Valuations/vendor and estate agents. I know Key struggles to remember what he voted on 2 months ago
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841405
Yet here we are 5 years on and forgetting what happened last time. We worry about selling a few $ of SOE assets yet here we are indirectly selling so much more of NZ offshore, only here it is disguised in bank loans. Should the market collapse NZ equity is lost as the banks have 1st claims on any sales obtained and then able to repay their backers. And if times get really tough “To Big to Fail”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_big_to_fail
When the property owning middle class feel richer again, as in the midst of a housing asset bubble, incumbents are returned to power.
Cullen used the same tactic.
Labour’s Shane Jones and the Greens Gareth Hughes are on Q&A discussing New Zealand’s approach to declaring parts of the Ross Sea off limits for commercial fishing.
Murray McCully was invited to attend but said that he was too busy. His Government is in the unusual position where its proposal is less protective than the United States position.
The Government should not be too concerned, Jones is doing a good line of trotting out their lines and defending their position. Apparently the science is settled and reducing the number of tooth fish by about half is somehow “sustainable fishing”.
As Mike Smith said recently Jones needs to work out if he is a Labour Party MP or a sea lord MP.
Perhaps he fancies himself as something of a spokeslord?
Three more years.
October 21st 2015 is the day, the greatest
day in the History of Earth, no day on
earth will be happier for all the earth’s humans.
You see October 21 2015 is the day that (according
to the movie back to the future 2) we finally get
HOVERBOARDS!!!
Sure, here on October 21 2012, some physics
professors,such as Michio Kaku might say, “We
aren’t that advanced yet and we won’t have
Hoverboards by 2015”
Well I say “Not with that attitude”
I believe in Marty, Doc and Jennifer, I believe
the date October 21 2015 was picked for a
reason, I believe that on every corner of the
planet, we will have Hoverboards, some
might even have pitbulls, and the future
will be here.
We won’t have flying cars, or clothes that
dry themselves, or any other gadget like
that, but we will have HOVERBOARDS!
So to the world’s scientist’s, to the Geeks,
to the engineers, to the brainiest people
on earth, stop worrying about creating
what you have been creating, it is now, October
21 2012, you have three more years, three
more years, till you give the people of earth,
the greatest invention in HISTORY.
HOVERBOARDS!
THREE MORE YEARS!!
THREE MORE YEARS!!
THREE MORE YEARS!!!
UNTIL…..
HOVERBOARDS!!!!
Theoretically possible today, some kind of Magno repeller board.
Scary power requirements, would have to enclose the magnetised floor space.
Probably cost upwards of $10million for a small hall space … But possible Bud 🙂
If they can do it with a commuter train they can do it with a “HoverBoard” M8
You should take up surfing instead bud !
Wouldn’t mind the hydrateable pizzas myself…
Again theoretically possible, might taste like styrofoam though 🙂
Two words: Power Supply
The day you can fit a couple of megawatts of generation onto a skateboard without vaporising the rider is the day you can have hoverboards.
Actually according to the worlds leading physics’s professor Michio Kaku that is incorrect, there are other ways.
The important part of the date is to do with the numbers: 21 2015 = 2 +1+2+0+1+5 = 11
Hollywood or the people behind it are seriously into numerology, among other things!
Hope you get that hoverboard sometime!
Kabbalah numerology and Jewish dominance of Hollywood!
Hi Jim,
Kabbalah seems to be more exclusive than that, and tied to the Khazars who are possibily impersonating being “Jewish”.
Whatever it is thats going on, it gets played out in hollywood, on, and off the screens on a regular basis. The history of abuse, murder, and the overt in your face numerology, and paganistic symbolism in movies/tv, not to mention the satanic overtones which have become so blatant in the pop music industry of late!
another capitalisation and distortion of Abrahamic Monotheism (not spoken to; spoke to themselves)
😯
🙂
Im still hopeful, maybe not like the movie, but maybe in 40 years time, some multi billion dollar theme park will create that controlled indoor environment.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/flexible-timetabling-cards-schools-5143830
Another bad case of the Derps from the Ministry of Education.
Why build more class rooms and hire more teachers when you can just run schools like factories instead?
AND add this from the education amendment bill
Section 156A replaced (Minister may merge schools)
Replace section 156A with:
“156AMinister may merge schools
“(1)Subject to sections 156B and 157, the Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, merge 1 or more State schools (merging schools) that are not integrated schools with another State school (the continuing school) that is not an integrated school, if the Minister is satisfied that—
“(a)each board of a school concerned has made reasonable efforts to consult the parents of students (other than adult students) enrolled full-time at the school about the proposed merger; and
“(b)the consultation that has taken place has been adequate in all the circumstances; and
“(c)the creation of a single school by the proposed merger is appropriate in the circumstances.
AND this in a Cambell blog
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/10/17/gordon-campbell-on-secrecy-about-charter-schools-and-dotcom/
Oh, and each child under six will be assigned “a national student number.”
But I cant work out if it is a serious comment
Can anyone say if a national student number is in the bill?
yep found it
supports the uptake of early childhood education by allowing a national student number to be allocated to children who are identified as being likely to benefit from attending an early childhood service, but who are unlikely to attend such a service;
How are they gonna pull that one off?, other than retrospectively classifying them.
They’ll be “Testing” 2 year olds next.
Promoting elitism in 2-5 year olds, start them early M8!
I suspect it is to tie in with the children at risk data base.
Which already exists, it just needs appropriate interpretation.
These policies are so stupid is daunting, the people trying to force them on us are morons.
Abuse/Hiding of this data in the community will be the only result.
The next time Monsieur Matthew Hooton gets on radio, he should be asked how deep Natz MPs will be reaching into their wallets and handbags to fund the next election.
*Thanks to ‘fatty’ pointing out the link to Citizen A (http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20102012/comment-page-1/#comment-537069):
@ 25:48
“… the National Party has started to realise that potential donors and its traditional donors are not committing to its donor fund for its fighting fund … as it builds up towards the 2014 election.
“National party MPs have been requested by the party apparatus to contribute $30,000 over the next year – to contribute to the fighting fund for 2014. (Labour at its worst was – its MPs were asked to contribute around $5000.)
“These people [ie Natz] are running scared and that information is from the inside.”
I thought the parties with MPs ran a tithing system already so would this $30k be over and above that?
Christchurch, New Zealand; A City Possessed and the travesty that simply refuses to die
And still these same people are wrecking lives, and still the apathy of Kiwis allows it to continue. Yet more excellent work from the LF Team, on “No Corruption NZ”
Is it apathy, ignorance, information overload or a combination of all three?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7844135/Milk-giveaway-goes-sour-as-kids-drop-out
This is a shame
UHT milk tastes foul, I don’t blame the kids for not drinking it. Fonterra should maybe have done a bit of market research to see whether what they are offering is going to be palatable to those receiving the milk.
At various times I’ve had to drink UHT and powdered milk but then the cost came out of my own pocket.
C73 you continue to prove new research showing right wingers have simplistic answers for complex problems while claiming at the same time to be better educated and more intelligent than the the rest of us.
Selfishness is all your up to nothing more!
I see free milk being rejected because “it tastes different”, simple as that.
So the recipients of corporate marketing largesse can’t be choosers.
It’s such a shame that primary school kids don’t conform to your expectations, C73.
Then stop complaining about what they eat (or lack of) if they were in such a bad way as Labour likes to crow about then drinking some UHT milk wouldn’t be such a hardship
First world problem springs to mind
You might have a point if none of the kids drank the milk.
As it is, it would seem at least some are hungry enough to drink milk that they don’t like.
Weak tory effort to pretend that if some are not in hardship, none are in hardship springs to mind. By your logic if someone quits a job, nobody is unemployed and really looking for a job.
Boo hoo if the milk they don’t pay for isn’t what they like. Its free, its good for them so maybe they should be a little more greatful
This is one of the problems of the left, a company gives out free milk (yes its good publicity but its still free milk) but some kids don’t like the taste because its not what they’re used to (now if it tasted like an energy drink…) so its blame the company
To paraphrase Bob Jones: If $50 dollar notes fell from the sky you lefties would complain it wasn’t $100 dollar notes
Hey chris73, I thought you liked the idea that the ‘customer was always right’ and that it was important to take feedback into account to ‘continuously improve the service that one provides’.
Good private sector values, you know. Try using them sometime.
Well, from my perspective is that an ill-suited corporate marketing ploy is being operated in place of any government efforts in the area. And that tories like you are arguing that a high dropout rate in this imperfect pilot scheme is evidence that there is no problem that the government should be addressing.
Of course, if you weren’t such a blinkered arsehole you’d know that the success of any scheme involves providing the good or service in a manner that is appropriate to the audience, not just in the manner that’s convenient for the supplier.
Don’t worry Chris73, some children are so hungry they really appreciate this horrible tasting milk, so please don’t scorn this initiative and perhaps stop it.If you had read further down the article you would have found this information and not needed to post such a sarcastic comment.
Chris73, please notice the sentence “We are decile 1C for a good reason.”
I knew a simple minded, cynical, wanna- play- Nact -mindset would pick this badly written, misleading, dogwhistle article up and try to present it’s headline and first part as ‘evidence’ that children are not hungry. Shame on you. Try and aim for higher morals Chris and a more becoming point of view. Perhaps the journalist who wrote this could think a little more too, rather than ‘muddy the waters and end up writing what I have heard are “coloured” articles. In this case, it was coloured navy blue and faded yellow.
I’m picking the whole thing is ‘a have’ that will not incidentally benefit Fontera on the publicity front. Y’know, roll out a system that is deliberately set up to fall over so that in the future, when somebody raises the issue of milk in schools, the finger can be pointed at the ungrateful ingrates who refused to drink the milk those nice guys at Fontera provided ‘last time we tried that’.
Meantime, why not Fontera’s best approximaton of real milk alongside the necessary refrigeration (which would cost sweet f.a. in the scheme of things) and whatever flavourings that might have been necessary in order that the kids considered it palatable or potable?
Or it could be just that milk is just really horrible to drink.
No, it didn’t “unexpectedly proved a problem” it’s that the numbskulls putting the scheme in place didn’t think about the natural results of supplying more rubbish to the schools. Now, if we still had milk in glass bottles the recycling wouldn’t be such a problem.
A good alternative would be a segment of edam cheese, the only down side would be the sodium.
This’ll make ya laugh LPRent ….
The cursor in my edit windows stops working when I have Windows Media Center on watching TV.
Only happened to iexplore of course, Good old Windoze 🙂
Shane Bauer, one of three Americans who were detained in Iran in 2009, writes:
Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me.Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons.
When Josh Fattal and I finally came before the Revolutionary Court in Iran, we had a lawyer present, but weren’t allowed to speak to him. In California, an inmate facing the worst punishment our penal system has to offer short of death can’t even have a lawyer in the room. He can’t gather or present evidence in his defense. He can’t call witnesses. Much of the evidence—anything provided by informants—is confidential and thus impossible to refute.
That was a disturbing article to read. The sheer deprivation that US prisoners are forced to submit to are barbaric.
I followed US prisons for a year; Supermax etc; just freakin evil
You guys are going to love this. Britain and US use of forced renditions, secret prisons and torture over many decades.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/oct/19/torture-uk-britain-blood-government
This stuff did NOT just begin with 9/11.
Indeed.
http://www.historynet.com/the-history-of-torture%E2%80%94why-we-cant-give-it-up.htm/1
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/17/britain-destroyed-records-of-colonial-crimes/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/04/uk-allowed-interrogate-tortured-prisoners
2 good items in todays Sunday Star Times.
one says that kweewees diamond has lost its shine and the other is a large leader on the govt CEO pay.
it says that the justifications for the sums being payed to these presumed titans and would be captains of industry are just piffle.
what more can one say.
its our money and National is just handing it out to their mates for no good reason.
time to reign them in.
bring it up at the next Labour Party meeting you attend and dont let go.
Interesting that 3 News included this story in it’s 6pm bulletin tonight. And Dunne at the end acting all surprised..?!
They also had a report on the anti-austerity demo in London this weekend. But why use a report from US TV and not one from the UK? Or even Al Jazeera?
That’s what 3 News always does. Never do they air any reports from the UK, only the USA, for some strange reason!
Its cause TV3 aim towards younger viewership. Older people lean towards the UK, younger people towards the USA.
In the end there is little difference. UK & USA are both imperialistic forces which shape our current form of liberal democratic capitalism. Ignoring that Fox News comedy channel, BBC and USA news are not that much different.
Al Jazeera and RT are worth a watch.
“Hey chris73, I thought you liked the idea that the ‘customer was always right’ and that it was important to take feedback into account to ‘continuously improve the service that one provides’.
Good private sector values, you know. Try using them sometime.”
I don’t think the customer is always right (I’ve spent a few years in customer service) I think the customer is generally a greedy, grasping moron.
But that aside a customer is defined as:
A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product, or idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier for a monetary or other valuable consideration.
So unless the kids or schools are paying (I don’t think the free publicity counts) for the milk they ain’t customers.
If Fonterra was using “Good private sector values” they’d be charging the schools but they’re not
“If Fonterra was using “Good private sector values” they’d be charging the schools but they’re not”
Just shows your simple mind. See, what they did was identify a need that the government refuses to acknowledge. They use the “oh look, we’re being nice to the kiddies” to make its consumers feel better about being reamed by a near-monopoly.
Such a shame their programme is a bit off the mark. What’s the humanitarian equivalent of “greenwashing”, I wonder?
The Fonterra/National Milkwash PR programme.