“Jones won’t let up on socialist policies. Nor will he stop pushing corporations like Amazon to adopt a “woke” corporate agenda, complete with employee indoctrination sessions in white privilege and the proper use of gendered pronouns.”
He shows commendable restraint in not hallucinating the appearance of uniformed government pronoun enforcers accompanied by goon squads in newsrooms…
"Jones is a hard-core radical activist who has gone mainstream. Forced to resign as “green jobs” czar in the Obama White House for his alleged link to 9/11 Trutherism, and after calling Republicans “assholes,” Jones continued his unique brand of activism, moving into the mainstream of American politics. He found a regular perch at CNN, and became one of its more thoughtful voices…"
"The money, Bezos said, was tied to a "surprise" philanthropic initiative he wanted to announce called the Courage and Civility Award. The award aims to honor those who have "demonstrated courage" and tried to be a unifier in a divisive world, Bezos added. "We need unifiers and not vilifiers," Bezos said. "We need people who argue hard and act hard for what they believe. But they do that always with civility and never ad hominem attacks. Unfortunately, we live in a world where this is too often not the case. But we do have role models."
"Bezos has previously been criticized for not contributing more to philanthropy, but has donated billions of dollars in recent years to causes including climate change and food banks. Critics have said that the world's richest people should work to improve the conditions for people here on Earth, instead of flying off into space. Bezos and supporters of the space programs, however, have countered that both are possible."
"Well, I say they're largely right. We have to do both," he said in an interview with CNN Monday. "You know, we have lots of problems here and now on Earth and we need to work on those, and we always need to look to the future. We've always done that as a species, as a civilization. We have to do both."
Oh dear. And this on the back of her train wreck interview yesterday where as police Minister the Christchurch MP claimed to only represent the Pacific and Maori community in south Auckland.
[mod warning, don’t use this site to run National Party talking points. If you want to make a claim of fact about an MP, you have to back it up. I’ve not see Williams say she only represents Pacific and Māori communities in South Auckland, that’s a nonsense thing to claim. If you have an argument about her performance as minister, it’s on *you to make that argument and back it up, not just drop FB style reckons – weka
Williams claimed to "only" represent some groups? Because she didn't mention all groups she represents?
Are we to expect some preface from all politicians on every occasion stating that should they refer to any particular group, it should not be taken that that group is exclusive in how they see whon they represent?
Do you feel she should have said she represented you?
A word which has appeared and gained currency in recent years is "snowflake."
Sometimes big, bold people (as they see themselves) label as snowflakes those whom they see having wimpy views, "snowflakes."
"Maybe she should have said New Zealand communities, rather than the 'communities I represent'?" Maybe people need to grow up, look past seeking childish responses to ordinary comments. Stop acting maybe like the labels they pin on others.
Of course there are a whole lot of people all over the country who would not be too happy with cops carrying weapons. Let's get each and every one of them pissed off shall we because Williams didn't mention them personally yesterday or their sub group, their electorate, whatever.
The thing is, that as an MP she represents her communities that have voted for her. She also represents all of NZ in her role as Police Minister.
So she needs to bend her mind around the concept of 'inclusivity' rather then' exclusion'.
As i posted below there was a distinction in her comment by pointing out that people of color have a different policing experience then say white people in nice well to do areas of NZ, but her comment of 'communities I represent' was and is a pretty silly thing to say.
She works for all of NZ, all of NZ pays her wages, and thus in regards to policing she needs to look a bit further then her own nose, and her need to be re-elected lest she lose her job next election round.
So yeah, the PR people of Labour need to start training Labour people in 'inclusive' speech.
How is she not representing you? How is she not representing New Zealanders? How, as the Minister of Police, is she not representing all New Zealanders?
It just occurred to me, she even represents gang members! Now there's something for Judith Collins, David Seymour and other mindless ones to get their teeth into.
Police Minister Poto Williams will not be backing down on her strong stance not to support the general arming of police because the Māori and Pacific Island communities she represents do not want it.
…
This was because she had listened to overwhelming feedback from the Māori, Pacific Island and South Auckland communities who didn't want it.
but also this:
Williams said statistics showed Māori and Pacific populations were stopped more, charged more, arrested more and for those communities having permanently armed police was a "real difficulty for them".
Williams also acknowledged the Māori and Pacific communities' interactions with police over the years "had not been that great".
Might have not been the smartest thing to say currently, but she is correct in stating that people of color in NZ will have a different interaction that white people. However, she also represents the rest of NZ, and could have worded that a bit better. Maybe some of the PR people employed by Labour need to give her a bit of training in sounding more 'inclusive of the rest of NZ' in her statements.
For the record, i am for an armed offenders squad but would not want All cops armed.
No that also is a bit easy. The community I represent, is exactly what she said. It is not anyones fault but her own if this can now be bend into brezel shape. Labour has a lot of communications people that work for them, and maybe they need to teach the Ministers how to be inclusive of all – as there are many who are not Maori or Pacifica that also don't want cops to be armed.
As the minister of Police, she represents a. the Police, b. the Country, and thus should have been a bit more careful with her statement.
And it also has nothing to do with National. Or lets imagine J.C. would state exactly the same, but talk about a nice white suburb. It would be just as tone deaf.
Except nice white suburbanite aren't at the same risk of being shot as M/PI communities.
Amplifying the voices of marginalised communities who want a particular kind of police culture seems to fit with the Ministerial position. Yes, Labour can provide some after-PR and Williams isn't the slickest spinmeister, but her point was valid.
All that aside, my point to David is that when I see the same RW lines being run as talking points in TW, I'm going to intervene and say up your game. They can run the argument, but they have to actually make the argument not just drop mini hits into the convo that misrepresent what is going on (no-one believes that Williams said she only represents M/PI).
As someone in her electorate of Christchurch East and on her electorate committee and campaign committees in 2017 and 2020, there are major socioeconomic and policing issues here that she is acutely aware of.
She usually has more time and it's usually some sort of speech/discussion/Q&A from the floor, so it's not quite the same format as the telly, and also a bit less likely to be publicly reported as much, but that's commentary on the format rather than her personally.
Williams pointing out the facts that some of us are not as well treated as some others of us, and definitely need an advocate is not too bad a thing is it? We know there are layers in society and the ones at the bottom have to put up with more than those further up, who are far away from the major problems that continue year after year. I guess that is what is illustrated by the folk tale of the delicate princess being bruised by the pea under her mattress, poor wee thing.
I think we should concentrate on the big, broad issues and leave the pea-picking to ACT and their tacky ilk.
It’s on multiple media sources. Here’s one. I’d refer you specifically to the third paragraph or the recording of the interview to hear it directly from the minister herself.
I've already listened to the interview. The third parapgraph says "In another incident a Hamilton officer was injured by a firearm during a routine traffic check earlier this month."
We may need to dig out the original Yardley interview to hear what she actually said. The write-up attached to the Hosking one seems to have made an interesting decision for itself what she meant (my bold):
Williams told Newstalk ZB's Mike Yardley this morning that she supported police officers being armed when they needed to be, but did not think it should extend to the permanent arming of the force.
This was because she had listened to overwhelming feedback from the Māori, Pacific Island and South Auckland communities who didn't want it.
The communities she represented – Māori and Pacific – who were telling her "loud and clear" that the general arming of police and the Armed Response Teams (ARTs) were a real concern to them and had been distressed to learn armed police were routinely patrolling their streets, she said.
The Police Minister duck shoved my suspicions by arguing that she was solely representing the concerns of Māori, Pacific, and South Auckland communities, not the pressure groups.
Now the whole interview could have got sidetracked if I had got preoccupied over whom she says she's representing. She's the Māori and Pacific Minister of Police, apparently.
What was wrong with her comments? They state facts, and MSD are indeed recording all meet the criteria for a state house, not just those who are likely to get a house. The only thing that might be added is that the surge in unemployed due to Covid may also have flowed through to the waiting list, but that's just reckons on my part, not something I've seen figures on.
"Ardern’s first move came in a speech last week to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, a prominent foreign policy thinktank. “The novelty of the speech was Ardern’s fulsome embrace of the phrase ‘Indo-Pacific’,” said Van Jackson, an international relations academic at Victoria University of Wellington. The use of that term is important, said Jackson, because the “Indo-Pacific” is a geopolitical framing that “arose explicitly to counter China” by rhetorically rebalancing Asia towards India."
"In the sensitive world of diplomacy, words matter. Ardern’s use of the “Indo-Pacific” framing signals that New Zealand is on America’s side and eager for assistance. That signalling was gratefully reciprocated." So far, so good, but then he loses the plot.
"While she embraced the “Indo-Pacific” framing, Ardern simultaneously emphasised that, “Often language and geographic ‘frames’ are used as subtext, or a tool to exclude some nations … Our success will depend on working with the widest possible set of partners.” Instead of adopting the Indo-Pacific’s exclusionary implications, Ardern attempted to redefine the term. Even as they signal alignment with America, Ardern and Mahuta are holding on to some degree of separation. It’s an approach with roots in the post-cold war era. While New Zealand has long maintained a security relationship with America, in a unipolar world it could still plausibly claim independence just by signalling some distance from its partner. But we now live in a bipolar world where China and America are playing a zero-sum game. Distance from America might alienate it; alignment with America might anger China."
Actually, the Cold War was bipolar: USSR vs USA. Now the world is multi-polar. Russia & Europe provide sufficient leverage in geopolitics to make it so. Perhaps he's fronting as a typical kiwi male (inability to juggle more than two mental balls simultaneously being proof of multitasking inadequacy) but his essay is likely to get a rating below 5 out of 10 by failing to get the basic facts right.
To me this text signals the power that Hon. Dame Annette King as New Zealand Ambassador to Australia still wields over Ardern. IMHO King aligns tight with the hard right inside MFAT. Ardern's adoption of the term Indo Pacific is simply ceding 'independent' foreign affairs policy to Australia even as she feigns independence in last weeks' speech.
The term 'Indo-Pacific' has been a term that unsettles various existing bilateral and multilateral geopolitical equations within the Indian Ocean region, well away from Obama's 'tilt to Asia' or whatever. In particular, that there is an alternative to the US-China polarity even as it remans powerful.
But the subtext is clear: in the major shifts in foreign affairs, we are a client state of Australia.
Okay, thanks for that. Makes sense to me. I do believe we can differentiate from Oz if/when necessary. Currently the mutual-interest western realignment makes the common-ground focus the priority I guess.
I heard Professor Patman on RNZ last night making noises about New Zealand's historical moment as both an effective state against COVID and an empathic leader after the Christchurch massacre.
This was the day after we had managed to align with the security intelligence apparatus of the entire developed world against Australia. Rich.
We 'lead' with some minor nuances particularly with Mahuta, but not in the heavy lifting.
The pressure to align with the Quad team would come from Five Eyes partners, GCSB/SIS/Defence and their influence (and that of academics, past officials and politicians) on those of MFAT andCabinet/PM's office.
bwaghorn was asking about SNAs the other day and I answered off the top of my head. Now the Spinoff has done a piece on them outlining their history in the earliest days of the RMA and their rather patchy implementation around the country.
imo there will be a time, in the not too distant future if not partly already here, when land with sna's and such other biodiverse features will be more highly valued than fully developed industrial-like farm land
Thanks for the link Graeme. Sheds light on the Farmers protest that they claim to be punished by this "rushed" plan. Dates back to1991 and again in 2010 and recently 2016. They knew it was coming decades ago. Ironic isn't it that National floated it. But left the current government to carry the can.
Major food shortages just around the corner (wheat – the bellweather for famine, soy which affects animals leading to meat shortages, and if you watch the video you will note lots of other supply chain disruptions including technology used in farming).
If you haven't stocked up please do so even if it's one small thing added to the shopping each week, but that in itself is not enough so do your best to grow a garden.
I'd like to see NZ make food production a priority, but that would mean allowing migrant workers in and generally getting out of the way of farming asap but this is looking less likely by the day.
Some global endgame stuff which I tend to block out since I can't do anything about it, and it's speculation.
I'd like to see NZ make food production a priority, but that would mean allowing migrant workers in and generally getting out of the way of farming asap but this is looking less likely by the day.
What do you mean there? We can grow food here with our existing population. I'm ok with immigration to support low income Pacific neighbours, and refugee quotes. I don't see the value in bringing in cheap imported workers to prop up unsustainable and non-resilient business models.
We need to remember when making remarks, negative, about local workers' reluctance to do this or that, that they are not having as easy a life as oneself. NZ is acknowledged by overseas tourists as an expensive country. (I put up a link some quotes about this a few days ago). So even if we are used to it, it hits visitors, tourists, so believe it.
A majority of people (excluding those on age benefits) here are living on the edge of normal life, unable to get the security of a home, a good living wage, happy family life etc. They may bnot be able to afford to leave their accommodation to work out of their area picking if the transport is too costly or when they can be left with no wage if it's raining. They may be sick and not able to get medical help, or afford medicine. The transport may leave before they can get the kids to school. Whatever.
The better off and the PMC are above all that sort of thing, and get irritable that others aren't able to claw their way beyond it, and just despise those complaining about difficulties. The response should be to listen, support and actively encourage, but that is not the leitmotif of this country. Give the poor a kind thought regularly every day, and also give them some support to have either a good life or even a good moment and some food, that is if you want to consider yourself a truly decent person. Most are just floating a little above the ground on wings of gold, or some precious material, followers of Ayn Rand's various ideas of total selfishness.
Yes the writing's been on the wall for some time. We've had minor shortages here of various items due to supply chain breakdown: Taro and Bananas spring to mind – both growing happily in my garden. Coffee and tea are both being hammered by climate change and various microbes. Both also in my garden, and can be grown here with a tea plantation in the Waikato and coffee in Northland.
Leaving food supply to the industrialists saw various regions noted as good for this or that product, and that was it. Whole countries relegated to the role of supplying middle men with basic commodities.
A local model aimed at providing a wide variety of produce is required. Having an extensive garden I can supply most of my dietary requirements here, and our market gardeners could do similar for the rest of us, but there are gaps. Some we might fill with local producers moving into the space, some we can import, but not nearly so much as you'd think we need. Food that takes a world tour when we might grow it ourselves – this seems ridiculous in the current climate.
When I go to the supermarket I try only buy things I can't grow easily in a home garden, or replace easily with a substitute. Flour – we need to make our own. Various herbs and spices it makes sense to import. Meat and dairy are not a home garden thing, and I for one would sorely miss them in my diet. Fats/oils. Some of these we might produce e.g. butter. But coconut oil, olive oil… worth bringing in. I do have olives growing but they're for the table. If a few households grew them collectively oil production starts to look viable….
It is time to take all this very seriously. Wherever we can replace an import with a local product we should.
so what do you suggest the young ones that we expect to live in places without gardens or outdoor space can do to make up for the shortfall of food and / or rising food costs?
Maybe grow some micro greens in that 2 sqm kitchen?
We totally need to rethink food, but at the moment we seem to only take the bash to those that currently grow food without any distinction betweem famer and indusrial Mega Farmer. Btw, in the US family farms are on the way out, and we are losing coffee to soy beans.
As for coffee, grow dandylions in your garden. Dig up the root, roast it, grind it, voila Coffee Ersatz. And that is something we can grow easily everywhere. Olive oil we can make here too. Olive Oil mills in Europe were always a shared resource as are grain mills, community ovens etc. But again, can we grow enough of that to feed the towners? I doubt.
We need to expand what we grow, and then the cities might be ok. But also all the useless landscaped sections in the cities is land enough to easily grow a majority of what we need.
How we grow is often patently ridiculous. The amount of times I see paddocks ploughed with furrows pointed downhill – so amateur and assholish it's f'n infuriating. Throwing topsoil into our tides.
Decentralisation, localisation and permaculture, every chance we get.
The cities are currently building crappy McMansions on prime fertile land.
Lol.
then we take grazing land and grow pines.
lol.
and then we take huge swath of land in SNA – in Northland, West Coast South Island. .
Lol.
you are right, we should, but we don't. So either we import food, or we grow industrial on the last bits of land that are not housed over or pined over or 'sna's. Mind, Soylent Green is of course also an option in the future. Because one things is for sure, the rich and well connected will have access to food.
rather than that TINA pov, I'll point to the other options. Like Bleeple, I see so many people growing for themselves and their rohe, this is happening without a lot of state support. If the state put a bit more effort in, the culture would shift and we'd stop growing on prime land. Even the mainstream understands how stupid that is.
i grow food, i turned my garden from a rubbish dump to something that starts resembling something 'organic'. I could not survive of my garden.
That is all i want to point out. And expecting the State to put more effort in when we build houses on prime land crop growing land in Auckland seems to be hopeful, but also not gonna happen. The 'state' or hte people that run the 'state' expects to survive thanks to money and connectedness, and if half of us die that is the price to pay.
It is not that my glass is half empty, or half full, its that the water in it is the last we have.
No-one is saying anyone has to survive out of their garden. Quite the opposite in fact, the solutions are community and rohe, not individual self sufficiency.
The government can be persuaded on many things, and has been.
Sabine – you have lots of ideas which is great. So when you carry on from someone else's ideas can you acknowledge their ideas that you find good, instead of sort of being dismissive about them or ignoring them. Build up a group of supportive and knowledgeable people, discussing, passing ideas to each other. That is what is needed, the tall poppy thing is more about not acknowledging other people's gifts just bringing them down by finding fault with something.
NZ is full of fallen poppies; I don't think we have ever receovered fully from WW1. We certainly seem to be fixated on it and the red Flanders poppies that went with it. For the 21st century we need to get together with other good-hearted, encouraging and practical people. So please do this, we are so vulnerable on our own to the enormous forces that mass against us, so large that we can't envision them.
Or its 8 dollar cauliflower or 5 dollar brocoli in winter.
We don't have to run out for shortages to appear, we can have a shortage of 'affordable' food. Which is what is happening. So if you have enough money you will not go hungry.
You would be surprised just how cheap NZ food is overseas, as there it has to compete with goods say Kiwis from Israel and Lamb from France.
And the 8 dollar cauliflower have been happening in the years before Covid. The prices here have nothing to do with the sales price of NZ goods in a Aldi in Germany for example, but more of the fact that in NZ what is left over for the local market can be sold for gold if need be, because YOU and I and anyone else for that matter don't have much other choice, unless we are good at growing stuff and have the land to do that. And the sales price here in NZ also does not reflect the pittance the growers get.
“A list of exports from Cork Harbour
The fourteenth of September, 1847 ran as follows:
147 barrels of pork,
986 casks of ham,
27 sacks of bacon,
528 boxes of eggs,
1, 397 firkins of butter,
477 sacks of oats,
720 sacks of flour,
380 sacks of barley,
187 head of cattle,
296 head of sheep, and
4, 338 barrels of miscellaneous provisions,
On a single day, The ships sailed out from Cork Harbour
With their bellies in the water.
On a single day in County Galway,
The great majority of the poor located there were in a state of starvation, many hourly expecting death to relieve their suffering.
On a single day,
The Lady Mayoress held a ball at the Mansion House in Dublin in the presence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Dancing continued until the early hours, and refreshments of the most varied and sumptuous
Nature were supplied with inexhaustible profusion.
On a single day. On a single day.
It's about time this little country of ours had a bit
Of peace.”
The Famine was partly due to poor infrastructure whereby food could not be shifted internally easily. That's the reason that partly let the government of the day off the hook.
Partly due to a law that said that you could not apply for poor relief if you had quite minimal assets. For example, most owners sold their boats as they knew fishing/food gathering was limited by the weather and therefore unreliable. That deals with the accusations that the famine sufferers ignored the sea as a food source. The Irish still refer to mussels etc as 'famine food" and spurn it.
Partly with the fact that the poor only got to farm the higher lands and the rich still got to grow grains on the more productive plains.
Partly because when food relief came, it came in the form of Indian corn that needed grinding in order to be edible. That capacity was indeed limited.
Meanwhile food was still exported.
The potato blight still affected other countries such as France and Belgium but they had multiple food sources available like grain that the potato blight Phytophthora Infestans did not affect.
"Steps to shape the future direction of public broadcasting are being taken in a series of closed door meetings currently underway. More than 45 organisations have been invited by Ministry of Culture and Heritage consultants to “engagement sessions” designed to collect feedback, primarily on a charter document for TVNZ and Radio NZ when they are revamped into a new public media entity. During the last two weeks commercial media outlets and other industry stakeholders have been attending sessions facilitated by KPMG, attended by MCH Public Media Project team staff, along with Governance Group members who were appointed to oversee the project."
"Separate engagement workshops for Maori media outlets and organisations are being held over coming weeks. In documents circulated in advance, government officials say the engagement sessions are designed to help shape a Charter which will be foundational for the future of TVNZ and RNZ, and shape advice given to Broadcasting and Media Minister Kris Faafoi. The reading material says the Charter would define the purpose, objectives, and operating principles of the new public media entity, and also be part of a “social contract” with New Zealanders. While no draft Charter document is provided, the government officials and consultants say they need stakeholder feedback before “detailed work on drafting the charter document starts.”"
Workshopping the thing is a step towards co-design, which is good to see. Casting the net at so many organisations likewise. "A business case for a new public media structure for TVNZ and RNZ is due to be presented to Cabinet in October, with legislation scheduled for 2022… And that’s when the wider public will have its first say on the new public media “social contract” charter already being written."
The first thing to observe about any social contract is that, to be effective, it needs to be inclusive. Framing carefully is therefore essential. It must transcend the bicameral parliamentary divide that the 19th century still shackles us with (and likewise for the other bicameral structure that Te Tiriti ensures).
Perhaps they ought to have inserted a wedge to keep the door a couple of inches open? But at least those rooms aren't "smoke-filled" as tradition required…
Organised by KPMG. Business to the fore, conservative conformism with what the pundits are doing from a 'best practice' viewpoint. What about what the thinking citizens want Mr Faafoi, or are we too far away from your high tower to listen to us. Do those who value our public broadcasting and want to retain it so its serves our needs appear like Don Quixotes hitting the ramparts and barricades with rolled up newspapers!
If we get the celebrity chit-chat presenting the important facts that we need to know about we will be completely lost. Television us a world of fantasy and posing, even when it tries to present reality and the 'reality' tv shows indicate how we can be manipulated, how malleable we are, and now how open to altered images and their affect on our understanding.
Then there are the ramifications of the 'hate speech' controls – we will go further along the path of being guided missiles to be whipped up to any cause that the top people can dream up. So Brave New World, but who registers this likeness?
Having googled it to do a reality check, that's an appropriate question! Could be I was using it idiosyncratically. This site refers to "two distinct groups responsible for setting rules and developing policies": https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/bicameral
Pretty much what I had in mind, but I'll get more specific. First, the English system we've inherited creates the polarity of govt vs opposition, a bicameral structure since the opposition does develop policies when not in govt and even can design rules then for later use.
Second, Te Tiriti recognised traditional tribal governance for the Maori (which I always call local sovereignty- it's a principle) along with national sovereignty for the British monarch. Since both used rules, and Maori are nowadays keener than ever to develop their own policies, that structure is likewise bicameral.
Like the UK House of Lords, Australia’s federal Senate, or NZ's equivalent upper body until it was abolished, yes. But let's just use it to smear biculturalism, eh Dennis.
Actually , just pointing to the binary structures that bind us. Basis of our politics. In the same sense, I would point out that our brains are bicameral due to the binary hemispherical structure built in. Metaphor, analogy, whatever.
I wonder why. I presume you've forgotten that I told readers here about being the only member of the Green Party at an Alliance meeting who stood and spoke in support of his proposal when Mat Rata announced Mana Motuhake's separate justice system for Maori? I've never resiled from that stand since. It was due to having bought a copy of Claudia Orange's book on the Treaty as soon as it appeared (late '80s, from memory) and identifying the natural justice of the situation. Not many early adopters of the principle back then…
I found this slightly depressing, mostly because it doens't deal with the causes. Dubai is having drones release an electrical charge in clouds to release rain.
Such method, known as cloud-seeding, prompts the clouds to clump together and form precipitation.
Spectacular footage released by the NCM shows the monsoon-like downpours battering cars as they drive through highways in scenes that would only really be seen in South East Asian countries – but definitely not the UAE.
To form rain, water vapour needs what's called a condensation nucleus, which can be tiny particles of dust, or pollen, swept up high into the atmosphere. When the condensing droplets that form the cloud get large and heavy enough to overcome the upward pressure of convection, they begin to fall.
All Dubai scientists are doing is establishing a suitable climate for sufficient condensation nuclei to be present in the atmosphere and that rain clouds will be created and provide much needed rain water to a parched landscape. Its a technique being used in other countries but is still in need of refinement.
It is neither fake rain nor is it water being stolen from elsewhere.
Without having read the full link, the British Mirror is showing its ignorance – or it is looking for a sensation/gotcha story which brings science technology into disrepute. The British tabloids are very good at that sort of thing.
The other myth is that we as a society are somehow using up resources. This again is not correct. The resources might be temporarily being used or in a form that is difficult to use but they are still there and are still plentiful. The only restrictions on using them is technological.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
In the very long run you are right, on the scale of hundreds of millions of years some large fraction of that carbon might well wind up as coal again. But for the purposes of this debate that's an entirely mute point.
On the timescales that matter to us, extracting and burning fossil carbon has unbalanced the natural carbon cycle, with the excess winding up in the atmosphere.
In one sense I understand where you're coming from. Fossil carbon has served humanity well, it's dragged most of us from brute poverty and social backwardness to the modern world. I'm certainly very grateful for this and I've spoken many times against those who seem to argue (or at least fail to understand) that unwinding this progress would be catastrophic in it's own right.
But this does not mean modernity is perfect, or anything like an ideal. It's just a phase, a stage of development we must move on from. BAU and the continued burning of fossil carbon (and many other considerations) is not possible either. We cannot stand still. The carbon wolf will catch us.
Like it or not we have collectively little choice but to turn down the ideological squabbling and get cracking transitioning off fossil carbon and onto a suite of non-carbon based energy sources. There is plenty of opportunity for adaptation and new phases of human development – and while I expressed my own particular preferences – I'm relatively agnostic on which technology will eventually succeed.
But according to Gossie, all the coal ever mined still exists because we might be able to extract the component atoms and stick it back together somehow.
A weird spin on the "my great-grandfather's axe" paradox.
Nothing disappears, it is all energy that when the atoms are released they take another form. Shapeshifters if you like, we Nobel Laureates call it the Judith Pivot.
Yes, but it often works out differently in the natural world where humans are concerned. eg coal when burnt doesn't become another useful form of energy in this context
WTB. In that case I invite you to live up to your words.
If you truly believe technology has 'damned us' then in order to have any intellectual integrity at all you have no choice but to eliminate all technology from your life. I suggest you revert to the exact lifestyle of your ancestors circa 1800. That safely pre-dates the Industrial Revolution you have so loudly denounced.
Now I realise this presents some practical difficulties, so I'm happy to concede that you should still be allowed to shop for food in a supermarket. But everything else – gone. No electricity, no appliances, no mechanised transport, hand tools only, no medical or dental treatments, no contraception, no education, no public utilities or safe paved roads – and certainly no internet to type out your unhappiness on.
If you two want to hash out old troubles, please don't use my posts to do that. If you want to trade insults, know that there's a limit, and WTB, I'll still intercede in OM where the comments are only insults with no political point.
Right… racism you'll make excuses for. Calling someone a bore is somehow too much though.
I used to think you lot have something to say.
Now I see you just have to say something.
I live without a lot of technology/trinkets people are convinced they need. It's no biggie. Everyone knows we're not calling for a return to the dark ages, but RL just loves that hyperbole.
See, that’s how you do it. You can call someone a bore if you make a political point. Political points give people something to respond to. Stand alone insults become flame wars.
You think you're not calling for a 'return to the dark ages' yet you fail to specify exactly what you are calling for.
For certain we could all make do with somewhat less. Personally we have one 15yr old car between us, two rather ordinary android phones, a laptop that's now 8yrs old, a Chromebook and a few monitors. The newest trinket we just bought is a paddle board and an ebike. Any problems so far?
But my personal preferences are neither here nor there – my partner and I are competitive skinflints when it comes to personal possessions, but we don't imagine the rest of the world has to be like us.
The big picture is this – you could reduce the developed world's consumption by 50% if you wanted – but in the long run that would be a drop in the total bucket of global demand.
Then there is the other problem you have – you claim that quote "technology had damned us" but fail to specify exactly what technology has done the damning. Is it just some of it or all of it? And what do you want to keep and what to discard?
Because if the last year should have taught us anything, supply chains are very complex ecosystems in their own right, push and prod in one place and all sorts of unexpected reactions happen elsewhere. Technologies and industries have a bewilderingly complex linkages and dependencies that shift and evolve all the time. Claiming that you have a list of 'damnable tech' that you want to ban, and you can decree this with nothing but sunny outcomes is preposterously foolish.
You think you're not calling for a 'return to the dark ages' yet you fail to specify exactly what you are calling for.
…
The big picture is this – you could reduce the developed world's consumption by 50% if you wanted –
So it's agree – let's call for that. What have 'we' got to lose?
Or 'we' could carry on consuming and polluting like there's no tomorrow – we're good at that. And those Carry On movies are good fun; silly, but fun.
Such a pity 'Carry On Spaceman' never got off the ground.
Or 'we' could carry on consuming and polluting like there's no tomorrow – we're good at that.
I've repeatedly conceded that the developed world could lose a bit of fat – no question that each one of us could come up with a list of vanities we'd be happy to do without.
But none of us would come up with the same list. How to negotiate that is one obvious hurdle.
And still despite the politically herculean task of implementing this – nothing much important would change. Fully 27% of the world's CO2 is from China alone and growing – more than the combined developed world. While by and large that developed world already has a stable population and consumption profile.
Put simply the developed world, the so-called golden one billion, could go entirely horse-hair shirt if you want – but on the numbers any such gain would be soon swamped by the growth from the rest of humanity.
You need a more effective plan. In the series I did earlier this year I outlined the essential requirement for any such plan to succeed – abundant, cheap, zer-carbon energy.
Put simply the developed world, the so-called golden one billion, could go entirely horse-hair shirt if you want…
I certainly don't want to "go entirely horse-hair shirt", and have no need to do so as I already have enough non-horse-hair shirts to last several lifetimes. But what I want, or don't want, doesn't matter – what the so-called golden 1.3 billion want matters. Is there a significant movement towards more sharing, sacrifice and/or giving things up – significant in terms of moving this iteration of civilisation onto a sustainable path?
In the series I did earlier this year I outlined the essential requirement for any such plan to succeed – abundant, cheap, zer-carbon energy.
If any such plan requires "abundant, cheap, zer-carbon energy" to succeed then civilisation really is cruising for a bruising. But you're right – however fanciful your dream of a hyper-energised humanity, it's still more likely than persuading people en masse to voluntarily make do with less for the foreseeable future.
Don't mind me RL, just my pessimism for the longer-term future of this iteration of human civilisation kicking in. I'd be more optimistic if there was a sign that more people really would be prepared to voluntarily make do with less permanently, but some responses to the pandemic (Get Covid Done) don't fill me with hope.
but tbh they just read like a list of reasons to do nothing, give up nothing, share nothing,
More than any other regular contributor here I've laid out quite specific ideas on what I believe can be done. To argue that I'm advocating to 'do nothing' is an exact inversion of what I've been writing.
Your problem is not that I've failed to lay out a vision and a plan – it's just that you think it's 'fanciful' because I'm not a pessimist planning on the extinction of the human race.
And one of your problems RL is that you're implying I'm “planning on the extinction of the human race“, which is (quelle surprise) a hyperbolic fabrication.
Thought you were better than that, but I’m really beginning to wonder.
Well you are the one who wrote "my pessimism for the longer-term future of this iteration of human civilisation" – which however you want to colour it, implies a very high likelihood of extinction or very close to it.
Human development so far can be broadly divided into two phases, the photosynthesis evolution (you know it as agriculture) and the carbon evolution (or industrialisation). The first enabled us to get from a few 10's of millions of hunter gatherers to just under 1b by 1800. The carbon revolution will get us to around 10b. Make no mistake if these two technologies unravel for any reason then a reversion back to a few million miserable survivors is a real possibility. But for both moral and sanity reasons while I understand this possibility, I refuse point blank to embrace it. We have and can do better.
Now you're welcome to sacrifice and share all you like, and if they make you happy well and good. But on the numbers the our evolutionary next phase is to move beyond the limits of both photosynthesis and carbon energy sources. There is nothing fanciful about this, we know pretty much how to do it, and many people are getting on with it. You just have to examine why you prefer 'pessimism'.
"the extinction of the human race" [@11:59 pm],
"a very high likelihood of extinction", or
"very close to a very high likelihood of extinction"
Your persistent insinuation that I'm implying the current path of this interation of human civilisation will (likely) lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens is typical of your fabrication tendencies.
Sure, the Anthropocene has seen an uptick in species extinctions.
Extinction – The Mainstay of Life on Earth This human-dominated era on the planet is undoubtedly witnessing an extinction crisis. Today, extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the aforementioned baseline rate. It is estimated that more than 10,000 species are going extinct every year. The cause of this ongoing anthropocene extinction crisis is not hard to determine unlike for the previous ‘Big Five’. It is clear that humans are directly and indirectly responsible for causing it. Habitat destruction; overexploitation of natural resources such as overfishing, hunting, excessive extraction of groundwater, etc.; pollution of all kinds – air, water, sound, and light, carbon emissions, ensuing global warming and a changing climate, among myriad other problems, have resulted in massive loss of biodiversity in a very short span of time. How many species will the man-made sixth mass extinction claim? Will it upstage even the Great Dying?
I'm confident, however, that the human species will survive any civilisation collapse, managed or otherwise, and reject your frankly bizarre attempt to tar me with a 'human extinction brush'.
Civilisations rise and fall – the human species continues. I recognise my good fortune to have been born when and where I was.
Oh, and I don't prefer 'pessimism' – but I can read the signs.
I really don't think you have a good sense what it takes to keep 7.5b humans fed, watered and sheltered every day. Then when you claim to be 'pessimistic' about the future of this – in some vague, poorly specified manner – you get antsy when I point out the obvious implication of making such pessimism the pivot of your political views.
And really exactly what point do you think you're achieving when you quote grim CO2 level predictions at me – as if I haven't been writing here about climate change since at least 2013. Precisely what new information are you conveying to me? Other than how ‘pessimistic’ you are that is.
I wrote a short series based on Kaya's Identity earlier this year that detailed what I view as the most plausible non-pessimistic path forward. Or an even better article here based on the same idea. I suggest you read and digest it before respond, because right now this conversation is going nowhere.
This 'conversation' was going nowhere from the moment you wrote:
it's just that you think it's 'fanciful' because I'm not a pessimist planning on the extinction of the human race.
Your nasty slur, that I'm "planning the extinction of the human race", is a lie. No amount of dissembling on your part will make it true, and you'll find no evidence to support your fanciful slur on The Standard – it's all in your head.
If you can't accept and acknowledge this, then we can at least agree to disagree, but I consider the above slur more evidence of your tendency to comment in bad faith when debating the facts becomes too challenging.
Read my posts on the topic. Read the detailed argument in the link provided. Show some evidence you've made an attempt at understanding before dismissing my posts as fanciful.
Already struggled through parts of some of your posts, but smearing me by implying I'm "planning on the extinction of the human race" has not incentivised me to read further – funny that.
No issue with you promoting the (theoretical) hyper-energisation (10 – 100 times) of human civilisation as a solution to the anthropogenic degradation of spaceship Earth. Just don't believe it's realistic/achievable in the next couple of decades, if ever, and will continue to voice my opinion.
But let's say it is actually achieved (as opposed to 'achievable') in 20 – 30 years time. Why do you believe this achievement would change the behaviour responsible for ecosystem degradation, for example change the desire (not the need, mind you, but the desire) for more stuff? How would that increased energy availability shrink the environmental footprint of extant civilisation or otherwise make material consumption sustainable?
Civilisation without limits, versus respecting planetary limits.
David Attenborough Netflix documentary: Australian scientists break down in tears over climate crisis Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet shows the toll the demise of the Earth’s natural places is having on the people who study them
BREAKING BOUNDARIES The Road to a Cleaner, Healthier and More Peaceful World
“The future’s not determined, the future is in our hands; what happens over the next centuries will be determined by how we play our cards this decade.”
…
“The science is clear on what humanity needs to do. There are three priorities: cut greenhouse gases to zero, protect the wetlands, soils, forests and oceans that absorb our impacts, and change our diets and the way we farm food. This is the mission.”
– Professor Johan Rockström
Hopefully we can agree on these priorities; we just disagree on the best way(s) to achieve them. Time will tell.
"If you truly believe technology has 'damned us' then in order to have any intellectual integrity at all you have no choice but to eliminate all technology from your life."
I really cannot see how anyone can have it both ways.
People like to think they could change the world so that they could selectively keep the tech they like and approve of, and somehow turn off all the rest. It just doesn't work that way.
For a start everyone would have their own list and much of them contradicting each other. For a second tech development is a highly complex, inter-dependent process where a multitude of parts are linked to many others. Eradicating one piece would have unintended consequences in places you wanted to keep.
Again I'm not claiming the status quo as any kind of ideal. You should know me well enough by now that I'm very allergic to utopian thinking and people who compare what we have with unexamined, unfalsifiable perfection. We just have to stop bickering over our ideological suspicions and crack on with the job. I've linked to this before:
The Cult of Done Manifesto
There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
There is no editing stage.
Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
Once you’re done you can throw it away.
Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
Destruction is a variant of done.
If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
He could comfortably believe that "technology has damned us", but recognise that he is inextricably reliant upon it now. No contradiction at all, in my view. In fact, there's a growing number of people who find themselves regretful but reliant in just that way. What to do, what to do? It's pretty straight-forward really; Step 1: start with the low-hanging fruit we all know about – shed the dross, the detritus you don't need and refrain from replacing it if possible. The remaining 10 000 steps are well known or easy to discover. Good luck, everyone!
But RL you present all these advances as somehow inevitable, linear progressions
Yes, we have developed all that stuff which we are now so dependent on , and now cause so many problems as well , overpopulation and resource scarcity being among them
Is it not possible to imagine we could have embarked on some different road, a more evolved consciousness maybe , a respectful carefulness.We have used our consciousness to further our animal appetites and to vainly attempt to cheat or delay death, and dominate all other species.And now we have such huge expectations of what the earth must provide us
Maybe we could have been more like lilies of the field, and learnt better lessons about our place in the world.
I know thats a bit wafty, just pointing out there are umpteen roads we could have gone down.Maybe the road we went down was an accident, a wrong turning and we've never found our way since
All very wafty I know, and you're a realist, always with an interesting and challenging point of view
My first reaction is that deserves a decent response but I'm at work right now and typing on my phone is not my fluent mode. I'll maybe give it a go later. Cheers
“Limestone's origins are from tens to hundreds of millions of years ago.
“Coal is formed by the heat and pressure of deep burial of plants over millions of years”.
Yep, before humans over millions of years, and after humans I'd wager too over millions of years, CO2 will convert to limestone and coal. So burn it now because we all part of the Great Recycling Plan…….
Having dealt with a very similar case ourselves, I can only report just how hard it is to get to the bottom of these matters. Everyone paints their own picture of what's going on, and the landlord's hands are almost completely tied in attempting to resolve it. Or in this case the "trust". Recent law changes simply made it more complex.
Result – mucho mistrust and unhappiness all round.
When the lady has 439 dishonesty convictions already, and between 2004 and 2007 was living in Wellington and the same allegations about her arose, and under another identity "appeared in the Westport District Court in 2019 on charges of theft and obtaining by deception, arising from what the court described as a crime spree in the North and South Islands."
I would have said that pretty much gives a good idea what's going on there!
Sighs. It's not much better between the states. My partner and I have been separated five months now on different sides of the continent and there's slim prospect of this changing before the end of the year.
Millions of people being impacted like this. Thank God for zero cost WhatsApp.
This seems a bit of a desperate gasp for political oxygen from Thornley – these legal threats are getting headlines when made, probably not when they are dropped. It is telling that they are targeting a Wiles piece that specifically advocates; not wasting your time debunking vaccine falsehoods, as that gave them more attention than they were worth.
But the pattern of targeting Wiles for individual harassment does suggest some coordination of efforts. Though being a prominent woman in NZ probably has an unhealthy amount to do with it too.
A number of other individuals have targeted Wiles given her high profile in the New Zealand Covid response. “There seem to be a lot of people who don’t want me to communicate about the pandemic. Thornley’s legal threat comes on top of an Official Information Act request by a guy in Dunedin who thinks I’m lying about my PhD, the person who lodged a complaint with my employer about what they see as my ‘unethical conduct’, and the many nasty and abusive emails, phone calls, texts and social media messages. It’s exhausting and depressing.”…
Michael Baker, an epidemiologist from the University of Otago, has strongly criticised Thornley’s ideas. He has not received any legal letters, and nor has Stuff, which published Baker’s remarks as part of an extended feature on Thornley and his critics.
“I have not heard of any academic debates in NZ resulting in legal action for defamation,” Baker said. “Such actions, if common, could have a chilling effect on public debate that would be very undesirable.”
Lots of people have called him on his bullshit. As far as I've seen, Wiles hasn't even been one to coin the worst descriptions of his comments, or argue that his motives behind his arguments might be less than scientific. And as the spinoff article points out, Baker has been similarly critical of Thornley.
But she does seem to be the highest-profile woman to take him to task. Hmm.
Someone I know, apparently intelligent, is anti-vacx and he scoffs at Wiles – that pink hair. I just have to shake my head and walk away when that starts. The thoughts are like a virus themselves.
heh – there are occasional efforts to model the propagation of nutbar theories using network tools similar to infectious disease spread.
I'm not usually all that impressed by them – whether someone adopts a position is a bit more complex than whether they get sick from e.coli. But there's usually enough of a kernel of similarity in there to make the attempt, and that sort of "humans as predictable mechanisms" attitude appeals to some flavours of tech bro.
edit
McFlock Tech would like us to be alike while they praise our individuality. Hollywood shows how we can be encouraged to be alike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG7x8HWbDzU
And Foreign Waka I noted that too, I thought we were okay to be grouped in our differences; are Pacific Islanders really PIs or just a bunch of squabbling entities. We are Pacific Islanders too, and should be encouraged to remember that we're all at sea together. The angry academic I think, was objecting to be classified as from the Pacific Islands and not just listed as Samoan when travelling. Sesame Street explains it better. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcTx3j_rbyM
With a toe in two worlds at work, it is quite funny on occasion to watch programmers subconsciously expect social constructs to be equally as logical, while more qualitative sides of the fence tend to have meetings upon meetings with no clearly delineated outcome and yet still seem satisfied.
“We did not name ourselves Pacific Islanders, we did not name ourselves Polynesian. These are terms that were constructed by palagi within a colonial context.”
I hope the same goes for the differentiation of all Chinese, Japanese, Malayan etc. or Norwegian, German, Swiss, Polish, Ukraine etc…. because Palangi throws all and sundry into one pot.
Otherwise, if Palangi as in translation “foreigner” than surely that term can also be used for all peoples having immigrated to NZ, including from Samoa.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/447532/gloriavale-allegations-labour-inspectorate-has-no-jurisdiction-to-investigate
This is an important point. Can people emotionally coerce others to slave for them, take them back to colonial days? They are dressed very similarly to the Amish in USA. What state or local controls are applied to protect standards there? We don't want ours to fall further. And remember these people are free to be in business and can then undercut what I regard as legitimate businesses.
On life in NZ for Pasifika just when we thought we were civilised. And we can get uncivilised very quickly it seems so watch out ordinary citizens of whatever colour; first we are denied decent wages, then decent homes, then are we to be portrayed as rats? Perhaps the government was just practising with the lockdown of Tuhoe?
NZGeographic / Evicted from Aotearoa
…“Our cousin Feti and his wife and children were living with us, and he was working out in Penrose,” says Fonoti. “One day, he never came home.”
Feti had been caught up in a programme of deportations that would soon become known as the dawn raids. Police would surround people’s homes in the early hours of the morning, entering properties with tracking dogs to drag overstayers from inside their wardrobes and from underneath beds. The raids traumatised families, with second-generation children—New Zealand citizens—woken from their sleep by the shouting of police…
Many migrants had arrived on visitor visas and never left, even as their visas expired, but very few fanau thought that would be a problem. New Zealand had all the raw materials for a brand-new life. Wages far exceeded those available at home. Working overtime, a Pasifika factory worker might make up to $200 per week—equivalent to around $3000 today. One worker could support an entire family back in the Pacific, with enough to spare.
But in 1973, Britain joined the European Economic Community, terminating all bilateral trade agreements with New Zealand, and subsequently dropped to fourth place in the ranks of this country’s export partners. In the Middle East, the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states jacked oil prices to astronomical levels—as much as a sixfold increase virtually overnight—while simultaneously reducing the supply for small markets such as New Zealand. The boom was over. An economy that had sustained unprecedented Polynesian migration began to stutter. Unemployment returned in a way not seen since the Great Depression, jumping from 1.4 per cent in 1971 to 7.4 per cent by 1986.
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Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
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Sorry if I was mean to him yesterday – I obviously wasn't up to speed on the guy: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/20/media/van-jones-bezos-100-million/index.html
Anyone who gives a dangerous radical $100,000,000 can't be all bad! The Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News is hopping mad: "Buying off the far-left won’t save Amazon in the long run. When entrepreneurship is choked by the twin forces of statism and monopoly, when a new generation is raised to hate the country, the left will eventually come for Amazon and Bezos." https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/21/pollak-bezos-100-million-to-van-jones-is-billionaire-elite-trying-to-buy-protection-from-radical-left/#
“Jones won’t let up on socialist policies. Nor will he stop pushing corporations like Amazon to adopt a “woke” corporate agenda, complete with employee indoctrination sessions in white privilege and the proper use of gendered pronouns.”
He shows commendable restraint in not hallucinating the appearance of uniformed government pronoun enforcers accompanied by goon squads in newsrooms…
"Jones is a hard-core radical activist who has gone mainstream. Forced to resign as “green jobs” czar in the Obama White House for his alleged link to 9/11 Trutherism, and after calling Republicans “assholes,” Jones continued his unique brand of activism, moving into the mainstream of American politics. He found a regular perch at CNN, and became one of its more thoughtful voices…"
https://edition.cnn.com/profiles/van-jones
"The money, Bezos said, was tied to a "surprise" philanthropic initiative he wanted to announce called the Courage and Civility Award. The award aims to honor those who have "demonstrated courage" and tried to be a unifier in a divisive world, Bezos added. "We need unifiers and not vilifiers," Bezos said. "We need people who argue hard and act hard for what they believe. But they do that always with civility and never ad hominem attacks. Unfortunately, we live in a world where this is too often not the case. But we do have role models."
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/20/media/van-jones-bezos-100-million/index.html
"Bezos has previously been criticized for not contributing more to philanthropy, but has donated billions of dollars in recent years to causes including climate change and food banks. Critics have said that the world's richest people should work to improve the conditions for people here on Earth, instead of flying off into space. Bezos and supporters of the space programs, however, have countered that both are possible."
"Well, I say they're largely right. We have to do both," he said in an interview with CNN Monday. "You know, we have lots of problems here and now on Earth and we need to work on those, and we always need to look to the future. We've always done that as a species, as a civilization. We have to do both."
Seems like Poto Williams has become the new "Twyford" after her comments regarding police and now state housing getting worse and worse.
Public housing waitlist hits 24,000, half waiting more than 200 days for a home | Stuff.co.nz
Oh dear. And this on the back of her train wreck interview yesterday where as police Minister the Christchurch MP claimed to only represent the Pacific and Maori community in south Auckland.
[mod warning, don’t use this site to run National Party talking points. If you want to make a claim of fact about an MP, you have to back it up. I’ve not see Williams say she only represents Pacific and Māori communities in South Auckland, that’s a nonsense thing to claim. If you have an argument about her performance as minister, it’s on *you to make that argument and back it up, not just drop FB style reckons – weka
Williams claimed to "only" represent some groups? Because she didn't mention all groups she represents?
Are we to expect some preface from all politicians on every occasion stating that should they refer to any particular group, it should not be taken that that group is exclusive in how they see whon they represent?
Do you feel she should have said she represented you?
Maybe she should have said New Zealand communities, rather then the 'communities I represent'.
There are a whole lot of people all over the country who would not be too happy with cops carrying weapons.
A word which has appeared and gained currency in recent years is "snowflake."
Sometimes big, bold people (as they see themselves) label as snowflakes those whom they see having wimpy views, "snowflakes."
"Maybe she should have said New Zealand communities, rather than the 'communities I represent'?" Maybe people need to grow up, look past seeking childish responses to ordinary comments. Stop acting maybe like the labels they pin on others.
Of course there are a whole lot of people all over the country who would not be too happy with cops carrying weapons. Let's get each and every one of them pissed off shall we because Williams didn't mention them personally yesterday or their sub group, their electorate, whatever.
The thing is, that as an MP she represents her communities that have voted for her. She also represents all of NZ in her role as Police Minister.
So she needs to bend her mind around the concept of 'inclusivity' rather then' exclusion'.
As i posted below there was a distinction in her comment by pointing out that people of color have a different policing experience then say white people in nice well to do areas of NZ, but her comment of 'communities I represent' was and is a pretty silly thing to say.
She works for all of NZ, all of NZ pays her wages, and thus in regards to policing she needs to look a bit further then her own nose, and her need to be re-elected lest she lose her job next election round.
So yeah, the PR people of Labour need to start training Labour people in 'inclusive' speech.
As I said yesterday, IMO she should represent New Zealanders, so yes she should represent me and you as well.
How is she not representing you? How is she not representing New Zealanders? How, as the Minister of Police, is she not representing all New Zealanders?
It just occurred to me, she even represents gang members! Now there's something for Judith Collins, David Seymour and other mindless ones to get their teeth into.
very good point. statistically speaking, act represents gang members, so therefore, act takes money from gangs.
mod note above for you David.
his comment might refer to this in the NZ Herald.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/arming-police-minister-poto-williams-wont-back-down-on-her-position-not-to-arm-officers/2HS6R6D7VYJ5M5QUEGVRXZ3LDI/
but also this:
Might have not been the smartest thing to say currently, but she is correct in stating that people of color in NZ will have a different interaction that white people. However, she also represents the rest of NZ, and could have worded that a bit better. Maybe some of the PR people employed by Labour need to give her a bit of training in sounding more 'inclusive of the rest of NZ' in her statements.
For the record, i am for an armed offenders squad but would not want All cops armed.
Yes, I'm aware of what she has said. Strong support for Māori/Pasifika communities and listening to them =/= only representing M/PI communities.
No that also is a bit easy. The community I represent, is exactly what she said. It is not anyones fault but her own if this can now be bend into brezel shape. Labour has a lot of communications people that work for them, and maybe they need to teach the Ministers how to be inclusive of all – as there are many who are not Maori or Pacifica that also don't want cops to be armed.
As the minister of Police, she represents a. the Police, b. the Country, and thus should have been a bit more careful with her statement.
And it also has nothing to do with National. Or lets imagine J.C. would state exactly the same, but talk about a nice white suburb. It would be just as tone deaf.
Except nice white suburbanite aren't at the same risk of being shot as M/PI communities.
Amplifying the voices of marginalised communities who want a particular kind of police culture seems to fit with the Ministerial position. Yes, Labour can provide some after-PR and Williams isn't the slickest spinmeister, but her point was valid.
All that aside, my point to David is that when I see the same RW lines being run as talking points in TW, I'm going to intervene and say up your game. They can run the argument, but they have to actually make the argument not just drop mini hits into the convo that misrepresent what is going on (no-one believes that Williams said she only represents M/PI).
100% Sabine.
I'm still waiting for you to a) make the actual argument and b) back it up. Soon I'll be thinking about premod.
She was talking about her geographical community, apparently.
As someone in her electorate of Christchurch East and on her electorate committee and campaign committees in 2017 and 2020, there are major socioeconomic and policing issues here that she is acutely aware of.
I can imagine. South Auckland is not the only place with those harsh lessons. Can I ask how she is speaking in public as opposed to on the telly?
She usually has more time and it's usually some sort of speech/discussion/Q&A from the floor, so it's not quite the same format as the telly, and also a bit less likely to be publicly reported as much, but that's commentary on the format rather than her personally.
Williams pointing out the facts that some of us are not as well treated as some others of us, and definitely need an advocate is not too bad a thing is it? We know there are layers in society and the ones at the bottom have to put up with more than those further up, who are far away from the major problems that continue year after year. I guess that is what is illustrated by the folk tale of the delicate princess being bruised by the pea under her mattress, poor wee thing.
I think we should concentrate on the big, broad issues and leave the pea-picking to ACT and their tacky ilk.
It’s on multiple media sources. Here’s one. I’d refer you specifically to the third paragraph or the recording of the interview to hear it directly from the minister herself.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/poto-williams-public-and-cops-react-as-police-minister-says-she-is-not-in-favour-of-general-arming-of-police/
I can't find the bit where she says she "only represents Māori and Pacific communities'? Where exactly is that bit?
I've already listened to the interview. The third parapgraph says "In another incident a Hamilton officer was injured by a firearm during a routine traffic check earlier this month."
We may need to dig out the original Yardley interview to hear what she actually said. The write-up attached to the Hosking one seems to have made an interesting decision for itself what she meant (my bold):
Yardley oikishly doubles down: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mike-yardley-police-minister-poto-williams-appearance-on-newstalk-zb-an-epic-fail/UL2IKHJGLDU6THHZ46J2CJDCSI/
What was wrong with her comments? They state facts, and MSD are indeed recording all meet the criteria for a state house, not just those who are likely to get a house. The only thing that might be added is that the surge in unemployed due to Covid may also have flowed through to the waiting list, but that's just reckons on my part, not something I've seen figures on.
Pete McKenzie is a Wellington-based journalist focused on politics, foreign affairs and legal issues. He's having a go at decoding our geopolitical signals in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2021/jul/20/even-as-ardern-signals-alignment-with-us-new-zealand-still-seeks-to-maintain-distance
"Ardern’s first move came in a speech last week to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, a prominent foreign policy thinktank. “The novelty of the speech was Ardern’s fulsome embrace of the phrase ‘Indo-Pacific’,” said Van Jackson, an international relations academic at Victoria University of Wellington. The use of that term is important, said Jackson, because the “Indo-Pacific” is a geopolitical framing that “arose explicitly to counter China” by rhetorically rebalancing Asia towards India."
"In the sensitive world of diplomacy, words matter. Ardern’s use of the “Indo-Pacific” framing signals that New Zealand is on America’s side and eager for assistance. That signalling was gratefully reciprocated." So far, so good, but then he loses the plot.
"While she embraced the “Indo-Pacific” framing, Ardern simultaneously emphasised that, “Often language and geographic ‘frames’ are used as subtext, or a tool to exclude some nations … Our success will depend on working with the widest possible set of partners.” Instead of adopting the Indo-Pacific’s exclusionary implications, Ardern attempted to redefine the term. Even as they signal alignment with America, Ardern and Mahuta are holding on to some degree of separation. It’s an approach with roots in the post-cold war era. While New Zealand has long maintained a security relationship with America, in a unipolar world it could still plausibly claim independence just by signalling some distance from its partner. But we now live in a bipolar world where China and America are playing a zero-sum game. Distance from America might alienate it; alignment with America might anger China."
Actually, the Cold War was bipolar: USSR vs USA. Now the world is multi-polar. Russia & Europe provide sufficient leverage in geopolitics to make it so. Perhaps he's fronting as a typical kiwi male (inability to juggle more than two mental balls simultaneously being proof of multitasking inadequacy) but his essay is likely to get a rating below 5 out of 10 by failing to get the basic facts right.
I've learnt something today.
I always thought Indo-Pacific referred to Indonesia.
"Indo-Pacific" is a term invented by Australia. Pete McKenzie needs to catch up with events from May 31.
On that date Ardern and Morrison met, and she agreed to embrace the term "Indo-Pacific' within their joint statement:
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/joint-statement-prime-ministers-jacinda-ardern-and-scott-morrison
To me this text signals the power that Hon. Dame Annette King as New Zealand Ambassador to Australia still wields over Ardern. IMHO King aligns tight with the hard right inside MFAT. Ardern's adoption of the term Indo Pacific is simply ceding 'independent' foreign affairs policy to Australia even as she feigns independence in last weeks' speech.
The term 'Indo-Pacific' has been a term that unsettles various existing bilateral and multilateral geopolitical equations within the Indian Ocean region, well away from Obama's 'tilt to Asia' or whatever. In particular, that there is an alternative to the US-China polarity even as it remans powerful.
But the subtext is clear: in the major shifts in foreign affairs, we are a client state of Australia.
Okay, thanks for that. Makes sense to me. I do believe we can differentiate from Oz if/when necessary. Currently the mutual-interest western realignment makes the common-ground focus the priority I guess.
I heard Professor Patman on RNZ last night making noises about New Zealand's historical moment as both an effective state against COVID and an empathic leader after the Christchurch massacre.
This was the day after we had managed to align with the security intelligence apparatus of the entire developed world against Australia. Rich.
We 'lead' with some minor nuances particularly with Mahuta, but not in the heavy lifting.
Good points Ad. Scumo always looks happy when he is pictured with PM Ardern.
The pressure to align with the Quad team would come from Five Eyes partners, GCSB/SIS/Defence and their influence (and that of academics, past officials and politicians) on those of MFAT and Cabinet/PM's office.
Indo-Pacific refers to two different things (read up on Sir Kurt Campbell).
Security – containment of China.
At first it was India, Oz, Japan and USA – Quad.
With the UK (sending two naval ships out here long term) and Canada on-board – it's now non EU NATO + Oz/Japan/India.
It's in support of ASEAN nations on 200 mile economic zones, open sea lanes and deterring any invasion of Taiwan (an important chip manufacturer).
PS 1. There appears little interest in formally ending the Korean War
PS 2. Our interest is in keeping this "contest" of will out of the Pacific. Working with others cooperatively in Pacific development.
Trade/economy – ASEAN + China + India + Oz/Enzed, Japan and South Korea (and with APEC including the USA and Russia).
bwaghorn was asking about SNAs the other day and I answered off the top of my head. Now the Spinoff has done a piece on them outlining their history in the earliest days of the RMA and their rather patchy implementation around the country.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21-07-2021/what-are-snas-and-why-are-farmers-protesting-them/
imo there will be a time, in the not too distant future if not partly already here, when land with sna's and such other biodiverse features will be more highly valued than fully developed industrial-like farm land
Valued monetarily, or for their own sake?
both.
one leads to the other.
this is the way our society is going
consumerism and even capitalism are weakening
as their consequences are becoming apparent
Thanks for the link Graeme. Sheds light on the Farmers protest that they claim to be punished by this "rushed" plan. Dates back to1991 and again in 2010 and recently 2016. They knew it was coming decades ago. Ironic isn't it that National floated it. But left the current government to carry the can.
Thanks Graeme, very interesting.
Good morning folks,
Can someone tell me if it's my linix system or this site,why I haven't got spellcheck.For me it's been a while.
thanks in advance,Al
Major food shortages just around the corner (wheat – the bellweather for famine, soy which affects animals leading to meat shortages, and if you watch the video you will note lots of other supply chain disruptions including technology used in farming).
If you haven't stocked up please do so even if it's one small thing added to the shopping each week, but that in itself is not enough so do your best to grow a garden.
I'd like to see NZ make food production a priority, but that would mean allowing migrant workers in and generally getting out of the way of farming asap but this is looking less likely by the day.
Some global endgame stuff which I tend to block out since I can't do anything about it, and it's speculation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNry6K908xw
Thanks for the reminder.
What do you mean there? We can grow food here with our existing population. I'm ok with immigration to support low income Pacific neighbours, and refugee quotes. I don't see the value in bringing in cheap imported workers to prop up unsustainable and non-resilient business models.
Absolutely.
I was thinking of kiwifruit and how people who live here don't want to pick it.
They don't? Or the pay and job conditions don't work for the locals?
We need to remember when making remarks, negative, about local workers' reluctance to do this or that, that they are not having as easy a life as oneself. NZ is acknowledged by overseas tourists as an expensive country. (I put up a link some quotes about this a few days ago). So even if we are used to it, it hits visitors, tourists, so believe it.
A majority of people (excluding those on age benefits) here are living on the edge of normal life, unable to get the security of a home, a good living wage, happy family life etc. They may bnot be able to afford to leave their accommodation to work out of their area picking if the transport is too costly or when they can be left with no wage if it's raining. They may be sick and not able to get medical help, or afford medicine. The transport may leave before they can get the kids to school. Whatever.
The better off and the PMC are above all that sort of thing, and get irritable that others aren't able to claw their way beyond it, and just despise those complaining about difficulties. The response should be to listen, support and actively encourage, but that is not the leitmotif of this country. Give the poor a kind thought regularly every day, and also give them some support to have either a good life or even a good moment and some food, that is if you want to consider yourself a truly decent person. Most are just floating a little above the ground on wings of gold, or some precious material, followers of Ayn Rand's various ideas of total selfishness.
Yes the writing's been on the wall for some time. We've had minor shortages here of various items due to supply chain breakdown: Taro and Bananas spring to mind – both growing happily in my garden. Coffee and tea are both being hammered by climate change and various microbes. Both also in my garden, and can be grown here with a tea plantation in the Waikato and coffee in Northland.
Leaving food supply to the industrialists saw various regions noted as good for this or that product, and that was it. Whole countries relegated to the role of supplying middle men with basic commodities.
A local model aimed at providing a wide variety of produce is required. Having an extensive garden I can supply most of my dietary requirements here, and our market gardeners could do similar for the rest of us, but there are gaps. Some we might fill with local producers moving into the space, some we can import, but not nearly so much as you'd think we need. Food that takes a world tour when we might grow it ourselves – this seems ridiculous in the current climate.
When I go to the supermarket I try only buy things I can't grow easily in a home garden, or replace easily with a substitute. Flour – we need to make our own. Various herbs and spices it makes sense to import. Meat and dairy are not a home garden thing, and I for one would sorely miss them in my diet. Fats/oils. Some of these we might produce e.g. butter. But coconut oil, olive oil… worth bringing in. I do have olives growing but they're for the table. If a few households grew them collectively oil production starts to look viable….
It is time to take all this very seriously. Wherever we can replace an import with a local product we should.
so what do you suggest the young ones that we expect to live in places without gardens or outdoor space can do to make up for the shortfall of food and / or rising food costs?
Maybe grow some micro greens in that 2 sqm kitchen?
We totally need to rethink food, but at the moment we seem to only take the bash to those that currently grow food without any distinction betweem famer and indusrial Mega Farmer. Btw, in the US family farms are on the way out, and we are losing coffee to soy beans.
As for coffee, grow dandylions in your garden. Dig up the root, roast it, grind it, voila Coffee Ersatz. And that is something we can grow easily everywhere. Olive oil we can make here too. Olive Oil mills in Europe were always a shared resource as are grain mills, community ovens etc. But again, can we grow enough of that to feed the towners? I doubt.
We need to expand what we grow, and then the cities might be ok. But also all the useless landscaped sections in the cities is land enough to easily grow a majority of what we need.
How we grow is often patently ridiculous. The amount of times I see paddocks ploughed with furrows pointed downhill – so amateur and assholish it's f'n infuriating. Throwing topsoil into our tides.
Decentralisation, localisation and permaculture, every chance we get.
The cities are currently building crappy McMansions on prime fertile land.
Lol.
then we take grazing land and grow pines.
lol.
and then we take huge swath of land in SNA – in Northland, West Coast South Island. .
Lol.
you are right, we should, but we don't. So either we import food, or we grow industrial on the last bits of land that are not housed over or pined over or 'sna's. Mind, Soylent Green is of course also an option in the future. Because one things is for sure, the rich and well connected will have access to food.
rather than that TINA pov, I'll point to the other options. Like Bleeple, I see so many people growing for themselves and their rohe, this is happening without a lot of state support. If the state put a bit more effort in, the culture would shift and we'd stop growing on prime land. Even the mainstream understands how stupid that is.
TINA?
i grow food, i turned my garden from a rubbish dump to something that starts resembling something 'organic'. I could not survive of my garden.
That is all i want to point out. And expecting the State to put more effort in when we build houses on prime land crop growing land in Auckland seems to be hopeful, but also not gonna happen. The 'state' or hte people that run the 'state' expects to survive thanks to money and connectedness, and if half of us die that is the price to pay.
It is not that my glass is half empty, or half full, its that the water in it is the last we have.
TINA = there is no alternative
No-one is saying anyone has to survive out of their garden. Quite the opposite in fact, the solutions are community and rohe, not individual self sufficiency.
The government can be persuaded on many things, and has been.
Sabine – you have lots of ideas which is great. So when you carry on from someone else's ideas can you acknowledge their ideas that you find good, instead of sort of being dismissive about them or ignoring them. Build up a group of supportive and knowledgeable people, discussing, passing ideas to each other. That is what is needed, the tall poppy thing is more about not acknowledging other people's gifts just bringing them down by finding fault with something.
NZ is full of fallen poppies; I don't think we have ever receovered fully from WW1. We certainly seem to be fixated on it and the red Flanders poppies that went with it. For the 21st century we need to get together with other good-hearted, encouraging and practical people. So please do this, we are so vulnerable on our own to the enormous forces that mass against us, so large that we can't envision them.
The guy in the video is a fruitloop btw, he does make some interesting points though.
NZ already exports most of the food we produce. Not running out here any time soon, unless it's a repeat of Ireland's potato famine.
Or its 8 dollar cauliflower or 5 dollar brocoli in winter.
We don't have to run out for shortages to appear, we can have a shortage of 'affordable' food. Which is what is happening. So if you have enough money you will not go hungry.
When local prices are set to match export ones, food is always unaffordable.
You would be surprised just how cheap NZ food is overseas, as there it has to compete with goods say Kiwis from Israel and Lamb from France.
And the 8 dollar cauliflower have been happening in the years before Covid. The prices here have nothing to do with the sales price of NZ goods in a Aldi in Germany for example, but more of the fact that in NZ what is left over for the local market can be sold for gold if need be, because YOU and I and anyone else for that matter don't have much other choice, unless we are good at growing stuff and have the land to do that. And the sales price here in NZ also does not reflect the pittance the growers get.
We of the Irish extraction know that during the Famine much food was exported from Ireland.
Christy Moore has a concert item listing the exports from Cork in this period. "On a single day".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKH1vbl1b1g
Indeed.
We do.
Listened to half of that did not understand what was being said/sung
The first bit was in Gaelic.
Thereafter, this. On a Single Day.
“A list of exports from Cork Harbour
The fourteenth of September, 1847 ran as follows:
147 barrels of pork,
986 casks of ham,
27 sacks of bacon,
528 boxes of eggs,
1, 397 firkins of butter,
477 sacks of oats,
720 sacks of flour,
380 sacks of barley,
187 head of cattle,
296 head of sheep, and
4, 338 barrels of miscellaneous provisions,
On a single day, The ships sailed out from Cork Harbour
With their bellies in the water.
On a single day in County Galway,
The great majority of the poor located there were in a state of starvation, many hourly expecting death to relieve their suffering.
On a single day,
The Lady Mayoress held a ball at the Mansion House in Dublin in the presence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Dancing continued until the early hours, and refreshments of the most varied and sumptuous
Nature were supplied with inexhaustible profusion.
On a single day. On a single day.
It's about time this little country of ours had a bit
Of peace.”
The Famine was partly due to poor infrastructure whereby food could not be shifted internally easily. That's the reason that partly let the government of the day off the hook.
Partly due to a law that said that you could not apply for poor relief if you had quite minimal assets. For example, most owners sold their boats as they knew fishing/food gathering was limited by the weather and therefore unreliable. That deals with the accusations that the famine sufferers ignored the sea as a food source. The Irish still refer to mussels etc as 'famine food" and spurn it.
Partly with the fact that the poor only got to farm the higher lands and the rich still got to grow grains on the more productive plains.
Partly because when food relief came, it came in the form of Indian corn that needed grinding in order to be edible. That capacity was indeed limited.
Meanwhile food was still exported.
The potato blight still affected other countries such as France and Belgium but they had multiple food sources available like grain that the potato blight Phytophthora Infestans did not affect.
I hope that helps.
Might well make life difficult if export prices skyrocket.
Stephen Parker is a former political editor for TV3. He's reporting from the inside of the govt broadcasting restructure process: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/closed-door-sessions-shape-public-charter-for-rnz-and-tvnz
"Steps to shape the future direction of public broadcasting are being taken in a series of closed door meetings currently underway. More than 45 organisations have been invited by Ministry of Culture and Heritage consultants to “engagement sessions” designed to collect feedback, primarily on a charter document for TVNZ and Radio NZ when they are revamped into a new public media entity. During the last two weeks commercial media outlets and other industry stakeholders have been attending sessions facilitated by KPMG, attended by MCH Public Media Project team staff, along with Governance Group members who were appointed to oversee the project."
"Separate engagement workshops for Maori media outlets and organisations are being held over coming weeks. In documents circulated in advance, government officials say the engagement sessions are designed to help shape a Charter which will be foundational for the future of TVNZ and RNZ, and shape advice given to Broadcasting and Media Minister Kris Faafoi. The reading material says the Charter would define the purpose, objectives, and operating principles of the new public media entity, and also be part of a “social contract” with New Zealanders. While no draft Charter document is provided, the government officials and consultants say they need stakeholder feedback before “detailed work on drafting the charter document starts.”"
Workshopping the thing is a step towards co-design, which is good to see. Casting the net at so many organisations likewise. "A business case for a new public media structure for TVNZ and RNZ is due to be presented to Cabinet in October, with legislation scheduled for 2022… And that’s when the wider public will have its first say on the new public media “social contract” charter already being written."
The first thing to observe about any social contract is that, to be effective, it needs to be inclusive. Framing carefully is therefore essential. It must transcend the bicameral parliamentary divide that the 19th century still shackles us with (and likewise for the other bicameral structure that Te Tiriti ensures).
Oh no! Closed door meetings are happening!
Wait till Judith, Chris Bishop and Simeon Brown get hold of that. "Transparency, secret, communism, stealth"… the fuel of tractor rallies no less.
Perhaps they ought to have inserted a wedge to keep the door a couple of inches open? But at least those rooms aren't "smoke-filled" as tradition required…
Organised by KPMG. Business to the fore, conservative conformism with what the pundits are doing from a 'best practice' viewpoint. What about what the thinking citizens want Mr Faafoi, or are we too far away from your high tower to listen to us. Do those who value our public broadcasting and want to retain it so its serves our needs appear like Don Quixotes hitting the ramparts and barricades with rolled up newspapers!
If we get the celebrity chit-chat presenting the important facts that we need to know about we will be completely lost. Television us a world of fantasy and posing, even when it tries to present reality and the 'reality' tv shows indicate how we can be manipulated, how malleable we are, and now how open to altered images and their affect on our understanding.
Then there are the ramifications of the 'hate speech' controls – we will go further along the path of being guided missiles to be whipped up to any cause that the top people can dream up. So Brave New World, but who registers this likeness?
What do you mean by 'bicameral'?
Having googled it to do a reality check, that's an appropriate question! Could be I was using it idiosyncratically. This site refers to "two distinct groups responsible for setting rules and developing policies": https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/bicameral
Pretty much what I had in mind, but I'll get more specific. First, the English system we've inherited creates the polarity of govt vs opposition, a bicameral structure since the opposition does develop policies when not in govt and even can design rules then for later use.
Second, Te Tiriti recognised traditional tribal governance for the Maori (which I always call local sovereignty- it's a principle) along with national sovereignty for the British monarch. Since both used rules, and Maori are nowadays keener than ever to develop their own policies, that structure is likewise bicameral.
In praxis it means two chambers of government eh.
In postmodernism it means whatever the interpreter says. But a conservative would probably agree with you. Found any here?
You're pretty conservative on the sly eh.
Like the UK House of Lords, Australia’s federal Senate, or NZ's equivalent upper body until it was abolished, yes. But let's just use it to smear biculturalism, eh Dennis.
Actually , just pointing to the binary structures that bind us. Basis of our politics. In the same sense, I would point out that our brains are bicameral due to the binary hemispherical structure built in. Metaphor, analogy, whatever.
You seeing Treaty relations as a binary rather than a partnership comes as no surprise.
I wonder why. I presume you've forgotten that I told readers here about being the only member of the Green Party at an Alliance meeting who stood and spoke in support of his proposal when Mat Rata announced Mana Motuhake's separate justice system for Maori? I've never resiled from that stand since. It was due to having bought a copy of Claudia Orange's book on the Treaty as soon as it appeared (late '80s, from memory) and identifying the natural justice of the situation. Not many early adopters of the principle back then…
in the meantime South Auckland….more shots fired.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/south-auckland-shooting-police-investigating-after-shots-fired-at-house-in-clendon-park/N3BEZC7TT22E3LG44THG7MV4AQ/
These are happening way too often now.
There are rumours in Auckland about next year’s mayoral elections. Gossip has it that Phil’s off to Washington.
Mark Mitchell’s name is being bandied about as a possible candidate, as is a Steven Joyce/Paula Bennett ticket.
As yet nothing from the left.
Anybody out there with more accurate tea leaf reading ability?
The thought of a right wing mayor makes my blood run cold.
Right-wing councillors are more the problem. Even in Auckland the mayor on their own cannot do much.
True, but the thought of right wing councillors allied to a rightwing mayor, and my blood run cold.
More roads, fuck pedestrians and cyclists. Who needs social housing anyway? And lets sell of Watercare!
Right-wing councillors with a left-wing mayor can do exactly the same damage. And the future of Watercare is about to be not a local decision anyway.
I found this slightly depressing, mostly because it doens't deal with the causes. Dubai is having drones release an electrical charge in clouds to release rain.
They should be warning the rest of the world that they are taking their water.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/dubai-makes-fake-rain-created-24585337
Sounds good, shit if we could reliable water the worlds deserts imagine how much carbon we could lock up.
All Dubai scientists are doing is establishing a suitable climate for sufficient condensation nuclei to be present in the atmosphere and that rain clouds will be created and provide much needed rain water to a parched landscape. Its a technique being used in other countries but is still in need of refinement.
It is neither fake rain nor is it water being stolen from elsewhere.
Without having read the full link, the British Mirror is showing its ignorance – or it is looking for a sensation/gotcha story which brings science technology into disrepute. The British tabloids are very good at that sort of thing.
The other myth is that we as a society are somehow using up resources. This again is not correct. The resources might be temporarily being used or in a form that is difficult to use but they are still there and are still plentiful. The only restrictions on using them is technological.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Coal? Re-forming as we speak, is it, Gosman?
Yes. What happened to the Carbon that has been released as part of the burning of all the coal? Has it all disappeared?
https://scied.ucar.edu/image/where-does-carbon-dioxide-go
In the very long run you are right, on the scale of hundreds of millions of years some large fraction of that carbon might well wind up as coal again. But for the purposes of this debate that's an entirely mute point.
On the timescales that matter to us, extracting and burning fossil carbon has unbalanced the natural carbon cycle, with the excess winding up in the atmosphere.
In one sense I understand where you're coming from. Fossil carbon has served humanity well, it's dragged most of us from brute poverty and social backwardness to the modern world. I'm certainly very grateful for this and I've spoken many times against those who seem to argue (or at least fail to understand) that unwinding this progress would be catastrophic in it's own right.
But this does not mean modernity is perfect, or anything like an ideal. It's just a phase, a stage of development we must move on from. BAU and the continued burning of fossil carbon (and many other considerations) is not possible either. We cannot stand still. The carbon wolf will catch us.
Like it or not we have collectively little choice but to turn down the ideological squabbling and get cracking transitioning off fossil carbon and onto a suite of non-carbon based energy sources. There is plenty of opportunity for adaptation and new phases of human development – and while I expressed my own particular preferences – I'm relatively agnostic on which technology will eventually succeed.
90% of coal was formed in a 2% period of geologic history.
But according to Gossie, all the coal ever mined still exists because we might be able to extract the component atoms and stick it back together somehow.
A weird spin on the "my great-grandfather's axe" paradox.
Go on Gosman, tell us how burning coal is using up a a resource temporarily.
Nothing disappears, it is all energy that when the atoms are released they take another form. Shapeshifters if you like, we Nobel Laureates call it the Judith Pivot.
Yes, but it often works out differently in the natural world where humans are concerned. eg coal when burnt doesn't become another useful form of energy in this context
We are all but future coals.
Nah.
Very few of us will become coal. Maybe the occasional peat bog corpse.
Still trotting out this tired old shit. Technology will not save us, it has damned us.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Not really. We live much fuller lives today that we did 200 years ago thanks mainly to technology.
Hey! Colonies on Mars! Now there's an idea!!!
sounds marsvellous.
If it keeps the willy-waving billionaires occupied away from this planet, I'm all for it.
WTB. In that case I invite you to live up to your words.
If you truly believe technology has 'damned us' then in order to have any intellectual integrity at all you have no choice but to eliminate all technology from your life. I suggest you revert to the exact lifestyle of your ancestors circa 1800. That safely pre-dates the Industrial Revolution you have so loudly denounced.
Now I realise this presents some practical difficulties, so I'm happy to concede that you should still be allowed to shop for food in a supermarket. But everything else – gone. No electricity, no appliances, no mechanised transport, hand tools only, no medical or dental treatments, no contraception, no education, no public utilities or safe paved roads – and certainly no internet to type out your unhappiness on.
My bet is that you wouldn't last until lunchtime.
God you're a bore.
If you two want to hash out old troubles, please don't use my posts to do that. If you want to trade insults, know that there's a limit, and WTB, I'll still intercede in OM where the comments are only insults with no political point.
Right… racism you'll make excuses for. Calling someone a bore is somehow too much though.
I used to think you lot have something to say.
Now I see you just have to say something.
I live without a lot of technology/trinkets people are convinced they need. It's no biggie. Everyone knows we're not calling for a return to the dark ages, but RL just loves that hyperbole.
Every. Time.
A total bore.
See, that’s how you do it. You can call someone a bore if you make a political point. Political points give people something to respond to. Stand alone insults become flame wars.
You think you're not calling for a 'return to the dark ages' yet you fail to specify exactly what you are calling for.
For certain we could all make do with somewhat less. Personally we have one 15yr old car between us, two rather ordinary android phones, a laptop that's now 8yrs old, a Chromebook and a few monitors. The newest trinket we just bought is a paddle board and an ebike. Any problems so far?
But my personal preferences are neither here nor there – my partner and I are competitive skinflints when it comes to personal possessions, but we don't imagine the rest of the world has to be like us.
The big picture is this – you could reduce the developed world's consumption by 50% if you wanted – but in the long run that would be a drop in the total bucket of global demand.
Then there is the other problem you have – you claim that quote "technology had damned us" but fail to specify exactly what technology has done the damning. Is it just some of it or all of it? And what do you want to keep and what to discard?
Because if the last year should have taught us anything, supply chains are very complex ecosystems in their own right, push and prod in one place and all sorts of unexpected reactions happen elsewhere. Technologies and industries have a bewilderingly complex linkages and dependencies that shift and evolve all the time. Claiming that you have a list of 'damnable tech' that you want to ban, and you can decree this with nothing but sunny outcomes is preposterously foolish.
So it's agree – let's call for that. What have 'we' got to lose?
Or 'we' could carry on consuming and polluting like there's no tomorrow – we're good at that. And those Carry On movies are good fun; silly, but fun.
Such a pity 'Carry On Spaceman' never got off the ground.
Or 'we' could carry on consuming and polluting like there's no tomorrow – we're good at that.
I've repeatedly conceded that the developed world could lose a bit of fat – no question that each one of us could come up with a list of vanities we'd be happy to do without.
But none of us would come up with the same list. How to negotiate that is one obvious hurdle.
And still despite the politically herculean task of implementing this – nothing much important would change. Fully 27% of the world's CO2 is from China alone and growing – more than the combined developed world. While by and large that developed world already has a stable population and consumption profile.
Put simply the developed world, the so-called golden one billion, could go entirely horse-hair shirt if you want – but on the numbers any such gain would be soon swamped by the growth from the rest of humanity.
You need a more effective plan. In the series I did earlier this year I outlined the essential requirement for any such plan to succeed – abundant, cheap, zer-carbon energy.
Appreciate your thoughts on this, but tbh they just read like a list of reasons to do nothing, give up nothing, share nothing, etc. etc.
Why does that matter?
China supports a little over 18% of the world's population, i.e. "more than the combined developed world."
I certainly don't want to "go entirely horse-hair shirt", and have no need to do so as I already have enough non-horse-hair shirts to last several lifetimes. But what I want, or don't want, doesn't matter – what the so-called golden 1.3 billion want matters. Is there a significant movement towards more sharing, sacrifice and/or giving things up – significant in terms of moving this iteration of civilisation onto a sustainable path?
If any such plan requires "abundant, cheap, zer-carbon energy" to succeed then civilisation really is cruising for a bruising. But you're right – however fanciful your dream of a hyper-energised humanity, it's still more likely than persuading people en masse to voluntarily make do with less for the foreseeable future.
Don't mind me RL, just my pessimism for the longer-term future of this iteration of human civilisation kicking in. I'd be more optimistic if there was a sign that more people really would be prepared to voluntarily make do with less permanently, but some responses to the pandemic (Get Covid Done) don't fill me with hope.
but tbh they just read like a list of reasons to do nothing, give up nothing, share nothing,
More than any other regular contributor here I've laid out quite specific ideas on what I believe can be done. To argue that I'm advocating to 'do nothing' is an exact inversion of what I've been writing.
Your problem is not that I've failed to lay out a vision and a plan – it's just that you think it's 'fanciful' because I'm not a pessimist planning on the extinction of the human race.
And one of your problems RL is that you're implying I'm “planning on the extinction of the human race“, which is (quelle surprise) a hyperbolic fabrication.
Thought you were better than that, but I’m really beginning to wonder.
Well you are the one who wrote "my pessimism for the longer-term future of this iteration of human civilisation" – which however you want to colour it, implies a very high likelihood of extinction or very close to it.
Human development so far can be broadly divided into two phases, the photosynthesis evolution (you know it as agriculture) and the carbon evolution (or industrialisation). The first enabled us to get from a few 10's of millions of hunter gatherers to just under 1b by 1800. The carbon revolution will get us to around 10b. Make no mistake if these two technologies unravel for any reason then a reversion back to a few million miserable survivors is a real possibility. But for both moral and sanity reasons while I understand this possibility, I refuse point blank to embrace it. We have and can do better.
Now you're welcome to sacrifice and share all you like, and if they make you happy well and good. But on the numbers the our evolutionary next phase is to move beyond the limits of both photosynthesis and carbon energy sources. There is nothing fanciful about this, we know pretty much how to do it, and many people are getting on with it. You just have to examine why you prefer 'pessimism'.
RL, you've now moved on to your well-worn mind-reading shtick.
So, which of these am I 'guilty' of implying?
Your persistent insinuation that I'm implying the current path of this interation of human civilisation will (likely) lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens is typical of your fabrication tendencies.
Sure, the Anthropocene has seen an uptick in species extinctions.
I'm confident, however, that the human species will survive any civilisation collapse, managed or otherwise, and reject your frankly bizarre attempt to tar me with a 'human extinction brush'.
Civilisations rise and fall – the human species continues. I recognise my good fortune to have been born when and where I was.
Oh, and I don't prefer 'pessimism' – but I can read the signs.
I really don't think you have a good sense what it takes to keep 7.5b humans fed, watered and sheltered every day. Then when you claim to be 'pessimistic' about the future of this – in some vague, poorly specified manner – you get antsy when I point out the obvious implication of making such pessimism the pivot of your political views.
And really exactly what point do you think you're achieving when you quote grim CO2 level predictions at me – as if I haven't been writing here about climate change since at least 2013. Precisely what new information are you conveying to me? Other than how ‘pessimistic’ you are that is.
I wrote a short series based on Kaya's Identity earlier this year that detailed what I view as the most plausible non-pessimistic path forward. Or an even better article here based on the same idea. I suggest you read and digest it before respond, because right now this conversation is going nowhere.
This 'conversation' was going nowhere from the moment you wrote:
Your nasty slur, that I'm "planning the extinction of the human race", is a lie. No amount of dissembling on your part will make it true, and you'll find no evidence to support your fanciful slur on The Standard – it's all in your head.
If you can't accept and acknowledge this, then we can at least agree to disagree, but I consider the above slur more evidence of your tendency to comment in bad faith when debating the facts becomes too challenging.
Read my posts on the topic. Read the detailed argument in the link provided. Show some evidence you've made an attempt at understanding before dismissing my posts as fanciful.
Already struggled through parts of some of your posts, but smearing me by implying I'm "planning on the extinction of the human race" has not incentivised me to read further – funny that.
No issue with you promoting the (theoretical) hyper-energisation (10 – 100 times) of human civilisation as a solution to the anthropogenic degradation of spaceship Earth. Just don't believe it's realistic/achievable in the next couple of decades, if ever, and will continue to voice my opinion.
But let's say it is actually achieved (as opposed to 'achievable') in 20 – 30 years time. Why do you believe this achievement would change the behaviour responsible for ecosystem degradation, for example change the desire (not the need, mind you, but the desire) for more stuff? How would that increased energy availability shrink the environmental footprint of extant civilisation or otherwise make material consumption sustainable?
Civilisation without limits, versus respecting planetary limits.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-nine-boundaries-humanity-must-respect-to-keep-the-planet-habitable
Hopefully we can agree on these priorities; we just disagree on the best way(s) to achieve them. Time will tell.
You would miss making comments on here too much.
So I can take that as a 'no' then? The Industrial Revolution and all it's associated tech has damned us, but you will not choose to live without it.
Quite the little pickle you've gotten yourself into eh?
Well, a little pickle is kind of damned, isn't it.
Reductio ad absurdum, no less!
"If you truly believe technology has 'damned us' then in order to have any intellectual integrity at all you have no choice but to eliminate all technology from your life."
I smell a non sequitur!
I really cannot see how anyone can have it both ways.
People like to think they could change the world so that they could selectively keep the tech they like and approve of, and somehow turn off all the rest. It just doesn't work that way.
For a start everyone would have their own list and much of them contradicting each other. For a second tech development is a highly complex, inter-dependent process where a multitude of parts are linked to many others. Eradicating one piece would have unintended consequences in places you wanted to keep.
Again I'm not claiming the status quo as any kind of ideal. You should know me well enough by now that I'm very allergic to utopian thinking and people who compare what we have with unexamined, unfalsifiable perfection. We just have to stop bickering over our ideological suspicions and crack on with the job. I've linked to this before:
The Cult of Done Manifesto
He could comfortably believe that "technology has damned us", but recognise that he is inextricably reliant upon it now. No contradiction at all, in my view. In fact, there's a growing number of people who find themselves regretful but reliant in just that way. What to do, what to do? It's pretty straight-forward really; Step 1: start with the low-hanging fruit we all know about – shed the dross, the detritus you don't need and refrain from replacing it if possible. The remaining 10 000 steps are well known or easy to discover. Good luck, everyone!
Not understanding the contradiction is not the same as it not existing. I think I made my case clearly enough above and I should leave it there.
But RL you present all these advances as somehow inevitable, linear progressions
Yes, we have developed all that stuff which we are now so dependent on , and now cause so many problems as well , overpopulation and resource scarcity being among them
Is it not possible to imagine we could have embarked on some different road, a more evolved consciousness maybe , a respectful carefulness.We have used our consciousness to further our animal appetites and to vainly attempt to cheat or delay death, and dominate all other species.And now we have such huge expectations of what the earth must provide us
Maybe we could have been more like lilies of the field, and learnt better lessons about our place in the world.
I know thats a bit wafty, just pointing out there are umpteen roads we could have gone down.Maybe the road we went down was an accident, a wrong turning and we've never found our way since
All very wafty I know, and you're a realist, always with an interesting and challenging point of view
I do appreciate it
My first reaction is that deserves a decent response but I'm at work right now and typing on my phone is not my fluent mode. I'll maybe give it a go later. Cheers
It's going to be hard to justify the creation of this sort of stuff.
https://thegreenhedonist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/banana_bunker_clear.jpg
Gosman takes the long view.
“Limestone's origins are from tens to hundreds of millions of years ago.
“Coal is formed by the heat and pressure of deep burial of plants over millions of years”.
Yep, before humans over millions of years, and after humans I'd wager too over millions of years, CO2 will convert to limestone and coal. So burn it now because we all part of the Great Recycling Plan…….
What the heck do you do with a tenant like this?
Controversial tenant drives neighbours out of community housing complex | Stuff.co.nz
Pretty unfair on the other tenants but what do you do with her?
An issue for the Trust to sort out. Pretty hard to know what's going on there from that article.
Having dealt with a very similar case ourselves, I can only report just how hard it is to get to the bottom of these matters. Everyone paints their own picture of what's going on, and the landlord's hands are almost completely tied in attempting to resolve it. Or in this case the "trust". Recent law changes simply made it more complex.
Result – mucho mistrust and unhappiness all round.
When the lady has 439 dishonesty convictions already, and between 2004 and 2007 was living in Wellington and the same allegations about her arose, and under another identity "appeared in the Westport District Court in 2019 on charges of theft and obtaining by deception, arising from what the court described as a crime spree in the North and South Islands."
I would have said that pretty much gives a good idea what's going on there!
There have been previous articles. Pretty clear.
what's stopped the Trust from acting?
Gutlessness?
In the meantime, Cabinet is about to shut all access to Australia.
Sighs. It's not much better between the states. My partner and I have been separated five months now on different sides of the continent and there's slim prospect of this changing before the end of the year.
Millions of people being impacted like this. Thank God for zero cost WhatsApp.
Very sorry to hear that Red. That's longer than I was apart last year.
Thank god for some of that technology – I use skype – to travel around half the world every night – separated now for a year by regulations.
Bugger my sister is coming back from the northern territory in 3 days hope she beats it.
Good! Should make it permanent.
The way the RSV virus is clogging up hospital beds were there to be a Covid – 19 outbreak most DHBs would not cope.
The trans – Tasman bubble only works if both NZ and Australia have no Covid – 19 cases.
The Covid Olympics may grind to a halt.
Thornley is throwing lawyer letters at Wiles and the Spinoff, now.
Baker seems safe, though. Interesting thoughts on Twitter about why that might be.
Thornley's under some self-imposed pressure; no excuse for dishonourable conduct.
This seems a bit of a desperate gasp for political oxygen from Thornley – these legal threats are getting headlines when made, probably not when they are dropped. It is telling that they are targeting a Wiles piece that specifically advocates; not wasting your time debunking vaccine falsehoods, as that gave them more attention than they were worth.
But the pattern of targeting Wiles for individual harassment does suggest some coordination of efforts. Though being a prominent woman in NZ probably has an unhealthy amount to do with it too.
Lots of people have called him on his bullshit. As far as I've seen, Wiles hasn't even been one to coin the worst descriptions of his comments, or argue that his motives behind his arguments might be less than scientific. And as the spinoff article points out, Baker has been similarly critical of Thornley.
But she does seem to be the highest-profile woman to take him to task. Hmm.
Someone I know, apparently intelligent, is anti-vacx and he scoffs at Wiles – that pink hair. I just have to shake my head and walk away when that starts. The thoughts are like a virus themselves.
heh – there are occasional efforts to model the propagation of nutbar theories using network tools similar to infectious disease spread.
I'm not usually all that impressed by them – whether someone adopts a position is a bit more complex than whether they get sick from e.coli. But there's usually enough of a kernel of similarity in there to make the attempt, and that sort of "humans as predictable mechanisms" attitude appeals to some flavours of tech bro.
edit
McFlock Tech would like us to be alike while they praise our individuality. Hollywood shows how we can be encouraged to be alike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG7x8HWbDzU
And Foreign Waka I noted that too, I thought we were okay to be grouped in our differences; are Pacific Islanders really PIs or just a bunch of squabbling entities. We are Pacific Islanders too, and should be encouraged to remember that we're all at sea together. The angry academic I think, was objecting to be classified as from the Pacific Islands and not just listed as Samoan when travelling. Sesame Street explains it better. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcTx3j_rbyM
With a toe in two worlds at work, it is quite funny on occasion to watch programmers subconsciously expect social constructs to be equally as logical, while more qualitative sides of the fence tend to have meetings upon meetings with no clearly delineated outcome and yet still seem satisfied.
Well, if that is not a pot calling the kettle…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300363764/pacific-islander-an-insulting-umbrella-term-researcher-tells-royal-commission
“We did not name ourselves Pacific Islanders, we did not name ourselves Polynesian. These are terms that were constructed by palagi within a colonial context.”
I hope the same goes for the differentiation of all Chinese, Japanese, Malayan etc. or Norwegian, German, Swiss, Polish, Ukraine etc…. because Palangi throws all and sundry into one pot.
Otherwise, if Palangi as in translation “foreigner” than surely that term can also be used for all peoples having immigrated to NZ, including from Samoa.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/447532/gloriavale-allegations-labour-inspectorate-has-no-jurisdiction-to-investigate
This is an important point. Can people emotionally coerce others to slave for them, take them back to colonial days? They are dressed very similarly to the Amish in USA. What state or local controls are applied to protect standards there? We don't want ours to fall further. And remember these people are free to be in business and can then undercut what I regard as legitimate businesses.
Some info on Amish https://www.thetravel.com/10-of-the-strangest-things-about-the-amish-community-in-the-usa-and-10-in-canada/
On life in NZ for Pasifika just when we thought we were civilised. And we can get uncivilised very quickly it seems so watch out ordinary citizens of whatever colour; first we are denied decent wages, then decent homes, then are we to be portrayed as rats? Perhaps the government was just practising with the lockdown of Tuhoe?
NZGeographic / Evicted from Aotearoa
…“Our cousin Feti and his wife and children were living with us, and he was working out in Penrose,” says Fonoti. “One day, he never came home.”
Feti had been caught up in a programme of deportations that would soon become known as the dawn raids. Police would surround people’s homes in the early hours of the morning, entering properties with tracking dogs to drag overstayers from inside their wardrobes and from underneath beds. The raids traumatised families, with second-generation children—New Zealand citizens—woken from their sleep by the shouting of police…
Many migrants had arrived on visitor visas and never left, even as their visas expired, but very few fanau thought that would be a problem. New Zealand had all the raw materials for a brand-new life. Wages far exceeded those available at home. Working overtime, a Pasifika factory worker might make up to $200 per week—equivalent to around $3000 today. One worker could support an entire family back in the Pacific, with enough to spare.
But in 1973, Britain joined the European Economic Community, terminating all bilateral trade agreements with New Zealand, and subsequently dropped to fourth place in the ranks of this country’s export partners. In the Middle East, the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states jacked oil prices to astronomical levels—as much as a sixfold increase virtually overnight—while simultaneously reducing the supply for small markets such as New Zealand. The boom was over. An economy that had sustained unprecedented Polynesian migration began to stutter. Unemployment returned in a way not seen since the Great Depression, jumping from 1.4 per cent in 1971 to 7.4 per cent by 1986.