For our four volunteers, the personality profiles differed considerably between their psychometric test results and the Facebook-likes analysis. Much of the other personal information inferred from their Facebook profiles was also wildly inaccurate…
The problem with their logic is that the vast majority of people click ‘like’ on things their friends post and share, not because they actually like those things, but because they want to be seen not to be ignoring what their friends post on Facebook. I used to write articles and post them on Facebook before I deleted my Facebook account. Some of those articles would take up to 10 minutes for an average reader to read. Without fail, every single time I posted one, at least four or five of my ‘friends’ would click ‘like’ within 60 seconds of the post going live and hitting their newsfeed, meaning they ‘liked’ it without reading it. Facebook is only an accurate gauge of what people *want you to see* and of how they *want to be seen*, but in my experience it will never be an accurate gauge of who or what they actually are. This personality testing crap appears to me to be just another way for Facebook to appeal to potential advertisers, but I doubt it would pass the snake oil test on close inspection. Last time I looked, there were seven billion or so independent psychological realities populating this planet. I find it extremely difficult to believe that you can break those down to six, nine, or twelve different types. If only life were that simple.
@ Truth will out
Good points. I am looking at facebook as I have some very FB oriented relations who want to be on it every day and promote things I’m not interested in. Now it seems to have increased as there is mention that I should know that someone is ‘tagging’ something from someone who is connected with one of my relatives or their friends blah blah.. I’m sick of it.
It has ocasional uses for me but another of the trials of it is that they don’t have a complete profile on me or my image and I don’t want them to have it. But I get reminded (harrassed) that they still don’t know what toilet paper I use and if I fold it or crush it into a ball. Haha. Not going to tell them. (That actually was a funny episode in one of the tv series, possibly The IT crowd.)
By the way TruthWO, I split my comment as it’s easier to read if you would do that. A split anywhere or divide into paras separating your thinking, good.
The interesting — and somewhat alarming — fact about the MBTI is that, despite its popularity, it has been subject to sustained criticism by professional psychologists for over three decades. One problem is that it displays what statisticians call low “test-retest reliability.” So if you retake the test after only a five-week gap, there’s around a 50% chance that you will fall into a different personality category compared to the first time you took the test.
It’s kinda amazing the personality tests still exist. I suspect that it’s part of some peoples desire to fit other people into categories that they understand.
@DTB
Some interesting things from a link on that Fortune page relating to generic drug falsifications that mean that drugs relied on and officially packaged may be nearly useless.
This about a whistleblower who exposed an Indian ‘faker’. http://fortune.com/2013/05/15/dirty-medicine/ Under federal whistleblower law, Thakur will receive more than $48 million as part of the resolution of the case…
On May 13 [2013?] Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to seven federal criminal counts of selling adulterated drugs with intent to defraud, failing to report that its drugs didn’t meet specifications, and making intentionally false statements to the government. Ranbaxy agreed to pay $500 million in fines, forfeitures, and penalties — the most ever levied against a generic-drug company. (No current or former Ranbaxy executives were charged with crimes.)Thakur’s confidential whistleblower complaint, which he filed in 2007 and which describes how the company fabricated and falsified data to win FDA approvals, was also unsealed.
This item goes on to examine the generics boom, which is a large part of the pharma market in the USA and the global market is said to be $242 billion. But the question is, can it be monitored properly. The gaming of the FDA is shown by this one case to be likely, and if not, there is always the possibility of capture of screening officials as in the case of the Federal Reserve in USA.
I saw a graph showing the popularity of different three-word combinations in Buzzfeed headlines (through likes and shares on Facebook). “Things you didn’t” and “You’ll never guess” were predictably very high on the list, but “character are you” was in the top 5.
People *love* being able to sort themselves and their friends and family into easily-understood categories.
1. Quality of metadata is vital. You’d think that some metadata would be better than no metadata, but inaccurate metadata is worse than none at all because it gives you misplaced confidence in the crap results you’ll get.
2. Metadata of the type that lets you say “more likely to be X than Y” for a large population sample isn’t necessarily going to say anything useful about any particular individual. (Which is what’s disturbing about wild statements like “knows you better than a close friend.”)
1. Pretty much what I was thinking. Further, that there’ll be a race to be the first to use metadata to make a major error of judgement in a criminal investigation. Come to think of it, that probably happened already.
When both major parties are determined to create a rentier society then ownership is guaranteed to drop. Of course, we should actually question the value of owning a home anyway as that in itself also creates a rentier society – just with the banks and their shareholders as the rentiers.
This morning on radonz a commentator on Greece said there problem had been that two parties had alternated for 40 years both running scams, with corruption and spending unwisely – increasing government employees by four times etc. That resonates with DtB “When both major parties are determined to create a rentier society”.
In Greece people have had so many years of austerity and not been able to climb out of it, their best and brightest have survived by going to other countries, and of those remaining 15% have voted for Golden Dawn which sounds similar to H…s Brown Shirts in Germany. The GD abuse brown coloured people in the street [Jews} and are corrupt and criminal, and at present half of their reps are in prison for something.
So societies are degraded by this mad austerity. Our long=standing financial system is now not standing up to scrutiny and hard times that it has created itself. The system is shown to be not practical for a good, healthy economy and society. And the people at the bottom rage but hard work is required to understand the coils of its serpentine ways.
By the way when the ECB talks about the necessity for Greeks to “reform” their economy before they get any more bail out money (which isn’t a bail out it’s just more odious debt), they are actually talking about Greeks allowing foreign corporations and hedge funds to come in and pick up critical Greek infrastructure for cents on the dollar.
@ CR
I keep seeing in the machinations of the neo libs a giant version with countries being raided and their goodies bought up by predaotrs, of the process of coporate raiders buying individual businesses. This was practised by businesses in western countries in the 1980s. We had Brierley and others getting hold of businesses and gutting them regaining their original investment many times eventually.
And of course the leveraging. This was where they bought businesses really cheap on borrowed money raised on the actual business’s assets. So in order to gain ownership it was bought laden with debt that would be recovered by stripping its assets and reducing its outgoings, ie wages to the minimum. Corporate raiders I think they are called. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_raid
I thought I would look up some references to these raiders.
It’s interesting looking at Cedenco which ended up in Brierley hands. Once busy here in NZ it ended up with major production shifted to Australia.
Company Information for 1990
Employees: 51-100
Turnover: $49,641,000 NZD (2012)
Export Sales Information: 45% of turnover
Established: 1986 http://directory.foodandbeverage.govt.nz/entries/199007-cedenco-foods-new-zealand-ltd
But good news in 2013 –
The Gisborne Herald | Gisborne’s …
Aug 8, 2013 … We are grateful to see the likes of Cedenco relocate back to Gisborne and council wisdom has established infrastructure to facilitate future …www.gisborneherald.co.nz/article/?id=33507
I throw in a Treasury report on post-privatisation of entities in NZ for no extra charge. http://www.treasury.govt.nz/commercial/resources/pdfs/mixed-ownership-model/mom-shppnz-wilson-dec10.pdf
(Methodology … Removing the capacity of the businesses to seek government aid in bad times, thus both …. Ron Brierley, at that time executive chair of. Brierley …)
Note : from the summary under the link address – that businesses are going to have the capacity to seek government aid in bad times removed.
The lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history. And their lives will improve more than anyone else’s.
But we think the next 15 years will see major breakthroughs for most people in poor countries. They will be living longer and in better health. They will have unprecedented opportunities to get an education, eat nutritious food, and benefit from mobile banking. These breakthroughs will be driven by innovation in technology — ranging from new vaccines and hardier crops to much cheaper smartphones and tablets — and by innovations that help deliver those things to more people.
The rich world will keep getting exciting new advances too, but the improvements in the lives of the poor will be far more fundamental — the basics of a healthy, productive life. It’s great that more people in rich countries will be able to watch movies on super hi-resolution screens. It’s even better that more parents in poor countries will know their children aren’t going to die.
Fifteen years, just enough time to get more dependent on oil then find there isn’t much left. We certainly won’t be letting poor countries have the last of the easy to get at oil, will we. What will they do then?
Mobile banking 🙄
Does Gates say anything about CC and PO? If not, his opinions are at best redundant, at worst contributing to the problem.
What we should really be doing is offering poorer countries resiliency tech that enables them to keep their current resiliency strategies while increasing their quality of life. But that would mean getting over our own denial.
Petty cuts and pastes something someone else wrote, with a beige nothing appended, and when a debate ensues, he cuts and pastes the result straight to Yawns.
Yeah I knew his comments tended to be edited versions of his blogposts, and that he periodically posts there on his Prentice obsession. Didn’t know he was wholesaling from the comments here though.
Unfortunately I just went and had a look and saw that awful misognistic post about the nannies at Ratana 🙁
A 50% increase in ‘wealth’ for most rich people will have far less effect on their lives than a 50% increase for all poor people.
True this.
Just like a 50% increase in wealth for the bottom 9/10 of NZers will have far more effect on their lives, than a 50% increase in wealth for the top 1/10 of NZers.
“..Could Psychedelics Be An Effective Suicide Prevention Measure?..
..The new wave of research on the medical applications of psychedelic drugs has suggested that these substances may hold considerable promise as therapeutic interventions –
– for a number of mental health conditions.
And according to another new study –
– use of ‘classic’ psychedelics – psilocybin (magic mushrooms) – LSD a- nd mescaline –
– may also be an effective suicide prevention measure..”
A week is a long time in politics. Never underestimate or forget how fickle the public is when the truth hurts them in their pockets. Key is only as good as their next pay cheque. Why else do you think he has borrowed almost $100 billion to keep the middle class wrapped in cotton wool?
@Ad:
Key is only as good as the average voter’s last or next pay cheque. Personally I think the man is a liar and a criminal and I can”t wait to see him exposed. The object of your desire is the object of my contempt. History will prove who was right no matter how hard you try to shape it. Your opinion is no more or less valid than mine in this equation.
how we are going to change the future of politics via the use of ‘attack lines’ which consistently get zero traction.
People don’t believe that Labour is ready to lead a true alternative to Key and English. I think that’s the basics of it.
Would better attack lines help? Sure. And if Labour could sound like it was in touch with the culture and attitudes of the electorate, that would be of assistance.
If you want to look at Labour’s mediocre performance and lack of true vision over the last 8 years you only need to look at caucus and their senior advisors.
Agreed. This is why the question ‘how to defeat National” should be argued through as the year starts, not after Key has set the agenda. And all the more reason to refine which remaining tools do work.
This really isn’t the place to do that though Ad. It’s a largely pseudonymous, and more importantly, public space.
Discussing rhetorical strategies, and the like, can’t be done in a public space; and is only really relevant to a few dozen people within political organisations anyway.
Spaces like this are places for citizens to talk about stuff. Party strategies will be yarned about, sure, but they can’t be planned in such spaces.
If Labour, or anyone else, is actually looking for clues on what to do strategically from spaces like this, then they are beyond fucked. That’s not to say that there aren’t insights here, but they limited to the context of what goes on in here. They cannot develop a rhetorical strategy in a public space. You cannot get a ‘good attack line’ from a public discussion of what a ‘good attack line’ might be.
Such things might emerge from a discussion about an event, or about National, but they will not emerge from a discussion about developing attack lines. Such a discussion ‘poisons the well’ for anything it comes up.
ie: “Haha, Labour are using lines discussed in this {link} Standard comment thread! Fuck they are hopeless” -Every RW blogger
Next day: John Armstrong, Vernon Small, Fran O’s: “The problems in Labour remain apparent as the party remains in the thrall of far left base who supported Cunliffe. Despite public shows at unity, and claims to have ‘learned the lessons that they need to listen to mainstream New Zealanders’ the party is still beholden to the partisans in the often abusive comment threads of….”
We are not confused with caucus. But TS has a leadership position and is doing a better job of defining a future for an alternative government than most.
Most parties look here for clues – it’s a signal of the success of the site. Just as they do on other sites.
Don’t be so afraid of the echo. And you’re worrying far too hard about what is discussed “inside” or “outside”. That’s precisely the purpose of being a part of the media, which we are. This is public.
And don’t be pathetic about Cunliffe. Everyone else has got over it just fine.
We form thoughts that are repeated, added to, seen, reified, considered. And have done so for years now. Accept the agency this kind of site has.
There is no need for TS or any other site to respond to the narrative. We can form it. I’ve simply put the question more baldly than most. And we can and should help answer it.
Speak for yourself, and don’t claim to speak for others.
I’ve not been commenting here much lately, but there are very few who have been here longer. I remember, for example, when CV showed up.
This ‘leadership position’ what the hell are you even talking about?
It’s a blog, with otherwise largely unconnected people discussing things in public. That’s a useful and good thing, but nope, it is not a place where a party or political movement can strategise effectively.
In any case, if you want to get on with it, get on with it. Asking other people to have that conversation is pointless, coz as is happening now, the conversation becomes about the conversation.
They idea that a party or movement can have discussions in public about what their public rhetoric should be is completely bonkers, sorry. it just is.
Either get on with trying lines or whatever, or not.
But saying ‘maybe we should try this line”xxxx” or maybe this one “yyyy” just slits the throat of the line.
The line cannot be accepted as sincere when you have publicly said ‘maybe this might work’ about it.
I’ve missed your input, PB. I think you could do a media / PR advisor role for a party and be good at it. One of the few posters here whose comments I always read.
No it’s not. This is the silly season. People not only act stupid, they think stupid. Anyone who thinks that the average Kiwi is an intelligent and rational thinker is living in cloud cuckoo land. Most are downright stupid or excessively greedy – or both. That’s why I don’t give a damm about them anymore.
I haven’t withdrawn – far from it. I simply bear in mind most are politically stupid. Then when they go and prove it – as they do time and time again – I’m not surprised or disappointed. 🙂
Funny you should say that because – political stupidity aside – that is exactly what I was initially thinking. You see their arrogant, self absorbed behaviour around you all the time.
“Another year,
another pint of beer.”
Billy Bragg.
When will the reality sink in?
Seven years and support for LW still dropping.
As you say AD, time to think this through hard….
So here’s a few practical thoughts on the essential elements of change.
Nothing is going to change by just sitting and waiting for the current strategy to suceed. It’s been 7 years and that hasn’t worked yet. It will not work in the future.
If the Left does want any hope of change, the Left must actively change it’s strategy.
Those who are constantly finding reasons why nothing will work ‘because everything is stacked against us’, should go and sulk in the corner with the other defeatists, and stop getting in the way of those with positivity and determination to succeed.
There is actually a very simple goal that can be identified. It is by far and away the one thing that will produce the maximum effect…
9% of voters who currently support the Right must be converted to vote Left.
If you hope to convert those voters, you must listen carefully to their views and concerns. As Orwell said ” propaganda only works when it is largely what the populace was inclined to do anyway”.
This will involve short term compromise right throughout the Left.
No single LW party can hope to gain power on it’s own.
The LW must align forces and they must present a coherent and credible alternative Govt. that ‘the 9%’ can strongly identify with.
This will involve compromise throughout the Left.
It needs to be understood and agreed why this is necessary, and why the constant ideological conflict that has characterised LW politics is simply counter productive for everyone.
This all must happen very soon. By the end of the year at latest. To have any chance of convincing ‘the 9%’ to swing Left, you will need to show them at least 2 years of a rock solid, unified, and credible alternative Govt.
Get off your arses and act for change.
Or it’ll be ‘three more years’ ringing in your ears, rather than Billy Bragg.
No concrete suggestions other than “why can’t we all just get along”? Are you trying for a beige star?
PS: My concrete suggestion is that we repeal neoliberalism in its entirety. Public utilities, free education, free healthcare, strong unions, human rights and the rule of law (and that includes Te Tiriti).
After that, advance only policies for which there are evidential bases.
Fundamental changes in policy direction have been achieved many times before in many countries, using democratic means. All it really takes is for enough people to notice that right wing parties turn everything to shit.
So, for example, your disgusting support for the destruction of collective bargaining deserves a brutal response, and it will just end up being repealed by Parliament instead.
Seven years of RW Govt., their level of support is going UP, but you still believe the above, and your strategy is to wait for ‘enough people to notice’?
Denial OAB, and I’m not singling you out, because you are expressing a (far too) common LW meme.
The flaw in this meme, (and it’s a biggie), is the presumption that your world view is ‘correct’, other world views are ‘wrong’, and inevitably future events will clearly demonstrate this and lead people to see the world as you do.
They will not. Other peoples world views are just as firmly grounded as yours, and are about as likely to change significantly and rapidly as yours are. (Bugger all chance in other words.)
Reality. The majority of NZ’ers do not believe everything is going to shit.
So a strategy based on attempting to convince the 55% that it is, will fail over the next 3 years, just like it has for the last seven.
So if my suggested strategy is rubbish, what are the realistic and achievable alternatives?
Either Dr. Mike Joy is right, or the corrupt Prime Minister. Either The Lancet is right, or the Health Minister. Either the New Zealand Law Society is right, or the National Party.
It’s nice of you to imagine I formed my low opinion of you and your leaders on my own, and really, I had help, and not from self-made self-worshippers, either.
Oh, and you are confusing an observation with a strategy. Oh, and an anonymous bloke who isn’t even a member of a political party, with political parties.
The majority of the electorate (70%+) either didn’t vote, or didn’t vote for three more years. Your fatuous conceit that everyone thinks like you isn’t borne out by the facts.
@ OAB
“All it really takes is for enough people to notice that right wing parties turn everything to shit.”
The lost sheep has made some relevant points. And one is about your sentence above. It is obvious to us, that even when the facts are obvious, the voters will slide away from the bad prognostications and vote for the status quo while the water is still calm. Later they may realise they should have acted differently, but the boat will be going down then and losses will mount.
We can’t wait for reality to strike the voters, we must be aware ourselves and find some unifying other message with positive outcomes to get them to brace themselves for change. It’s getting them to climb that change barrier! Change of thought, expectation, and change of government and change of apathetic negativity that seems to have settled over the country like a low pressure weather trough.
We have gone so far away from 1984’s lies about pain before gain, that we haven’t much that’s concrete to hold onto, to use as a base, a reference point for a reasoned way forward. We want a way that achieves a good basic living standard for all, and useful jobs to go to, and skills to acquire that will pay for improvements in living standard. The economy will rise as that happens. The change will be carried up not trickled down. Think of a seedling, quite soft but strong enough for its task, and it pushes up through the soil and then opens its leaves and gets stuck into being the plant it is. We can do that.
So, no idea what Pascal’s Bookie is talking about then?
Don’t flatter yourself: you aren’t positive, constructive, or anything approaching either of these things. Treacherous and insincere is a far better description.
Assumptions will only make an ass out of you. I am not a Labour supporter or voter. In fact, I voted for Key in 2008, but by 2011 I had seen enough evidence to know he is an out and out crook, and the only reason he keeps getting away with it is the questionable judgement and values of people like you, combined with your incredibly low standards in terms of what we expect in the form of clean, corruption free government. Key falls so far short on those standards, it is only your extreme moral selectivity and wilful ignorance on the part of idiots like you that keeps him propped up. If a Labour MP had resorted to insider trading to profit from the Kiwi Rail restructure, for instance, you would have been all over them like a rash. But instead, you resort to blind trust, much like the object of your desire did. And you both still rely on it. No matter what way you look at it, our economy is propped up by $100 billion of debt. In anyone’s language, that is a house of cards, dependent on luck as much as skill to see us get out of it safely. So far, I have seen bugger all skill, and an over-dependence on luck by Key and his cronies. What I have also seen, is more corruption, cronyism and conflicts of interest on their part than any other government in New Zealand history. Like I said, it is your willingness to turn a blind eye to that in return for your next pay cheque that proves me right, beyond any doubt.
I is astounding how everybody is just pointing the finger at each other instead of offering solutions. I am no party member nor do I follow every share market or bank analysis. What I do see is the ordinary kiwi working or wanting to work, trying to succeed and get a better life. This seem to be almost impossible as education has failed many (they should be held accountable big time!), jobs are getting scarcer and upwards movement is reserved for those in the know 😉 wink wink. This is the report from the bottom of the heap, how is the air up there where reality is as far away as the moon?
There’s a number of solutions that have been put forward but they’re usually lambasted as being too radical. The problem that a lot of people seem to have with them is that they’ll change the underlying structure that they’re used to, i.e, they’ll fix the actual problems rather than the perceived problems.
Poverty is seen as a problem and people look for ways solve poverty. But poverty isn’t actually the problem but the symptom of the problem. The problem is capitalism in that it creates poverty.
If all we have is to wait for John Key’s luck to run out, the taxpayer funding that props up Parliamentary Services keeping Labour and Greens alive should be stopped immediately because they can affect nothing.
I’d like to ascribe them a modicum of skill that enables them to be a functioning opposition.
Searching around for the good news, at least the Greens didn’t get their heads caved in. And with Labour this weak, there’s a better chance that Labour and the Greens will actually have to talk.
Yes that’s fair comment. Should’ve been doing that since day dot, but as you know there is this pride within Labour that it is the ‘rightful’ party of the Left.
@ James
Who are ‘you guys’? Because one person says something here doesn’t mean it’s an idea of more than one person. It may not be a general policy of the left or something that the Labour Party has done, is considering or will do. Be more specific as to whom you are directing your thoughts.
All I know is we are not going to rise to overcome our challenges as a nation by resorting to dirty politics, divisive politics, self interest, cronyism, corruption, abuse(s) of political power, or anything which stems from the lust and greed for money and power that drives those behaviours.
Tolerance of them must become intolerable if we are to have any hope of progressing and evolving as a society and a nation.
Clean, corruption free, efficient and wise governance MUST become our overarching priority or we are buggered.
Watching trolls keep entering this forum and defending the opposite just angers me to the core.
These people offend the memories of those who have sacrificed their lives for all of us to live in a better society.
We need to start demanding a better standard from ourselves and from those who seek the privilege, the power and the money to run this country.
There is no place for the kind of cynicism which accepts dirty politics as a given if you ever hope to live in a healthy economy and a civilised society.
Tolerance of such corruption and abuse of power and privilege is as disgraceful as those activities such tolerance seeks to exonerate.
Truth will out
Don’t feel so deeply about everything. You will wear yourself out. There are huge problems and putting up with the RW troles to some extent is the least of our worries. You list such a lot which which seem valid.
Just have a rant and a hissy fit about the annoying mosquitoes every now and then and have a slap at them. You might draw some blood, but remember when its a mosquito it will be your own blood you see. That’s my advice. I find them really space wasting and malicious in their determined obtuseness. But some of the earnest defenders of the left like weka and tracey will answer them and try to educate – like trying to sculpt stone with a straw! I’m not suggesting ignoring them, but just checking out what little schemes they are running daily is how to manage them in a manageable way.
Just rips my nightie watching my tax dollars get flushed down the toilet we used to think of as government, and then have to endure a parade of f*ckwits making excuses for it.
“Not too sure what the left/Labour/Greens can do here. Best to just wait it out.”
That’s the worst thing they can do. It’s why I think, despite what others say, polling is good. It shows us trends. National are still around 50% after 7 years. Labour can’t just wait it out, they can’t just wait for the “natural order” to give them power because it’s their turn.
Labour and the Greens have a lot of work to do, and they need to start doing it.
But they should be blaming him for the rising poverty, inequality, the ongoing destruction of our rivers and the outright corruption of his government.
I think housing, house prices, and rental prices, remain one of the best attack lines. Smith has rolled his dice and failed. They have exposed a major weakness. Can it be better exploited?
EU joins rest of global economy in a QE induced coma…
“QE has failed in the last four years to get the major capitalist economies going; fiscal deficit spending has not worked in Japan either; so the strategists of capital look to the ‘third arrow’ of weakening labour and extending the ‘free’ movement of capital as the answer. But another slump that destroys capital values and raises average profitability is more likely to be the way out for capital.”
Pretty sure John Key will be reported soon as telling the EU leaders they are loonies for their QE. So far just his “innocent til proven guilty” support of Prince Andrew.
Prince Andrew is only “innocent until he is proven guilty” because Key wants a knighthood. Pity he hasn’t extended the same courtesy to certain citizens of New Zealand, who were destroyed by media trials of his making while being denied any access to a court room. Key is a hypocritical disgrace who makes my skin crawl. But let me tell you how I REALLY feel…
NZ’s ‘terrorist’ list includes movements which are clearly progressive/liberation movements. Anti-imperialist and democratic rights activist Cam Walker has a piece on “Ramping up state powers: the Terrorism Suppression Act since 2007” which starts:
The Terrorism Suppression Act 2002, brought in by Helen Clark’s Labour government, contains a number of wide provisions potentially criminalising support for legitimate national liberation movements and activism.
The Act was discredited in the eyes of many of its initial supporters in 2007 when the Solicitor General described it as ‘unnecessarily complex and incoherent’, following his refusal to allow the Police to proceed with charges under the Act against the defendants in Operation 8 (the so-called ‘Urewera raids’).
Yet the Act was never repealed. The legal ability of the state to apply the sections of the Act to those supporting international solidarity causes has increased over the past five years. John Key has used his power under s 22 of the Act to designate groups as ‘terrorist entities’ 19 times since 2010!
I’m not traditionally a Labour or left wing voter, but I’m really hoping Andrew Little can do something really different and find a way to build and agenda and support for a Universal Basic income in NZ.
It would get my vote for a few reasons that are best outlined in two excellent posts on Gareth Morgan’s site:
No party has it in their platform, , how do you get it in the labour party platform? No use if its greens only. There are many aspects to a ubi that have broad appeal to non left voters i think.
The Anderson’s Bay Peninsula Branch of the Labour Party (Dunedin South) is likely to put forward something on the UBI, and an associated programme, to Conference this year.
It could also wipe out overheads associated with the current welfare system, ie the MSD bureaucracy.
You would be able to shrink the whole thing down to one or two floors on an office building, plus a server room. People would only need to go into a post shop, local bank or even online and apply.
Plus they could choose to have it paid out weekly, monthly or even yearly 🙂
The superannuation system would be a good starting point for a UBI, I would work on refining that (ie taking pensions from WINZ and handing it another entity, simplifiing elegbility criteria, and streamining administration, then use that as a UBI blueprint.
UPDATE: NZ Spends $27 billion per year on welfare. if you took that money and spend it on a UBI it would come out at $6750 per year, for every man, woman and child in this country, or, $130 per week.
A family of four would get $520 per week.
To get a decent UBI would be pretty expensive, so it will need to have some work done on a proposal.
But UBI doesn’t work like that. If you are in work you don’t get it. It should mean more money flowing through the population as WINZ plans down. That could go into Housing NZ which should plan up so it does the job of keeping the housing stream of lower priced housing to needed level each year, so we don’t get huge backlogs and the rentier investment approach as now.
As a rough benchmark, it might be interesting to see what resources are currently used to administer pensions.
Even for a universal system, “one or two floors on an office building, plus a server room” seems overly optimistic to me.
The big problem the any radical transfers/tax refrom is that they invariably create large categories of winners and losers, from a net take home income level. And we humans being pretty selfish this is a very difficult problem to deal with politically. So any reforms tend to be only those that create more “winners” than losers and it needs to be by quite a margin.
Jepenesque: absolutely. I think major reform of our economy is necessary (not just in terms of tax and transfers) but to be politically saleable they need to be very cleverly designed.
And we humans being pretty selfish this is a very difficult problem to deal with politically.
IMO, human’s aren’t inherently selfish. They are inherently defensive of their present wealth and fearful of change especially when their present wealth is already close to, if not below, subsistence level as a lot of people’s is.
So any reforms tend to be only those that create more “winners” than losers and it needs to be by quite a margin.
Almost all the reforms over the last thirty years have done the exact opposite in that they’ve created lots of losers and a very few very big winners. The problem seems to be that the political parties now only listen to the very big winners and ignore the losers that they’ve created.
I agree. According to research by Daniel Kahneman and others people are intrinsically loss-averse. The issue is that in order to do something about societal problems the status quo has to be broken and National & friends are controlling the narrative. They have convinced many law-abiding tax-paying rule-obeying decent people in NZ that breaking the status quo means a “loss” to them and the whole country for that matter. Somehow, National’s spin doctors have convinced many people that combatting inequality or poverty, for example, can only come at their personal expense. People buy into this [no pun] and vote, think, talk, blog, and generally behave accordingly. So, the status quo prevails. Mission accomplished.
The danger imposed by National is that they no longer read people’s minds but they actually effectively manipulate them. They use their lessons and experiences from the free market. That is, don’t respond to the market, don’t follow the market, don’t wait for the market to catch on but influence and manipulate the market or create your own one. It works on consumers and it works on voters; it is the same psychology applied to the exact same people.
Slick advertising, branding, and marketing sell more and National is applying these to politics; it is vote buying in a figurative sense, sometimes assisted with blatant election bribes. This is where and why the left will always be on the back foot except in ‘niche markets’ such as the environment but even these are under constant threat from the RW propaganda.
In my view, this is why National and John Key are so “good” at what they’re doing; they treat our democracy as a free market. Politics is turning into economics, which is another reason why the Economy is always one of the most important issues in the elections; it is framed that way. Altruism and friendship are replaced by profit motives and competition; collegiality and community feeling are replaced by corporate values; corporatism is creeping into our public institutions; the free market becomes the answer, the only answer, to everything.
National’s WMD is their slick and powerful PR-machine. How do you fight this? With an even bigger PR-machine? I think the most effective response is counter-intuitive.
I’ll be interesting what kind of reception this will receive here on TS.
Interest in just the big winners not the small guys and girls seems to be a regular theme. Too big to fail and too small to bother about seems the motto these days and it’s negative for advancing the country’s wellbeing.
I have heard that government only wants to deal with one provider rather than a grouping of small ones or lots of individuals. But that would spread the work around. But no it’s more efficient to go to one.
Fishing quotas – formatted so that small ones sold out to big ones.
‘
Air NZ has just stopped getting a variety of wines from different vintners, it’s all from Maria now.
Some airports decide to deal with only one taxi company and make it hard for small ones to get work.
I think the Japanese built themselves up by dealing with small suppliers who were closely integrated into the production line and supplied as needed in the ‘just in time’ scheduled system.
OAB, interesting that you should bring up the topic of behaviour. An increasing number of people are calling you on your behaviour and that your behaviour is the main problem. Unless the aim is to portray this as a place of intolerant obnoxiousness. You may not care that it’s a poor look for you but it’s obvious that others care that it keeps tainting the whole forum.
It’s difficult to see what you’re trying to achieve. It’s easy to get you to keep repeating your stupidity.
Haven’t you seen it? It’s been happening more often here, and his type of behaviour is frequently criticised elsewhere in social media and is often said to reflect poorly on Labour (and yes, I know this isn’t a Labour blog as such but that’s how many see it, especially media).
It should be fairly obvious that behaviour like OAB’s is often seen as toxic. Don’t you see that?
[Stephanie: weka raises a very valid point. Don’t try to use weasel words like “but that’s how many see it” when you’re parrotting trollish crap which you know perfectly well is against our policy.]
So the thingthat obviously has no instances springing to mind (otherwise the request for detail wouldn’t have been made) is happening more often here. I’m shocked, shocked!
The thing has also been criticised elsewhere. big deal
The thing looks bad for Labour. go tell Labour, then
The thing is often seen as toxic. sounds shocking
Don’t you see that the thing is toxic?
Right. Now give us an examppe of what the hell you’re talking about.
You seem to watch things here a lot, I’m surprised you haven’t seen it happening. And it’s not new.
From one thread. First Mary
It’s this kind of communication, from OAB, for example, that feeds the “astonishing lack of ability to see the advantage of working harmoniously together to get rid of this rotten government”, a criticism of yours I agree with. It’s this sort of communication that for many just shuts dialogue down. Who’d want to engage in such vileness?
Whereas I consider you a bombastic bully. To my mind you have an aggressive and unpleasant style of engagement (and a propensity to over-italicise, which tends to detract rather than add to what you’re trying to say).
You expect everyone else to swallow it and shut up, then resort to personal abuse to support your line of argument. Man your tactics are so like Joyce it funny/ironic/sad.
Now perhaps you’re with OAB on driving people away he disagrees with but you are spend enough time I find it hard to believe you’re not aware of it happening.
BTW I googled and that’s the first thread I came up with. It’s not hard.
Still not getting it eh Petey? To me that just looks like the regular, garden variety level of complaints about behaviour that happen on ts in the middle of long arguments when things get heated. It’s not unusual for the ad hominems to come out at that point, across the board.
For the most part I get on well enough with OAB, but there are times when we disgree when I find their style tiresome and sometimes we spat. Often I just avoid getting to that point with people unless I feel like having a fight. But there are lots of people here who that would be true of, myself included. Does it matter? You know that thing about how polite isn’t a requirement here?
I think the key point is that it’s on an entirely different level from what you do. Which would be why sometimes the community devotes whole threads to talking about the PG tips problem, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on OAB. They also don’t get bans afaik.
“BTW I googled and that’s the first thread I came up with. It’s not hard.”
What key words did you use?
(lolz, I’ve just seen the date on that linked thread. I didn’t comment in it, and it’s likely I didn’t even read it, which would explain why I hadn’t seen this terrible pattern of behaviour. That, or the fact that I don’t read every comment or thread on the site 🙄 )
See the difference between what I just said and what you jsut said, is that I can point to some actual evidence (see your response to my comment). Whereas your assertions that I am well aware of it is just shit you made up.
Because despite 10 states in the US, Canada, Israel, and the Netherlands instituting specific regimes for medicinal cannabis use, and despite neighbouring Australia moving towards allowing its use there, in New Zealand there is no such momentum.
There’s a lot of support for medical marijuana (~85% IIRC) and even majority support for full legalisation. The problem is the we know best, anti-democratic politicians and political parties that do only what the corporates and business people want.
Thanks, I was happy to post here, but got no reply when I emailed, I’ve never followed blogs until now, and I’m all about the issue, which shouldn’t be left or right. what are your thoughts on Bomber’s blog?
not sure what Bomber is like to deal with. Some people manage it, others don’t.
If you get some posts under your belt, host blogs will take you more seriously. Also, remember that people have still largely been in holiday mode and these blogs are run by volunteers.
It’s good you’ve started your own blog, because if you get good at it, Lynn might put you in the blog roll at the side. That’ll up your readership.
A couple of other suggestions. Just avoid the PG thing here completely. You’ve seen what’s happened above right? So now the serious responses to you are getting lost way below your original post. Just link to your own blog and don’t mention PG at all. It’s not worth it and it’s unlikely to benefit you.
I’d leave out the “it’s neither left nor right” thing here. It doesn’t matter, but if you focus on it, you might put off people who don’t support the centrist theory. From what I can tell it’s not relevant to what you are writing about (I read your comment about Paula Gray being conservative, but I don’t get that from the article, so it just confuses things if you highlight something that isn’t relevant or necessarily true).
The time has come the walrus said to speak of many things:
“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To speak of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”
The reason is global warming – Brought about by the emission of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. It is recognised by governments around the world and the international scientific community, that climate change has dangerously raised the temperature of the oceans, (as well as the rest of the biosphere).
But, as to the second question:
Do pigs have wings?
This is the question I want to address with this essay.
Winged pigs are a common metaphor, or adynaton for something impossible, unlikely, or improbable.
Recently we have had a tour of this country by eminent climate change expert Guy McPhearson, who tells us (rightly in my opinion) that humanity have passed the point of no return, that irreversible climate breakdown, (a catastrophe on a global scale, ushering in widescale extinctions, even possible human extinction, within a matter of decades), has begun. To describe this process Guy McPhearson has coined the phrase “Near Term Human Extinction” (NTHE)
Guy McPhearson admits to the reality of (NTHE) with acceptance and even mourning.
‘It is no one’s fault’, says McPhearson, ‘most of the damage was done before many of us were even born.’
Guy McPhearson is not the only one to have reached this conclusion, Paul Kingsnorth founder of the Dark Mountain Project has a similar ethos. Paul Kingsnorth goes even further, actively condemning those trying to organise a fightback against climate change, naming people like Naomi Klein and Bill McKibbon of 350.org, and accusing them of peddling (false) “Hopium”, even of “Lying to people”.
So can pigs fly?
Can we humanity get out of the impossible situation that it finds itself in?
Or like in the horror movie franchise Saw, are we collectively caught in a horrific sadistic trap, partly of our own devising, impossible to escape from?
Should we even try? Or should we, like some have suggested, accept our collective fate and go into a period of individual and collective mourning?
When it comes to climate change there is an extreme wide range of views; From denial: – ‘It is not happening’. To acceptance: – ‘It is happening, but if we act now, we can prevent it getting any worse’. To despair: – ‘It has already happened, and there is nothing we can do about it’.
There has been no real rational debate between the different factions. All seem to have a deep emotive hatred of the others.
And why not? NTHE is an emotive issue. How could it not be?
This has resulted in lot of misunderstanding, heated accusations, emotive name calling, denial, and talking past each other. Egotism, (on all sides), hasn’t helped.
An example; the debate between well known activist George Monbiot. And Paul Kingsnorth of Dark Mountain, degenerated into personal abuse and accusations of condoning genocide on one side, to lying on the other.
The central contentious issue of debate, from all sides is whether, we should do anything about climate change, and will it make any difference if we don’t?
Springing from this first question, (and related to it), is a secondary question,
If we do decide to do something about climate change, what should it be?
1/ Is there any point in doing something?
2/ If there is any point in doing something, what should that something be?
I would like to address the second question first.
This may seem like a back to front way of doing things, but I want to leave the main question of whether we should do anything at all, until the last.
Disclaimer: The following are my views and my views only, I invite others to critique them and tear them to bits and in so doing offer up better solutions and stratagems and pathways forward.
Preamble:
(I) The Blame Game
I remember when I first became aware of the issue of climate change. The issue of climate change was first raised in the 1990s mass media, news paper editorials and TV news as a world problem, at that time the problem was couched in the language of “its all your fault”. You as an individual are responsible. You drive a car, you use air travel, you use disposable products, you use electricity. “Its all your fault” was drummed into us. Obviously this sort of language is pretty diss-empowering, and most people just shrugged and feeling disempowered carried on with their lives. But when enough people did take the message seriously and tried to make personal changes, and found they couldn’t, or it was making zero difference, they eventually began to ask other questions. Why when I cut down my CO2 emissions, do huge factories and industries continue pouring out hydrocarbons that make my individual efforts pointless? Why is there no decent public transportation so that I am forced to use a private car? Why am I forced to use disposable plastic products?
What people came to realise is that climate change is a public policy issue not a matter of personal choice at all.
(II) How Does Change Happen?
I am 56 years young. I remember the first time I ever saw plastic waste on a beach. I was about ten years old, sitting on the sand above the tide line at Mission Bay, Auckland. Pushing my hand into the sand, looking more closely, I marveled at the unusual small plastic oblate sphericals about a quarter inch in diameter (2mm) mixed in amongst the golden yellow sand grains which was mostly made up of tiny shell fragments. What were these smooth little plastic balls, and how did they get there?
I learnt later that they were the feedstock for New Zealand’s growing plastics industry, and were being imported in mass in the holds of ships, where they were being spilled into the harbour on unloading. (In the days before containerisation, I imagine that this was a much more messy business.)
When I was a kid, plastic was still a novel product. I remember the first big plastic doll I ever saw which had come from America as gift for a neighboring girl. We all marveled as she showed us how it closed its eyes when you laid it down and cried when you pulled the cord in its back. Most other toys then were made of wood, or metal. Balls were made of leather, or rubber. Raincoats were called mackintoshes after the material they were made of. Goods still came wrapped in brown paper and string, even things like tooth paste tubes were made of metal not plastic.
Rubbish tins were heavy metal bins with metal lids, you could hear the clatter of lids and bins made by the approaching dustmen, which gave you a warning if you had forgotten to get your rubbish out. The teams of dustmen were very fit, but there really was a lot less rubbish for them to pick up, I imagine that landfills were a lot more compact as well.
Shampoo and dishwashing liquid was unknown, my mother used to get me to wash the dishes with a piece of sunlight soap trapped in a little metal cage that you shook in the water until it became frothy. (Nowadays we use disposable, one use, plastic containers and plastic one use dishwashing and shampoo bottles. And this disposable plastic waste can be found washed up on even the most remotest beaches on earth)
Back in the day, drinks and liquids came in recyclable glass bottles – pints, quarts and flagons, you could even get half pints. (For bigger amounts, metal containers. In those days even canned drinks were unknown in New Zealand) The glass bottle was ubiquitous. For us kids though there was greater chance of getting your feet cut, but it was great, because there was a mandatory refund on every intact bottle. For the plastics industry to really get a hold in this country the refund had to be got rid of. I was about 12 when the legislation requiring mandatory refunds on glass bottles was abolished after fierce industry lobbying.
After that glass bottles became uneconomic in comparison, to one use, plastic containers.
Another example:
When I was a teenager my father worked for the education department in the Halsey Street warehouse in Freemans Bay which was a distribution point for educational supplies around the country. From my father I learnt that all government contracts over a certain distance (between cities) had to go by rail.
Again after intense lobbying by the roading and trucking interests this legislation was repealed.
After that highways became busier trunk lines were closed, tracks were lifted, thousands of rail workers were laid off.
I am sure there are many other examples of this. But the take-away message is this; laws and bylaws had to be passed, or repealed, to make the throwaway, polluting society, we know today. The same with the demolition of the public tram system and the beginning of the construction of the motorway system.
Law that can be made, can be unmade.
(II) The World Is A Big Place
Of course the changes happening in New Zealand society to make us a more polluting and wasteful place were not just happening here, they were happening world wide.
But it wasn’t like the a committee of world leaders got together and decided, this is how the world should be.
A few people somewhere decided these technologies were a good idea, (and they were at the time), and they just spread.
This is how the change will come as well.
So forget about international conferences on climate change.
A lot of people are disappointed that forum, after forum, meeting, after meeting, international conference, after international conference. All the governments of the world can still not agree on how to tackle the problem of climate change.
But this is the way it has always been.
This is how it will always be.
The latest failed international conference on climate, convened in Lima last year, was just the latest of a long line of failed meetings of the world’s nation states to come to any agreement on climate change.
You can put money on the fact that the huge penultimate international conference on climate change to be convened in Paris later this year will also fail to come to any binding agreement to cut Green House Gas emissions.
A solution will never come from these international treaty negotiations, it never has, and it never will. Even the current head of the UN Ban Ki Moon senses it.
In the 1930s the precurser to the United Nations, the League of Nations, could not get international agreement on how to confront the rise of fascism, and this failure broke them. Just as the UN will fail to get international agreement on how to confront the rise of climate change, and that failure will probably break them as well.
In the 1930s human civilisation was in a global contest between totalitarianism and democracy.
Humanity are now in global contest with the physics of the climate.
In human affairs, big or small, what often makes the difference between resolute action and indecision and confusion, is leadership.
Just as the UN has failed to address this crisis, so did the League of Nations fail to address the big crisis of their time.
What turned the tide was when one (relatively) small plucky island nation decided to put up a fight regardless of the League of Nations, regardless of the other major powers inaction and capitulation, regardless that (at that time) defeat looked almost certain.
Just as the use of plastics and automobiles spread around the world around the world from one centre. Concerted action against climate will also spread from one centre.
Forget any hope of concerted global action arising out of international bodies like the UN, every country is on its own. The competition will be to see, which country by its resolute actions against climate change, becomes that world leader that sets an example which by its moral power the rest of the world will have to follow.
It is up to each citizen, political activist, community leader, and politician convinced of the danger, in whichever country we are from, to push for our country to become that world leader.
For us here in New Zealand we are better placed than many to take that role.
70% of our power is generated by renewables, we need to make that 100%.
Coal plays a very small part of our economy, we need to make that nil by the end of the decade.
We could be that country that by our actions makes that necessary statement to the world that it is possible to move away from fossil fuels.
Winston Churchill once said, “Grab onto one big idea and never let go of it.”
James Hansen has said, “If we can’t get rid of coal it is all over for the climate.”
New Zealand which once had huge asbestos industry has completely eliminated asbestos from our economy, we could easily do the same for coal, to become the world’s first coal free nation.
This could be our big statement to the world.
(III) So how could we go about it?
On a per capita basis New Zealand is the worlds biggest subsidiser of the the fossil fuel industry, we could cancel all the fossil fuel subsidies immediately and pour the money instead into subsidising renewables.
We could mobilise the workforces of the coal mines, and Huntly and Tiwai into building and operating wind and solar energy stations, and other renewable energy technologies.
We could forget about aspiring to become fast followers.
New Zealand could become the global leader on tackling climate change.
Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter, Australia has, per capita the highest level of green house emissions.
Undeniably, Australia our closest physical and cultural neighbor, is one of the worst polluters in the world. But because of the nearness of the two nations, both cultural and geographic, resolute action taken in New Zealand, would have political ramifications in Australia.
Why?
Because as well as being, one of the worst polluters, Australia is one of the worst effected countries by climate change, and many Australians are worried (even frightened). Latest polls show that 6 out of 10 Australians don’t think their government is doing enough about climate change. All these concerned Australians need is lead from across the Tasman to turn their disquiet into a demand that could not be ignored by Australia’s policy makers and business leaders.
From Australia the fight back will spread to the world.
This is how the war will be won.
(IV) So where should we start?
Both the New Zealand Green Party and the Mana Movement policy is “No new coal mines”.
Just as the campaign against nuclear ships was won on the ground first.
Activists from the Greens and Mana, and others, have been putting the agreed policy of No new coalmines into practice on the ground.
After an epic two year battle, these activists have fought Fonterra to a standstill over Fonterra’s plan to develop a new coal mine at Mangatangi, just south of Auckland.
But despite being beaten at Mangatangi, Fonterra have not given up on coal, and have decided to source coal from Solid Energy, the technically insolvent government coal company.
To meet Fonterra’s demand, Solid Energy have decided to reopen an abandoned coal mine at Maramarua 5k down the road from Mangatangi.
If the activists can stop the Maramarua coal mine on top of stopping the Mangatangi coal mine; Make no mistake, this will be a stake through the heart of the coal mining industry in this country, representing a major milestone on the way to making New Zealand completely coal free.
Nothing succeeds like success. Just as the successful protest campaign against nuclear ship visits, used the victory on the ground to leverage this into government policy. We again have the ability of achieve legislation which will have wide ranging international implications.
There are a number of other contenders to be this signature victory against climate change in this country, but in my opinion they do not have the same potential for achieving a signature game-changing-knockout victory on climate change that the proposed Maramarua coal mine has.
The other New Zealand contenders for a signature victory against climate change are:
– The Denniston Coal Mine in the South Island.
– The campaign against deep sea oil drilling.
Both these above campaigns have been handicapped by the tyranny of distance.
Just like applied in gorilla warfare, climate change activists need to concentrate our forces where our opponents are weakest and where we are strongest, that has always been near the main population centres. Maramarua fits this bill.
The other thing about Maramarua, is that it can only be fought on climate change grounds, there are no environmental issues, the climate change message cannot be confused, or adulterated by being mixed with environmental concerns.
If this epic battle against climate change in this country, is not fought and won at Maramarua, it can not be fought and won anywhere.
(IV) (And so for the question I have left til last). Should we even bother?
Both the Deniers and the Doomers have one thing in common, both believe (albeit for different reasons) that there is nothing to be done about about climate change.
Are they wrong? Are they right?
In my opinion if something can be done, it should be done.
Some of my closest friends and advisers tell me that the doomers are right. “There is nothing that any of us can do that will make a difference.”
The time has come, for us to find out!
Pat O’Dea is the Mana Movement spokesperson for climate change.
Pat, quote selectively and link. Taking up a huge space like that anti-social (Penny is about the only one that gets away with it), and may attract the attention of the moderators. Me, it just made me scroll through.
Luckily, I have not as yet succumbed to Paula Bennett syndrome. So, Pat O’Dea (I don’t know why, but I pay much more notice to those who choose not to use nom de plumes) keep it up…
Paula Bennett syndrome? The one where she outs the details of beneficiaries to the media as a high level bullying tactic, including a fuck you to the Privacy Commissioner?
Do you realise you are talking to a beneficiary who uses a nom de plume in part for safety reasons?
“Paula Bennett Syndrome “as in the article written shortly after her ascendancy to higher office. She implored anyone trying to communicate with her to keep it to one A4 page…or less.
I too am a beneficiary, by virtue of the fact my partner( pre- ACC high tetraplegic) requires full time care. You of course will be aware of the Government’s response to the Human Rights Review Tribunal’s declaration that I should be paid for providing this care. This was supported by the UN Monitoring Committee on The UNCORPD. My partner and I decided long ago that speaking openly and transparently about this and other important disability issues was vital.
And yes, there has been a cost.
As beneficiaries we know that retribution can result from agitating, complaining or even making an inquiry.
As a client of MOH; Disability Support Services, my partner is more than aware that complaints an inquiries can lead to reduction of supports and threats of institutionalization.
“Safe”…from the government departments charged with supporting those in our situation?
Oh, weka, have no doubt that I am well aware that we are not “safe”.
Also, we have no ‘public profile’ to protect.
I enjoy reading long posts/comments. When someone has the passion and commitment to construct such a document, my personal feeling is it would be rude not to read it. If it turns out to be twaddle…ignore the next post by that person. Pat O’ Dea took the time to give his thoughts and feelings on this issue, and while I might not be perfectly simpatico with all of his politics, on this particular issue I’m in full agreement. I would love to go and join the roadside protest on Monday…but wheelchairs and the side of the road at long weekend rush hour are not simpatico!
Rosemary, there are some people who have to use non de plumes. It can be for a variety of valid reasons. It may be they are in an area of employment where acknowledging their left leaning political alignment could see them lose their jobs. It could be they are in public office of some sort including local bodies. It could be that their circumstances (whatever they may be) causes them to fear reprisal action against them or members of their families should their identities become known.
If you think that is absurd, NZ history is riddled with individuals who were targeted because of their perceived left leaning persuasions. I had precisely that experience as a public servant years ago. I was targeted by the management (and others) and eventually had to leave. The fear and the rising stress levels proved too much in the end. Yet a former colleague who was a National Party activist was left alone because he was considered to be on the “right” side of the fence.
So, you would be wise not to judge a commentator based on whether they use a pseudonym or not. You’re missing out on some excellent commentary if you do. A good example (but by no means the only one) is Pascals bookie.
@ Rosemary McDonald
People use pseudonyms because they don’t trust malicious or punitive people or entities from harming them, harrassing them somehow if they can target the writer.
Your name here is Rosemary McDonald. But I don’t know if that isn’t a pseudonym.
Why should you respect a name above a pseudonym? You don’t know the person writing it, you still have to judge what they have said for clarity and correctness.
So don’t start on about pseudonyms.
If you want to come here accept the way it is run. You soon get to know what to expect from people using pseudonyms. We are encouraged to use the same ones all the time. They are our names on this blog.
The short take home message for you guys, is this;
If you are serious about wanting to do something about climate change, and you want to get involved with something with a halfway chance of success – then attend the protest against the Second* attempted New Coal Mine planned for the South of Auckland this holiday Monday at Mangatawhiri, Details HERE
Or come along to the Auckland Coal Action AGM to discuss strategies for making New Zealand Newcoal Free. All welcome.
The annual general meeting of ACA will be held Feb.7th 2015 at the Friends Meeting House 113 Mt Eden Rd Auckland at 1pm
Agree with weka…if it takes someone 13 presses of the page down button to get past your comment, you are doing something wrong.
To the substance of your post – you only have to observe dozens of failed human civilisations in history who could not alter their trajectory even when it was become clear that they were on the precipice and had to change, somehow, to know what is going to happen next.
On the other hand, I don’t believe that humans are going to go extinct any time soon, but this global civilisation we have built will be on its last legs in the next 30 years, and 100 years from now it’ll be gone.
My opinion is that things are bad, but we can make changes. If we don’t, they will become catastrophic. I don’t agree with MacPherson that they are catastrophic already. I think that if we don’t start cutting back very soon and get a government that realises there is a problem, it will be too late before we know it.
Basically. There are lots of things the NZ government could do, but everyone is in a game of pretend and extend promising the middle classes that the value of their Auckland rental isn’t going to be diminished and of course dairy will bounce back.
And meanwhile we have individual MP’s/PM’s on the look out for what’s best for their post parliamentary careers, stuff the country and its people.
In my opinion, both Murray Rawshark @ 15.3, and Colonial Rawshark @ 15.3.1, are making a fundamental error. In that they are waiting on a government to act.
It ain’t gonna happen.
At least, not without the sort of massive pressure from below that saw New Zealand become Nuclear Free.
This is what informs the strategy of Auckland Coal Action.
I’m not waiting for the government. My position is similar to yours. Governments only act in the interests of anyone other than the 1% when they are forced to. We will get a government that truly realises there is a problem and does something by the pressure from below that you mention.
And let’s hope that when a government does take some worthwhile climate measures, it’s not a smokescreen to sneak round the back and roger us in another way like in 1984.
Can anyone please point me toward any blogs/websites which are informative/on to it in terms of current events etc?
Not interested in anything with a specific left or right wing bias, more after well informed impartial insights & opinions.
Recently discovered Dmitry Orlov’s blog which I find extremely interesting, so looking for more blogs and websites like that, which stimulate thought and analysis.
Wikipedia is pretty good for ongoing issues – generally gets updated pretty quickly, and it’s easy to find background and sources. And bias gets flagged and disputed/resolved pretty quickly.
YouTube – if you want to understand mass surveillance
Jacob Appelbaum
Bill Binney
YouTube – Keiser Report
Max and Stacey are great on all the latest financial and economic hypocrisy and malfaesence. There are now hundreds of episodes they have done.
Keiser is damn good and so’s the Archdruid. I don’t think we are heading for the apocalypse (but I used to in my Pentecostal days)…
Prof. Steve Keen, Matt Taibbi, and Ross Ashcroft (the renegade economist) are high on my list of economic pundits. I’ve also been watching quite a bit of Abby Martin on RT as antidote to the cosy Five Eyes media conglomerates.
Ok, I have done some changes to the caching to use more uncached fragments.
If there is a problem after this, from those changes, it should show up in the Replies tab, in the names and emails in the comment replies. It will show the wrong ones or won’t show the ones you usually use.
Ok. Probably just old caches? Ok lets see if we get repeats. If you see it again, try the Ctrl + F5/refresh first. It should clear up straight away then. Tell me if it does.
Ummm. It has been a bit tricky in figuring out how to test it.
Essentially the whole of the page is meant to be statically stored as objects except for the sections that are marked as being required to calculated each time.
The bit that I did today was the name stuff on the replies. I should have another look at how I did the the replies tab bearing in mind whatI learnt today about this arcane magick
Ok, I have put in the change that I think should do the trick.
Could people tell me if they see something odd in the Replies tab (or entering a comment for names, emails etc). Check if it goes away if you refresh the page or refresh it with a Ctrl + F5/Refresh.
The caching change significantly improves the performance at the server, but it relies on those two specific area to be generated per commenter. If the latter doesn’t work under load, then I need to know about it so that I can revert the changes.
It passes my testing, so any errors will only show up under real loadings.
Yeah, but most farmers I know aren’t like that, and many are trying to do the right thing. Better to add an adjective. Call them FF farmers (especially as it appears that many farmers don’t join FF, so don’t have control over what FF does or says). Or polluting farmers.
I think lumping them in all togethers makes the good ones and the ones about to do good things invisible just at the point that we need them to be visible.
b waghorn didn’t apologise for anything and I really don’t expect him or other farmers to do so. And the muslims of good conscience are saying the same thing but the Western Leaders and the MSM don’t appear to be listening.
Does anybody here have any experience with the MBIE investigating an employer?
Scuttlebutt has it that someone rang them and made an anonymous complaint about an employer a week or two before Christmas, and nothing appears to have happened. What we’re trying to work out is whether an investigation is under way and just taking time to get going, or whether the (influential) employer had a word in the right ear and made the complaint just go away.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick WilsonWhile it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes.Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks.When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns.AUCKLANDAll ...
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s plan to cover revenue shortfalls through borrowing without cutting low priority spending is immoral, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “Businesses and households across the country are meeting financial challenges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin John Brophy, Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, University of Melbourne “Katrina, I had in mind a prayer, but only this came,” Bruce Dawe wrote to his infant daughter, new-born, in intensive care, her life in the balance, declaring as poets must ...
The shock closure of Bauer NZ – and with it all of the country’s current affairs magazines – is a stark reminder of the fragile state of local media, writes Mel Bunce, the author of a book on the subject.It is a dark week for journalism in New Zealand, with ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāmere/FridayWe made it to the end of week one e te whānau. It wasn’t that hard! In fact it was… Māori made easy.To end our week of pronunciation practice we’re going to revisit everything we ...
India faces more challenges battling Covid-19 than any other country in the world. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, hundreds of different languages spoken, and an estimated 80% of the workforce daily wage earners currently without jobs, it could be a recipe for disaster.I’ve been living in India for more than three ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi of Pacific Media Watch The Vanuatu government is using the Covid-19 to impose draconian measures and authoritarian rule by end of last month. Wholesale censorship of all Covid-19 related content has been instituted. Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) took the extraordinary step to ...
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming, prompting the majority of species on Earth to die out. In ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentMedia Henry Cooke (Stuff): There’s no easy way for Government to save media drowning. But a fast fix is ...
Just after midday a cyclist was killed on a straight road on a clear day, after being hit by a van in North Canterbury. Lucinda Rees from NZ School Speeds is asking for the mandatory cyclist/vulnerable road user passing gap, which is in consultation, ...
By Indra Singh in Suva Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says that if Fijians continue to disregard the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic directives from authorities, a nationwide 24-hour curfew could be imposed. His comments come as Fiji yesterday recorded its two latest coronavirus cases, taking the total to seven. Bainimarama said ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée.Yes, a few cyclists out and about. I remember my first bike bought from Farmers around 1942, five shillings a ...
Internal memos from NZ’s biggest magazine company, which announced its sudden closure yesterday, state they were lobbying to change a ban on publication. But the minister responsible, Kris Faafoi, has doubled down on rejecting that position, calling those internal communications ‘contradictory’ to what they said to him directly.Magazine publishing giant ...
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...
The loss of a loved one can be difficult in the best of times. But it’s even more painful when the planes are grounded.Late on Saturday night, three days into New Zealand’s level four lockdown, Harish got a call from his sister in India telling him that his father had ...
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...
Open mike 24/01/2015 
Open mike is your post.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...5 hours ago
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...7 hours ago
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...10 hours ago
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...13 hours ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...1 day ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...2 days ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...2 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...2 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...2 days ago
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...2 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...3 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 4 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...4 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...4 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...6 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...2 weeks ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...1 day ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...1 week ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...1 week ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...1 day ago
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes. Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks. When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...8 hours ago
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...9 hours ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...10 hours ago
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...11 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...12 hours ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...19 hours ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...19 hours ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...20 hours ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...20 hours ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...20 hours ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...20 hours ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...1 day ago
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...1 day ago
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...1 day ago
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...1 day ago
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...1 day ago
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...1 day ago
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Facebook knows all about you, and gets it wrong.
What does this say about the value of metadata?
FB engages in and funds real life research to keep improving those algorithms.
The problem with their logic is that the vast majority of people click ‘like’ on things their friends post and share, not because they actually like those things, but because they want to be seen not to be ignoring what their friends post on Facebook. I used to write articles and post them on Facebook before I deleted my Facebook account. Some of those articles would take up to 10 minutes for an average reader to read. Without fail, every single time I posted one, at least four or five of my ‘friends’ would click ‘like’ within 60 seconds of the post going live and hitting their newsfeed, meaning they ‘liked’ it without reading it. Facebook is only an accurate gauge of what people *want you to see* and of how they *want to be seen*, but in my experience it will never be an accurate gauge of who or what they actually are. This personality testing crap appears to me to be just another way for Facebook to appeal to potential advertisers, but I doubt it would pass the snake oil test on close inspection. Last time I looked, there were seven billion or so independent psychological realities populating this planet. I find it extremely difficult to believe that you can break those down to six, nine, or twelve different types. If only life were that simple.
@ Truth will out
Good points. I am looking at facebook as I have some very FB oriented relations who want to be on it every day and promote things I’m not interested in. Now it seems to have increased as there is mention that I should know that someone is ‘tagging’ something from someone who is connected with one of my relatives or their friends blah blah.. I’m sick of it.
It has ocasional uses for me but another of the trials of it is that they don’t have a complete profile on me or my image and I don’t want them to have it. But I get reminded (harrassed) that they still don’t know what toilet paper I use and if I fold it or crush it into a ball. Haha. Not going to tell them. (That actually was a funny episode in one of the tv series, possibly The IT crowd.)
By the way TruthWO, I split my comment as it’s easier to read if you would do that. A split anywhere or divide into paras separating your thinking, good.
Have we all been duped by the Myers-Briggs test?
It’s kinda amazing the personality tests still exist. I suspect that it’s part of some peoples desire to fit other people into categories that they understand.
@DTB
Some interesting things from a link on that Fortune page relating to generic drug falsifications that mean that drugs relied on and officially packaged may be nearly useless.
This about a whistleblower who exposed an Indian ‘faker’.
http://fortune.com/2013/05/15/dirty-medicine/
Under federal whistleblower law, Thakur will receive more than $48 million as part of the resolution of the case…
On May 13 [2013?] Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to seven federal criminal counts of selling adulterated drugs with intent to defraud, failing to report that its drugs didn’t meet specifications, and making intentionally false statements to the government. Ranbaxy agreed to pay $500 million in fines, forfeitures, and penalties — the most ever levied against a generic-drug company. (No current or former Ranbaxy executives were charged with crimes.)Thakur’s confidential whistleblower complaint, which he filed in 2007 and which describes how the company fabricated and falsified data to win FDA approvals, was also unsealed.
This item goes on to examine the generics boom, which is a large part of the pharma market in the USA and the global market is said to be $242 billion. But the question is, can it be monitored properly. The gaming of the FDA is shown by this one case to be likely, and if not, there is always the possibility of capture of screening officials as in the case of the Federal Reserve in USA.
I saw a graph showing the popularity of different three-word combinations in Buzzfeed headlines (through likes and shares on Facebook). “Things you didn’t” and “You’ll never guess” were predictably very high on the list, but “character are you” was in the top 5.
People *love* being able to sort themselves and their friends and family into easily-understood categories.
DtB +1
I suspect MBTI returns similar quality results to Facebook algorithms.
What does this say about the value of metadata?
Two things, I believe:
1. Quality of metadata is vital. You’d think that some metadata would be better than no metadata, but inaccurate metadata is worse than none at all because it gives you misplaced confidence in the crap results you’ll get.
2. Metadata of the type that lets you say “more likely to be X than Y” for a large population sample isn’t necessarily going to say anything useful about any particular individual. (Which is what’s disturbing about wild statements like “knows you better than a close friend.”)
1. Pretty much what I was thinking. Further, that there’ll be a race to be the first to use metadata to make a major error of judgement in a criminal investigation. Come to think of it, that probably happened already.
” a brighter future for Kiwi families”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11391028
yeah…right
cue Tui add
When both major parties are determined to create a rentier society then ownership is guaranteed to drop. Of course, we should actually question the value of owning a home anyway as that in itself also creates a rentier society – just with the banks and their shareholders as the rentiers.
This morning on radonz a commentator on Greece said there problem had been that two parties had alternated for 40 years both running scams, with corruption and spending unwisely – increasing government employees by four times etc. That resonates with DtB “When both major parties are determined to create a rentier society”.
In Greece people have had so many years of austerity and not been able to climb out of it, their best and brightest have survived by going to other countries, and of those remaining 15% have voted for Golden Dawn which sounds similar to H…s Brown Shirts in Germany. The GD abuse brown coloured people in the street [Jews} and are corrupt and criminal, and at present half of their reps are in prison for something.
So societies are degraded by this mad austerity. Our long=standing financial system is now not standing up to scrutiny and hard times that it has created itself. The system is shown to be not practical for a good, healthy economy and society. And the people at the bottom rage but hard work is required to understand the coils of its serpentine ways.
By the way when the ECB talks about the necessity for Greeks to “reform” their economy before they get any more bail out money (which isn’t a bail out it’s just more odious debt), they are actually talking about Greeks allowing foreign corporations and hedge funds to come in and pick up critical Greek infrastructure for cents on the dollar.
+ 1..
..’reform’ means ‘fire-sale’..
@ CR
I keep seeing in the machinations of the neo libs a giant version with countries being raided and their goodies bought up by predaotrs, of the process of coporate raiders buying individual businesses. This was practised by businesses in western countries in the 1980s. We had Brierley and others getting hold of businesses and gutting them regaining their original investment many times eventually.
And of course the leveraging. This was where they bought businesses really cheap on borrowed money raised on the actual business’s assets. So in order to gain ownership it was bought laden with debt that would be recovered by stripping its assets and reducing its outgoings, ie wages to the minimum. Corporate raiders I think they are called.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_raid
I thought I would look up some references to these raiders.
It’s interesting looking at Cedenco which ended up in Brierley hands. Once busy here in NZ it ended up with major production shifted to Australia.
Company Information for 1990
Employees: 51-100
Turnover: $49,641,000 NZD (2012)
Export Sales Information: 45% of turnover
Established: 1986
http://directory.foodandbeverage.govt.nz/entries/199007-cedenco-foods-new-zealand-ltd
A 1999 regional report on employment in Gisborne refers to Cedenco amongst other businesses and says that they have largely shifted their operations to Australia.
http://www.regional.org.au/articles/development/ceg1999.htm
But good news in 2013 –
The Gisborne Herald | Gisborne’s …
Aug 8, 2013 … We are grateful to see the likes of Cedenco relocate back to Gisborne and council wisdom has established infrastructure to facilitate future …www.gisborneherald.co.nz/article/?id=33507
What happened by 1999.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=5992
On opinions about Brierley’s outcomes
http://milfordasset.com/guinness-peat-saga-turns-into-soap-opera/
Interesting connections that Brierley makes.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_sociopol_opalfile.htm
.
How the Russians did it.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/hostile-takeovers-russian-style/
Wikipedia has this to say on takeovers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeover
A detailed coverage of the maneouvres since 1984 and what pain and what gain? they have brought to us.
http://homepages.caverock.net.nz/~bj/Economy.htm
I throw in a Treasury report on post-privatisation of entities in NZ for no extra charge.
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/commercial/resources/pdfs/mixed-ownership-model/mom-shppnz-wilson-dec10.pdf
(Methodology … Removing the capacity of the businesses to seek government aid in bad times, thus both …. Ron Brierley, at that time executive chair of. Brierley …)
Note : from the summary under the link address – that businesses are going to have the capacity to seek government aid in bad times removed.
Coverage of foreign holdings in nz and businesses that were shifted out by Bill Rosenberg. Views and comments on FDI – Foreign Direct Investment.
http://canterbury.cyberplace.org.nz/community/CAFCA/publications/Backgrounders/Chapter1.pdf
And for pudding – Monty Python skit on sailing the wide Accountan-sea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YUiBBltOg4 (Turn up sound)
edited
re golden dawn..
this is from june ’14 archives..
“..Supporters of the far-right party gave Hitler salutes – and sang the Horst Wessel song –
– outside parliament last week..”
From Bill Gates’ annual letter
A 50% increase in ‘wealth’ for most rich people will have far less effect on their lives than a 50% increase for all poor people.
No shit Sherlock.
Fifteen years, just enough time to get more dependent on oil then find there isn’t much left. We certainly won’t be letting poor countries have the last of the easy to get at oil, will we. What will they do then?
Mobile banking 🙄
Does Gates say anything about CC and PO? If not, his opinions are at best redundant, at worst contributing to the problem.
What we should really be doing is offering poorer countries resiliency tech that enables them to keep their current resiliency strategies while increasing their quality of life. But that would mean getting over our own denial.
Here’s how this works.
Petty cuts and pastes something someone else wrote, with a beige nothing appended, and when a debate ensues, he cuts and pastes the result straight to Yawns.
Sad and true.
Yeah I knew his comments tended to be edited versions of his blogposts, and that he periodically posts there on his Prentice obsession. Didn’t know he was wholesaling from the comments here though.
Unfortunately I just went and had a look and saw that awful misognistic post about the nannies at Ratana 🙁
True this.
Just like a 50% increase in wealth for the bottom 9/10 of NZers will have far more effect on their lives, than a 50% increase in wealth for the top 1/10 of NZers.
“..Could Psychedelics Be An Effective Suicide Prevention Measure?..
..The new wave of research on the medical applications of psychedelic drugs has suggested that these substances may hold considerable promise as therapeutic interventions –
– for a number of mental health conditions.
And according to another new study –
– use of ‘classic’ psychedelics – psilocybin (magic mushrooms) – LSD a- nd mescaline –
– may also be an effective suicide prevention measure..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/22/psychedelic-research_n_6515268.html
complete opposite from my experience…LSD,…micro dots,clearlight,purple barrels ,blow your mind and more!
*unless medically prescribed exact dosages in safe conditions, results may vary.
That’s a mere detail, OAB. Blow your mind!! Free yourself from the shackles of punctuation!!
heh..!
Latest RoyMorgan; Nats creaming everyone, housing crisis and drought no impact.
What are Labour’s best attack lines, or is National simply impervious?
Confidence in the future was way up. With the sort of summer we are having who would ever want to change?
A week is a long time in politics. Never underestimate or forget how fickle the public is when the truth hurts them in their pockets. Key is only as good as their next pay cheque. Why else do you think he has borrowed almost $100 billion to keep the middle class wrapped in cotton wool?
7 years is not a week.
Time to think this through hard.
@Ad:
Key is only as good as the average voter’s last or next pay cheque. Personally I think the man is a liar and a criminal and I can”t wait to see him exposed. The object of your desire is the object of my contempt. History will prove who was right no matter how hard you try to shape it. Your opinion is no more or less valid than mine in this equation.
We are seeking to change the future of politics so how history is written is quite irrelevant.
Actual citizens are entirely entitled to vote and support for those who benefit them through their pay cheques.
As per the original question, what if any attack lines are there into this government?
how we are going to change the future of politics via the use of ‘attack lines’ which consistently get zero traction.
People don’t believe that Labour is ready to lead a true alternative to Key and English. I think that’s the basics of it.
Would better attack lines help? Sure. And if Labour could sound like it was in touch with the culture and attitudes of the electorate, that would be of assistance.
And so we get to think through the steps towards “true alternative”.
Far too early for that concept.
Well, we’re just getting on with it down here in Dunedin, we’re not waiting on approval from anyone.
If you want to look at Labour’s mediocre performance and lack of true vision over the last 8 years you only need to look at caucus and their senior advisors.
And yet it remains the task of the left to defeat the right.
Sorry mate too many of the tools are not up to the task.
Agreed. This is why the question ‘how to defeat National” should be argued through as the year starts, not after Key has set the agenda. And all the more reason to refine which remaining tools do work.
This really isn’t the place to do that though Ad. It’s a largely pseudonymous, and more importantly, public space.
Discussing rhetorical strategies, and the like, can’t be done in a public space; and is only really relevant to a few dozen people within political organisations anyway.
Spaces like this are places for citizens to talk about stuff. Party strategies will be yarned about, sure, but they can’t be planned in such spaces.
If Labour, or anyone else, is actually looking for clues on what to do strategically from spaces like this, then they are beyond fucked. That’s not to say that there aren’t insights here, but they limited to the context of what goes on in here. They cannot develop a rhetorical strategy in a public space. You cannot get a ‘good attack line’ from a public discussion of what a ‘good attack line’ might be.
Such things might emerge from a discussion about an event, or about National, but they will not emerge from a discussion about developing attack lines. Such a discussion ‘poisons the well’ for anything it comes up.
ie: “Haha, Labour are using lines discussed in this {link} Standard comment thread! Fuck they are hopeless” -Every RW blogger
Next day: John Armstrong, Vernon Small, Fran O’s: “The problems in Labour remain apparent as the party remains in the thrall of far left base who supported Cunliffe. Despite public shows at unity, and claims to have ‘learned the lessons that they need to listen to mainstream New Zealanders’ the party is still beholden to the partisans in the often abusive comment threads of….”
+1
You have a great future in journalism, CR.
We are not confused with caucus. But TS has a leadership position and is doing a better job of defining a future for an alternative government than most.
Most parties look here for clues – it’s a signal of the success of the site. Just as they do on other sites.
Don’t be so afraid of the echo. And you’re worrying far too hard about what is discussed “inside” or “outside”. That’s precisely the purpose of being a part of the media, which we are. This is public.
And don’t be pathetic about Cunliffe. Everyone else has got over it just fine.
We form thoughts that are repeated, added to, seen, reified, considered. And have done so for years now. Accept the agency this kind of site has.
There is no need for TS or any other site to respond to the narrative. We can form it. I’ve simply put the question more baldly than most. And we can and should help answer it.
Who is this “we” that isn’t confused with caucus?
Speak for yourself, and don’t claim to speak for others.
I’ve not been commenting here much lately, but there are very few who have been here longer. I remember, for example, when CV showed up.
This ‘leadership position’ what the hell are you even talking about?
It’s a blog, with otherwise largely unconnected people discussing things in public. That’s a useful and good thing, but nope, it is not a place where a party or political movement can strategise effectively.
In any case, if you want to get on with it, get on with it. Asking other people to have that conversation is pointless, coz as is happening now, the conversation becomes about the conversation.
They idea that a party or movement can have discussions in public about what their public rhetoric should be is completely bonkers, sorry. it just is.
Either get on with trying lines or whatever, or not.
But saying ‘maybe we should try this line”xxxx” or maybe this one “yyyy” just slits the throat of the line.
The line cannot be accepted as sincere when you have publicly said ‘maybe this might work’ about it.
I’ve missed your input, PB. I think you could do a media / PR advisor role for a party and be good at it. One of the few posters here whose comments I always read.
Crikey Lanthanide. You are an extremely fine and rigorous sage.
Well that withdrawal mode will work.
Works for everyone else as well.
And so they win again.
I haven’t withdrawn – far from it. I simply bear in mind most are politically stupid. Then when they go and prove it – as they do time and time again – I’m not surprised or disappointed. 🙂
that is reflected on the auckland roads
Funny you should say that because – political stupidity aside – that is exactly what I was initially thinking. You see their arrogant, self absorbed behaviour around you all the time.
“Another year,
another pint of beer.”
Billy Bragg.
When will the reality sink in?
Seven years and support for LW still dropping.
As you say AD, time to think this through hard….
So here’s a few practical thoughts on the essential elements of change.
Nothing is going to change by just sitting and waiting for the current strategy to suceed. It’s been 7 years and that hasn’t worked yet. It will not work in the future.
If the Left does want any hope of change, the Left must actively change it’s strategy.
Those who are constantly finding reasons why nothing will work ‘because everything is stacked against us’, should go and sulk in the corner with the other defeatists, and stop getting in the way of those with positivity and determination to succeed.
There is actually a very simple goal that can be identified. It is by far and away the one thing that will produce the maximum effect…
9% of voters who currently support the Right must be converted to vote Left.
If you hope to convert those voters, you must listen carefully to their views and concerns. As Orwell said ” propaganda only works when it is largely what the populace was inclined to do anyway”.
This will involve short term compromise right throughout the Left.
No single LW party can hope to gain power on it’s own.
The LW must align forces and they must present a coherent and credible alternative Govt. that ‘the 9%’ can strongly identify with.
This will involve compromise throughout the Left.
It needs to be understood and agreed why this is necessary, and why the constant ideological conflict that has characterised LW politics is simply counter productive for everyone.
This all must happen very soon. By the end of the year at latest. To have any chance of convincing ‘the 9%’ to swing Left, you will need to show them at least 2 years of a rock solid, unified, and credible alternative Govt.
Get off your arses and act for change.
Or it’ll be ‘three more years’ ringing in your ears, rather than Billy Bragg.
😆 @ Billy Bragg.
No concrete suggestions other than “why can’t we all just get along”? Are you trying for a beige star?
PS: My concrete suggestion is that we repeal neoliberalism in its entirety. Public utilities, free education, free healthcare, strong unions, human rights and the rule of law (and that includes Te Tiriti).
After that, advance only policies for which there are evidential bases.
I appreciate that is what you want OAB, but seriously, is there the slightest hope it is achievable?
Yes, significant hope.
Fundamental changes in policy direction have been achieved many times before in many countries, using democratic means. All it really takes is for enough people to notice that right wing parties turn everything to shit.
So, for example, your disgusting support for the destruction of collective bargaining deserves a brutal response, and it will just end up being repealed by Parliament instead.
Reading some of these new people I can’t help thinking they sound like concern troles.
Why shouldn’t people hoping for a Labour rebuild be concerned over the last six years?
“All it really takes is for enough people to notice that right wing parties turn everything to shit.”
Seven years of RW Govt., their level of support is going UP, but you still believe the above, and your strategy is to wait for ‘enough people to notice’?
Denial OAB, and I’m not singling you out, because you are expressing a (far too) common LW meme.
The flaw in this meme, (and it’s a biggie), is the presumption that your world view is ‘correct’, other world views are ‘wrong’, and inevitably future events will clearly demonstrate this and lead people to see the world as you do.
They will not. Other peoples world views are just as firmly grounded as yours, and are about as likely to change significantly and rapidly as yours are. (Bugger all chance in other words.)
Reality. The majority of NZ’ers do not believe everything is going to shit.
So a strategy based on attempting to convince the 55% that it is, will fail over the next 3 years, just like it has for the last seven.
So if my suggested strategy is rubbish, what are the realistic and achievable alternatives?
Either Dr. Mike Joy is right, or the corrupt Prime Minister. Either The Lancet is right, or the Health Minister. Either the New Zealand Law Society is right, or the National Party.
It’s nice of you to imagine I formed my low opinion of you and your leaders on my own, and really, I had help, and not from self-made self-worshippers, either.
Oh, and you are confusing an observation with a strategy. Oh, and an anonymous bloke who isn’t even a member of a political party, with political parties.
The majority of the electorate (70%+) either didn’t vote, or didn’t vote for three more years. Your fatuous conceit that everyone thinks like you isn’t borne out by the facts.
@ OAB
“All it really takes is for enough people to notice that right wing parties turn everything to shit.”
The lost sheep has made some relevant points. And one is about your sentence above. It is obvious to us, that even when the facts are obvious, the voters will slide away from the bad prognostications and vote for the status quo while the water is still calm. Later they may realise they should have acted differently, but the boat will be going down then and losses will mount.
We can’t wait for reality to strike the voters, we must be aware ourselves and find some unifying other message with positive outcomes to get them to brace themselves for change. It’s getting them to climb that change barrier! Change of thought, expectation, and change of government and change of apathetic negativity that seems to have settled over the country like a low pressure weather trough.
We have gone so far away from 1984’s lies about pain before gain, that we haven’t much that’s concrete to hold onto, to use as a base, a reference point for a reasoned way forward. We want a way that achieves a good basic living standard for all, and useful jobs to go to, and skills to acquire that will pay for improvements in living standard. The economy will rise as that happens. The change will be carried up not trickled down. Think of a seedling, quite soft but strong enough for its task, and it pushes up through the soil and then opens its leaves and gets stuck into being the plant it is. We can do that.
Except that you’re arguing with a Sheep’s delusional idea that an observation is a strategy. Plus what Pascal’s Bookie has been saying.
I might have missed it OAB, but what is YOUR realistic and achievable ‘strategy’ to change the current situation that you hate so much?
I might have missed it Sheep – the part where you comprehended what Pascal’s Bookie has been saying to Ad on this very point.
No, wait, sorry, I’m being too charitable – you probably can’t grasp it at all, eh.
This site is full of endless discussions about every kind of shit….
But we can’t talk about the potential political strategies of the Left?
FFS.
Anything to avoid having to engage with something positive and constructive….
So, no idea what Pascal’s Bookie is talking about then?
Don’t flatter yourself: you aren’t positive, constructive, or anything approaching either of these things. Treacherous and insincere is a far better description.
Nonsense OAB.
Yet again, when faced with a straightforward question you lay down a smokescreen and run.
In fact, we were discussing my reasonable observation that “that right wing parties turn everything to shit.”
You challenged that, so I provided some examples, and now you’re moving the goalposts to try and make the conversation all about me.
I think Pascal’s Bookie is right. I note you are unwilling to address the points they raised. Or unable. Unable seems more likely.
I don’t play by your rules? Cry, baby.
Care to point out any week that has had labour polling well in the last four leaders?
Yes a week is a long time – but relying on sayings like that as opposed to some real thinking is why you guys continue to border on insignificant.
Assumptions will only make an ass out of you. I am not a Labour supporter or voter. In fact, I voted for Key in 2008, but by 2011 I had seen enough evidence to know he is an out and out crook, and the only reason he keeps getting away with it is the questionable judgement and values of people like you, combined with your incredibly low standards in terms of what we expect in the form of clean, corruption free government. Key falls so far short on those standards, it is only your extreme moral selectivity and wilful ignorance on the part of idiots like you that keeps him propped up. If a Labour MP had resorted to insider trading to profit from the Kiwi Rail restructure, for instance, you would have been all over them like a rash. But instead, you resort to blind trust, much like the object of your desire did. And you both still rely on it. No matter what way you look at it, our economy is propped up by $100 billion of debt. In anyone’s language, that is a house of cards, dependent on luck as much as skill to see us get out of it safely. So far, I have seen bugger all skill, and an over-dependence on luck by Key and his cronies. What I have also seen, is more corruption, cronyism and conflicts of interest on their part than any other government in New Zealand history. Like I said, it is your willingness to turn a blind eye to that in return for your next pay cheque that proves me right, beyond any doubt.
Well said! I agree.
+1
Key and English has propped our economy up on $100B of government debt.
Clark and Cullen propped our economy up on $100B of private sector and household debt.
Who are you to say which is the bigger house of cards?
I is astounding how everybody is just pointing the finger at each other instead of offering solutions. I am no party member nor do I follow every share market or bank analysis. What I do see is the ordinary kiwi working or wanting to work, trying to succeed and get a better life. This seem to be almost impossible as education has failed many (they should be held accountable big time!), jobs are getting scarcer and upwards movement is reserved for those in the know 😉 wink wink. This is the report from the bottom of the heap, how is the air up there where reality is as far away as the moon?
There’s a number of solutions that have been put forward but they’re usually lambasted as being too radical. The problem that a lot of people seem to have with them is that they’ll change the underlying structure that they’re used to, i.e, they’ll fix the actual problems rather than the perceived problems.
Poverty is seen as a problem and people look for ways solve poverty. But poverty isn’t actually the problem but the symptom of the problem. The problem is capitalism in that it creates poverty.
+1
They are both the same house of cards because, in both cases, the money was created via private banks with no restriction.
+1
The Authoritarian followers protects their leaders – no matter how much cronyism and corruption they get up to.
If all we have is to wait for John Key’s luck to run out, the taxpayer funding that props up Parliamentary Services keeping Labour and Greens alive should be stopped immediately because they can affect nothing.
I’d like to ascribe them a modicum of skill that enables them to be a functioning opposition.
Drawing $5M in salaries per year, you would be hoping for a bit more than a “modicum.”
And given that, what KPIs have been successfully delivered upon for the Left voter?
Searching around for the good news, at least the Greens didn’t get their heads caved in. And with Labour this weak, there’s a better chance that Labour and the Greens will actually have to talk.
Yes that’s fair comment. Should’ve been doing that since day dot, but as you know there is this pride within Labour that it is the ‘rightful’ party of the Left.
@ James
Who are ‘you guys’? Because one person says something here doesn’t mean it’s an idea of more than one person. It may not be a general policy of the left or something that the Labour Party has done, is considering or will do. Be more specific as to whom you are directing your thoughts.
All I know is we are not going to rise to overcome our challenges as a nation by resorting to dirty politics, divisive politics, self interest, cronyism, corruption, abuse(s) of political power, or anything which stems from the lust and greed for money and power that drives those behaviours.
Tolerance of them must become intolerable if we are to have any hope of progressing and evolving as a society and a nation.
Clean, corruption free, efficient and wise governance MUST become our overarching priority or we are buggered.
Watching trolls keep entering this forum and defending the opposite just angers me to the core.
These people offend the memories of those who have sacrificed their lives for all of us to live in a better society.
We need to start demanding a better standard from ourselves and from those who seek the privilege, the power and the money to run this country.
There is no place for the kind of cynicism which accepts dirty politics as a given if you ever hope to live in a healthy economy and a civilised society.
Tolerance of such corruption and abuse of power and privilege is as disgraceful as those activities such tolerance seeks to exonerate.
Truth will out
Don’t feel so deeply about everything. You will wear yourself out. There are huge problems and putting up with the RW troles to some extent is the least of our worries. You list such a lot which which seem valid.
Just have a rant and a hissy fit about the annoying mosquitoes every now and then and have a slap at them. You might draw some blood, but remember when its a mosquito it will be your own blood you see. That’s my advice. I find them really space wasting and malicious in their determined obtuseness. But some of the earnest defenders of the left like weka and tracey will answer them and try to educate – like trying to sculpt stone with a straw! I’m not suggesting ignoring them, but just checking out what little schemes they are running daily is how to manage them in a manageable way.
Just rips my nightie watching my tax dollars get flushed down the toilet we used to think of as government, and then have to endure a parade of f*ckwits making excuses for it.
Low inflation, low fuel prices, blazing summer heat, a lot of people feel good. No real need for then to switch their vote.
Meanwhile, there a lot of problems with this country, but they are overlooked or denied.
We are seeing 2 New Zealand’s at the moment. Social stratification in this country is at an all time high.
Not too sure what the left/Labour/Greens can do here. Best to just wait it out.
“Not too sure what the left/Labour/Greens can do here. Best to just wait it out.”
That’s the worst thing they can do. It’s why I think, despite what others say, polling is good. It shows us trends. National are still around 50% after 7 years. Labour can’t just wait it out, they can’t just wait for the “natural order” to give them power because it’s their turn.
Labour and the Greens have a lot of work to do, and they need to start doing it.
Nothing seems to be working though. The poll levels have been frozen in time since 2006/07. `
“Latest RoyMorgan; Nats creaming everyone, housing crisis and drought no impact.”
Shock horror, the average kiwi doesn’t blame JK for the drought.
But they should be blaming him for the rising poverty, inequality, the ongoing destruction of our rivers and the outright corruption of his government.
I think housing, house prices, and rental prices, remain one of the best attack lines. Smith has rolled his dice and failed. They have exposed a major weakness. Can it be better exploited?
EU joins rest of global economy in a QE induced coma…
“QE has failed in the last four years to get the major capitalist economies going; fiscal deficit spending has not worked in Japan either; so the strategists of capital look to the ‘third arrow’ of weakening labour and extending the ‘free’ movement of capital as the answer. But another slump that destroys capital values and raises average profitability is more likely to be the way out for capital.”
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/the-ecb-qe-and-escaping-stagnation/
Pretty sure John Key will be reported soon as telling the EU leaders they are loonies for their QE. So far just his “innocent til proven guilty” support of Prince Andrew.
Only fiscal policy will sort out the world economy and of course, the last thing that TPTB want to do is spend on real people in the real economy.
More liquidity to the banks and financial markets ASAP!
The Times…They are a-changin’ – in Southern Europe
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/23/change-is-in-the-air-across-southern-europe/
Prince Andrew is only “innocent until he is proven guilty” because Key wants a knighthood. Pity he hasn’t extended the same courtesy to certain citizens of New Zealand, who were destroyed by media trials of his making while being denied any access to a court room. Key is a hypocritical disgrace who makes my skin crawl. But let me tell you how I REALLY feel…
I have no idea why FJK even needs to comment on Randy Andy. I couldn’t give a stuff about it.
Enjoyed this today in the ODT; Dunedin’s existential angst worked through in local government bureaucratic non-speak: http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/330945/one-too-hard-basket
NZ’s ‘terrorist’ list includes movements which are clearly progressive/liberation movements. Anti-imperialist and democratic rights activist Cam Walker has a piece on “Ramping up state powers: the Terrorism Suppression Act since 2007” which starts:
The Terrorism Suppression Act 2002, brought in by Helen Clark’s Labour government, contains a number of wide provisions potentially criminalising support for legitimate national liberation movements and activism.
The Act was discredited in the eyes of many of its initial supporters in 2007 when the Solicitor General described it as ‘unnecessarily complex and incoherent’, following his refusal to allow the Police to proceed with charges under the Act against the defendants in Operation 8 (the so-called ‘Urewera raids’).
Yet the Act was never repealed. The legal ability of the state to apply the sections of the Act to those supporting international solidarity causes has increased over the past five years. John Key has used his power under s 22 of the Act to designate groups as ‘terrorist entities’ 19 times since 2010!
Full article at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/the-terrorism-suppression-act-since-2007/
Meanwhile, veteran activist Don Franks looks at Key’s exclusive club and the notion that involvement in Syria/Iraq is the price to be paid for membership in this special club: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/looking-inside-john-keys-club/
Phil
greece is the place to watch this wknd…
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=greece
The fall in prices of raw materials/resources such as oil is a key factor in deflation. What does deflation mean for economies? Marxist economist Mike Roberts looks at what is going on:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/what-does-deflation-mean-for-economies/
Phil
I’m not traditionally a Labour or left wing voter, but I’m really hoping Andrew Little can do something really different and find a way to build and agenda and support for a Universal Basic income in NZ.
It would get my vote for a few reasons that are best outlined in two excellent posts on Gareth Morgan’s site:
http://garethsworld.com/blog/tax-and-welfare/ten-reasons-scrap-benefit-system/
http://garethsworld.com/blog/tax-and-welfare/ten-types-people-better-off-unconditional-basic-income/
How could a UBI be done politically in NZ?
Discuss 🙂
There’s been lots of discussion here on a UBI, not just Morgan’s ideas but work other people have done too.
/?s=UBI&isopen=block&search_posts=true&search_sortby=date
/?s=UBI&isopen=none&search_posts=true&search_comments=true&search_sortby=date
/tag/ubi/
afaik Little is supportive of a UBI in principle, but I don’t know if Labour have this on the agenda at all currently.
thanks will have a read
By changing the government.
No party has it in their platform, , how do you get it in the labour party platform? No use if its greens only. There are many aspects to a ubi that have broad appeal to non left voters i think.
I suppose you could try and buy the policy from National, and I doubt they stay bought.
If you want Parliament to take the idea seriously you need a serious Parliament, not this shower of shills and cronies.
So is your question really how can the right be convinced of the value of the UBI? I think you are asking on the wrong forum.
Getting the right on side involves answering two basic questions for them.
1. Who’s the enemy?
2. How do we smash them?
The Anderson’s Bay Peninsula Branch of the Labour Party (Dunedin South) is likely to put forward something on the UBI, and an associated programme, to Conference this year.
Excellent. Well done the ABPBs
It could also wipe out overheads associated with the current welfare system, ie the MSD bureaucracy.
You would be able to shrink the whole thing down to one or two floors on an office building, plus a server room. People would only need to go into a post shop, local bank or even online and apply.
Plus they could choose to have it paid out weekly, monthly or even yearly 🙂
The superannuation system would be a good starting point for a UBI, I would work on refining that (ie taking pensions from WINZ and handing it another entity, simplifiing elegbility criteria, and streamining administration, then use that as a UBI blueprint.
UPDATE: NZ Spends $27 billion per year on welfare. if you took that money and spend it on a UBI it would come out at $6750 per year, for every man, woman and child in this country, or, $130 per week.
A family of four would get $520 per week.
To get a decent UBI would be pretty expensive, so it will need to have some work done on a proposal.
But UBI doesn’t work like that. If you are in work you don’t get it. It should mean more money flowing through the population as WINZ plans down. That could go into Housing NZ which should plan up so it does the job of keeping the housing stream of lower priced housing to needed level each year, so we don’t get huge backlogs and the rentier investment approach as now.
Actually, that’s pretty much exactly how a UBI works and you do still get it when you work.
As a rough benchmark, it might be interesting to see what resources are currently used to administer pensions.
Even for a universal system, “one or two floors on an office building, plus a server room” seems overly optimistic to me.
The big problem the any radical transfers/tax refrom is that they invariably create large categories of winners and losers, from a net take home income level. And we humans being pretty selfish this is a very difficult problem to deal with politically. So any reforms tend to be only those that create more “winners” than losers and it needs to be by quite a margin.
😆
Like the Max Bradford power ‘reforms’ or the abolition of collective bargaining, you mean? Come on.
Jepenesque: absolutely. I think major reform of our economy is necessary (not just in terms of tax and transfers) but to be politically saleable they need to be very cleverly designed.
IMO, human’s aren’t inherently selfish. They are inherently defensive of their present wealth and fearful of change especially when their present wealth is already close to, if not below, subsistence level as a lot of people’s is.
Almost all the reforms over the last thirty years have done the exact opposite in that they’ve created lots of losers and a very few very big winners. The problem seems to be that the political parties now only listen to the very big winners and ignore the losers that they’ve created.
I agree. According to research by Daniel Kahneman and others people are intrinsically loss-averse. The issue is that in order to do something about societal problems the status quo has to be broken and National & friends are controlling the narrative. They have convinced many law-abiding tax-paying rule-obeying decent people in NZ that breaking the status quo means a “loss” to them and the whole country for that matter. Somehow, National’s spin doctors have convinced many people that combatting inequality or poverty, for example, can only come at their personal expense. People buy into this [no pun] and vote, think, talk, blog, and generally behave accordingly. So, the status quo prevails. Mission accomplished.
The danger imposed by National is that they no longer read people’s minds but they actually effectively manipulate them. They use their lessons and experiences from the free market. That is, don’t respond to the market, don’t follow the market, don’t wait for the market to catch on but influence and manipulate the market or create your own one. It works on consumers and it works on voters; it is the same psychology applied to the exact same people.
Slick advertising, branding, and marketing sell more and National is applying these to politics; it is vote buying in a figurative sense, sometimes assisted with blatant election bribes. This is where and why the left will always be on the back foot except in ‘niche markets’ such as the environment but even these are under constant threat from the RW propaganda.
In my view, this is why National and John Key are so “good” at what they’re doing; they treat our democracy as a free market. Politics is turning into economics, which is another reason why the Economy is always one of the most important issues in the elections; it is framed that way. Altruism and friendship are replaced by profit motives and competition; collegiality and community feeling are replaced by corporate values; corporatism is creeping into our public institutions; the free market becomes the answer, the only answer, to everything.
National’s WMD is their slick and powerful PR-machine. How do you fight this? With an even bigger PR-machine? I think the most effective response is counter-intuitive.
I’ll be interesting what kind of reception this will receive here on TS.
Good analysis. I would also add that National understands and speaks to the culture and the mood of the general public better than Labour does.
In too many ways, Labour is no longer a party of the people, by the people, for the people.
Interest in just the big winners not the small guys and girls seems to be a regular theme. Too big to fail and too small to bother about seems the motto these days and it’s negative for advancing the country’s wellbeing.
I have heard that government only wants to deal with one provider rather than a grouping of small ones or lots of individuals. But that would spread the work around. But no it’s more efficient to go to one.
Fishing quotas – formatted so that small ones sold out to big ones.
‘
Air NZ has just stopped getting a variety of wines from different vintners, it’s all from Maria now.
Some airports decide to deal with only one taxi company and make it hard for small ones to get work.
I think the Japanese built themselves up by dealing with small suppliers who were closely integrated into the production line and supplied as needed in the ‘just in time’ scheduled system.
A brave woman from a conservative background in the Naki made the newspaper on Medical pot today,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/65375931/taranaki-woman-sparks-debate-on-medical-marijuana
I have posted a public rebuttal in two places, seeing as you guys are not huge fans of PG,
http://yournz.org/2015/01/24/amy-adams-does-she-even-science/
or my own one
https://mmj4chronicpain.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/amy-adams-does-she-even-science/
Please at least try and make the distinction between PG and PG’s behaviour: the behaviour is the problem.
You got a read from me. One of the interesting things about prejudice is that it’s very hard to shake using facts. Good luck.
OAB, interesting that you should bring up the topic of behaviour. An increasing number of people are calling you on your behaviour and that your behaviour is the main problem. Unless the aim is to portray this as a place of intolerant obnoxiousness. You may not care that it’s a poor look for you but it’s obvious that others care that it keeps tainting the whole forum.
It’s difficult to see what you’re trying to achieve. It’s easy to get you to keep repeating your stupidity.
Where is OAB being called on their behaviour?
Haven’t you seen it? It’s been happening more often here, and his type of behaviour is frequently criticised elsewhere in social media and is often said to reflect poorly on Labour (and yes, I know this isn’t a Labour blog as such but that’s how many see it, especially media).
It should be fairly obvious that behaviour like OAB’s is often seen as toxic. Don’t you see that?
[Stephanie: weka raises a very valid point. Don’t try to use weasel words like “but that’s how many see it” when you’re parrotting trollish crap which you know perfectly well is against our policy.]
So the thing that obviously has no instances springing to mind (otherwise the request for detail wouldn’t have been made) is happening more often here. I’m shocked, shocked!
The thing has also been criticised elsewhere. big deal
The thing looks bad for Labour. go tell Labour, then
The thing is often seen as toxic. sounds shocking
Don’t you see that the thing is toxic?
Right. Now give us an examppe of what the hell you’re talking about.
“Haven’t you seen it?”
That’s right Pete, that’s why I’m asking you where it is. Can you please link to 3 examples?
I hope you get a big fat slap down for the Labour thing.
You seem to watch things here a lot, I’m surprised you haven’t seen it happening. And it’s not new.
From one thread. First Mary
Ergo Robertina:
Then adam:
Now perhaps you’re with OAB on driving people away he disagrees with but you are spend enough time I find it hard to believe you’re not aware of it happening.
BTW I googled and that’s the first thread I came up with. It’s not hard.
Still not getting it eh Petey? To me that just looks like the regular, garden variety level of complaints about behaviour that happen on ts in the middle of long arguments when things get heated. It’s not unusual for the ad hominems to come out at that point, across the board.
For the most part I get on well enough with OAB, but there are times when we disgree when I find their style tiresome and sometimes we spat. Often I just avoid getting to that point with people unless I feel like having a fight. But there are lots of people here who that would be true of, myself included. Does it matter? You know that thing about how polite isn’t a requirement here?
I think the key point is that it’s on an entirely different level from what you do. Which would be why sometimes the community devotes whole threads to talking about the PG tips problem, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on OAB. They also don’t get bans afaik.
“BTW I googled and that’s the first thread I came up with. It’s not hard.”
What key words did you use?
(lolz, I’ve just seen the date on that linked thread. I didn’t comment in it, and it’s likely I didn’t even read it, which would explain why I hadn’t seen this terrible pattern of behaviour. That, or the fact that I don’t read every comment or thread on the site 🙄 )
Trying to deny the undeniable. You’re well aware of it. You’re a part of it. Funny coincidence seeing marty mars join in isn’t it.
Still can’t address the actual points 🙄
See the difference between what I just said and what you jsut said, is that I can point to some actual evidence (see your response to my comment). Whereas your assertions that I am well aware of it is just shit you made up.
I’ve just said what i think pete – tough if you don’t like it but it is my truth.
a blog where people join in, what’s the world coming to?
No it is not toxic at all imo – you, pete are actually toxic – you’d turn us all into gray goo if you had your way.
The beige invertebrate is on the march it seems, like a Petty Borg made of airbags and [citations needed].
resistance is futile 🙂
Might as well …. yourself.
Always good for a laugh that crew – never could get over the plungers (not coffee) sticking out of their bodies – voices pretty creepy
Those plungers had me hiding behind the sofa.
There’s a lot of support for medical marijuana (~85% IIRC) and even majority support for full legalisation. The problem is the we know best, anti-democratic politicians and political parties that do only what the corporates and business people want.
EDIT: 98% support for medical marijuana
Thanks for the links Shane.
“Whether you believe Gray is genuine or not”
Wtf? Taranaki Daily, get your shit together.
Thanks, I was happy to post here, but got no reply when I emailed, I’ve never followed blogs until now, and I’m all about the issue, which shouldn’t be left or right. what are your thoughts on Bomber’s blog?
If you want to connect to an audience, it’s OK. Bomber seems to have a fairly large readership.
+1
not sure what Bomber is like to deal with. Some people manage it, others don’t.
If you get some posts under your belt, host blogs will take you more seriously. Also, remember that people have still largely been in holiday mode and these blogs are run by volunteers.
It’s good you’ve started your own blog, because if you get good at it, Lynn might put you in the blog roll at the side. That’ll up your readership.
A couple of other suggestions. Just avoid the PG thing here completely. You’ve seen what’s happened above right? So now the serious responses to you are getting lost way below your original post. Just link to your own blog and don’t mention PG at all. It’s not worth it and it’s unlikely to benefit you.
I’d leave out the “it’s neither left nor right” thing here. It doesn’t matter, but if you focus on it, you might put off people who don’t support the centrist theory. From what I can tell it’s not relevant to what you are writing about (I read your comment about Paula Gray being conservative, but I don’t get that from the article, so it just confuses things if you highlight something that isn’t relevant or necessarily true).
thanks for the constructive feedback, your a legend
Do pigs have wings?
The time has come the walrus said to speak of many things:
“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To speak of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”
The Jabberwocky
Lewis Carrol’s famous children’s poem asks two specific questions – One; Why is the sea boiling hot? And Two; Whether pigs have wings?
(While it may not be boiling), We know that sea temperatures have been the highest in recorded history.
We also know the reason:
The reason is global warming – Brought about by the emission of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. It is recognised by governments around the world and the international scientific community, that climate change has dangerously raised the temperature of the oceans, (as well as the rest of the biosphere).
But, as to the second question:
Do pigs have wings?
This is the question I want to address with this essay.
Winged pigs are a common metaphor, or adynaton for something impossible, unlikely, or improbable.
Recently we have had a tour of this country by eminent climate change expert Guy McPhearson, who tells us (rightly in my opinion) that humanity have passed the point of no return, that irreversible climate breakdown, (a catastrophe on a global scale, ushering in widescale extinctions, even possible human extinction, within a matter of decades), has begun. To describe this process Guy McPhearson has coined the phrase “Near Term Human Extinction” (NTHE)
Guy McPhearson admits to the reality of (NTHE) with acceptance and even mourning.
‘It is no one’s fault’, says McPhearson, ‘most of the damage was done before many of us were even born.’
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guy-McPherson/200473870003415
Guy McPhearson is not the only one to have reached this conclusion, Paul Kingsnorth founder of the Dark Mountain Project has a similar ethos. Paul Kingsnorth goes even further, actively condemning those trying to organise a fightback against climate change, naming people like Naomi Klein and Bill McKibbon of 350.org, and accusing them of peddling (false) “Hopium”, even of “Lying to people”.
So can pigs fly?
Can we humanity get out of the impossible situation that it finds itself in?
Or like in the horror movie franchise Saw, are we collectively caught in a horrific sadistic trap, partly of our own devising, impossible to escape from?
Should we even try? Or should we, like some have suggested, accept our collective fate and go into a period of individual and collective mourning?
When it comes to climate change there is an extreme wide range of views; From denial: – ‘It is not happening’. To acceptance: – ‘It is happening, but if we act now, we can prevent it getting any worse’. To despair: – ‘It has already happened, and there is nothing we can do about it’.
There has been no real rational debate between the different factions. All seem to have a deep emotive hatred of the others.
And why not? NTHE is an emotive issue. How could it not be?
This has resulted in lot of misunderstanding, heated accusations, emotive name calling, denial, and talking past each other. Egotism, (on all sides), hasn’t helped.
An example; the debate between well known activist George Monbiot. And Paul Kingsnorth of Dark Mountain, degenerated into personal abuse and accusations of condoning genocide on one side, to lying on the other.
Kingsnorth/Monbiot Debate
The central contentious issue of debate, from all sides is whether, we should do anything about climate change, and will it make any difference if we don’t?
Springing from this first question, (and related to it), is a secondary question,
If we do decide to do something about climate change, what should it be?
1/ Is there any point in doing something?
2/ If there is any point in doing something, what should that something be?
I would like to address the second question first.
This may seem like a back to front way of doing things, but I want to leave the main question of whether we should do anything at all, until the last.
Disclaimer: The following are my views and my views only, I invite others to critique them and tear them to bits and in so doing offer up better solutions and stratagems and pathways forward.
Preamble:
(I) The Blame Game
I remember when I first became aware of the issue of climate change. The issue of climate change was first raised in the 1990s mass media, news paper editorials and TV news as a world problem, at that time the problem was couched in the language of “its all your fault”. You as an individual are responsible. You drive a car, you use air travel, you use disposable products, you use electricity. “Its all your fault” was drummed into us. Obviously this sort of language is pretty diss-empowering, and most people just shrugged and feeling disempowered carried on with their lives. But when enough people did take the message seriously and tried to make personal changes, and found they couldn’t, or it was making zero difference, they eventually began to ask other questions. Why when I cut down my CO2 emissions, do huge factories and industries continue pouring out hydrocarbons that make my individual efforts pointless? Why is there no decent public transportation so that I am forced to use a private car? Why am I forced to use disposable plastic products?
What people came to realise is that climate change is a public policy issue not a matter of personal choice at all.
(II) How Does Change Happen?
I am 56 years young. I remember the first time I ever saw plastic waste on a beach. I was about ten years old, sitting on the sand above the tide line at Mission Bay, Auckland. Pushing my hand into the sand, looking more closely, I marveled at the unusual small plastic oblate sphericals about a quarter inch in diameter (2mm) mixed in amongst the golden yellow sand grains which was mostly made up of tiny shell fragments. What were these smooth little plastic balls, and how did they get there?
I learnt later that they were the feedstock for New Zealand’s growing plastics industry, and were being imported in mass in the holds of ships, where they were being spilled into the harbour on unloading. (In the days before containerisation, I imagine that this was a much more messy business.)
When I was a kid, plastic was still a novel product. I remember the first big plastic doll I ever saw which had come from America as gift for a neighboring girl. We all marveled as she showed us how it closed its eyes when you laid it down and cried when you pulled the cord in its back. Most other toys then were made of wood, or metal. Balls were made of leather, or rubber. Raincoats were called mackintoshes after the material they were made of. Goods still came wrapped in brown paper and string, even things like tooth paste tubes were made of metal not plastic.
Rubbish tins were heavy metal bins with metal lids, you could hear the clatter of lids and bins made by the approaching dustmen, which gave you a warning if you had forgotten to get your rubbish out. The teams of dustmen were very fit, but there really was a lot less rubbish for them to pick up, I imagine that landfills were a lot more compact as well.
Shampoo and dishwashing liquid was unknown, my mother used to get me to wash the dishes with a piece of sunlight soap trapped in a little metal cage that you shook in the water until it became frothy. (Nowadays we use disposable, one use, plastic containers and plastic one use dishwashing and shampoo bottles. And this disposable plastic waste can be found washed up on even the most remotest beaches on earth)
Back in the day, drinks and liquids came in recyclable glass bottles – pints, quarts and flagons, you could even get half pints. (For bigger amounts, metal containers. In those days even canned drinks were unknown in New Zealand) The glass bottle was ubiquitous. For us kids though there was greater chance of getting your feet cut, but it was great, because there was a mandatory refund on every intact bottle. For the plastics industry to really get a hold in this country the refund had to be got rid of. I was about 12 when the legislation requiring mandatory refunds on glass bottles was abolished after fierce industry lobbying.
After that glass bottles became uneconomic in comparison, to one use, plastic containers.
Another example:
When I was a teenager my father worked for the education department in the Halsey Street warehouse in Freemans Bay which was a distribution point for educational supplies around the country. From my father I learnt that all government contracts over a certain distance (between cities) had to go by rail.
Again after intense lobbying by the roading and trucking interests this legislation was repealed.
After that highways became busier trunk lines were closed, tracks were lifted, thousands of rail workers were laid off.
I am sure there are many other examples of this. But the take-away message is this; laws and bylaws had to be passed, or repealed, to make the throwaway, polluting society, we know today. The same with the demolition of the public tram system and the beginning of the construction of the motorway system.
Law that can be made, can be unmade.
(II) The World Is A Big Place
Of course the changes happening in New Zealand society to make us a more polluting and wasteful place were not just happening here, they were happening world wide.
But it wasn’t like the a committee of world leaders got together and decided, this is how the world should be.
A few people somewhere decided these technologies were a good idea, (and they were at the time), and they just spread.
This is how the change will come as well.
So forget about international conferences on climate change.
A lot of people are disappointed that forum, after forum, meeting, after meeting, international conference, after international conference. All the governments of the world can still not agree on how to tackle the problem of climate change.
But this is the way it has always been.
This is how it will always be.
The latest failed international conference on climate, convened in Lima last year, was just the latest of a long line of failed meetings of the world’s nation states to come to any agreement on climate change.
You can put money on the fact that the huge penultimate international conference on climate change to be convened in Paris later this year will also fail to come to any binding agreement to cut Green House Gas emissions.
A solution will never come from these international treaty negotiations, it never has, and it never will. Even the current head of the UN Ban Ki Moon senses it.
In the 1930s the precurser to the United Nations, the League of Nations, could not get international agreement on how to confront the rise of fascism, and this failure broke them. Just as the UN will fail to get international agreement on how to confront the rise of climate change, and that failure will probably break them as well.
In the 1930s human civilisation was in a global contest between totalitarianism and democracy.
Humanity are now in global contest with the physics of the climate.
In human affairs, big or small, what often makes the difference between resolute action and indecision and confusion, is leadership.
Just as the UN has failed to address this crisis, so did the League of Nations fail to address the big crisis of their time.
What turned the tide was when one (relatively) small plucky island nation decided to put up a fight regardless of the League of Nations, regardless of the other major powers inaction and capitulation, regardless that (at that time) defeat looked almost certain.
Just as the use of plastics and automobiles spread around the world around the world from one centre. Concerted action against climate will also spread from one centre.
Forget any hope of concerted global action arising out of international bodies like the UN, every country is on its own. The competition will be to see, which country by its resolute actions against climate change, becomes that world leader that sets an example which by its moral power the rest of the world will have to follow.
It is up to each citizen, political activist, community leader, and politician convinced of the danger, in whichever country we are from, to push for our country to become that world leader.
For us here in New Zealand we are better placed than many to take that role.
70% of our power is generated by renewables, we need to make that 100%.
Coal plays a very small part of our economy, we need to make that nil by the end of the decade.
We could be that country that by our actions makes that necessary statement to the world that it is possible to move away from fossil fuels.
Winston Churchill once said, “Grab onto one big idea and never let go of it.”
James Hansen has said, “If we can’t get rid of coal it is all over for the climate.”
New Zealand which once had huge asbestos industry has completely eliminated asbestos from our economy, we could easily do the same for coal, to become the world’s first coal free nation.
This could be our big statement to the world.
(III) So how could we go about it?
On a per capita basis New Zealand is the worlds biggest subsidiser of the the fossil fuel industry, we could cancel all the fossil fuel subsidies immediately and pour the money instead into subsidising renewables.
We could mobilise the workforces of the coal mines, and Huntly and Tiwai into building and operating wind and solar energy stations, and other renewable energy technologies.
We could forget about aspiring to become fast followers.
New Zealand could become the global leader on tackling climate change.
Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter, Australia has, per capita the highest level of green house emissions.
Undeniably, Australia our closest physical and cultural neighbor, is one of the worst polluters in the world. But because of the nearness of the two nations, both cultural and geographic, resolute action taken in New Zealand, would have political ramifications in Australia.
Why?
Because as well as being, one of the worst polluters, Australia is one of the worst effected countries by climate change, and many Australians are worried (even frightened). Latest polls show that 6 out of 10 Australians don’t think their government is doing enough about climate change. All these concerned Australians need is lead from across the Tasman to turn their disquiet into a demand that could not be ignored by Australia’s policy makers and business leaders.
From Australia the fight back will spread to the world.
This is how the war will be won.
(IV) So where should we start?
Both the New Zealand Green Party and the Mana Movement policy is “No new coal mines”.
Just as the campaign against nuclear ships was won on the ground first.
Activists from the Greens and Mana, and others, have been putting the agreed policy of No new coalmines into practice on the ground.
After an epic two year battle, these activists have fought Fonterra to a standstill over Fonterra’s plan to develop a new coal mine at Mangatangi, just south of Auckland.
But despite being beaten at Mangatangi, Fonterra have not given up on coal, and have decided to source coal from Solid Energy, the technically insolvent government coal company.
To meet Fonterra’s demand, Solid Energy have decided to reopen an abandoned coal mine at Maramarua 5k down the road from Mangatangi.
If the activists can stop the Maramarua coal mine on top of stopping the Mangatangi coal mine; Make no mistake, this will be a stake through the heart of the coal mining industry in this country, representing a major milestone on the way to making New Zealand completely coal free.
Nothing succeeds like success. Just as the successful protest campaign against nuclear ship visits, used the victory on the ground to leverage this into government policy. We again have the ability of achieve legislation which will have wide ranging international implications.
There are a number of other contenders to be this signature victory against climate change in this country, but in my opinion they do not have the same potential for achieving a signature game-changing-knockout victory on climate change that the proposed Maramarua coal mine has.
The other New Zealand contenders for a signature victory against climate change are:
– The Denniston Coal Mine in the South Island.
– The campaign against deep sea oil drilling.
Both these above campaigns have been handicapped by the tyranny of distance.
Just like applied in gorilla warfare, climate change activists need to concentrate our forces where our opponents are weakest and where we are strongest, that has always been near the main population centres. Maramarua fits this bill.
The other thing about Maramarua, is that it can only be fought on climate change grounds, there are no environmental issues, the climate change message cannot be confused, or adulterated by being mixed with environmental concerns.
If this epic battle against climate change in this country, is not fought and won at Maramarua, it can not be fought and won anywhere.
(IV) (And so for the question I have left til last). Should we even bother?
Both the Deniers and the Doomers have one thing in common, both believe (albeit for different reasons) that there is nothing to be done about about climate change.
Are they wrong? Are they right?
In my opinion if something can be done, it should be done.
Some of my closest friends and advisers tell me that the doomers are right. “There is nothing that any of us can do that will make a difference.”
The time has come, for us to find out!
Pat O’Dea is the Mana Movement spokesperson for climate change.
Pat, quote selectively and link. Taking up a huge space like that anti-social (Penny is about the only one that gets away with it), and may attract the attention of the moderators. Me, it just made me scroll through.
Luckily, I have not as yet succumbed to Paula Bennett syndrome. So, Pat O’Dea (I don’t know why, but I pay much more notice to those who choose not to use nom de plumes) keep it up…
Paula Bennett syndrome? The one where she outs the details of beneficiaries to the media as a high level bullying tactic, including a fuck you to the Privacy Commissioner?
Do you realise you are talking to a beneficiary who uses a nom de plume in part for safety reasons?
“Paula Bennett Syndrome “as in the article written shortly after her ascendancy to higher office. She implored anyone trying to communicate with her to keep it to one A4 page…or less.
I too am a beneficiary, by virtue of the fact my partner( pre- ACC high tetraplegic) requires full time care. You of course will be aware of the Government’s response to the Human Rights Review Tribunal’s declaration that I should be paid for providing this care. This was supported by the UN Monitoring Committee on The UNCORPD. My partner and I decided long ago that speaking openly and transparently about this and other important disability issues was vital.
And yes, there has been a cost.
As beneficiaries we know that retribution can result from agitating, complaining or even making an inquiry.
As a client of MOH; Disability Support Services, my partner is more than aware that complaints an inquiries can lead to reduction of supports and threats of institutionalization.
“Safe”…from the government departments charged with supporting those in our situation?
Oh, weka, have no doubt that I am well aware that we are not “safe”.
Also, we have no ‘public profile’ to protect.
I enjoy reading long posts/comments. When someone has the passion and commitment to construct such a document, my personal feeling is it would be rude not to read it. If it turns out to be twaddle…ignore the next post by that person. Pat O’ Dea took the time to give his thoughts and feelings on this issue, and while I might not be perfectly simpatico with all of his politics, on this particular issue I’m in full agreement. I would love to go and join the roadside protest on Monday…but wheelchairs and the side of the road at long weekend rush hour are not simpatico!
Rosemary, there are some people who have to use non de plumes. It can be for a variety of valid reasons. It may be they are in an area of employment where acknowledging their left leaning political alignment could see them lose their jobs. It could be they are in public office of some sort including local bodies. It could be that their circumstances (whatever they may be) causes them to fear reprisal action against them or members of their families should their identities become known.
If you think that is absurd, NZ history is riddled with individuals who were targeted because of their perceived left leaning persuasions. I had precisely that experience as a public servant years ago. I was targeted by the management (and others) and eventually had to leave. The fear and the rising stress levels proved too much in the end. Yet a former colleague who was a National Party activist was left alone because he was considered to be on the “right” side of the fence.
So, you would be wise not to judge a commentator based on whether they use a pseudonym or not. You’re missing out on some excellent commentary if you do. A good example (but by no means the only one) is Pascals bookie.
@ Rosemary McDonald
People use pseudonyms because they don’t trust malicious or punitive people or entities from harming them, harrassing them somehow if they can target the writer.
Your name here is Rosemary McDonald. But I don’t know if that isn’t a pseudonym.
Why should you respect a name above a pseudonym? You don’t know the person writing it, you still have to judge what they have said for clarity and correctness.
So don’t start on about pseudonyms.
If you want to come here accept the way it is run. You soon get to know what to expect from people using pseudonyms. We are encouraged to use the same ones all the time. They are our names on this blog.
@weka/Colonial Rawshark
The short take home message for you guys, is this;
If you are serious about wanting to do something about climate change, and you want to get involved with something with a halfway chance of success – then attend the protest against the Second* attempted New Coal Mine planned for the South of Auckland this holiday Monday at Mangatawhiri, Details HERE
Or come along to the Auckland Coal Action AGM to discuss strategies for making New Zealand Newcoal Free. All welcome.
The annual general meeting of ACA will be held Feb.7th 2015 at the Friends Meeting House 113 Mt Eden Rd Auckland at 1pm
*(We stopped the First one).
https://aucklandcoalaction.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/2013-08-26-0435.jpg
I live in the SI.
Good luck with the actions.
Kia ora weka,
Is this better?
Agree with weka…if it takes someone 13 presses of the page down button to get past your comment, you are doing something wrong.
To the substance of your post – you only have to observe dozens of failed human civilisations in history who could not alter their trajectory even when it was become clear that they were on the precipice and had to change, somehow, to know what is going to happen next.
On the other hand, I don’t believe that humans are going to go extinct any time soon, but this global civilisation we have built will be on its last legs in the next 30 years, and 100 years from now it’ll be gone.
My opinion is that things are bad, but we can make changes. If we don’t, they will become catastrophic. I don’t agree with MacPherson that they are catastrophic already. I think that if we don’t start cutting back very soon and get a government that realises there is a problem, it will be too late before we know it.
Basically. There are lots of things the NZ government could do, but everyone is in a game of pretend and extend promising the middle classes that the value of their Auckland rental isn’t going to be diminished and of course dairy will bounce back.
And meanwhile we have individual MP’s/PM’s on the look out for what’s best for their post parliamentary careers, stuff the country and its people.
In my opinion, both Murray Rawshark @ 15.3, and Colonial Rawshark @ 15.3.1, are making a fundamental error. In that they are waiting on a government to act.
It ain’t gonna happen.
At least, not without the sort of massive pressure from below that saw New Zealand become Nuclear Free.
This is what informs the strategy of Auckland Coal Action.
It’s up to us, guys.
If we did it once we can do it again.
I’m not waiting for the government. My position is similar to yours. Governments only act in the interests of anyone other than the 1% when they are forced to. We will get a government that truly realises there is a problem and does something by the pressure from below that you mention.
And let’s hope that when a government does take some worthwhile climate measures, it’s not a smokescreen to sneak round the back and roger us in another way like in 1984.
I’m a doomer.
But I still act.
Great. Bring all your friends.
Get the cool T shirt.
https://aucklandcoalaction.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/aca-t-shirt-name.jpg
https://aucklandcoalaction.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/acat-shirt-emblem-may23_page_1.jpeg
Can anyone please point me toward any blogs/websites which are informative/on to it in terms of current events etc?
Not interested in anything with a specific left or right wing bias, more after well informed impartial insights & opinions.
Recently discovered Dmitry Orlov’s blog which I find extremely interesting, so looking for more blogs and websites like that, which stimulate thought and analysis.
Any ideas?
Wikipedia is pretty good for ongoing issues – generally gets updated pretty quickly, and it’s easy to find background and sources. And bias gets flagged and disputed/resolved pretty quickly.
edit: oh, and Gwynne Dyer is pretty good
Try and see what suits:
The Archdruid Report (outstanding, if you like his last few posts it’s worth looking back through the archives)
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/
Zero Hedge (financial and economic – bear in mind that the quality and view of the articles varies widely)
http://www.zerohedge.com/
James Kunstler (current events, civilisation depletion)
http://kunstler.com/
the ibanker (insightful, humorous look at investment and wealth banking)
http://www.theibanker.com/
Informed comment (US foreign affairs and the middle east)
http://www.juancole.com/
YouTube – if you want to understand mass surveillance
Jacob Appelbaum
Bill Binney
YouTube – Keiser Report
Max and Stacey are great on all the latest financial and economic hypocrisy and malfaesence. There are now hundreds of episodes they have done.
Keiser is damn good and so’s the Archdruid. I don’t think we are heading for the apocalypse (but I used to in my Pentecostal days)…
Prof. Steve Keen, Matt Taibbi, and Ross Ashcroft (the renegade economist) are high on my list of economic pundits. I’ve also been watching quite a bit of Abby Martin on RT as antidote to the cosy Five Eyes media conglomerates.
Abby Martin is definitely a moral voice.
Also the content on http://www.truthdig.com/ is great. Chris Hedges is a regular contributor there as well.
Try the The Archdruid Report. There’s several years worth of stuff there that’s worth reading.
I personally like ForeignPolicy.com for my daily dose of commentary from close to or inside the US Pentagon.
Then Salon.com, TheAtlantic.com, BBCWorld, HuffingtonPost, then it’s time to start work.
Ok, I have done some changes to the caching to use more uncached fragments.
If there is a problem after this, from those changes, it should show up in the Replies tab, in the names and emails in the comment replies. It will show the wrong ones or won’t show the ones you usually use.
Let me know if you see any.
My replies tab is presently filled up with replies to Anne.
EDIT:
A log out and log back in seems to have fixed it.
Oh… how delightful for you. 😛
I just got all lprent’s 😈
Refreshing cleared it.
Ok. Probably just old caches? Ok lets see if we get repeats. If you see it again, try the Ctrl + F5/refresh first. It should clear up straight away then. Tell me if it does.
Ummm. It has been a bit tricky in figuring out how to test it.
Essentially the whole of the page is meant to be statically stored as objects except for the sections that are marked as being required to calculated each time.
The bit that I did today was the name stuff on the replies. I should have another look at how I did the the replies tab bearing in mind whatI learnt today about this arcane magick
I just got the bug for the first time and refresh cleared it.
Just got it again (different commenter) after posting a comment, and refresh cleared it again.
Just in the replies tab?
I think that the code in there isn’t dropping low enough to find out who you are.
Yes, just the replies tab. Looks alright now. I dumped Firefox’s cache just before.
Ok, I have put in the change that I think should do the trick.
Could people tell me if they see something odd in the Replies tab (or entering a comment for names, emails etc). Check if it goes away if you refresh the page or refresh it with a Ctrl + F5/Refresh.
The caching change significantly improves the performance at the server, but it relies on those two specific area to be generated per commenter. If the latter doesn’t work under load, then I need to know about it so that I can revert the changes.
It passes my testing, so any errors will only show up under real loadings.
This time I got Replies to Pete George on my replies tab. A ctrl-f5 fixed that.
I was on the Standard’s homepage so I went to Open Mike.
When I got there I had Replies to OAB in my replies tab. Again, a ctrl-f5 fixed it.
I’m running Chrome on Win8.1
EDIT:
Presently my Replies Tab looks like the Comments Tabs from some time back.
Umm it sounds like it is getting cached somehow. That isn’t meant to be happening…
I will have a look at it after the heat drops.
Taranaki journalist threatened with violence
Ah, farmers – such lovely fucken arseholes.
Here’s her original article
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/65176962/Farmers-not-exempt-from-countrys-laws
Plus another media report on the harassment,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/65378670/Police-investigate-threat-to-columnist-Rachel-Stewart
Ex Fed Farmer’s regional president, she looks worth following on twitter.
If my employer found me making rape threats on Facebook from work computers I’d be sacked, not defended. Fed Farmers are morally diseased.
Actually it’s about ethics in corporate farming.
/gamergate reference.
‘Ah, farmers – such lovely fucken arseholes.’
Grow up, Draco. Don’t polarise an unpleasant situation with your ill informed generalisation – most farmers would never behave in this way,
As I said to Waghorn the other day.
Yeah, but most farmers I know aren’t like that, and many are trying to do the right thing. Better to add an adjective. Call them FF farmers (especially as it appears that many farmers don’t join FF, so don’t have control over what FF does or says). Or polluting farmers.
I think lumping them in all togethers makes the good ones and the ones about to do good things invisible just at the point that we need them to be visible.
+1
They’ll be easy to catch because they’ll skite about it on Whalespew. On the other hand, Taranaki police are unlikely to do anything about it.
As my “name” has been mentioned I feel I have to say I in NO WAY condone threatening reporters.
Good. Now all we need is all the rest of the farmers of good conscience to stand up and say the same thing.
Why? Do you agree that all Muslims of good conscience need to apologise for the Charlie Hebdo attack?
b waghorn didn’t apologise for anything and I really don’t expect him or other farmers to do so. And the muslims of good conscience are saying the same thing but the Western Leaders and the MSM don’t appear to be listening.
Does anybody here have any experience with the MBIE investigating an employer?
Scuttlebutt has it that someone rang them and made an anonymous complaint about an employer a week or two before Christmas, and nothing appears to have happened. What we’re trying to work out is whether an investigation is under way and just taking time to get going, or whether the (influential) employer had a word in the right ear and made the complaint just go away.
The cynic in me suspects the latter.
Any thoughts?
Marvellous us.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/ebola-virus-has-killed-a-third-of-the-worlds-gorillas-and-chimpanzees–and-could-pose-greatest-threat-to-their-survival-conservationists-warn-9998386.html