“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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The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
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. ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
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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.
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".
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.