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 [email protected] 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.
Hoopla And Razzamatazz: Putting the country into debt allows a Minister of Finance to keep the lights on and the ATMs working without raising taxes. That option may become unavoidable at some future time, for some future government, but that is not the present government’s concern – not in the ...
Speaking Truth To Power: Greta Thunberg argues that the fine sounding phrases of well-meaning politicians changes nothing. The promises made, the targets set – and then re-set – are all too familiar to the younger generations she has encouraged to pay attention. They have heard it all before. Accordingly, she ...
The Spiral of Silence Problem As climate communicator John Cook cleverly illustrates below, a big obstacle to raising awareness about climate change is the "spiral of silence," a reluctance to talk about it. There are many reasons for this reluctance we can speculate about. Perhaps people don't want to be ...
The informed discussion on the next steps in tax policy is about improving the income tax base, not about taxing wealth directly.David Parker, the Minister for Inland Revenue, gave a clear indication that his talk on tax was to be ‘pointy-headed’ by choosing a university venue for his presentation. As ...
A couple of weeks ago, Newsroom reported that the government was failing to meet its proactive release obligations, with Ministers releasing less than a quarter of cabinet papers and in many cases failing to keep records. But Chris Hipkins was already on the case, and in a recent cabinet paper ...
Why are the New Zealand media so hostile to the government – not just this government, but any government? The media I have in mind are not NZME-owned outlets like the Herald or Newstalk ZB, whose bias is overtly political and directed at getting rid of the current Labour government. ...
In this week’s “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and I speculate on how the Ruso-Ukrainian War will shape future regional security dynamics. We start with NATO and work our way East to the Northern Pacific. It is not comprehensive but we outline some potential ramifications with regard to ...
At base, the political biffo back and forth on the merits of Budget 2022 comes down to only one thing. Who is the better manager of the economy and better steward of social wellbeing – National or Labour? In its own quiet way, the Treasury has buried a fascinating answer ...
by Don Franks Poverty in New Zealand today has new ugly features. Adequate housing is beyond the reach of thousands. More and more people full time workers must beg food parcels from charities. Having no attainable prospects, young people lash out and steal. A response to poverty from The Daily ...
Drought: the past is no longer prologue Drought management in the United States (and elsewhere) is highly informed by events of the past, employing records extending 60 years or longer in order to plan for and cope with newly emerging meterorological water deficits. Water resource managers and agricultural concerns use ...
The government announced its budget today, with Finance Minister Grant Robertson giving the usual long speech about how much money they're spending. The big stuff was climate change and health, with the former being pre-announced, and most of the latter being writing off DHB's entirely fictional "debt" to the the ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has delivered a Budget that will many asking “Is that all there is?” There is a myriad of initiatives and there is increased spending, but strangely it doesn’t really add up to much at all for those hoping for a more traditional Labour-style Budget. The headline ...
Last year, Cook Islands Deputy Prime Minister Robert Tapaitau stood down as a minister after being charged with conspiracy to defraud after an investigation into corruption in Infrastructure Cook Islands and the National Environment Service. He hasn't been tried yet, but this week he has been reinstated: The seven-month ...
A ballot for three member's bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Repeal of Good Friday and Easter Sunday as Restricted Trading Days (Shop Trading and Sale of Alcohol) Amendment Bill (Chris Baillie) Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill (Golriz Ghahraman) Increased Penalties for ...
No Jesus Here.She rises, unrested, and stepsOnto the narrow balconyTo find the day. To greetThe Sunday God she sings to.But this morning His face is clouded.Grey and wet as a corpseWashed by tears.Behind her, in the tangled bedding,the children bicker and whine.Worrying the cheap furnitureLike hungry puppies.They clutch at her ...
After two years of Corona-induced online meetings in 2020 and 2021, this year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will take place as a hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from May 23 to 27. To take hybrid and necessary hygiene restrictions into account, there (unfortunately) will be no ...
“Māori star lore was, and still remains, a blending together of both astronomy and astrology, and while there is undoubtedly robust science within the Māori study of the night sky, the spiritual component has always been of equal importance” writes Professor Rangi Matamua in his book Matariki – Te whetū tapu ...
The foibles of the Aussie electoral system are pretty well-known. The Lucky Country doesn’t have proportional representation. Voting for everyone over 18 is compulsory, but within a preferential system. This means that in the relatively few key seats that decide the final result, it can be the voters’ second, third ...
Julia Steinberger is an ecological economist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. She first posted this piece at Medium.com, and it was reposted on Yale Climate Connections with her permission. Today I went to give a climate talk at my old high school in Geneva – and was given a ...
A/Prof Ben Gray* Gray B. Government funding of interpreters in Primary Care is needed to ensure quality care. Public Health Expert Blog.17 May 2022. The pandemic has highlighted many problems in the NZ health system. This blog will address the question of availability of interpreters for people with limited English ...
I have suggested previously that sometimes Tolkien’s writer-instincts get the better of him. Sometimes he departs from his own cherished metaphysics, in favour of the demands of story – and I dare say, that is a good thing. Laws and Customs of the Eldar might be an interesting insight ...
One of the key planks of yesterday's Emissions Reduction Plan is a $650 million fund to help decarbonise industry by subsidising replacement of dirty technologies with clean ones. But National leader Chris Luxon derides this as "corporate welfare". Which probably sounds great to the business ideologues in the Koru club. ...
Poisonous! From a very early age New Zealanders are warned to give small black spiders with a red blotch on their abdomens a wide berth. The Katipo, we are told, is venomous: and while its bite may not kill you, it can make you very unwell. That said, isn’t the ...
“The truth prevails, but it’s a chore.” – Jan Masaryk: The intensification of ideological pressures is bearable for only so-long before ordinary men and women reassert the virtues of tolerance and common sense.ON 10 MARCH 1948, Jan Masaryk, the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia, was found dead below his bathroom window. ...
Clearly, the attempt to take the politics out of climate change has itself been a political decision, and one meant to remove much of the heat from the global warming issue before next year’s election. What we got from yesterday’s $2.9 billion Emissions Reduction Plan was a largely aspirational multi-party ...
Michelle Uriarau (Mana Wāhine Kōrero) talks to Dane Giraud of the Free Speech Union LISTEN HERE Michelle Uriarau is a founding member of Mana Wāhine Kōrero – an advocacy group of and for Māori women who took strong positions against the ‘Self ID’ and ‘Conversion Practises Bills’. One of the ...
If we needed any confirmation, we have it in spades in today’s edition of the Herald; our supposedly leading daily newspaper is determined to do what it can to decide the outcome of the next election – to act, that is, not as a newspaper but as the mouthpiece for ...
Sean Plunkett, founding editor of the new media outlet, The Platform, was interviewed on RNZ's highly regarded flagship programme "Mediawatch".Mr Plunkett has made much about "cancel culture" and "de-platforming". On his website promoting The Platform, he outlines his mission statement thusly:The Platform is for everyone; we’re not into cancelling or ...
“That’s a C- for History, Kelvin!”While it is certainly understandable that Māori-Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis was not anxious to castigate every Pakeha member of the House of Representatives for the crimes committed against his people by their ancestors; crimes from which his Labour colleagues continue to draw enormous benefits; the ...
The Government promised a major reform of New Zealand’s immigration system, but when it was announced this week, many asked “is that it?” Over the last two years Covid has turned the immigration tap off, and the Government argued this produced the perfect opportunity to reassess decades of “unbalanced immigration”. ...
While the new fiscal rules may not be contentious, what they mean for macroeconomic management is not explained.In a pre-budget speech on 3 May 2022, the Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, made some policy announcements which will frame both this budget and future ones. (The Treasury advice underpinning them is ...
Under MMP, Parliament was meant to look like New Zealand. And, in a lot of ways, it does now, with better representation for Māori, tangata moana, women, and the rainbow community replacing the old dictatorship of dead white males. But there's one area where "our" parliament remains completely unrepresentative: housing: ...
Justice Denied: At the heart of the “Pro-Life” cause was something much darker than conservative religious dogma, or even the oppressive designs of “The Patriarchy”. The enduring motivation – which dares not declare itself openly – is the paranoid conviction of male white supremacists that if “their” women are given ...
In case of emergency break glass— but glass can cut Fire extinguishers, safety belts, first aid kits, insurance policies, geoengineering: we never enjoy using them. But given our demonstrated, deep empirical record of proclivity for creating hazards and risk we'd obviously be foolish not to include emergency responses in our inventory. ...
After a brief hiatus, the “A View from Afar” podcast is back on air with Selwyn Manning leading the Q&A with me. This week is a grab bag of topics: Russian V-Day celebrations, Asian and European elections, and the impact of the PRC-Solomon Islands on the regional strategic balance. Plus ...
Last year, Vanuatu passed a "cyber-libel" law. And predictably, its first targets are those trying to hold the government to account: A police crackdown in Vanuatu that has seen people arrested for allegedly posting comments on social media speculating politicians were responsible for the country’s current Covid outbreak has ...
Could it be a case of not appreciating what you’ve got until it’s gone? The National Party lost Simon Bridges last week, which has reinforced the notion that the party still has some serious deficits of talent and diversity. The major factor in Bridges’ decision to leave was his failed ...
Who’s Missing From This Picture? The re-birth of the co-governance concept cannot be attributed to the institutions of Pakeha rule, at least, not in the sense that the massive constitutional revisions it entails have been presented to and endorsed by the House of Representatives, and then ratified by the citizens of New ...
Fiji signed onto China’s Belt and Road initiative in 2018, along with a separate agreement on economic co-operation and aid. Yet it took the recent security deal between China and the Solomon Islands to get the belated attention of the US and its helpmates in Canberra and Wellington, and the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Lexi Smith and Bud Ward “CRA” It’s one of those acronyms even many-a-veteran environmental policy geek may not recognize. Amidst the scores and scores of acronyms in the field – CERCLA, IPCC, SARA, LUST, NPDES, NDCs, FIFRA, NEPA and scores more – ...
In a nice bit of news in a World Gone Mad, I can report that Of Tin and Tintagel, my 5,800-word story about tin (and political scheming), is now out as part of the Spring 2022 edition of New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). As noted previously, this one owes a ...
Dr Jennifer Summers, Professor Michael Baker, Professor Nick Wilson* Summers J, Baker M, Wilson N. Covid-19 Case-Fatality Risk & Infection-Fatality Risk: important measures to help guide the pandemic response. Public Health Expert Blog. 11 May 2022. In this blog we explore two useful mortality indicators: Case-Fatality Risk (CFR) and Infection-Fatality ...
In the depths of winter, most people from southern New Zealand head to warmer climes for a much-needed dose of Vitamin D. Yet during the height of the last Ice Age, one species of moa did just the opposite. I’m reminded of Bill Bailey’s En Route to Normal tour that visited ...
In the lead-up to the Budget, the Government has been on an offensive to promote the efficiency and quality of its $74 billion Covid Response and Recovery Fund -especially the Wage Subsidy Scheme component. This comes after criticisms and concerns from across the political spectrum over poor-quality spending, and suggestions ...
Elizabeth Elliot Noe, Lincoln University, New Zealand; Andrew D. Barnes, University of Waikato; Bruce Clarkson, University of Waikato, and John Innes, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare ResearchUrbanisation, and the destruction of habitat it entails, is a major threat to native bird populations. But as our new research shows, restored ...
Unfinished: Always, gnawing away at this government’s confidence and empathy, is the dictum that seriously challenging the economic and social status-quo is the surest route to electoral death. Labour’s colouring-in book, and National’s, have to look the same. All that matters is which party is better at staying inside the lines.DOES ...
Radical As: Māori healers recall a time when “words had power”. The words that give substance to ideas, no matter how radical, still do. If our representatives rediscover the courage to speak them out loud.THERE ARE RULES for radicalism. Or, at least, there are rules for the presentation of radical ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters A brutal, record-intensity heat wave that has engulfed much of India and Pakistan since March eased somewhat this week, but is poised to roar back in the coming week with inferno-like temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122°F). The ...
The good people at the Reading Tolkien podcast have put out a new piece, which spends some time comparing the underlying moral positions of George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien: (The relevant discussion starts about twenty-seven minutes in. It’s a long podcast). In the interests of fairness, ...
Crime is becoming a key debate between Labour and National. This week they are both keen to show that they are tough on law and order. It’s an issue that National has a traditional advantage on, and is one that they’re currently getting good traction from. In response, Labour is ...
So far, the excited media response to the spike in “ram-raid” incidents is being countered by evidence that in reality, youth crime is steeply in decline, and has been so for much of the past decade. Who knew? Perhaps that’s the real issue here. Why on earth wasn’t the latest ...
In the past 10 years or so – and that’s how quickly it has happened – all our comfortable convictions about the unassailability of free speech have been turned on their heads. Suddenly we find ourselves fighting again for rights we assumed were settled. Click here to watch the video ...
Enforced Fertility: The imminent overturning of Roe versus Wade by the US Supreme Court is certain to raise echoes here that are no less evocative of the dystopia envisioned by Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale. Gilead can happen here.WITH THE UNITED STATES seemingly on the brink of becoming “Gilead”, ...
Not Wanted On Grounds Of Political Rejuvenation: Winston Peters did nothing more than visit the protest encampment erected by anti-vaxxers on the parliamentary lawn. A great many New Zealanders applauded him for meeting with the protesters and wondered why the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition could not do ...
May The Force Be With Us: With New Zealanders under 40, nostalgia for a time when politics worked gains little purchase. Politics hasn’t swerved to any noticeable degree since the 1980s, becoming in the Twenty-First Century a battle between marketing strategies, not ideologies. Young New Zealanders critique political advertisements in ...
Dane Giraud reflects on his working class upbringing and how campaigning for free speech radicalised him Evidence to support censorship as a tool for social cohesion is paltry. I Read the NZ Human Rights Commission website, and 99% of their ‘evidence’ is anecdotal. When asked why we need hate speech ...
As you may have noticed, I have been slowly working my way through the works of Agatha Christie. At the time of writing, I have read some thirty-eight of her books – less than half her total output, but arguably enough to get a reasonable handle on it. It ...
Population growth has some effect on economic growth, but it is complicated especially where infrastructure is involved. We need to think more about it. In an opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald, John Gascoigne claimed that New Zealand was a ‘tragic tale of economic decline’. He gave no evidence ...
The Greens have been almost invisible since the 2020 election. Despite massive crises impacting on people’s lives, such as climate change, housing, inequality, and the cost of living, they’ve had very little to say. On this week’s highly contentious issue of politicians being banned from Parliament by Trevor Mallard, the ...
The government has announced it will be replacing all coal boilers in schools by 2025: All remaining coal boilers in New Zealand schools will be replaced with cleaner wood burners or electric heating by 2025, at a cost of $10 million, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced. The coal ...
Israeli news media and politicians often complain about the activity of neo-Nazis in Ukraine. “Activists and supporters of Ukrainian nationalist parties hold torches as they take part in a rally to mark the 112th birth anniversary of Stepan Bandera, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 1, 2021. Credit: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters The recent ...
Another gnawing warming worry Accidental outcomes of our engineering prowess are warming Arctic regions at a rapid pace. Another species of accomplished engineers is rapidly occupying and exploiting new territory we've thereby made more easily available, namely beavers (Castor canadensis). Beaver populations in affected Arctic regions have increased from "none" to "quite a ...
Dr Simon Lambert’s dream is to see Indigenous nations across the world exercising their sovereign rights by adding their say to disaster risk reduction planning. Simon, of Ngāi Tūhoe and Ngāti Ruapani ki Waikaremoana, specialises in indigenous disaster risk reduction, indigenous health and indigenous development, social science, environmental management, planning ...
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Mr Speaker, It has taken four-and-a-half years to even start to turn the legacy of inaction and neglect from the last time they were in Government together. And we have a long journey in front of us! ...
Today Greens Te Mātāwaka Chair and Health Spokesperson, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, said “The Greens have long campaigned for an independent Māori Health Authority and pathways for Takatāpui and Rainbow healthcare. “We welcome the substantial funding going into the new health system, Pae Ora, particularly for the Māori Health Authority, Iwi-Partnership ...
Budget 2022 shows progress on conservation commitments in the Green Party’s cooperation agreement Green Party achievements in the last Government continue to drive investment in nature protection Urgent action needed on nature-based solutions to climate change Future budget decisions must reflect the role nature plays in helping reduce emissions ...
Landmark week for climate action concludes with climate budget Largest ever investment in climate action one of many Green Party wins throughout Budget 2022 Budget 2022 delivers progress on every part of the cooperation agreement with Labour Budget 2022 is a climate budget that caps a landmark week ...
Green Party welcomes extension to half price fares Permanent half price fares for Community Services Card holders includes many students, which helps implement a Green Party policy Work to reduce public transport fares for Community Services Card holders started by Greens in the last Government Budget 2022 should be ...
New cost of living payment closely aligned to Green Party policy to expand the Winter Energy Payment Extension and improvement of Warmer Kiwi Homes builds on Green Party progress in Government Community energy fund welcomed The Green Party welcomes the investment in Budget 2022 to expand Warmer Kiwi ...
Budget 2022 support to reduce homelessness delivers on the Green Party’s cooperation agreement Bespoke support for rangatahi with higher, more complex needs The Green Party welcomes the additional investment in Budget 2022 for kaupapa Māori support services, homelessness outreach services, the expansion of transitional housing, and a new ...
Green Party reaffirms call for liveable incomes and wealth tax Calls on Government to cancel debt owed to MSD for hardship assistance such as benefit advances, and for over-payments The Green Party welcomes the support for people on low incomes Budget 2022 but says more must be done ...
Our Government has just released this year’s Budget, which sets out the next steps in our plan to build a high wage, low carbon economy that gives economic security in good times and in bad. It’s full of initiatives that speed up our economic recovery and ease cost pressures for ...
A stronger democracy is on the horizon, as Golriz Ghahraman’s Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill was pulled from the biscuit tin today. ...
Tomorrow, the Government will release this year’s Budget, setting out the next steps in our plan to build a high wage, low carbon economy that gives economic security in good times and in bad. While the full details will be kept under wraps until Thursday afternoon, we’ve announced a few ...
As a Government, we made it clear to New Zealanders that we’d take meaningful action on climate change, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Earlier today, we released our next steps with our Emissions Reduction Plan – which will meet the Climate Commission’s independent science-based emissions reduction targets, and new ...
Emissions Reduction Plan prepares New Zealand for the future, ensuring country is on track to meet first emissions budget, securing jobs, and unlocking new investment ...
The Greens are calling for the Government to reconsider the immigration reset so that it better reflects our relationship with our Pacific neighbours. ...
Hamilton City Council and Whanganui District Council have both joined a growing list of Local Authorities to pass a motion in support of Green Party Drug Reform Spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick’s Members’ bill to minimise alcohol harm. ...
Today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a major package of reforms to address the immediate skill shortages in New Zealand and speed up our economic growth. These include an early reopening to the world, a major milestone for international education, and a simplification of immigration settings to ensure New Zealand ...
Proposed immigration changes by the Government fail to guarantee pathways to residency to workers in the types of jobs deemed essential throughout the pandemic, by prioritising high income earners - instead of focusing on the wellbeing of workers and enabling migrants to put down roots. ...
Ehara taku toa i te toa takatahi, engari taku toa he toa takimano – my strength is not mine alone but the strength of many (working together to ensure safe, caring respectful responses). We are striving for change. We want all people in Aotearoa New Zealand thriving; their wellbeing enhanced ...
The Green Party is throwing its support behind the 10,000 allied health workers taking work-to-rule industrial action today because of unfair pay and working conditions. ...
Since the day we came into Government, we’ve worked hard to lift wages and reduce cost pressures facing New Zealanders. But we know the rising cost of living, driven by worldwide inflation and the war in Ukraine, is making things particularly tough right now. That’s why we’ve stepped up our ...
An independent review of New Zealand’s detention regime for asylum seekers has found arbitrary and abusive practices in Aotearoa’s immigration law, policy, and practice. ...
Three core networks within the tourism sector are receiving new investment to gear up for the return of international tourists and business travellers, as the country fully reconnects to the world. “Our wider tourism sector is on the way to recovery. As visitor numbers scale up, our established tourism networks ...
The Government is contributing $100,000 to a Mayoral Relief Fund to help the Levin community following this morning’s tornado, Minister for Emergency Management Kiri Allan says. “My thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by severe weather events in Levin and across the country. “I know the tornado has ...
The Quintet of Attorneys General have issued the following statement of support for the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and investigations and prosecutions for crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine: “The Attorneys General of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand join in ...
Morena tatou katoa. Kua tae mai i runga i te kaupapa o te rā. Thank you all for being here today. Yesterday my colleague, the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson, delivered the Wellbeing Budget 2022 – for a secure future for New Zealand. I’m the Minister of Health, and this was ...
Urgent Budget night legislation to stop major supermarkets blocking competitors from accessing land for new stores has been introduced today, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Dr David Clark said. The Commerce (Grocery Sector Covenants) Amendment Bill amends the Commerce Act 1986, banning restrictive covenants on land, and exclusive covenants ...
It is a pleasure to speak to this Budget. The 5th we have had the privilege of delivering, and in no less extraordinary circumstances. Mr Speaker, the business and cycle of Government is, in some ways, no different to life itself. Navigating difficult times, while also making necessary progress. Dealing ...
Budget 2022 provides funding to implement the new resource management system, building on progress made since the reform was announced just over a year ago. The inadequate funding for the implementation of the Resource Management Act in 1992 almost guaranteed its failure. There was a lack of national direction about ...
The Government is substantially increasing the amount of funding for public media to ensure New Zealanders can continue to access quality local content and trusted news. “Our decision to create a new independent and future-focused public media entity is about achieving this objective, and we will support it with a ...
$662.5 million to maintain existing defence capabilities NZDF lower-paid staff will receive a salary increase to help meet cost-of living pressures. Budget 2022 sees significant resources made available for the Defence Force to maintain existing defence capabilities as it looks to the future delivery of these new investments. “Since ...
More than $185 million to help build a resilient cultural sector as it continues to adapt to the challenges coming out of COVID-19. Support cultural sector agencies to continue to offer their important services to New Zealanders. Strengthen support for Māori arts, culture and heritage. The Government is investing in a ...
It is my great pleasure to present New Zealand’s fourth Wellbeing Budget. In each of this Government’s three previous Wellbeing Budgets we have not only considered the performance of our economy and finances, but also the wellbeing of our people, the health of our environment and the strength of our communities. In Budget ...
It is my great pleasure to present New Zealand’s fourth Wellbeing Budget. In each of this Government’s three previous Wellbeing Budgets we have not only considered the performance of our economy and finances, but also the wellbeing of our people, the health of our environment and the strength of our communities. In Budget ...
Four new permanent Coroners to be appointed Seven Coronial Registrar roles and four Clinical Advisor roles are planned to ease workload pressures Budget 2022 delivers a package of investment to improve the coronial system and reduce delays for grieving families and whānau. “Operating funding of $28.5 million over four ...
Establishment of Ministry for Disabled People Progressing the rollout of the Enabling Good Lives approach to Disability Support Services to provide self-determination for disabled people Extra funding for disability support services “Budget 2022 demonstrates the Government’s commitment to deliver change for the disability community with the establishment of a ...
Fairer Equity Funding system to replace school deciles The largest step yet towards Pay Parity in early learning Local support for schools to improve teaching and learning A unified funding system to underpin the Reform of Vocational Education Boost for schools and early learning centres to help with cost ...
$118.4 million for advisory services to support farmers, foresters, growers and whenua Māori owners to accelerate sustainable land use changes and lift productivity $40 million to help transformation in the forestry, wood processing, food and beverage and fisheries sectors $31.6 million to help maintain and lift animal welfare practices across Aotearoa New Zealand A total food and ...
House price caps for First Home Grants increased in many parts of the country House price caps for First Home Loans removed entirely Kāinga Whenua Loan cap will also be increased from $200,000 to $500,000 The Affordable Housing Fund to initially provide support for not-for-profit rental providers Significant additional ...
Child Support rules to be reformed lifting an estimated 6,000 to 14,000 children out of poverty Support for immediate and essential dental care lifted from $300 to $1,000 per year Increased income levels for hardship assistance to extend eligibility Budget 2022 takes further action to reduce child poverty and ...
More support for RNA research through to pilot manufacturing RNA technology platform to be created to facilitate engagement between research and industry partners Researchers and businesses working in the rapidly developing field of RNA technology will benefit from a new research and development platform, funded in Budget 2022. “RNA ...
A new Business Growth Fund to support small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow Fully funding the Regional Strategic Partnership Fund to unleash regional economic development opportunities Tourism Innovation Programme to promote sustainable recovery Eight Industry Transformation Plans progressed to work with industries, workers and iwi to transition ...
Budget 2022 further strengthens the economic foundations and wellbeing outcomes for Pacific peoples in Aotearoa, as the recovery from COVID-19 continues. “The priorities we set for Budget 2022 will support the continued delivery of our commitments for Pacific peoples through the Pacific Wellbeing Strategy, a 2020 manifesto commitment for Pacific ...
Boost for Māori economic and employment initiatives. More funding for Māori health and wellbeing initiatives Further support towards growing language, culture and identity initiatives to deliver on our commitment to Te Reo Māori in Education Funding for natural environment and climate change initiatives to help farmers, growers and whenua ...
New hospital funding for Whangārei, Nelson and Hillmorton 280 more classrooms over 40 schools, and money for new kura $349 million for more rolling stock and rail network investment The completion of feasibility studies for a Northland dry dock and a new port in the Manukau Harbour Increased infrastructure ...
$168 million to the Māori Health Authority for direct commissioning of services $20.1 million to support Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards $30 million to support Māori primary and community care providers $39 million for Māori health workforce development Budget 2022 invests in resetting our health system and gives economic security in ...
Biggest-ever increase to Pharmac’s medicines budget Provision for 61 new emergency vehicles including 48 ambulances, along with 248 more paramedics and other frontline staff New emergency helicopter and crew, and replacement of some older choppers $100 million investment in specialist mental health and addiction services 195,000 primary and intermediate aged ...
Landmark reform: new multi-year budgets for better planning and more consistent health services Record ongoing annual funding boost for Health NZ to meet cost pressures and start with a clean slate as it replaces fragmented DHB system ($1.8 billion year one, as well as additional $1.3 billion in year ...
Fuel Excise Duty and Road User Charges cut to be extended for two months Half price public transport extended for a further two months New temporary cost of living payment for people earning up to $70,000 who are not eligible to receive the Winter Energy Payment Estimated 2.1 million New ...
A return to surplus in 2024/2025 Unemployment rate projected to remain at record lows Net debt forecast to peak at 19.9 percent of GDP in 2024, lower than Australia, US, UK and Canada Economic growth to hit 4.2 percent in 2023 and average 2.1 percent over the forecast period A ...
Cost of living payment to cushion impact of inflation for 2.1 million Kiwis Record health investment including biggest ever increase to Pharmac’s medicines budget First allocations from Climate Emergency Response Fund contribute to achieving the goals in the first Emissions Reduction Plan Government actions deliver one of the strongest ...
Budget 2022 will help build a high wage, low emissions economy that provides greater economic security, while providing support to households affected by cost of living pressures. Our economy has come through the COVID-19 shock better than almost anywhere else in the world, but other challenges, both long-term and more ...
Health Minister Andrew Little will represent New Zealand at the first in-person World Health Assembly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from Sunday 22 – Wednesday 25 May (New Zealand time). “COVID-19 has affected people all around the world, and health continues to ...
New Zealand is committing to trade only in legally harvested timber with the Forests (Legal Harvest Assurance) Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament today. Under the Bill, timber harvested in New Zealand and overseas, and used in products made here or imported, will have to be verified as being legally harvested. ...
The Government has welcomed the release today of StatsNZ data showing the rate at which New Zealanders died from all causes during the COVID-19 pandemic has been lower than expected. The new StatsNZ figures provide a measure of the overall rate of deaths in New Zealand during the pandemic compared ...
Legislation that will help prevent serious criminal offending at sea, including trafficking of humans, drugs, wildlife and arms, has passed its third reading in Parliament today, Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta announced. “Today is a milestone in allowing us to respond to the increasingly dynamic and complex maritime security environment facing ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor is set to travel to Thailand this week to represent New Zealand at the annual APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) meeting in Bangkok. “I’m very much looking forward to meeting my trade counterparts at APEC 2022 and building on the achievements we ...
Settlement of the first pay-equity agreement in the health sector is hugely significant, delivering pay rises of thousands of dollars for many hospital administration and clerical workers, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “There is no place in 21st century Aotearoa New Zealand for 1950s attitudes to work predominantly carried out ...
Health Minister Andrew Little opened a new intensive care space for up to 12 ICU-capable beds at Christchurch Hospital today, funded from the Government’s Rapid Hospital Improvement Programme. “I’m pleased to help mark this milestone. This new space will provide additional critical care support for the people of Canterbury and ...
Budget 2022 will continue to deliver on Labour’s commitment to better services and support for mental wellbeing. The upcoming Budget will include a $100-million investment over four years for a specialist mental health and addiction package, including: $27m for community-based crisis services that will deliver a variety of intensive supports ...
Budget 2022 will continue to deliver on Labour’s commitment to better mental wellbeing services and support, with 195,000 primary and intermediate aged children set to benefit from the continuation and expansion of Mana Ake services. “In Budget 2022 Labour will deliver on its manifesto commitment to expand Mana Ake, with ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has today announced sanctions on Belarusian leaders and defence entities supporting Russia’s actions in Ukraine, as part of the Government’s ongoing response to the war. “The Belarusian government military is enabling the illegal and unacceptable assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Nanaia Mahuta said. “Under the leadership of ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern early in March insisted there was no cost-of-living “crisis” in New Zealand. Now her right-hand man, Grant Robertson, has presented a budget which he proudly claims deals with that very same “crisis”, giving away $1 billion in an emergency cost-of-living package. About 2.1 million New Zealanders ...
Podcast - This Budget needed to tackle health and climate while delivering cost-of-living relief. Deputy Political Editor Craig McCulloch assesses the implications. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne AAP/Lukas Coch The federal election is on Saturday. Polls close at 6pm local time; that means 6pm AEST in the eastern states, 6:30pm in SA and the ...
Analysis - It was the government's biggest week of the year with the Budget and the Emissions Reduction Plan coming out, and neither was given much of a welcome, Peter Wilson writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ataus Samad, Lecturer, Western Sydney University Mick Tsikas/AAP With the election almost upon us, thoughts are more than ever turned to political survival. While getting pre-selected and winning elections are the initial, difficult challenges of a political career, a major ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Chart by Keith Rankin. We know that New Zealand has one of the world’s lowest mortality outcomes, so far, in the Covid19 pandemic. (So has North Korea.) It’s still far too early to access the costs incurred – loss of utility enjoyed by actual and ‘would-have-been’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Giuffre, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney Lillie Eiger/ Sony You’ve probably heard the name Harry Styles. He is the current “real big thing” in popular music. But how did a former boy band star become ...
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty managing director Mark Harris is advocating for a stamp duty on foreign buyers of residential property. Following yesterday’s Budget 2022 announcement, Harris believes that a stamp duty would help increase the ...
And how did the people react to the boost in spending announced in this year’s Budget to promote our wellbeing? In some cases by pleading for more; in other cases, by grouching they got nothing. But Budget spending is never enough. Two lots of bleating came from the Human Rights ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Emma La Rouche, from the University of Canberra’s Media and Communications team, look at the last week of the campaign as Australians head to the polls. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Hurlimann, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock It will be impossible to tackle climate change unless we transform the way we build and plan cities, which are responsible for a staggering 70% of global emissions. ...
Military spending allocated in the 2022 Wellbeing Budget is $6,077,484,000 - an average of more than $116.8 million every week, and a 10.4% increase on actual spending in 2021. [1] This year’s increase illustrates yet again that the government remains ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University JIM LO SCALZO/EPA The United States Congress recently held a hearing into US government information pertaining to “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAPs). The last investigation of this kind happened ...
Bank shareholders, speculators, investors, and ticket clippers will be partying for days over the enormous profits they’ll be expecting following Labour’s budget reveal yesterday. After a 48 percent increase in profits in 2021, banks in particular ...
Budget 2022 has a relatively small amount of new cash allocated to science, research and innovation. This budget comes ahead of what could become a major overhaul of the research, science, and innovation sector in the coming years, with MBIE now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Curtin, Professor of Politics and Policy, University of Auckland Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to parliament via video link from COVID isolation during budget day.Getty Images All budgets are about economics and politics, and 2022’s was no different. The Labour ...
Early this Sunday evening there will be a phone alert you can’t ignore – but don’t worry, it’s just a test. This year’s nationwide test of the Emergency Mobile Alert system will take place on Sunday 22 May between 6-7pm It is expected ...
It was announced today that the inaugural Chinese Medicine Council of New Zealand (CMCNZ) has been appointed by the Minister of Health, Hon. Andrew Little. This brings the Chinese medicine profession in under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peggy Kern, Associate professor, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock It’s been a big week and you feel exhausted, and suddenly you find yourself crying at a nice nappy commercial. Or maybe you are struck with a cold or the coronavirus ...
No, we haven’t fully analysed Budget 2022, but we did listen to Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s speech. He took great pride in announcing his fifth Budget invests $5.9 billion a year in net new operating spending, while introducing multi-year funding packages that also draw from Budget 2023 and Budget 2024 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Victor Grabarczyk/unsplash Dogs have an exceptional sense of smell. We take advantage of this ability in many ways, including by training them to find illicit drugs, dangerous goods and even people. In ...
The Government is using dirty tactics as it pushes through enabling legislation to increase PAYE revenue by 10% under the cover of yesterday’s Budget, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in response to the Income Insurance Scheme (Enabling ...
RNZ Pacific A total of NZ$196 million has been set aside for Pacific services in Aotearoa New Zealand in this year’s Budget. A big chunk of that — $76 million will go on Pacific health services. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the cash injection would be used to support Pacific ...
By George Heagney of Stuff A group of students from West Papua, the Melanesian Pacific region in Indonesia, are fearful about their futures in New Zealand after their scholarships were cut off. A group of about 40 students have been studying at different tertiary institutions in New Zealand, but in ...
By Craig McCulloch, RNZ News deputy political editor More than two million New Zealanders will get a one-off $350 sweetener as part of the Budget’s centrepiece $1 billion cost-of-living relief package. The temporary short-term support is counterbalanced by a record $11.1 billion for the health system as the government scraps ...
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk A movement dedicated to peaceful self-determination among indigenous groups in the Pacific is the latest group in Aotearoa to add support for struggling Papuan students caught in Aotearoa New Zealand after an abrupt cancellation of their scholarships. About 70 Papuan students are currently in New Zealand ...
RNZ Pacific The pro-independence coalition parties of Kanaky New Caledonia have selected their candidates for the French Legislative elections next month. Wali Wahetra from the Palika Party is standing in one electoral district, and Gerard Reignier from Union Caledonienne is standing in the other. Speaking with La Premiere, Wahetra explained ...
COMMENTARY:By Nina Santos in AucklandOn May 9, the Philippines went to the polls in what has been called “by far the most divisive and consequential electoral contest” in the Philippines.The electoral race had boiled down to two frontrunners: one was the current Vice-President Leni Robredo, running on ...
PNG Post-Courier Governor-General Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae has described Papua New Guinea’s late Deputy Prime Minister Sam Basil as a vibrant and visionary leader who was passionate about his people and the electorate. He said Basil loved and dedicated his life to the people of Bulolo until his unexpected ...
Are you receiving NZ Superannuation? If you are, then no, you are not one of the 2.1 million Kiwi’s getting the $350 cost of living supplement announced in the 2022 Budget. If you hold a Gold card the extension of the half priced public ...
On May 19th, the Government released its 2022 Budget which included a number of initiatives to help vulnerable whānau in our communities. Many of these initiatives focus on a proactive strategy to recover from the effects of COVID. Within the community ...
Budget 2022 has been a disappointment for New Zealand’s leading advocate for older people. Although the Grey Power Federation is pleased to note that the Government is investing $3.103 million over four years to continue implementing the Better Later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Ukraine’s sea port of Mariupol, blockaded and now fallen to Russian forces.Getty Images Trying to gauge the worst aspect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is difficult. For some, it will be the ...
The Government has committed $37.485m to continue the work of achieving a thriving, fair and sustainable construction sector. The funding will support the Construction Sector Accord to deliver its Construction Sector Transformation Plan 2022-2025. “This ...
The Commission commends the Government’s Budget 2022 investment in specialist mental health and addiction, particularly the investment in community-based crisis services, specialist child and adolescent mental health and addiction services, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University You first have to lose an election on principle if you want to win one on principle. This was how Labor rationalised the miscalculations that led to its “Don’s Party” disappointment in 1969, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camilla Hoyos, Research Fellow, University of Sydney Shutterstock There is increasing recognition of the important role sleep plays in our brain health. Growing evidence suggests disturbed sleep may increase the risk of developing dementia. I and University of Sydney ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Wilson, Associate Professor of Leadership, Swinburne University of Technology Shutterstock Whatever the result of the 2022 election, one thing is clear: many Australians are losing faith that their social institutions serve their interests. Our annual survey of 4,000 Australians ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon has labelled the Budget a "backwards Budget" and with "bandaid" solutions. Watch his post-Budget speech here ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The text arrived on Thursday morning, from a woman who helps me with my horses. “And now I have to do that voting thing. Recommendations please? Who is best?” Well Margaret, after an unedifying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Hellard, Deputy Director (Programs), Burnet Institute Australia’s COVID death toll is rising, yet public health measures to reduce transmission such as mask mandates are largely a thing of the past. It’s time for governments and the community to consider what ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society and NATSEM, University of Canberra Shutterstock Early in the election campaign, on April 14, we learned that Australia’s unemployment rate had slipped below 4% in March, to 3.95% – ...
The sum includes about $1.8 billion to wipe out DHB deficits, while Pharmac will receive $191m over two years to fund new drugs - with a particular focus on cancer care. ...
E tū welcomes Budget 2022, which includes a range of measures that will help E tū members and their communities during a time of increased hardship coming out of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. E tū Assistant National Secretary Annie Newman ...
The 2022 Budget was delivered against a gloomier backdrop. The latest forecasts suggest more subdued growth, more persistent inflation, and further tightening in the labour market. The headline numbers provided little surprise. The Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wendy Bonython, Associate Professor of Law, Bond University Shutterstock This Saturday, most Australians over 18 will vote in the federal election. The right to participate in elections is enshrined in international and domestic human rights law. Under Australia’s Commonwealth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey University Getty Images One way to make sense of Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s fifth budget speech was to see it as a political performance working on different levels. First, Labour needs this budget ...
Greater Wellington welcomed news today that the Government will permanently fund cheaper public transport fares for community services card hold holders. Chair of Greater Wellington Daran Ponter said there had been strong support for this type ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Preston, Professor of Economics, The University of Western Australia Shutterstock In 2020 the Morrison government allowed Australians to raid their superannuation to get through during the pandemic. This week Scott Morrison proposed letting people raid their super for a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Eltham, Lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University Shutterstock The past term of government has been tough for arts and culture in Australia. Culture was among the worst affected by the pandemic of any aspect of society: ...
It's a 'cost of living crisis' not a 'spending on living crisis'. Throwing more and more money at a black-hole for kiwis to spend is akin to the famous saying: "...it's like standing in a bucket and trying to pull yourself up by the handle." ...
Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union and the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations are disappointed to see the tertiary education sector largely ignored once again in the Labour government’s fifth Budget since taking office in 2017. ...
The biggest Budget spend up in New Zealand’s history has delivered some, but not a lot, of initiatives that will support businesses in the Canterbury region. "Some of the initiatives announced in Budget 2022 will go some way towards helping business, ...
Community Housing Aotearoa, a peak body for the community housing sector, welcomes the announcement in today’s Budget to create a $350M Affordable Housing Fund. This investment is a good use of the unallocated Residential Response Fund and a sign ...
The Government’s fourth wellbeing budget fittingly delivered a raft of initiatives to support people, communities and the environment, but when it came to business support it was much as expected. The good news is $100m has been allocated for a ...
Budget 2022 has pluses and minuses for the disabled community, says Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero. On the plus side there was considerable investment in the new Ministry for Disabled People and other funding which has the potential ...
New Zealand’s national association for civil contractors has welcomed the $230 million investment in trades training programmes, increased funding for rail and rural broadband infrastructure, and support for Construction Sector Accord Transformation ...
Leading healthcare provider, ProCare is disappointed that primary care nurses have been left out of today’s Budget announcement. Gabrielle Lord, Nursing Director and General Manager Practice Services, at ProCare says: “Nurses have been the backbone ...
The Health and Climate Budget, being touted as Securing our Future fails to address a key determinant of health, which is low incomes. “There was talk in lockdown about keeping (the governments) eye on the ball, and I kept thinking, are they aware ...
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 [email protected] 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.
[audio src="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)
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.