Fiftieth anniversary of the death of Aldous Huxley
Los Angeles, California, 22 November 1963
On the morning of November 22nd, a Friday, it became clear the gap between living and dying was closing. Realizing that Aldous [Huxley] might not survive the day, Laura [Huxley’s wife] sent a telegram to his son, Matthew, urging him to come at once. At ten in the morning, an almost inaudible Aldous asked for paper and scribbled “If I go” and then some directions about his will. It was his first admission that he might die …
Around noon he asked for a pad of paper and scribbled
LSD-try it
intermuscular
100mm
In a letter circulated to Aldous’s friends, Laura Huxley described what followed: ‘You know very well the uneasiness in the medical mind about this drug. But no ‘authority’, not even an army of authorities, could have stopped me then. I went into Aldous’s room with the vial of LSD and prepared a syringe. The doctor asked me if I wanted him to give the shot- maybe because he saw that my hands were trembling. His asking me that made me conscious of my hands, and I said, ‘No, I must do this.’
An hour later she gave Huxley a second 100mm. Then she began to talk, bending close to his ear, whispering, ‘light and free you let go, darling; forward and up. You are going forward and up; you are going toward the light. Willingly and consciously you are going, willingly and consciously, and you are doing this beautifully — you are going toward the light — you are going toward a greater love … You are going toward Maria’s [Huxley’s first wife, who had died many years earlier] love with my love. You are going toward a greater love than you have ever known. You are going toward the best, the greatest love, and it is easy, it is so easy, and you are doing it so beautifully.’
All struggle ceased. The breathing became slower and slower and slower until, ‘like a piece of music just finishing so gently in sempre piu piano, dolcamente,’ at twenty past five in the afternoon, Aldous Huxley died.
I’m guessing the death of JFK 50 years ago simply slipped your mind?
A guy who had connived in the assassination of the South Vietnam prime minister (an American vassal) just twenty days earlier, and was actively conspiring to assassinate the Cuban president (who refused to be a vassal) was himself the victim of an assassin’s bullet.
The biter bit, pure and simple. You can throw all that Camelot hogwash where it belongs—in the same bin as the fulsome tributes for Reagan, Thatcher, Pinochet, Mao and Pol Pot.
Ok, that’s cool. At least I now know there is more to you than just a cut and paste blogger and, I also suspect you research and write for the Herald and TV 3.
C.S. Lewis died fifty years ago today: Friday 22 November 1963
CS Lewis’s literary legacy: ‘dodgy and unpleasant’ or ‘exceptionally good’?
by SAM LEITH, The Guardian, 19 November 2013
“Aslan is on the move.” That phrase, three decades after I first read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, still has the power to tickle the hairs on my neck. It testifies to the enduring power of CS Lewis’s recasting of the Christian myth that I’m far from alone. If this were all there were to him, it would still be pretty remarkable that, 50 years after his death, this tweedy old Oxford don should occupy such an exalted place in our cultural life.
All this week on Radio 4, Simon Russell Beale has been reading The Screwtape Letters – Lewis’s perceptive inquiry into temptation cast as a series of witty letters between a demon and his apprentice. This Friday, his reputation will be crowned with a plaque in his honour, between John Betjeman and William Blake, in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.
The tribute might have pleased him, but it’s an odd one: as a poet, Lewis is usually regarded as pretty useless. “He hated all poets because he was a failed poet,” says his biographer AN Wilson. “He hated TS Eliot. He hated Louis MacNeice. There’s a very bad ‘poem’ by Lewis about reading The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, and it just shows how stupid he was about modern poetry.”
Lewis has much more than poetry to offer, though. Almost too much: his posthumous reputation is disconcertingly various. As well as a children’s writer, he was novelist, memoirist, essayist, critic, broadcaster and apologist. But the two Lewises that command the biggest followings….
Nope. Copyright is, depending upon where in the world you are, death +50/70 years. Apparently the governments of the world are concerned that anyone the author leaves behind won’t be able to live on their own work.
The really big problem with it is that corporations don’t die and yet corporations now own a lot, if not most, of the copyrights.
Morrissey….Thankyou for that review of CS Lewis and his writings…i always enjoyed his children’s books and I was a great fan of his popular Christian theology in my teens…….which after doing Comparative Religion at Univeristy i havent read since….however, interesting and understandable that he is still as popular as ever
…for me now , looking back he remains a very important twentieth century existentialist Christian thinker ….who was wrestling with deep personal, moral and religious issues from the perspective of his time and place….and trying to frame them for the ordinary person …he deserves respect for this. Like Graham Greene, also a man of his time, he was an agonised modernist but a deeply moral and religious man
…in some ways they are a yardstick from which to view the values inhering in our present society….materialist, social persona and media driven, technologically determined… and more often than not frivolous and amoral.
The Narnia Code : The Seven Heavens .
“…he loved hiding things.He loved the idea that people learnt more by discovering things themselves, especially hidden things. A lot of the meaning of God, is after all, hidden”.
About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is more delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything-even to social justice.
The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice.
The Gospel, while true, is worthless if it fails the test of social justice (loving thy neighbour). Of course, this is Lewis writing as a devil so it can be hard to parse the meaning.
Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table
David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as sloshed as Schlegel
There’s nothing Nietzche couldn’t teach ya
‘Bout the raising of the wrist
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill
Plato, they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle
Hobbes was fond of his dram
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart
“I drink, therefore I am”
Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker
But a bugger when he’s pissed
! Scurrilous allegations indeed, although, as Sam Hunt pronounced, “I like to drink, it let’s me think, of other people and other places”; thank the Lord for moderation and harm-minimization approaches. Dreadful stuff in excess, the ultimate solvent, with the potential to dissolve everything one has! yet, not as quickly as gambling.
Hits of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, brought to you by Rugby, Racing and Beer “ing up under the strain”. 😀
I always thought that Lewis was either, being the devils advocate or attempting to be satirical.
In the tradition of one of my other favourite writers, Swift!
He was, of course, a supporter of English style hierarchy on the lines of the “good King” and a, supposedly, benevolent aristocracy. The sort of noblesse oblige we saw from people like Wilberforce.
phillip u
I would say we are being ‘listened’ to here.. Just listen to the awkward replies of Oz to Indonesia about the spying on the President. They are apparently the most important ally and friend that Oz has in the South Pacific. If Oz is not spying on us they think they have already got us connected to enough milking machines. The USA of course has run a practice invasion incursion in Timaru and they would want to assess how that went down.
http://snoopman.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/exercise-southern-katipo-2013-a-comic-book-war-game-script/
Notwithstanding the boy’s comic book scenario, the coalition of ‘defence’ forces will attempt to overcome a small militia of “bad people” located in a small rural township called Cave, which is Northwest of Timaru, according to The Timaru Herald‘s report of October 15. There is also “Waimate Taliban” in Waimate, a town south of Timaru that is to be suppressed, according to a November 7 report in the Oamaru Mail….
The C-130’s, along with two Boeing C17 Globemasters, will provide troop mobility and airlift “hardware”. Because C130 Hercules can be equipped with surveillance gathering technology, Exercise Southern Katipo seems to be a means to extend the web of the StratCom’s surveillance reach. StratCom’s base at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska integrates into an entire global network the strike capability of the nine regional combatant commands, including U.S. Pacific Command (or PACOM). Based in Oahu, Hawaii, PACOM not only oversees the Pacific. Its watch includes China, India and the rest of South East Asia.
Dr Strangeadmire or: How the Media Learned to Stop Investigating and Admire the Empire
It is also curious that this joint military exercise between nine other countries has received hardly any media coverage, despite the fact that it is the largest ever multi-force exercise in New Zealand, with over 2500 soldiers, sailors and airmen, 20 aircraft including 10 helicopters, three ships and five NZ civil agencies….
…documentaries that critique why exactly the world is still at war 95 years after the end of ‘the war to end all wars’, such as the documentary Why We Fight, by Eugene Jarecki. Kempster helpfully explained to the Oamaru Mail on November 7 that the military exercise is “a bit like a treasure hunt, they go from place to place getting information and intelligence.”
Commander Kempster, who sounded more like an interim political governor puppet appointed by George W. Bush’s regime, added positively, “The people of Mainlandia have welcomed us as liberators. We’ve been treated to some great southern hospitality.”
Russel Norman is asking questions. I think it’s time the rest of us started asking questions.
Some points to ponder:
The meteoric rise to power of one, John Key. The unprecedented demonising of one, Helen Clark, aided and abetted by a compliant MSM. Interesting in the light of Snowden’s latest revelations.
Amy Adams was a fool to even attempt to play the game of “information management” with Cunliffe. Good on him for calling her behaviour out.
Cunliffe and the Labour Parliamentary team seem to on the ascendant inside and outside the Chamber.
It a great feeling after a few barren years.
LOl John key busted in one of his petty little slf serving acts of bullshit:
Last month Key said he preferred no increase. “If it was my vote, it would be no pay increases, but I don’t get that vote.”
However, last night his office released his submission on the process, which showed he lobbied for pay increases at around the rate of inflation, making no mention of his preference for no increase.
If anyone was ever in any doubt about the Herald online’s editorial outlook then take a look at the sneaky trick they pulled this morning with their article on MP’s payrises. For some reason they’ve chosen a photo of David Cunliffe to accompany the article and emphasis in the article on the payrise the Leader of The Opposition can expect. Never mind that it’s less than what the PM will get and exactly the same as Cabinet Ministers are getting. A deliberate and cynical attempt to link an unpopular issue with Opposition Leader? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11160982
alwyn
I didn’t realise that you don’t have access to any information gathering devices of your own so are forced to come here to get us to do it for you. Look things up yourself, don’t try to pose devil’s advocate questions to show yourself a smartrse.
I did try Greywarbler. I did try my very hardest but I couldn’t find the information anywhere that Fairfax owned the Herald.
That’s why I asked. You tell me to look for myself but I’m obviously not as smart as you are. Please tell me I can find that Fairfax owns the Herald? Just the Google query will do.
Please, pretty please.
CV. The original comment to you was just a mild joke. Greywarbler is obviously getting a bit up-tight though isn’t he?.
alwyn
I have a lot of lemons at present. Thinking we should make some lemon pickle with the crop. Maybe I should stop sucking them and lighten up. And I hate smart arses particularly when I fall into that trap myself. Well can’t be perfect all the time.
I thought that was absolutely atrocious. And not so subtle. I wouldn’t even use the herald for toilet paper. They should be honest and change their name to The National Party’s Herald. Please lean to the right when you read this rag.
We no longer get the print edition of the Herald in the South Island so I don’t know if the same article/photo combo appeared in that as well as the online edition?
May I ask why you read the Herald or any newspaper if you hold that opinion. I just do not understand why anyone would give their up their precious commodity of time if the newspaper is not even fit for toilet paper. Why bother!
However, my point in responding
1. Is that the newspaper format is negative reporting – car accident on SH1 will be read but an article on cars driving safety on SH1 will send the reader to sleep. If you want to fill yourselves with negative thoughts go read a newspaper. After all, the journalist writing is just somebody with the skills sets to write a 500/1000 word piece that is readable – that’s their skills set nothing more nothing less. Whenever I meet a journalist I don’t think this individual know the answer to all or any question but do acknowledge that their career is about using words to write – so what?.
2. Reading a daily newspaper will accumulative a lots of hours over the month – so privately add the hours & think what else could I do with those hours. If you have a lifestyle without a huge demand on you time then buy and read the daily newspaper with extras on the weekend.
3. A newspaper format is about print advertising (i.e. Harvey Norman etc) with stories to link the pages. The newspaper price is a nominal fee so that the newspapers have a vehicle for their advertising business in conjunction with the comments in point 1 & 2 above.
That piece is worth reading to get a really good understanding of how Brownlee thinks and goes about things.
For a start he was “angry”.
Further on he says this …. ” I’ve bent over backwards, mindful of court instruction,…” which is the most telling of all. He is saying that if it weren’t for courts having told him off and telling him that he has done things plain wrong on several occasions, then he would simply do what he has always done – namely, bully his way through no matter the consequences and no matter the views of others.
Gerry “Sgt Schulz” Brownlee made slow enough going of it with a toadying tory mayor, so now there is a Labour friendly one he seems to have reread his exceptional powers manual and is getting all frisky.
No, no, no said the right certainly not, when questions were raised about the dictatorial powers granted the minister under the 2010 Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act and subsequent 2011 Act.
“Dotcom says. “All these friends I have that did well in their lives, they want to go out, they want to get drunk, they want to see some pretty girls, they want to spend and they want to impress … in New Zealand you just don’t have the opportunity to do that.””
Dotcom is no leftie but seems a bit of a rebel compared to your average filthy rich bastard, and it was hilarious seeing him with a megaphone next to Bomber Bradbury on Queen St and giving the PM stick in person, not many of us get to do that.
Should he be more publicly grateful that being an NZ citizen is so far keeping him out of the FBI’s clutches? Yes, and I hope he survives the extradition hearing and puts heavy slipper into the Key gang’s re-election chances.
a rebel, or self serving? Sure he has stood up, thank goodness cos sadly we need people with money to stand up cos the rest of us cant afford to, but its still to further his own business and personal goals? It’s not altruistic as perhaps, Jane Kelsey’s stand might be.
Dotcom’s right to say that night life in Auckland doesn’t hold up to the standards set in LA, NYC, etc. Or even Melbourne for goodness sakes. Because it doesn’t.
Starting up a new political party, it’s not a smart comment to put into print, however.
Because it’s not the “night life” which makes NZ a great place to live and bring up children.
Quickly something must be done to solve this blight upon NZ and another failing of our neo liberal paradigm.
Labour will fix this problem by introducing a new agency, KIWICLUB, to act as a single provider of partying for NZ households. We believe that we have the skills and the ability to make KIWICLUB the best partying hangout the the average Kiwi and expat IT workers can experience anywhere.
Auckland night life doesn’t even hold up to the standard of Courtenay Place. Lots of little incoherent clusters (ponsonby, k road, lower queen st, viaduct, parnell, around vector, kingsland) of which only Ponsonby and the Viaduct have much going on
And worse, you can’t really stagger between them (hmmm that’s been done before in the distant past I wager), which is a major benefit of the Wellington layout.
Wellington needs night life because, unlike the rest of the country, the weather is horrendous and there are no decent beaches.
North of Upper Hutt, the rest of us are to busy enjoying the outdoors to worry about “nightlife”. 🙂 laughing.
The best place to stagger from Pub to pub used to be Westport.
Apart from the problem of not knowing the right knock and tripping over the railway lines on the way home.
In defense of Auckland, I think there are now almost as many watering holes, and licensed restaurants, around Viaduct Harbour alone than there is in Wellington central.
You could probably manage to visit all the pubs in Westport without too much trouble, at least in the last 50 years. I hate to think what it would have been like in the late nineteenth century though.
It was a student thing in my days at Vic to have an eight ounce beer in each of the Wellington pubs, all in one day. If my memory serves me correctly there were 44 of them. I thought about trying it but I don’t think I would ever have succeeded.
I knew people who did though.
Should he be more publicly grateful that being an NZ citizen
I don’t think this is correct.
I am sure Dotcom only has permanent residency, and would be surprised if any minister on their watch would sign off his citizenship. A Dotcom citizenship application will go upstairs because no immigration official is going to embarrass their minister.
Reportedly, Dotcom received permanent residency on 29 Nov 2010. He can apply for citizenship after five years (after 29 Nov 2015). The application takes about four months to process and there is the standard need to meet the ‘good character’ requirement.
I don’t blame him for being somewhat disillusioned with NZ, after he had a home invasion by the NZ police and the NZ government supporting the US vendetta against him for doing much the same things as Google, Microsoft and facebook.
Let’s not go into defensive mode. Dotcom has been doing a lot for NZ and has put the RW into a spin. He can make some stringent judgments if he wants to, and we should listen and accept there may be something lacking here.
Pleased to see that NZ is still not quite regarded as the playground for the wealthy.
If Dotcom really wanted to give back to the NZers who have supported him he’d be looking at decreasing the wealth gap and supporting those in NZ struggling to survive – better use of his time than moaning about lack of super-rich play facilities.
Publisher Paul Little was reticent about whether he believed the book would leave people feeling more or less sympathetic towards Dotcom as he fights extradition to the United States on copyright charges.
But he hoped it would have a wide and international audience.
KDC just did NZ a big favour there. He basically told the rich knob international community that NZ is a boring place to live 🙂
The do us all a favour you disgusting wealthy parasite and fuck off.
Please leave Dotcom. As you have discovered we are not a playground for the rich and do not want to be. We despise the wealthy and the corporate greed you represent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enough … Speak for yourself. The rich are not to be despised, what is needed is for them to pay their dues and respect their workers and all the people that have had a hand in providing things they have made their wealth out of. Apparently much of the problem with the filthy rich is that they are not investing in actual things, just following their busy lives in tax havens fiddling with the baubles of power.
And when they “pay their dues and respect their workers and all the people that have had a hand in providing things they have made their wealth out of” we will respect them.
what is needed is for them to pay their dues and respect their workers and all the people that have had a hand in providing things they have made their wealth out of.
And once they do then they won’t be rich and thus it will never happen until we make them.
We cannot afford the rich and we need to stop pretending that we can.
..as tonto said to the lone ranger in a moment of peril..when surrounded by other (hostile) native americans..
..’what do you mean ‘we’..?..white-man..?’..
..i don’t ‘despise’ the wealthy..
..they just need to stump up a bit more..eh..?
..’cos everything has got out of whack..
..(i do ‘despise’ the bankers..tho’..and their ilk in various fields..the slave-wage payers@ mcdonalds/warehouse etc..those total leech/exploitation business-models..the vivisectors..them too..)
..as the new/improved pope said:..tie the corrupt ones to a rock..and throw them in the sea..
..like most other social groups..i have met some rich people who were arrogant arseholes..
..that i looked at like they were specimans in a laboratory..
..and know others who were/are fine upstanding human beings..
DotCom has stood up against Key and, thanks to him, some pretty dubious arse licking has come to light. He has been more interesting than the Russian mafia and Hollywood types the country is generally sold off to. He can stay. I don’t mind his complaining about the nightlife. The usual billionaire complains about taxation rates or industrial law, and the government bends us over backwards for them. Overall, having DotCom here has been a plus for us.
Is Queenstown better off a now it’s a ski resort for rich Australians?
Is Auckland better off with a mega casino?
Are we all better off with Sunday trading?
Are we better off with mass car imports?
Are we better off with super motorways and endless carparks?
Are we better off with international franchises of everything and huge concrete shopping dungeons?
Are we better off with gated communities and million dollar mansions, while there isn’t enough state housing?
If DotCom wants more rampant commercialism he just needs to stick around longer. It will come.
Passed into Law under urgency this week Slippery’s National Government will now give it’self the ability to ‘review’ all State House tenancies openly trumpeting the intention to kick out 3-4000 of the States tenants,
Showing His tendency to not only be a hypocrite,(who doesn’t remember Nick Smith’s refusal at one point to move from a Ministerial home citing the disruption to ‘His’ children’s education), the Minister goes on to prove His and the Cabinet’s stupidity by pointing out the law change is necessary because a fishing boat skipper in His electorate is occupying a State House while earning 100 grand a year,
No Law change and mass disruption of all of the States tenants lives was or is necessary to fix such an anomaly, and i think most here would tend to agree that the purpose and intent of State Housing is not to house those earning 100 grand+ yearly,
The hint, the clue if you will, for a Minster and a Government without any, clues that is, resides within the terms of the rental of the States housing stock, this simply being 25% of the tenants income up to a set market rent,
The only change necessary in the terms surrounding the rental of the States housing stock are the removal of the words ”up to a set market rent” which would simply leave the terms of renting a State House as 25% OF INCOME full stop,
My opinion is that this National Government have made the changes in Legislation not to free up what it says are 1000’s of houses for more deserving tenants, of which there are 10’s of 1000’s, that’s simply an excuse, the smoke and mirrors surrounding the Governments intention to sell to it’s mates 1000’s more of the States housing stock which will be accomplished with a surrounding trail of lies that the houses are too big, too small,or in the ‘wrong place’…
Have you a clue PR, even just a tiny one, a comment of substance outlining a debatable position formed through knowledge with perhaps the provision of the odd link which expounds upon you point of view,
If you havn’t, a lucid debatable point to make that is, your continual appearence here at the Standard i would suggest applies to you an epithet the use of which we commenter’s are subtly persauded not to use,
In other words you are a waste of f**king space and the air in here will be far less toxic if you shut the f**k up and F**k off…
Sure ok, theres a limited amount of stock and theres a large amount of people who need it. If someone is in a situation where they don’t need the home ie single person living in a 2-3 bedroom then that single person should be moved into a single person accomadation and a small family can move into the 2-3 bedroom house
Or if someone can afford market rent or a mortgage then they should be moved on so someone else that can’t afford market rent can go into the house
Now someone might say in that case we need more housing stock and that may be thats a seperate issue
Ok, your point about mismatching where a single person is living in a 2-3 bedroom house/flat, do you have the slightest clue about the number of single people who fit the ‘extreme need’ category after an application to HousingNZ versus the number of 1 bedroom housing units HousingNZ possesses,
Consider the above equation while also ‘thinking’ about the number of 1 bedroom housing units the Government (of any hue), has constructed in the past 30 years,(while you muse over that consider also successive governments have the use of census data , economic data, along with health statistics),
And now i pose to you the simple question, what 1 bedroom accommodation do you propose the ‘extreme need’ single person occupants of more than 1 bedroom HousingNZ homes ‘move into’…
Don’t play f**king head games with me you infantile little wing-nut, i ask you a specific question,
How do you move tenants from ‘mis-matched’ homes in terms of the number of bedrooms available v the number of bedrooms needed when it is obvious to even the brainless that the State neither possesses or intends to build accommodation that matches current needs…
‘It’ is an issue you raised in your comment above, when you have provided me with the answer to the obvious questions i put to you surrounding this part of the points you raise in your comment above we can move on to your education vis a vis the 800 million dollar subsidy the taxpayer forks out to HousingNZ every year and the need for a ‘new model’ for HousingNZ where the housing of people with high earnings would be a welcome relief to the taxpayer…
remember Rogue doesnt live near poor people so they really only exist as a myth in his head. The state housing sell down will ensure the poor people are not mixing with the well to do… out of sight = able to denigrate and dehumanise.
When Puckish Rogue, at comment 9.4 above, made a comment that Dotcom leaving would mean he would take most of the Labour Party’s funding with him Te Reo Putake immediately demanded to know whether he had and evidence for that or whether it was merely a “brain fart”.
Am I allowed to ask whether you have any evidence for talking about where Rogue lives or is you contribution merely an example of what TRP labels a “brain fart”?
Steady on, old chap, I didn’t demand anything. PR slandering Dotcom and the NZLP by falsely claiming a financial link between them is, however, a lot more serious than tracey’s suggestion that PR has indicated that he lives among the rich. I’m sure PR can see state houses from his backyard. Or on Google Earth. Or just in his head.
I am merely noting the fact that when anyone on the right, including myself, makes a statement there is usually a raucous demand for evidence of the statement.
When someone on the left makes a claim, particularly about a person on the right, there is no evidence required.
I take it from your comment, that you now have a request into the GCSB for some evidence, that in fact your statements must be interpreted, if given with no references, as being things about which you don’t actually know anything?
can you post your evidence that whenever “anyone on the right” makes a statement there is usually a “raucus” demand for evidence?
When someone claims someone else doesnt live near poor people and both those people are anonymous you ask for evidence. When someone claims that Dotcom has donated to the labour party you don’t.
You are right though Alwyn, those on the right are oppressed and misunderstood and poorly treated.
If he said the sky were blue or grass was green I’d want a second opinion and (preferably signed, sworn and witnessed) third-party verifiable evidence..
She is destroying the lives of the children of this country with her approach to her job. And therefore as far as I am concerned she is fair game and any criticism of her is fine by me.
Impoliteness pales against Bullying and Moral Corruption. A fair and hard to miss target on whatever count. Save the tears and clutch the pearls for the countless number of babies locked into poverty by the attitudes and actions of the callous lump.
you can care about the babies without sinking to their level to do it. Not supporting appearance politics is not synonymous with not caring about the babies
Or people who have many houses ensuring that those with none have difficulty getting one. Or people who got their university educations for free ensuring that those without one have to pay for theirs with loads of debt. Or people who had access to masses of cheap resources and oil burning right through it at maximum rate while telling those today who don’t, not to. Etc.
Yes millsy, that is even more true if Slippery’s National government intend as i suggest to flick off the houses they force the current tenants from on the basis that they are unsuitable or unwanted,
Those tenants who cannot afford the higher rents of course will be forced either out onto the streets or into substandard accommodation for which they will be charged a premium for, there will be no savings to the tax-payer as WINZ will find it’self as is the case with the recently highlighting of the rack-renting of 300 vulnerable tenants in an Auckland ‘holiday park’, propping up the profits of the rack-renters via special needs grants and the like to the tenants,
The intentions of this abysmal National Government are then exposed when connected to the recent moves to restrict ‘first’ home buyers from entering the housing market, we can see that the intentions far from those stated are to keep the demand for rental housing as high as possible while fostering the buying of investment properties by those who have equity…
Anardarko and the State
Facebook ,the source of a few wasted moments ,turned up an interesting debate yesterday.
Oil &Offshore drilling , It’s been my bread & butter for 33 years . I also know a bit about deepwater , I’ve been working there for 15 years.
I met /talked and shed tears with the senior ToolPusher on the Deepwater Horizon,the rig that exploded killing 13 people who share my life issues .
The forum , amongst Rigworkers of Aotearoa , was generally negative towards “the tree huggers” and pro drilling & more importantly the first genuine attempt to delve into the vast area of the unexplored Zealandia geology.
The consensus was that the public perception is tending negative to anti and that we as a nation should be approaching this new era with Norwegian style management of Offshore drilling.
The biggest difference between Norway’s management of Oil & Gas resources and New Zealand’s is that Norway retained 100% State ownership [ Statoil] on its large & easy accessible fields in the 1980′ and has allowed foreign & Norwegian corporations to participate by buying into Blocks for big $$ & only to a maximum of 49% . NZ had a similar regime with Petrocorp which developed the Waihapa,kaimiro etc and owned 50 % of Maui.
The biggest act of thievery in NZ history was the “sale” of Petrocorp in 1987 &88 by Roger Douglas & Prebble et al [ Goff, ,King ….?] for less than 10% of its value based on proven reserves. Since then NZ has been too far & too expensive to explore and under the regime that exists now ,the best New Zealanders can do out of the development of “our” resources is ~15% of the gross production . Small change compared to the huge pile of $petrodollars$ Norway has accumulated .
I sympathise with most of the sentiments of those brave but foolhardy people out in Tasman protesting against Anardarko .
I don’t necessarily hold their view on Anardarko [ who are not unique in their way of doing business, its endemic across the whole of the oil business], who are working with our laws[ even if they may have been changed so that greenies can’t stop them drilling] .
Most importantly I detest our current government who haven’t got a clue about Oil exploration , fracking, shale , onshore , offshore or deepwater but can smell money and all they want is to grab some more for them & a small bunch of extremely greedy scum share the trough with.
They do not give a damn about you, me , our kids & moko’s .
If they did they’d be have hired plenty of experts to vet the proposed well engineering & safety case for which they would need to spend the kind of money on compliance checking[people, Jobs spot checks , policing] that the Australians are now with Nopsema after the Montara disaster in the Timor sea .
The knee jerk reaction to Pike River , setting up High Impact Units for mining & Oil & gas are woefully underfunded, understaffed and need I say it staffed by foreigners .
All the information , well engineering contingencies , Safety case etc should be available to the public so that we have very little cause to be concerned instead of keeping everything secret .
A great summary of the issues Brokenback.
“Since then NZ has been too far & too expensive to explore…”
Of course this would change in the future as demand/scarcity would make it much more viable. But by then we will have minimal ownership to really capitalize.
Thanks for this brokenback. I have a cousin who has worked on oil rigs since leaving the family farm in otorahonga when he was 18. I appreciate your insight and will do a little reading myself on Norway’s “way”. Wont be following their cue on whaling tho 😉
Colin Craig has repeatedly denied his Christian fundamentalist position by replying to the question with, “I am not a church goer.”
Well that would be so as most fundamentalist-born-again Christians do no not go to “church” but meet in halls and homes. Surely Colin would not mislead us? As is his right, Colin can worship how and where he likes but surely he should answer the question honestly?
I understand he is a Baptist and they do attend church – so what is he saying? He doesn’t attend a church but then he expresses the worst kind of prejudices of the church? He’s either in or out isn’t he.Is he apprehensive that he won’t accepted by the mainstream voter?
The halls and homes type religions. I know someone who is a Christadelphian. Like the Brethren they meet at a hall and there is no priest as such but a council of men. (There are many examples of misogyny in their cult) Also like Brethren they don;’t vote or get “involved in the matters of the physical world”. The children have to marry others of their faith and the pursuit of wealth and display of it is encouraged. It is an incredibly freaky cult and one that makes me worry for my friend who used to be a well adjusted and creative person before she married into the cult.
In terms of religious/cult groups getting involved in politics I think it’s best when you know what they represent. In that respect, we know what Crazy Colin is about and he can be challenged openly. Unlike the Exclusive Brethren who hid behind nutty pamphlets in the 2005 election campaign.
He was raised Baptist but could have taken his own route since. Being upfront is unusual in politicians and a few public figures who have brandished their christianity have fallen quite sharply from grace over the years.
If he can’t be totally open about his religiosity what does that say? I find it hard to reconcile a guy who ends staff meetings with a prayer with someone who is middle of the road religious.
Actually I think Craig’s social conservatism is what I would focus on. It’s all there in plain sight.
I’ve been to work events/meetings with Tangata Whenua who do a prayer at the beginning and end. It’s fairly standard for people working a lot in certain kinds of environments. I wouldn’t read very much into it.
outside of meetings in state situations or maori specific, in over 30 years in the workforce I have never attended, nor know anyone who has attended, a workplace meeting which ends in prayer.
And Onslow College in the Ohariu electorate has closed the doors on it’s Community Ed after 30 successful and popular years of provision. Not a word from Dunne on the matter.
Are Labour planning to reintroduce funding for night classes should they be elected next year?
Facebook boss Sheryl Sandberg on male CEO’s fear of women:
“The next time you hear a little girl called ‘bossy’, go up to the person who did it – and it may be the little girl’s parents – have a big smile on your face and say ‘Your little girl is not bossy, she has executive leadership skills’,”
While people’s eyes are on the North Island, the new electorate seat and National wanting to gift a parliamentary seat to Crazy Craig, the Labour Party and the Cunliffe leadership should also stay focused on retaining and growing support in the South Island.
Prediction Number 1:
A previously strong South Island electorate will be lost by Labour to National at next year’s General Election, no thanks to an increasingly unpopular and ineffectual incumbent and thanks to a far better and more likeable opposing candidate.
“Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse, a Dunedin-based list MP who has twice previously stood in Dunedin North said he was committed to standing in the 2014 election but no final decision had yet been made on where.” http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/282486/dunedin-north-extended-north
You heard it first here: Woodhouse will decide to stand in Dunedin South.
That’s my prediction too. Woodhouse’s family roots are in Dunedin South anyways. Also, I know that early blue money has been flowing into Dunedin South.
2011 Nat candidate and carpet bagger Joanne Hayes, from the Manawatu, took the Labour electorate majority down to 4175 in 2011 and helped National win the party vote in Dunedin South in a shock result. Labour’s 4,700 2008 party vote majority went down to about -1,800 in 2011. A huge slide.
Joanne’s a solid candidate and I reckon she will stand in the North Island next year maybe closer to home.
he was born here in south dunedin, poor boy big famly mum was a popular nurse, & all his siblings are really successful people. interesting ake ake ake. for eg, i wont vote curran, but would vote for a labour rep if we had a decent one.
Medical tourism – many going to Thailand I heard. Are NZs going to be threatened by these bugs from people trying to get round the system by going elsewhere.? Someone was saying how good the medial service is there. It might look good but the bugs can’t be seen. Information though is that many people treat themselves with antibiotics like we use aspirin. (And that can be dangerous too.)
There is an increase in numbers of negative events in NZ hospitals and they are under funding stress, which I bet isn’t keeping up with inflation, not like MPs rises. .07% rise at one hospital for a staff member.
This is from RT’s link above and I think we should be aware of this. Mr Pool had caught a pan-resistant superbug, known as Klebsiella pneumoniae with Oxa 48 resistance, while in hospital in either Vietnam or India.
These types of superbugs produce an enzyme that destroys the strongest, “last-resort” type of antibiotics, known as carbapenems, and tend to be resistant to all other categories of antibiotics.
Essentially, if you get infected, there is little hope of survival….
On an average day, 20 patients are in isolation with super-bacterias ESBL and MRSA. In these cases, the patient has a single room with their own toilet, and staff wear gowns and gloves for all contact. Items that leave the room are decontaminated.
ta gw, your hands appear more efficient at typing than my paw (just been collecting the seeds from deadheads, gratefully, and distributing them around the section) More free stuff…like the Poppies. 😉
While Titford was claiming victimisation from Maori, the truth was actually the opposite – a long history of abuse and victimisation of others, and selfish corruption.
The former wife of Northland farmer Allan Titford said her husband told her soon after they married that he sank his own fishing boat to collect an insurance payout.
In an interview with Radio New Zealand she said that after 22 years of torment it was the fact her children started harming themselves that made her seek help from Women’s Refuge.
Her children could not understand why she wouldn’t leave Titford and used to encourage her to do so, she said.
“I finally said to them he’d told me he’d kill my mum and dad and then, if they died, he’d go to their funeral and he’d find us there and get us,” Cochrane said.
[…]
She said she didn’t tell anyone about her torment because Titford threatened to kill her parents if she did.
“It was always ‘if you tell anyone I’ll kill you or I’ll kill your parents’ and it took ages before I even told my own kids the reason why I wouldn’t leave,” Cochrane said.
Not long after she left Titford her mother died and the next day Titford drove through Hikurangi looking for them, she said.
Her children spotted him and were so terrified they jumped into a shop to hide from him.
The family went into hiding with the help of Women’s Refuge until Titford was charged and bailed on the condition he stay south of Hamilton.
Thank goodness for Women’s Refuges. They need on-going support and funding.
“Thank goodness for Women’s Refuges. They need on-going support and funding.”
I’m all for Labour’s plan for gender balance, if women MPs support this, because so far not a lot has been done a lot to safeguard women who leave abusive partners.
How are people finding the site speed this morning. It has been slower than I’d have liked this week because the file server was having problems providing the files to the web servers. So I upgraded that last night.
Looks like we now have the required expansion abilities that I will need for an election year…
JMG has a very interesting article up – well worth a read.
All of the abstract conceptions of classical Roman culture thus came to cluster around the civil religion of the Empire, a narrative that defined the cosmos in terms of a benevolent despot’s transformation of primal chaos into a well-ordered community of hierarchically ranked powers. Jove’s role in the cosmos, the Emperor’s role in the community, the father’s role in the family, reason’s role in the individual—all these mirrored one another, and provided the core narrative around which all the cultural achievements of classical society assembled themselves. The difficulty, of course, was that in crucial ways, the cosmos refused to behave according to the model, and the failure of the model cast everything else into confusion. In the same way, the abstract conceptions of contemporary industrial culture have become dependent on the civil religion of progress, and are at least as vulnerable to the spreading failure of that secular faith to deal with a world in which progress is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.
Or employment opportunities dictating where those feet go, from the article: “Fewer New Zealanders are leaving for Australia as that country’s job market cools down….”
Winston Peters good on Radionz this morning. His usual well spoken self making points about Kiwi Rail and they were good ones. He is good value despite pop-up quirks that are off putting.
Yes – he was brilliant. Quinn I think (I hope) realises his spin doctoring hasn’t/ won’g ekshly cut it – although don’t be surprised if they try it on.
One point Winnie made that interested me (hopefully some1 can verify it) is that SINCE the wobble introduction, the ship has actually carried less freight across the ditch than it would have had they left the fooking thing alone!
Boozie Boy Allan aye …… experts in ALLLLLLL ‘enterprises’, and masters of none.
Ah… So good to Mr spin-genius claiming with a shit-eating grin that it’s not his fault and he has nothing to apologise for if people ‘imagine’ that he was referring to anyone in particular when he said “Apology demanded from Australia by a bloke who looks like a 1970s Pilipino [sic] porn star”. This after a bunch of racist tweets about Indonesian leaders.
Classic narcissist, never wrong. Except when it becomes front page news in Indonesia, then it’s:
“Apologies to my Indonesian friends – frustrated by media-driven divisions – Twitter is indeed no place for diplomacy.”
Classic narcissist, ‘it’s not my fault, I’m the victim here’.
That video of Mark Textor thinking he’s being clever but actually looking like an idiotic arsehole by trying to lawyer-talk his way out of it will be around forever. This little piece of schadenfreude has made my day.
What an absolute hoot ! From NZ Herald – the madly pompous patronising old ego-fool Tea Party phallus Bill O’Reilly on Fux News – lashing Kiwi blogger Paul Casserly:
Interestingly, scroll down to the top of the smaller Fux News video in the article and what do we see ? Somethng about visiting Whale Oil in NZ for the best news.
Lethal hypocrisy at its most loathsome:
Israel’s manipulation of humanitarian aid
by Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor, Thursday, 21 November 2013
As Israel’s heavily publicised humanitarian mission in the Philippines commenced, the IDF has been constantly updating its achievements in the ravaged land through a twitter account which briefly utilised the hashtag #IDFWithoutBorders, until activists exploited the irony implied within the chosen vocabulary, relating the implied lack of confines to Israel’s unbridled usurpation of Palestinian land and expanding territorial borders.
Social media has been inundated with examples of gratitude and assimilation which competently portray the propaganda campaign. A baby named Israel by ‘the thankful mum’, children photographed while holding the Israeli flag; and the teaching of the Hebrew language to students emphasise an expected compliance, as opposed to collaboration, in return for its involvement in the Philippines. IDF officials have been emphasising their selective implementation of humanitarian work, clearly eliminating its atrocious human rights violations against Palestinians from the equation: “Saving lives is not only a motto but a way of life”. “Medicine is a bridge between people.” For a passive observer, the rhetoric, combined with photography depicting the IDF contingent as actively involved in internationalism would undoubtedly influence public opinion with regard to the application of humanitarian aid.
However, any merit of Israel’s venture in the Philippines must be questioned in light of its manipulation of internationalism, international law violations and the blockade on Gaza – issues which are conveniently relegated to the periphery while promoting the colonising power’s alleged ‘moral army’. The exhibited propaganda dictates a restricted perception of the Israeli army in an attempt to disassociate the same entity from its human rights violations against the Palestinian population.
….. No – it won’t change anything till 2014, or perhaps 2017
When it duzzz, stuffed-pig squealing will be deafening.
Ohhh ahhhh booo hooo, they stole my property from the thiefs!
The bloody cheek of those hard left economic illiterates! Those poor ‘job-creators! How on Earth are they going to vest in “schools, hospitals @ roads” now! It’s sebbatajjj aye Chris!
naah not really, worst case is that Labour will buy back the shares at the price they were sold (don’t want to scare off too many foriegn investors) so I get my money back + the dividends so I come out ahead
Not in my mail box today. I see John Key is trying to soften the impact of the no vote, and maybe also hope the idea that the result is a foregone conclusion will stop people voting..
For a Friday afternoon, my brain is dead and I see Cunliffe making a fish-based pun on Collin’s chances floundering and that he calls her a fish in the middle of it. Am I now part of the problem if I can’t find the sexism that is so apparently inherent to I/S?
As an addendum, I think the point raised in the comments below explaining “old trout” is appropriate and clarifies a lot of it to me but I find it difficult to get angry over a line like that when the Nats are so willing to brand anyone who doesn’t agree with them as an “extremist” “fundamentalist” “terrorist”
I gather Cunliffe was invited to submit a post in reply to one by Judith Collins that appeared some weeks ago. The original is said to be tongue in cheek, so I guess Cunliffe replied in kind. Searched The Ruminator but can’t locate the Collins post.
Oh, so Collins can get off her high horse – dog whistling re the sexist term used by many KB & WO devotees to attempt to disparage Cunliffe. Her followers’ term is very sexist.
[lprent: I thought I knew that silly smug snideness with no actual content or apparent intelligence. You are still banned under another name. And I see that you since still haven’t written anything of value confining yourself instead to flame starters. So an auto-spam is called for.
I allow you to carry on reading the site despite being tempted to test the new exclusion tool. ]
Honestly, some of the stuff he comes out with, you seriously WTF at.
The thought of that tool bag being with kilometers of the levers of power is fucking terrifying and to be honest the fact the such a complete fuck knuckle can even get in a position to become prime minister is a sad indictment on our political system.
Cunliffe didn’t talk about fancying Liz Hurley. Or make a joke about Maori and cannibals. Or call Hillary President Clinton. Or post a photo of himself with the Queen on Twitter. Or say the Roast busters should just “grow up”.
As I read on Kiwi Blog maybe all the National guys should address the labour and green female mps as old trouts or maybe even bush pigs until the next election.
Darien Fenton and Carol Beaumont look like a couple of tough old razor backs I’m sure they wouldn’t be too fussed with the Male National Mps taking the piss out of the way they look
I’m sure all the left women would find it rather amusing.
Collins deserved it for this: “David Cunliffe – no one would argue that Cunners (the more affectionate term for him) is anything but intelligent – least of all himself.”
Not such a numpty not to have figured out that a nice little bit of wedge politics on a Friday arvo might help him get back some of those male voters who apparently shifted over to National in the wake of the so called man ban issue that surfaced at the Labour Party Conference. The bigger the fuss the better it is for Cunliffe. The only surprise was that Judith Collins walked in to it so readily.
Farrar at Kiwiblog bawls out Cunliffe for inferring Collins is an old tr–t. How about a Standard author bawl out Collins for inferring Cunliffe is a c–t.
Where did she do that? Cunny is the synonym not cunners. I’ve seen lefties quite happily use the nickname t in a friendly way . I’d accept it’s mainly used by righties just like lefties have silly juvenile nicknames for key that they use cos they think ‘it’s oh so clever’
‘Open Letter’ – request for NZ Serious Fraud Office to conduct an urgent inquiry into alleged bribery and corruption, involving Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Sky City Auckland.
Lisa Prager and myself, (Penny Bright), hereby formally request the NZ Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to conduct an urgent inquiry into alleged bribery and corruption, involving Auckland Mayor Len Brown, and Sky City Auckland.
For your further information, I am registered to attend the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference (including workshops) on 26 -28 November 2013.
The Labour Party’s finance spokesman David Cunliffe has apologised to the National Party’s Judith Collins after saying humans would probably die out if she were the last woman on earth.
Invited onto Paul Henry’s radio show, David Cunliffe was asked if he had ever thought about who he would mate with if he and his fellow mps were the last people left on earth, and this was his response.
“I have thought that if Judith Collins was the last woman on earth, the species would probably become extinct.”
Cunliffe was just saying that he wouldn’t have sex with a woman just for the sake of it. Unlike the NAct scum, he would need to respect, love, and have common ground with any sexual partner. I don’t see why he apologised really. The toxic gnome should have apologised for asking such a stupid question.
Cunliffe was being polite and very restrained. There are many other more descriptive nouns and adjectives that her own current and former colleagues would have used that she would be really familiar with 🙂
You’re a nutter Piss73. Give the missus a serious seeing to when she got home late with the Maccers dinner and no dipping sauce didya ? You being too bone idle or unartful to peel some spuds while ya waited, as you related yesterday or the day before ? Walked home for that matter while you drove to and from work in the Grandly asprayshinul Vitara angling at the stylish Maori Land Bruiser VX, as you also related yesterday or the day before ?
Ake ake ake……obviously don’t know or care to know about the zoo of Judge Judy’s current colleagues but certainly there are many former colleagues in Auckland who always saw her as a self promoting baggage and a not too gifted one at that.
Yes he could mention how nice it is when she exits the room.., or he could tell the penguins that he’s found someone capable of reversing rising temperatures just by making eye contact..
ShonKey Python on TV tonight – “I don’t comment on security matters.”
Where the fuck is the fiduciary in this ? “I don’t comment…….”. When it’s probable that a foreign power has been spying on Kiwis, and the jerk knows it.
Where the fuck is the fiduciary here ?
Is this simpering Hawaii ponce a traitor or is he a traitor ?
I’ve been surfing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers
made good content as you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever
before.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
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Fiftieth anniversary of the death of Aldous Huxley
Los Angeles, California, 22 November 1963
On the morning of November 22nd, a Friday, it became clear the gap between living and dying was closing. Realizing that Aldous [Huxley] might not survive the day, Laura [Huxley’s wife] sent a telegram to his son, Matthew, urging him to come at once. At ten in the morning, an almost inaudible Aldous asked for paper and scribbled “If I go” and then some directions about his will. It was his first admission that he might die …
Around noon he asked for a pad of paper and scribbled
LSD-try it
intermuscular
100mm
In a letter circulated to Aldous’s friends, Laura Huxley described what followed: ‘You know very well the uneasiness in the medical mind about this drug. But no ‘authority’, not even an army of authorities, could have stopped me then. I went into Aldous’s room with the vial of LSD and prepared a syringe. The doctor asked me if I wanted him to give the shot- maybe because he saw that my hands were trembling. His asking me that made me conscious of my hands, and I said, ‘No, I must do this.’
An hour later she gave Huxley a second 100mm. Then she began to talk, bending close to his ear, whispering, ‘light and free you let go, darling; forward and up. You are going forward and up; you are going toward the light. Willingly and consciously you are going, willingly and consciously, and you are doing this beautifully — you are going toward the light — you are going toward a greater love … You are going toward Maria’s [Huxley’s first wife, who had died many years earlier] love with my love. You are going toward a greater love than you have ever known. You are going toward the best, the greatest love, and it is easy, it is so easy, and you are doing it so beautifully.’
All struggle ceased. The breathing became slower and slower and slower until, ‘like a piece of music just finishing so gently in sempre piu piano, dolcamente,’ at twenty past five in the afternoon, Aldous Huxley died.
http://thedreamatists.wordpress.com/2007/08/06/aldous-huxley-takes-lsd-on-deathbed/
some deaths are intensely beautiful..
like the wilt of a rose..
…wow what a fantastic way to go into the next realm
Thanks Morrissey that was very touching and hopeful for the rest of us.
I’m guessing the death of JFK 50 years ago simply slipped your mind ?
I’m guessing the death of JFK 50 years ago simply slipped your mind?
A guy who had connived in the assassination of the South Vietnam prime minister (an American vassal) just twenty days earlier, and was actively conspiring to assassinate the Cuban president (who refused to be a vassal) was himself the victim of an assassin’s bullet.
The biter bit, pure and simple. You can throw all that Camelot hogwash where it belongs—in the same bin as the fulsome tributes for Reagan, Thatcher, Pinochet, Mao and Pol Pot.
I prefer to focus on people who actually enhanced human life—like great writers, who really could write. Unlike some Pulitzer Prize winners….
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2478/did-john-f-kennedy-really-write-profiles-in-courage
Ok, that’s cool. At least I now know there is more to you than just a cut and paste blogger and, I also suspect you research and write for the Herald and TV 3.
C.S. Lewis died fifty years ago today: Friday 22 November 1963
CS Lewis’s literary legacy: ‘dodgy and unpleasant’ or ‘exceptionally good’?
by SAM LEITH, The Guardian, 19 November 2013
“Aslan is on the move.” That phrase, three decades after I first read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, still has the power to tickle the hairs on my neck. It testifies to the enduring power of CS Lewis’s recasting of the Christian myth that I’m far from alone. If this were all there were to him, it would still be pretty remarkable that, 50 years after his death, this tweedy old Oxford don should occupy such an exalted place in our cultural life.
All this week on Radio 4, Simon Russell Beale has been reading The Screwtape Letters – Lewis’s perceptive inquiry into temptation cast as a series of witty letters between a demon and his apprentice. This Friday, his reputation will be crowned with a plaque in his honour, between John Betjeman and William Blake, in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.
The tribute might have pleased him, but it’s an odd one: as a poet, Lewis is usually regarded as pretty useless. “He hated all poets because he was a failed poet,” says his biographer AN Wilson. “He hated TS Eliot. He hated Louis MacNeice. There’s a very bad ‘poem’ by Lewis about reading The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, and it just shows how stupid he was about modern poetry.”
Lewis has much more than poetry to offer, though. Almost too much: his posthumous reputation is disconcertingly various. As well as a children’s writer, he was novelist, memoirist, essayist, critic, broadcaster and apologist. But the two Lewises that command the biggest followings….
Read more….
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/19/cs-lewis-literary-legacy
does this mean copyright lapses today?
Nope. Copyright is, depending upon where in the world you are, death +50/70 years. Apparently the governments of the world are concerned that anyone the author leaves behind won’t be able to live on their own work.
The really big problem with it is that corporations don’t die and yet corporations now own a lot, if not most, of the copyrights.
Morrissey….Thankyou for that review of CS Lewis and his writings…i always enjoyed his children’s books and I was a great fan of his popular Christian theology in my teens…….which after doing Comparative Religion at Univeristy i havent read since….however, interesting and understandable that he is still as popular as ever
…for me now , looking back he remains a very important twentieth century existentialist Christian thinker ….who was wrestling with deep personal, moral and religious issues from the perspective of his time and place….and trying to frame them for the ordinary person …he deserves respect for this. Like Graham Greene, also a man of his time, he was an agonised modernist but a deeply moral and religious man
…in some ways they are a yardstick from which to view the values inhering in our present society….materialist, social persona and media driven, technologically determined… and more often than not frivolous and amoral.
The Narnia Code : The Seven Heavens .
“…he loved hiding things.He loved the idea that people learnt more by discovering things themselves, especially hidden things. A lot of the meaning of God, is after all, hidden”.
I love his books, but Lewis had a rather questionable social conscience. In Screwtape Lewis depicts social justice as a deception useful to Hell’s minions:
The Gospel, while true, is worthless if it fails the test of social justice (loving thy neighbour). Of course, this is Lewis writing as a devil so it can be hard to parse the meaning.
I have his books, among others…
Der Antichrist
Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table
David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as sloshed as Schlegel
There’s nothing Nietzche couldn’t teach ya
‘Bout the raising of the wrist
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill
Plato, they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle
Hobbes was fond of his dram
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart
“I drink, therefore I am”
Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker
But a bugger when he’s pissed
Read more: Monty Python – Bruce’s Philosophers Song Lyrics | MetroLyrics
Prof. Frederick Dagg of the University of Taihape, The Meaning of Life
“we don’t know how bloody lucky we are” Trev.
! Scurrilous allegations indeed, although, as Sam Hunt pronounced, “I like to drink, it let’s me think, of other people and other places”; thank the Lord for moderation and harm-minimization approaches. Dreadful stuff in excess, the ultimate solvent, with the potential to dissolve everything one has! yet, not as quickly as gambling.
Hits of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, brought to you by Rugby, Racing and Beer “ing up under the strain”. 😀
Are you saying that Nietzsche = Screwtape ?! haha interesting concept
I always thought that Lewis was either, being the devils advocate or attempting to be satirical.
In the tradition of one of my other favourite writers, Swift!
He was, of course, a supporter of English style hierarchy on the lines of the “good King” and a, supposedly, benevolent aristocracy. The sort of noblesse oblige we saw from people like Wilberforce.
I agree KJT
given the revelations in britain..about american spooks spooking/data-harvesting all over the british people..
..with the connivance of the british prime minister..
..and the other revelations about america spying on its’ ‘five-eyes’ spooking partners..
..we need to know if the american spooks have been spooking/data-harvesting all over new zealanders..?
..how long has this been going on..?
..and who approved/allowed it..?
..key..or clark..?
..phillip ure..
phillip u
I would say we are being ‘listened’ to here.. Just listen to the awkward replies of Oz to Indonesia about the spying on the President. They are apparently the most important ally and friend that Oz has in the South Pacific. If Oz is not spying on us they think they have already got us connected to enough milking machines. The USA of course has run a practice invasion incursion in Timaru and they would want to assess how that went down.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/9384664/Troops-liberate-Mainlandia
Hundreds of soldiers stormed the port of Timaru and captured the local airport on Saturday -[9 November?] but they were welcomed as liberators.
(It is due to carry on for three weeks.)
http://snoopman.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/exercise-southern-katipo-2013-a-comic-book-war-game-script/
Notwithstanding the boy’s comic book scenario, the coalition of ‘defence’ forces will attempt to overcome a small militia of “bad people” located in a small rural township called Cave, which is Northwest of Timaru, according to The Timaru Herald‘s report of October 15. There is also “Waimate Taliban” in Waimate, a town south of Timaru that is to be suppressed, according to a November 7 report in the Oamaru Mail….
The C-130’s, along with two Boeing C17 Globemasters, will provide troop mobility and airlift “hardware”. Because C130 Hercules can be equipped with surveillance gathering technology, Exercise Southern Katipo seems to be a means to extend the web of the StratCom’s surveillance reach. StratCom’s base at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska integrates into an entire global network the strike capability of the nine regional combatant commands, including U.S. Pacific Command (or PACOM). Based in Oahu, Hawaii, PACOM not only oversees the Pacific. Its watch includes China, India and the rest of South East Asia.
Dr Strangeadmire or: How the Media Learned to Stop Investigating and Admire the Empire
It is also curious that this joint military exercise between nine other countries has received hardly any media coverage, despite the fact that it is the largest ever multi-force exercise in New Zealand, with over 2500 soldiers, sailors and airmen, 20 aircraft including 10 helicopters, three ships and five NZ civil agencies….
…documentaries that critique why exactly the world is still at war 95 years after the end of ‘the war to end all wars’, such as the documentary Why We Fight, by Eugene Jarecki. Kempster helpfully explained to the Oamaru Mail on November 7 that the military exercise is “a bit like a treasure hunt, they go from place to place getting information and intelligence.”
Commander Kempster, who sounded more like an interim political governor puppet appointed by George W. Bush’s regime, added positively, “The people of Mainlandia have welcomed us as liberators. We’ve been treated to some great southern hospitality.”
With that troop level copyright violations in South Canterbury must be extreme. (ref Kim Dotcom 72 police 1 helicopter)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/228489/new-claims-over-british-us-spying
Russel Norman is asking questions. I think it’s time the rest of us started asking questions.
Some points to ponder:
The meteoric rise to power of one, John Key. The unprecedented demonising of one, Helen Clark, aided and abetted by a compliant MSM. Interesting in the light of Snowden’s latest revelations.
Amy Adams was a fool to even attempt to play the game of “information management” with Cunliffe. Good on him for calling her behaviour out.
Cunliffe and the Labour Parliamentary team seem to on the ascendant inside and outside the Chamber.
It a great feeling after a few barren years.
LOl John key busted in one of his petty little slf serving acts of bullshit:
Last month Key said he preferred no increase. “If it was my vote, it would be no pay increases, but I don’t get that vote.”
However, last night his office released his submission on the process, which showed he lobbied for pay increases at around the rate of inflation, making no mention of his preference for no increase.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/9429896/Politicians-pay-rises-and-more-on-way
petty – tick
little – tick
self serving – tick
Lolz, another instance of Slippery the Prime Minister showing He an the Truth are in no way even distant relatives,
‘Blip’s List’ grows ever longer by the day…
did the article connect the lie or was that left to you bookie?
The italics is a direct quote from the article.
thanks, I did go and read it cos I realised i was being lazy.
If anyone was ever in any doubt about the Herald online’s editorial outlook then take a look at the sneaky trick they pulled this morning with their article on MP’s payrises. For some reason they’ve chosen a photo of David Cunliffe to accompany the article and emphasis in the article on the payrise the Leader of The Opposition can expect. Never mind that it’s less than what the PM will get and exactly the same as Cabinet Ministers are getting. A deliberate and cynical attempt to link an unpopular issue with Opposition Leader?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11160982
Yeah, that sounds like the Fairfax Editors hard at work.
I didn’t realise that Fairfax now owned the Herald. When did they take over?
alwyn
I didn’t realise that you don’t have access to any information gathering devices of your own so are forced to come here to get us to do it for you. Look things up yourself, don’t try to pose devil’s advocate questions to show yourself a smartrse.
alwayn happens to be right. It’s APN that owns the NZHerald. This has been general knowledge for some time.
I suggested that alwyn look for himself DTB. Too many RW put statements that should be checked first.
I did try Greywarbler. I did try my very hardest but I couldn’t find the information anywhere that Fairfax owned the Herald.
That’s why I asked. You tell me to look for myself but I’m obviously not as smart as you are. Please tell me I can find that Fairfax owns the Herald? Just the Google query will do.
Please, pretty please.
CV. The original comment to you was just a mild joke. Greywarbler is obviously getting a bit up-tight though isn’t he?.
Ha. You were right mate. APN. Clumsiness on my part.
alwyn
I have a lot of lemons at present. Thinking we should make some lemon pickle with the crop. Maybe I should stop sucking them and lighten up. And I hate smart arses particularly when I fall into that trap myself. Well can’t be perfect all the time.
mmm, lemon ice-cream.
To some extent just having his photo there is valuable exposure. It positions him as a real alternative.
ScottGN
I thought that was absolutely atrocious. And not so subtle. I wouldn’t even use the herald for toilet paper. They should be honest and change their name to The National Party’s Herald. Please lean to the right when you read this rag.
Mind you the NZ Herald supported the smashing of the waterfront strike so at least they are being consistent.
We no longer get the print edition of the Herald in the South Island so I don’t know if the same article/photo combo appeared in that as well as the online edition?
May I ask why you read the Herald or any newspaper if you hold that opinion. I just do not understand why anyone would give their up their precious commodity of time if the newspaper is not even fit for toilet paper. Why bother!
However, my point in responding
1. Is that the newspaper format is negative reporting – car accident on SH1 will be read but an article on cars driving safety on SH1 will send the reader to sleep. If you want to fill yourselves with negative thoughts go read a newspaper. After all, the journalist writing is just somebody with the skills sets to write a 500/1000 word piece that is readable – that’s their skills set nothing more nothing less. Whenever I meet a journalist I don’t think this individual know the answer to all or any question but do acknowledge that their career is about using words to write – so what?.
2. Reading a daily newspaper will accumulative a lots of hours over the month – so privately add the hours & think what else could I do with those hours. If you have a lifestyle without a huge demand on you time then buy and read the daily newspaper with extras on the weekend.
3. A newspaper format is about print advertising (i.e. Harvey Norman etc) with stories to link the pages. The newspaper price is a nominal fee so that the newspapers have a vehicle for their advertising business in conjunction with the comments in point 1 & 2 above.
And it was inevitable it would have happened, Gerry Brownlee is threatening to seize control of the council:
Minister berates council
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/9429893/Minister-berates-council
This country is slowly sliding into a dictatorship.
wow – that seat that got dedicated to him must have really hit the mark
(and im being serious here – i reckon basher brownlee is petty enough )
That piece is worth reading to get a really good understanding of how Brownlee thinks and goes about things.
For a start he was “angry”.
Further on he says this …. ” I’ve bent over backwards, mindful of court instruction,…” which is the most telling of all. He is saying that if it weren’t for courts having told him off and telling him that he has done things plain wrong on several occasions, then he would simply do what he has always done – namely, bully his way through no matter the consequences and no matter the views of others.
What an arsehole and self-admitted bully.
Most revealing for the rest of NZ to see.
Gerry “Sgt Schulz” Brownlee made slow enough going of it with a toadying tory mayor, so now there is a Labour friendly one he seems to have reread his exceptional powers manual and is getting all frisky.
No, no, no said the right certainly not, when questions were raised about the dictatorial powers granted the minister under the 2010 Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act and subsequent 2011 Act.
Brownlee upset at a bungle??? Isnt he the Minister for Bungling?
and of course Wilkinson reisgned over Pike River, not Brownlee who schmoozed at the opening…
“Dotcom says. “All these friends I have that did well in their lives, they want to go out, they want to get drunk, they want to see some pretty girls, they want to spend and they want to impress … in New Zealand you just don’t have the opportunity to do that.””
What a knob.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30004589/dotcom-slams-mediocre-nz-in-book
…wonder why he chose NZ then… if we arent impressed enough by him.
Dotcom is no leftie but seems a bit of a rebel compared to your average filthy rich bastard, and it was hilarious seeing him with a megaphone next to Bomber Bradbury on Queen St and giving the PM stick in person, not many of us get to do that.
Should he be more publicly grateful that being an NZ citizen is so far keeping him out of the FBI’s clutches? Yes, and I hope he survives the extradition hearing and puts heavy slipper into the Key gang’s re-election chances.
a rebel, or self serving? Sure he has stood up, thank goodness cos sadly we need people with money to stand up cos the rest of us cant afford to, but its still to further his own business and personal goals? It’s not altruistic as perhaps, Jane Kelsey’s stand might be.
I find his altruism questionable and think he is a self-promoting wanker.
He is, but I like him.
At least he is contributing something. For whatever reason.
Unlike the millionaire Russian gangsters, crooks and money launderers we have also allowed to become residents.
Dotcom’s right to say that night life in Auckland doesn’t hold up to the standards set in LA, NYC, etc. Or even Melbourne for goodness sakes. Because it doesn’t.
Starting up a new political party, it’s not a smart comment to put into print, however.
Because it’s not the “night life” which makes NZ a great place to live and bring up children.
Quickly something must be done to solve this blight upon NZ and another failing of our neo liberal paradigm.
Labour will fix this problem by introducing a new agency, KIWICLUB, to act as a single provider of partying for NZ households. We believe that we have the skills and the ability to make KIWICLUB the best partying hangout the the average Kiwi and expat IT workers can experience anywhere.
Ho ho, very droll!
I’ll get my coat….
Auckland night life doesn’t even hold up to the standard of Courtenay Place. Lots of little incoherent clusters (ponsonby, k road, lower queen st, viaduct, parnell, around vector, kingsland) of which only Ponsonby and the Viaduct have much going on
And worse, you can’t really stagger between them (hmmm that’s been done before in the distant past I wager), which is a major benefit of the Wellington layout.
Wellington needs night life because, unlike the rest of the country, the weather is horrendous and there are no decent beaches.
North of Upper Hutt, the rest of us are to busy enjoying the outdoors to worry about “nightlife”. 🙂 laughing.
The best place to stagger from Pub to pub used to be Westport.
Apart from the problem of not knowing the right knock and tripping over the railway lines on the way home.
In defense of Auckland, I think there are now almost as many watering holes, and licensed restaurants, around Viaduct Harbour alone than there is in Wellington central.
You could probably manage to visit all the pubs in Westport without too much trouble, at least in the last 50 years. I hate to think what it would have been like in the late nineteenth century though.
It was a student thing in my days at Vic to have an eight ounce beer in each of the Wellington pubs, all in one day. If my memory serves me correctly there were 44 of them. I thought about trying it but I don’t think I would ever have succeeded.
I knew people who did though.
I don’t think this is correct.
I am sure Dotcom only has permanent residency, and would be surprised if any minister on their watch would sign off his citizenship. A Dotcom citizenship application will go upstairs because no immigration official is going to embarrass their minister.
Reportedly, Dotcom received permanent residency on 29 Nov 2010. He can apply for citizenship after five years (after 29 Nov 2015). The application takes about four months to process and there is the standard need to meet the ‘good character’ requirement.
I don’t blame him for being somewhat disillusioned with NZ, after he had a home invasion by the NZ police and the NZ government supporting the US vendetta against him for doing much the same things as Google, Microsoft and facebook.
Commercial reasons I suspect: analogous to Hotblack Desiato spending a year dead for tax purposes.
http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato
😎 not paid to look after your body
Let’s not go into defensive mode. Dotcom has been doing a lot for NZ and has put the RW into a spin. He can make some stringent judgments if he wants to, and we should listen and accept there may be something lacking here.
One persons lack is anothers attribute.
Must know he’s going to get kicked out the door, otherwise what a fucking idiot.
Pleased to see that NZ is still not quite regarded as the playground for the wealthy.
If Dotcom really wanted to give back to the NZers who have supported him he’d be looking at decreasing the wealth gap and supporting those in NZ struggling to survive – better use of his time than moaning about lack of super-rich play facilities.
^Good post
Heh +1
he could buy a superyacht and party on that?
Or open his own club?
If he left he’d take most of Labours funding and half their publicity 🙂
Do you have any evidence that Dotcom has ever given money to Labour, PR? Or was that just another brain fart?
pretty sure there is only evidence he gave to Banks
“What a knob.”
For once I completely agree with you TC.
Publisher Paul Little was reticent about whether he believed the book would leave people feeling more or less sympathetic towards Dotcom as he fights extradition to the United States on copyright charges.
But he hoped it would have a wide and international audience.
KDC just did NZ a big favour there. He basically told the rich knob international community that NZ is a boring place to live 🙂
Maybe he said it to piss off the Minister of Tourism who just happens to be….
nice observation there Ennui
Here’s me thinking that Dotcom was a decent bloke….
Anyway, he has heaps of money, there is nothing stopping him from opening his own nightclub…
The do us all a favour you disgusting wealthy parasite and fuck off.
Please leave Dotcom. As you have discovered we are not a playground for the rich and do not want to be. We despise the wealthy and the corporate greed you represent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enough … Speak for yourself. The rich are not to be despised, what is needed is for them to pay their dues and respect their workers and all the people that have had a hand in providing things they have made their wealth out of. Apparently much of the problem with the filthy rich is that they are not investing in actual things, just following their busy lives in tax havens fiddling with the baubles of power.
And when they “pay their dues and respect their workers and all the people that have had a hand in providing things they have made their wealth out of” we will respect them.
Until that day they are despicable people.
I’m with Enough is Enough.
And once they do then they won’t be rich and thus it will never happen until we make them.
We cannot afford the rich and we need to stop pretending that we can.
@ enough..
..as tonto said to the lone ranger in a moment of peril..when surrounded by other (hostile) native americans..
..’what do you mean ‘we’..?..white-man..?’..
..i don’t ‘despise’ the wealthy..
..they just need to stump up a bit more..eh..?
..’cos everything has got out of whack..
..(i do ‘despise’ the bankers..tho’..and their ilk in various fields..the slave-wage payers@ mcdonalds/warehouse etc..those total leech/exploitation business-models..the vivisectors..them too..)
..as the new/improved pope said:..tie the corrupt ones to a rock..and throw them in the sea..
..like most other social groups..i have met some rich people who were arrogant arseholes..
..that i looked at like they were specimans in a laboratory..
..and know others who were/are fine upstanding human beings..
..who use their wealth as a tool to do good..
..it’s a crazy mixed up world..there..enough..
..phillip ure..
DotCom has stood up against Key and, thanks to him, some pretty dubious arse licking has come to light. He has been more interesting than the Russian mafia and Hollywood types the country is generally sold off to. He can stay. I don’t mind his complaining about the nightlife. The usual billionaire complains about taxation rates or industrial law, and the government bends us over backwards for them. Overall, having DotCom here has been a plus for us.
Is Queenstown better off a now it’s a ski resort for rich Australians?
Is Auckland better off with a mega casino?
Are we all better off with Sunday trading?
Are we better off with mass car imports?
Are we better off with super motorways and endless carparks?
Are we better off with international franchises of everything and huge concrete shopping dungeons?
Are we better off with gated communities and million dollar mansions, while there isn’t enough state housing?
If DotCom wants more rampant commercialism he just needs to stick around longer. It will come.
Passed into Law under urgency this week Slippery’s National Government will now give it’self the ability to ‘review’ all State House tenancies openly trumpeting the intention to kick out 3-4000 of the States tenants,
Showing His tendency to not only be a hypocrite,(who doesn’t remember Nick Smith’s refusal at one point to move from a Ministerial home citing the disruption to ‘His’ children’s education), the Minister goes on to prove His and the Cabinet’s stupidity by pointing out the law change is necessary because a fishing boat skipper in His electorate is occupying a State House while earning 100 grand a year,
No Law change and mass disruption of all of the States tenants lives was or is necessary to fix such an anomaly, and i think most here would tend to agree that the purpose and intent of State Housing is not to house those earning 100 grand+ yearly,
The hint, the clue if you will, for a Minster and a Government without any, clues that is, resides within the terms of the rental of the States housing stock, this simply being 25% of the tenants income up to a set market rent,
The only change necessary in the terms surrounding the rental of the States housing stock are the removal of the words ”up to a set market rent” which would simply leave the terms of renting a State House as 25% OF INCOME full stop,
My opinion is that this National Government have made the changes in Legislation not to free up what it says are 1000’s of houses for more deserving tenants, of which there are 10’s of 1000’s, that’s simply an excuse, the smoke and mirrors surrounding the Governments intention to sell to it’s mates 1000’s more of the States housing stock which will be accomplished with a surrounding trail of lies that the houses are too big, too small,or in the ‘wrong place’…
Its about time the state housing policy was looked at
Have you a clue PR, even just a tiny one, a comment of substance outlining a debatable position formed through knowledge with perhaps the provision of the odd link which expounds upon you point of view,
If you havn’t, a lucid debatable point to make that is, your continual appearence here at the Standard i would suggest applies to you an epithet the use of which we commenter’s are subtly persauded not to use,
In other words you are a waste of f**king space and the air in here will be far less toxic if you shut the f**k up and F**k off…
Sure ok, theres a limited amount of stock and theres a large amount of people who need it. If someone is in a situation where they don’t need the home ie single person living in a 2-3 bedroom then that single person should be moved into a single person accomadation and a small family can move into the 2-3 bedroom house
Or if someone can afford market rent or a mortgage then they should be moved on so someone else that can’t afford market rent can go into the house
Now someone might say in that case we need more housing stock and that may be thats a seperate issue
Ok, your point about mismatching where a single person is living in a 2-3 bedroom house/flat, do you have the slightest clue about the number of single people who fit the ‘extreme need’ category after an application to HousingNZ versus the number of 1 bedroom housing units HousingNZ possesses,
Consider the above equation while also ‘thinking’ about the number of 1 bedroom housing units the Government (of any hue), has constructed in the past 30 years,(while you muse over that consider also successive governments have the use of census data , economic data, along with health statistics),
And now i pose to you the simple question, what 1 bedroom accommodation do you propose the ‘extreme need’ single person occupants of more than 1 bedroom HousingNZ homes ‘move into’…
I agree these questions and others (people who can afford to rent or pay a mortgage) need to be asked and answered
Thats why a shake up is needed
Don’t play f**king head games with me you infantile little wing-nut, i ask you a specific question,
How do you move tenants from ‘mis-matched’ homes in terms of the number of bedrooms available v the number of bedrooms needed when it is obvious to even the brainless that the State neither possesses or intends to build accommodation that matches current needs…
As I said previously thats a seperate issue
‘It’ is an issue you raised in your comment above, when you have provided me with the answer to the obvious questions i put to you surrounding this part of the points you raise in your comment above we can move on to your education vis a vis the 800 million dollar subsidy the taxpayer forks out to HousingNZ every year and the need for a ‘new model’ for HousingNZ where the housing of people with high earnings would be a welcome relief to the taxpayer…
remember Rogue doesnt live near poor people so they really only exist as a myth in his head. The state housing sell down will ensure the poor people are not mixing with the well to do… out of sight = able to denigrate and dehumanise.
When Puckish Rogue, at comment 9.4 above, made a comment that Dotcom leaving would mean he would take most of the Labour Party’s funding with him Te Reo Putake immediately demanded to know whether he had and evidence for that or whether it was merely a “brain fart”.
Am I allowed to ask whether you have any evidence for talking about where Rogue lives or is you contribution merely an example of what TRP labels a “brain fart”?
Steady on, old chap, I didn’t demand anything. PR slandering Dotcom and the NZLP by falsely claiming a financial link between them is, however, a lot more serious than tracey’s suggestion that PR has indicated that he lives among the rich. I’m sure PR can see state houses from his backyard. Or on Google Earth. Or just in his head.
let’s see…
me making a comment about PR’s living circumstances versus suggesting a prominent political party has received funding from Dotcom?
Yup I can see why you would need evidence from me alwyn. I have a request into the GCSB to confirm
I am merely noting the fact that when anyone on the right, including myself, makes a statement there is usually a raucous demand for evidence of the statement.
When someone on the left makes a claim, particularly about a person on the right, there is no evidence required.
I take it from your comment, that you now have a request into the GCSB for some evidence, that in fact your statements must be interpreted, if given with no references, as being things about which you don’t actually know anything?
can you post your evidence that whenever “anyone on the right” makes a statement there is usually a “raucus” demand for evidence?
When someone claims someone else doesnt live near poor people and both those people are anonymous you ask for evidence. When someone claims that Dotcom has donated to the labour party you don’t.
You are right though Alwyn, those on the right are oppressed and misunderstood and poorly treated.
l yawn
Puckish rogue is a lying evil little shit.
If he said the sky were blue or grass was green I’d want a second opinion and (preferably signed, sworn and witnessed) third-party verifiable evidence..
Yep, and be very wary if he offers to sell you some clay…
Some very good points there, bad. Hypocrite Smith is another of the Nat nasties.
and Ms bennett meantime is scurrying around focused on saving her political skin…
her slogan ought to be “let them eat cake”
Her thought surrounding the mouthing of the ‘slogan’ tho would have to be ”if only i had not scoffed it all myself”…
Really? You focus on her weight?
F off wing-nut…
Where was any mention of weight?
It says: “if only I had not scoffed it all myself”…
That could be followed with: And I still need to find room for Colin Craig
agree, leave her weight out of it.
She is destroying the lives of the children of this country with her approach to her job. And therefore as far as I am concerned she is fair game and any criticism of her is fine by me.
Much the same as blubber boy
April ’14 BM. That’s when KDC opens the dam on ShonKey Python misleading (lying to) Parliament about when he first became aware of KDC’s existence.
Her hear Enough is Enough !
Impoliteness pales against Bullying and Moral Corruption. A fair and hard to miss target on whatever count. Save the tears and clutch the pearls for the countless number of babies locked into poverty by the attitudes and actions of the callous lump.
you can care about the babies without sinking to their level to do it. Not supporting appearance politics is not synonymous with not caring about the babies
There is, however, the irony in people who are obviously “well fed” enacting policies which ensure children, are not!
Or people who have many houses ensuring that those with none have difficulty getting one. Or people who got their university educations for free ensuring that those without one have to pay for theirs with loads of debt. Or people who had access to masses of cheap resources and oil burning right through it at maximum rate while telling those today who don’t, not to. Etc.
The only winners I see from this policy are private landlords who will end up charging higher and higher rents to a vast pool of vulnerable tenants.
Yes millsy, that is even more true if Slippery’s National government intend as i suggest to flick off the houses they force the current tenants from on the basis that they are unsuitable or unwanted,
Those tenants who cannot afford the higher rents of course will be forced either out onto the streets or into substandard accommodation for which they will be charged a premium for, there will be no savings to the tax-payer as WINZ will find it’self as is the case with the recently highlighting of the rack-renting of 300 vulnerable tenants in an Auckland ‘holiday park’, propping up the profits of the rack-renters via special needs grants and the like to the tenants,
The intentions of this abysmal National Government are then exposed when connected to the recent moves to restrict ‘first’ home buyers from entering the housing market, we can see that the intentions far from those stated are to keep the demand for rental housing as high as possible while fostering the buying of investment properties by those who have equity…
Anardarko and the State
Facebook ,the source of a few wasted moments ,turned up an interesting debate yesterday.
Oil &Offshore drilling , It’s been my bread & butter for 33 years . I also know a bit about deepwater , I’ve been working there for 15 years.
I met /talked and shed tears with the senior ToolPusher on the Deepwater Horizon,the rig that exploded killing 13 people who share my life issues .
The forum , amongst Rigworkers of Aotearoa , was generally negative towards “the tree huggers” and pro drilling & more importantly the first genuine attempt to delve into the vast area of the unexplored Zealandia geology.
The consensus was that the public perception is tending negative to anti and that we as a nation should be approaching this new era with Norwegian style management of Offshore drilling.
The biggest difference between Norway’s management of Oil & Gas resources and New Zealand’s is that Norway retained 100% State ownership [ Statoil] on its large & easy accessible fields in the 1980′ and has allowed foreign & Norwegian corporations to participate by buying into Blocks for big $$ & only to a maximum of 49% . NZ had a similar regime with Petrocorp which developed the Waihapa,kaimiro etc and owned 50 % of Maui.
The biggest act of thievery in NZ history was the “sale” of Petrocorp in 1987 &88 by Roger Douglas & Prebble et al [ Goff, ,King ….?] for less than 10% of its value based on proven reserves. Since then NZ has been too far & too expensive to explore and under the regime that exists now ,the best New Zealanders can do out of the development of “our” resources is ~15% of the gross production . Small change compared to the huge pile of $petrodollars$ Norway has accumulated .
I sympathise with most of the sentiments of those brave but foolhardy people out in Tasman protesting against Anardarko .
I don’t necessarily hold their view on Anardarko [ who are not unique in their way of doing business, its endemic across the whole of the oil business], who are working with our laws[ even if they may have been changed so that greenies can’t stop them drilling] .
Most importantly I detest our current government who haven’t got a clue about Oil exploration , fracking, shale , onshore , offshore or deepwater but can smell money and all they want is to grab some more for them & a small bunch of extremely greedy scum share the trough with.
They do not give a damn about you, me , our kids & moko’s .
If they did they’d be have hired plenty of experts to vet the proposed well engineering & safety case for which they would need to spend the kind of money on compliance checking[people, Jobs spot checks , policing] that the Australians are now with Nopsema after the Montara disaster in the Timor sea .
The knee jerk reaction to Pike River , setting up High Impact Units for mining & Oil & gas are woefully underfunded, understaffed and need I say it staffed by foreigners .
All the information , well engineering contingencies , Safety case etc should be available to the public so that we have very little cause to be concerned instead of keeping everything secret .
A great summary of the issues Brokenback.
“Since then NZ has been too far & too expensive to explore…”
Of course this would change in the future as demand/scarcity would make it much more viable. But by then we will have minimal ownership to really capitalize.
Thanks for your contribution.
Thanks for this brokenback. I have a cousin who has worked on oil rigs since leaving the family farm in otorahonga when he was 18. I appreciate your insight and will do a little reading myself on Norway’s “way”. Wont be following their cue on whaling tho 😉
Norway’s “way” was set up by an Iraqi immigrant to Norway who knew about the dangers of oil to a democracy.
Canada has fallen into the trap, ignoring the advice of their own very prominent old time economist, Peter Lougheed.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/09/17/Radical-Peter-Lougheed/
And if you haven’t already, definitely listen to Nikiforuk speak on the topic, and especially on the phenomenon of petrostates.
Colin Craig has repeatedly denied his Christian fundamentalist position by replying to the question with, “I am not a church goer.”
Well that would be so as most fundamentalist-born-again Christians do no not go to “church” but meet in halls and homes. Surely Colin would not mislead us? As is his right, Colin can worship how and where he likes but surely he should answer the question honestly?
I understand he is a Baptist and they do attend church – so what is he saying? He doesn’t attend a church but then he expresses the worst kind of prejudices of the church? He’s either in or out isn’t he.Is he apprehensive that he won’t accepted by the mainstream voter?
The halls and homes type religions. I know someone who is a Christadelphian. Like the Brethren they meet at a hall and there is no priest as such but a council of men. (There are many examples of misogyny in their cult) Also like Brethren they don;’t vote or get “involved in the matters of the physical world”. The children have to marry others of their faith and the pursuit of wealth and display of it is encouraged. It is an incredibly freaky cult and one that makes me worry for my friend who used to be a well adjusted and creative person before she married into the cult.
In terms of religious/cult groups getting involved in politics I think it’s best when you know what they represent. In that respect, we know what Crazy Colin is about and he can be challenged openly. Unlike the Exclusive Brethren who hid behind nutty pamphlets in the 2005 election campaign.
He was raised Baptist but could have taken his own route since. Being upfront is unusual in politicians and a few public figures who have brandished their christianity have fallen quite sharply from grace over the years.
If he can’t be totally open about his religiosity what does that say? I find it hard to reconcile a guy who ends staff meetings with a prayer with someone who is middle of the road religious.
Actually I think Craig’s social conservatism is what I would focus on. It’s all there in plain sight.
I’ve been to work events/meetings with Tangata Whenua who do a prayer at the beginning and end. It’s fairly standard for people working a lot in certain kinds of environments. I wouldn’t read very much into it.
outside of meetings in state situations or maori specific, in over 30 years in the workforce I have never attended, nor know anyone who has attended, a workplace meeting which ends in prayer.
Had it happen in last few months at a regular meeting – and not by a Christian fundamentalist.
I studied with Christadelphians : Elpis Israel is their expositional text, and if you can struggle through that, you are in the ‘club’.
Rangitoto College has had to cancel Community Ed for next year.
Perhaps whoever the MP is can campaign for a reintroduction of funds.
will it teach them to invest in the stockmarket? If not, it must go
And Onslow College in the Ohariu electorate has closed the doors on it’s Community Ed after 30 successful and popular years of provision. Not a word from Dunne on the matter.
Are Labour planning to reintroduce funding for night classes should they be elected next year?
So short sighted, this government. Happy to keep people from achieving in anything. They’re looking for drones – and that’s all.
A good question for Labour.
Facebook boss Sheryl Sandberg on male CEO’s fear of women:
“The next time you hear a little girl called ‘bossy’, go up to the person who did it – and it may be the little girl’s parents – have a big smile on your face and say ‘Your little girl is not bossy, she has executive leadership skills’,”
http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/sheryl-sandbergs-passionate-plea-for-women-to-assert-themselves-20131121-hv3ox.html
Good series of tweets from Marama Davidson:
Privilege of Speech
On discussion about freedom of speech:
“Freedom of Speech” used to maintain oppression:
While people’s eyes are on the North Island, the new electorate seat and National wanting to gift a parliamentary seat to Crazy Craig, the Labour Party and the Cunliffe leadership should also stay focused on retaining and growing support in the South Island.
Prediction Number 1:
A previously strong South Island electorate will be lost by Labour to National at next year’s General Election, no thanks to an increasingly unpopular and ineffectual incumbent and thanks to a far better and more likeable opposing candidate.
“Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse, a Dunedin-based list MP who has twice previously stood in Dunedin North said he was committed to standing in the 2014 election but no final decision had yet been made on where.”
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/282486/dunedin-north-extended-north
You heard it first here: Woodhouse will decide to stand in Dunedin South.
Wake up, Labour.
+1
That’s my prediction too. Woodhouse’s family roots are in Dunedin South anyways. Also, I know that early blue money has been flowing into Dunedin South.
2011 Nat candidate and carpet bagger Joanne Hayes, from the Manawatu, took the Labour electorate majority down to 4175 in 2011 and helped National win the party vote in Dunedin South in a shock result. Labour’s 4,700 2008 party vote majority went down to about -1,800 in 2011. A huge slide.
Joanne’s a solid candidate and I reckon she will stand in the North Island next year maybe closer to home.
he was born here in south dunedin, poor boy big famly mum was a popular nurse, & all his siblings are really successful people. interesting ake ake ake. for eg, i wont vote curran, but would vote for a labour rep if we had a decent one.
‘Superbugs’ Plague Last Days.
Medical tourism – many going to Thailand I heard. Are NZs going to be threatened by these bugs from people trying to get round the system by going elsewhere.? Someone was saying how good the medial service is there. It might look good but the bugs can’t be seen. Information though is that many people treat themselves with antibiotics like we use aspirin. (And that can be dangerous too.)
There is an increase in numbers of negative events in NZ hospitals and they are under funding stress, which I bet isn’t keeping up with inflation, not like MPs rises. .07% rise at one hospital for a staff member.
This is from RT’s link above and I think we should be aware of this.
Mr Pool had caught a pan-resistant superbug, known as Klebsiella pneumoniae with Oxa 48 resistance, while in hospital in either Vietnam or India.
These types of superbugs produce an enzyme that destroys the strongest, “last-resort” type of antibiotics, known as carbapenems, and tend to be resistant to all other categories of antibiotics.
Essentially, if you get infected, there is little hope of survival….
On an average day, 20 patients are in isolation with super-bacterias ESBL and MRSA. In these cases, the patient has a single room with their own toilet, and staff wear gowns and gloves for all contact. Items that leave the room are decontaminated.
We’re entering the post-antibiotic age.
Only your immune system is now smart enough to deal with these bugs. Despite being quite compromised, Mr Pool’s apparently was. For a time at least.
ta gw, your hands appear more efficient at typing than my paw (just been collecting the seeds from deadheads, gratefully, and distributing them around the section) More free stuff…like the Poppies. 😉
While Titford was claiming victimisation from Maori, the truth was actually the opposite – a long history of abuse and victimisation of others, and selfish corruption.
RNZ interview with wife Susan Cochrane.
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20131122-0718-ex-wife_says_titford_scuttled_boat_to_claim_insurance-048.mp3
Stuff report on the interview:
Thank goodness for Women’s Refuges. They need on-going support and funding.
“Thank goodness for Women’s Refuges. They need on-going support and funding.”
I’m all for Labour’s plan for gender balance, if women MPs support this, because so far not a lot has been done a lot to safeguard women who leave abusive partners.
How are people finding the site speed this morning. It has been slower than I’d have liked this week because the file server was having problems providing the files to the web servers. So I upgraded that last night.
Looks like we now have the required expansion abilities that I will need for an election year…
I had experienced sluggish performance the last few days, but it’s going well today, very agile.
I think it was slowish when I was preparing my post this morning. Seems fine reading it since then.
The morning rush…
JMG has a very interesting article up – well worth a read.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2013/11/toward-green-future-part-three.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9431208/Migration-booms-as-Aussie-departures-drop
– People voting with their feet it seems
Or employment opportunities dictating where those feet go, from the article: “Fewer New Zealanders are leaving for Australia as that country’s job market cools down….”
Winston Peters good on Radionz this morning. His usual well spoken self making points about Kiwi Rail and they were good ones. He is good value despite pop-up quirks that are off putting.
I’d love to see him as Speaker.
He’d be awesome!
mentored by none other than Sir Rob 😉
Yes – he was brilliant. Quinn I think (I hope) realises his spin doctoring hasn’t/ won’g ekshly cut it – although don’t be surprised if they try it on.
One point Winnie made that interested me (hopefully some1 can verify it) is that SINCE the wobble introduction, the ship has actually carried less freight across the ditch than it would have had they left the fooking thing alone!
Boozie Boy Allan aye …… experts in ALLLLLLL ‘enterprises’, and masters of none.
One of the best PM’s we never had IMO.
But, as always, things happen, life gets away from you, bad choices are made, etc.
On this side of the Ditch, Mark Textor keeps lying and fking up.
He should be sacked by the Mad Monk.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberal-pollster-mark-textor-denies-offensive-tweets-referred-to-indonesian-leaders-20131121-2xxc2.html
I think Australia are about to get a whole lot of new Indonesian vistors
and maybe some Filipinos to boot.
Ah… So good to Mr spin-genius claiming with a shit-eating grin that it’s not his fault and he has nothing to apologise for if people ‘imagine’ that he was referring to anyone in particular when he said “Apology demanded from Australia by a bloke who looks like a 1970s Pilipino [sic] porn star”. This after a bunch of racist tweets about Indonesian leaders.
Classic narcissist, never wrong. Except when it becomes front page news in Indonesia, then it’s:
“Apologies to my Indonesian friends – frustrated by media-driven divisions – Twitter is indeed no place for diplomacy.”
Classic narcissist, ‘it’s not my fault, I’m the victim here’.
That video of Mark Textor thinking he’s being clever but actually looking like an idiotic arsehole by trying to lawyer-talk his way out of it will be around forever. This little piece of schadenfreude has made my day.
What an absolute hoot ! From NZ Herald – the madly pompous patronising old ego-fool Tea Party phallus Bill O’Reilly on Fux News – lashing Kiwi blogger Paul Casserly:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11161334
Interestingly, scroll down to the top of the smaller Fux News video in the article and what do we see ? Somethng about visiting Whale Oil in NZ for the best news.
Whale Fux Oil. Figures huh ?
Lethal hypocrisy at its most loathsome:
Israel’s manipulation of humanitarian aid
by Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor, Thursday, 21 November 2013
As Israel’s heavily publicised humanitarian mission in the Philippines commenced, the IDF has been constantly updating its achievements in the ravaged land through a twitter account which briefly utilised the hashtag #IDFWithoutBorders, until activists exploited the irony implied within the chosen vocabulary, relating the implied lack of confines to Israel’s unbridled usurpation of Palestinian land and expanding territorial borders.
Social media has been inundated with examples of gratitude and assimilation which competently portray the propaganda campaign. A baby named Israel by ‘the thankful mum’, children photographed while holding the Israeli flag; and the teaching of the Hebrew language to students emphasise an expected compliance, as opposed to collaboration, in return for its involvement in the Philippines. IDF officials have been emphasising their selective implementation of humanitarian work, clearly eliminating its atrocious human rights violations against Palestinians from the equation: “Saving lives is not only a motto but a way of life”. “Medicine is a bridge between people.” For a passive observer, the rhetoric, combined with photography depicting the IDF contingent as actively involved in internationalism would undoubtedly influence public opinion with regard to the application of humanitarian aid.
However, any merit of Israel’s venture in the Philippines must be questioned in light of its manipulation of internationalism, international law violations and the blockade on Gaza – issues which are conveniently relegated to the periphery while promoting the colonising power’s alleged ‘moral army’. The exhibited propaganda dictates a restricted perception of the Israeli army in an attempt to disassociate the same entity from its human rights violations against the Palestinian population.
– See more at: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/8427-in-defiance-of-internationalism-israels-manipulation-of-humanitarian-aid#sthash.mfxzVogG.dpuf
Papers came in the mail today. Voted! Simple question with a yes/no answer. Shouldn’t be any confusion. A big tick in the NO box.
and I’ve ticked yes although it doesn’t matter because it won’t change anything
….. No – it won’t change anything till 2014, or perhaps 2017
When it duzzz, stuffed-pig squealing will be deafening.
Ohhh ahhhh booo hooo, they stole my property from the thiefs!
The bloody cheek of those hard left economic illiterates! Those poor ‘job-creators! How on Earth are they going to vest in “schools, hospitals @ roads” now! It’s sebbatajjj aye Chris!
naah not really, worst case is that Labour will buy back the shares at the price they were sold (don’t want to scare off too many foriegn investors) so I get my money back + the dividends so I come out ahead
Its all good 🙂
Suppress the share price first then buy them back.
How society minded of you.
I apologize for not getting all scared and worried and looking at the positive side of the argument 🙂
Not in my mail box today. I see John Key is trying to soften the impact of the no vote, and maybe also hope the idea that the result is a foregone conclusion will stop people voting..
Go Figure 😎
http://ruminator.co.nz/david-cunliffe-thems-fighting-words/
There seems to be a bit of a flare up about this?
For a Friday afternoon, my brain is dead and I see Cunliffe making a fish-based pun on Collin’s chances floundering and that he calls her a fish in the middle of it. Am I now part of the problem if I can’t find the sexism that is so apparently inherent to I/S?
As an addendum, I think the point raised in the comments below explaining “old trout” is appropriate and clarifies a lot of it to me but I find it difficult to get angry over a line like that when the Nats are so willing to brand anyone who doesn’t agree with them as an “extremist” “fundamentalist” “terrorist”
Basically, though, I think there’s no need for ad hominems – stick to attacking Collins for her politics. There’s plenty of material there.
I gather Cunliffe was invited to submit a post in reply to one by Judith Collins that appeared some weeks ago. The original is said to be tongue in cheek, so I guess Cunliffe replied in kind. Searched The Ruminator but can’t locate the Collins post.
here
Collins said:
Oh, so Collins can get off her high horse – dog whistling re the sexist term used by many KB & WO devotees to attempt to disparage Cunliffe. Her followers’ term is very sexist.
Why is it sexist term?
“old trout” is most often used as a slang term for “silly old woman”.
I suspect an older association with women and fishy smells.
Are you saying cunners called her a c..t?
[lprent: I thought I knew that silly smug snideness with no actual content or apparent intelligence. You are still banned under another name. And I see that you since still haven’t written anything of value confining yourself instead to flame starters. So an auto-spam is called for.
I allow you to carry on reading the site despite being tempted to test the new exclusion tool. ]
Face it, Cunliffe is a complete fucking numpty with the political nous of Aaron Gilmore.
Labour basically gifted the election and probably the next two when they installed Cunners as leader.
lol
Not even john banks is as bad as gilmore was.
Honestly, some of the stuff he comes out with, you seriously WTF at.
The thought of that tool bag being with kilometers of the levers of power is fucking terrifying and to be honest the fact the such a complete fuck knuckle can even get in a position to become prime minister is a sad indictment on our political system.
Well, can I suggest that (just to be on the safe side) you emigrate as soon as possible?
🙄
Cunliffe didn’t talk about fancying Liz Hurley. Or make a joke about Maori and cannibals. Or call Hillary President Clinton. Or post a photo of himself with the Queen on Twitter. Or say the Roast busters should just “grow up”.
Watch out BM better check through your hats now to see which one you will be eating next November.
Couldn’t agree more BM. JK is an embarrassment all round.
“zip it sweetie” – & how they all laughed
As I read on Kiwi Blog maybe all the National guys should address the labour and green female mps as old trouts or maybe even bush pigs until the next election.
Darien Fenton and Carol Beaumont look like a couple of tough old razor backs I’m sure they wouldn’t be too fussed with the Male National Mps taking the piss out of the way they look
I’m sure all the left women would find it rather amusing.
And what about those large, ample bosomed bottle blondes on the other side. I’m sure they could take a joke against themselves.
Collins deserved it for this: “David Cunliffe – no one would argue that Cunners (the more affectionate term for him) is anything but intelligent – least of all himself.”
Note the reference to the silent ‘tea’.
[lprent: I see you found my troll trap 🙂 ]
Where?
here
Snap – I just said that above. Pot meet Kettle, Ms Collins.
No, Cunliffe should be above that. He should apologise and not repeat the sexist kind of slur.
Collins shows herself to be despicable.
“You need just enough of that sticky stuff
to hold the seams of your fine blue jeans”
Velcro Fly
Not such a numpty not to have figured out that a nice little bit of wedge politics on a Friday arvo might help him get back some of those male voters who apparently shifted over to National in the wake of the so called man ban issue that surfaced at the Labour Party Conference. The bigger the fuss the better it is for Cunliffe. The only surprise was that Judith Collins walked in to it so readily.
Farrar at Kiwiblog bawls out Cunliffe for inferring Collins is an old tr–t. How about a Standard author bawl out Collins for inferring Cunliffe is a c–t.
Tit for Tat! Ooops… not you Tat. 🙂
Where did she do that? Cunny is the synonym not cunners. I’ve seen lefties quite happily use the nickname t in a friendly way . I’d accept it’s mainly used by righties just like lefties have silly juvenile nicknames for key that they use cos they think ‘it’s oh so clever’
Sorta like “Captain Carrot” what ? The mind boggles.
More of a Mighty Melon, Silly Shallot, Putrefied Pumpkin etc etc…
You’ve never read terry Pratchett then I assume
Sure you’re not Diamond King of Tr0lls…
Anne…lol 😀
No. Leave the sewer to their recidivist nasties.
“Face it, Cunliffe is a complete fucking numpty with the political nous of Aaron Gilmore.”
Uh huh, coz Cunliffe totally comes out with the “Go get me your most expensive bottle of wine bitch, don’t you know who I am,” lines.
Oh wait, no that was Aaron Gilmore, the National MP that resigned in the house crying like a child.
FYI
‘Open Letter’ – request for NZ Serious Fraud Office to conduct an urgent inquiry into alleged bribery and corruption, involving Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Sky City Auckland.
Lisa Prager and myself, (Penny Bright), hereby formally request the NZ Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to conduct an urgent inquiry into alleged bribery and corruption, involving Auckland Mayor Len Brown, and Sky City Auckland.
…….
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/open-letter-request-for-nz-serious-fraud-office-to-conduct-an-urgent-inquiry-into-alleged-bribery-and-corruption-involving-auckland-mayor-len-brown-and-sky-city-auckland/
_____________________________________________________________________________
For your further information, I am registered to attend the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference (including workshops) on 26 -28 November 2013.
http://www.apsac.com.au/2013conference/program.html
It should be a FASCINATING 3 days……
Penny Bright
The Labour Party’s finance spokesman David Cunliffe has apologised to the National Party’s Judith Collins after saying humans would probably die out if she were the last woman on earth.
Invited onto Paul Henry’s radio show, David Cunliffe was asked if he had ever thought about who he would mate with if he and his fellow mps were the last people left on earth, and this was his response.
“I have thought that if Judith Collins was the last woman on earth, the species would probably become extinct.”
– I think Cunliffe secretly fancies JC…
Cunliffe was just saying that he wouldn’t have sex with a woman just for the sake of it. Unlike the NAct scum, he would need to respect, love, and have common ground with any sexual partner. I don’t see why he apologised really. The toxic gnome should have apologised for asking such a stupid question.
Oh thats great spin 🙂
HAHAHA
Preciously false Collins is a laugh.
Cunliffe was being polite and very restrained. There are many other more descriptive nouns and adjectives that her own current and former colleagues would have used that she would be really familiar with 🙂
Although considering its Cunliffe he’ll probably say something nice about her to a different audience 🙂
You’re a nutter Piss73. Give the missus a serious seeing to when she got home late with the Maccers dinner and no dipping sauce didya ? You being too bone idle or unartful to peel some spuds while ya waited, as you related yesterday or the day before ? Walked home for that matter while you drove to and from work in the Grandly asprayshinul Vitara angling at the stylish Maori Land Bruiser VX, as you also related yesterday or the day before ?
Ake ake ake……obviously don’t know or care to know about the zoo of Judge Judy’s current colleagues but certainly there are many former colleagues in Auckland who always saw her as a self promoting baggage and a not too gifted one at that.
Drinking and message boards go together well, you should keep going 🙂
Yes he could mention how nice it is when she exits the room.., or he could tell the penguins that he’s found someone capable of reversing rising temperatures just by making eye contact..
Yes but Cunliffe’s colleagues say similar things about him but do it quite publicly
ShonKey Python on TV tonight – “I don’t comment on security matters.”
Where the fuck is the fiduciary in this ? “I don’t comment…….”. When it’s probable that a foreign power has been spying on Kiwis, and the jerk knows it.
Where the fuck is the fiduciary here ?
Is this simpering Hawaii ponce a traitor or is he a traitor ?
Judith Collins’ cabinet colleague, Michael Woodhouse, has proper respect for the ladies …
http://dunedinelection2008.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/giving-pragmatic-conservatism-a-bad-name/
(Ms Collins was not available for comment, ever)
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