The Southland Times editorial this morning, “A glaring need for answers” begins,
“The Government needs to order a full investigation into a New Zealand led raid on two tiny villages in Afghanistan in 2010”, and later adds, “Prime Minister Bill English should order a proper inquiry”.
“The soldier told the Herald the two people found shot dead were killed by NZSAS marksmen who believed they were acting under “Rules of Engagement” governing their actions on the battlefield.”
woahs… “The soldier said it was not the only situation in which there had been civilian casualties from a NZSAS operation and which the soldiers blamed on faulty US-sourced intelligence.”
yes it totally seems like a coverup, the last sentence in the Herald article is very telling.
“He said (the SAS soldier) he did not know why the civilians casualties had not been made public. “Whatever decision was made to suppress that was made higher.”
Personally I am so sick and tired of the lies from those in positions of power in our country.
Imagine you are a deal-making Prime Minister intent on currying favour with a powerful “ally”, and it was looking likely that any independent inquiry would result in substantial criticism of said ally, plus you just committed a war crime?
What would you not do, as this deal-making Prime Minister?
Good to hear, bravo Deborah Manning, Rodney Harrison QC and Richard McLeod.
“The law firm says it has asked Attorney General Chris Finlayson and Prime Minister Bill English to clarify what happened as they say that “every day there’s a different version” of events.”
I wonder what excuse we will hear from the outgoing PM today. Apparently he is waiting for his morbidly obese Minister of Defence to return. How bigger hole can they dig for themselves?
They are gutless if they can’t stand up to the Defence Force, if I were them I would immediately engage in an independent inquiry, maybe even going so far as to put a few of the big boys on leave until it is cleared up. Maybe even suspend all of Keys ‘benefits’ as well until it’s sorted.
At the very least the outgoing government needs to stop denying the collateral damage.
“Let us test, says oil industry” – Front page, The Southland Times.
They only want to test, so Southlanders should relax; dolphins won’t be harmed, . Judith Collins “reiterated the Government’s commitment to the dolphins”.
“it’s often a 70 to 75 % chance of finding nothing”, says Big Oil.
Don’t worry, Southland; jobs, home heating.
I refuse to believe that down the bottom they will fall for this bullshit – times are always tough down there – the jobs line is really pathetic and weak. Come on Murihiku.
Do the links prevent you from addressing the content?
Your comments indicate a belief in monsanto and GMO as ‘science’…moreover,you endorse it
As an aside, being that you capacity for thought is limited, illustrated by your own words…it is no surprise the best you can offer is to slate Asleepwhilewalking, personally while ignoring the content in the links…
I’m pointing it out because you’re scared so you project….evolve or don’t, that’s your choice
Glyphosate has been used so widely and in such volumes for decades, that i am confident that any significant link to cancer would have emerged regularly on sites more credible than this. Things like the Lancet, BMJ, NEJM, JAMA
The conversation is wider than one constituent part
Confidence tricks have existed since early times…
Many have fortified the ability to understand when their confidence is a false sense of security…then ego prevents them from admitting it and moving on in a meaningful way
OK, let’s address the content the nutbar activist site links to. It consists of a couple of cancer sufferers who were convinced that glyphosate gave them cancer, and some evidence of dodgy dealings by Monsanto of the kind that for-profit organisations tend to be noted for.
Against that, we have the fact that glyphosate is one of the most-tested chemicals ever to be sold and every major regulator has come to the conclusion that it’s safe when used as directed (at which point we should note that water and all other chemicals are likewise only safe “when used as directed”).
Which of these is more persuasive? Well, it depends on the extent to which your capacity for rational thought has been debilitated by exposure to nutbar activist web sites, but for the record it’s the second one.
Vision is not a strong suit for too many people, including yourself…
The wider and indisputable problem is the merging of so called government agencies, with corporations. Essentially they are one and the same thing, having been enabled using various tecniques like ‘revolving door’ and ‘lobbying’
Bias (among other flaws) hinders your ability to observe at levels required to evaluate the core issues, you turn to insults…because that is your default level..
So, you’re proposing a massive conspiracy that involves many of the world’s scientists and regulatory agencies, and my skepticism that such a conspiracy exists is an artifact of bias and a lack of vision. I think we’re done here.
That is precisely the response (interpretation) I expected…because it is how you self protect…
…by ignoring what is an obvious and decades long exposė of corporate and state collusion in some of the most ethically and morally bankrupt activities carried out against humanity and all living beings…
Such exposė is readily searchable on ‘mainstream’ establishment vehicles…
Look into it…or don’t it’s your own stunted existence which others get to tolerate…
Yes excellent book j’Accuse……..but in yesterday’s events it appears a lone nutter with no terrorist links ran 3 people over then stabbed a policeman. It’s hardly Twin Towers stuff. Talk about media hype.
nope. It suggests that the powers of arrest in terrorist investigations are pretty bloody extreme.
See how many charges come out of it. Then how many convictions, and for what. After the Boston Bombing most, if any, were related to panicking after the event that they didn’t know would happen. Not to mention the ones arrested for being in the vicinity while Arab.
Hey, the seven arrested this time might have helped him plan the attack, buy a knife, and so on. But equally, the most any of them knew could be that the dude kept mouthing off about doing “something” and they just thought he was a blowhard.
Or they happened to be in the wrong place at the time.
Agreed McFlock and Psycho. The wave of arrests perpetuates the terrorist hype. Nothing I’ve heard suggests these 7 people were part of some massive conspiracy; just people the guy associated with.
As a consequence I suspect that I’m going to have to deal up with the usual gormless anti-immigrant bigots today who are appear to be too stupid to look past those selective headline ‘facts’.
It’s neither gormless nor bigoted to draw conclusions from this about the wisdom of allowing large-scale Muslim immigration into western democracies. This particular Muslim was born in Britain – all that says to me is that the British were mugs to create the situation in which that occurred. As an ethnic Brit myself, it annoys the fuck out of me to see the Guardian or BBC reporting that a “Briton” has been killed fighting for Da’esh in Syria – those guys are about as “British” as a taco.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
I don’t see the distinction. It simply doesn’t make any frigging difference if the problem is east-end crime in the 1950s, incompetent ‘mercenaries’ in the 1970s, drug dealing gangs, or various actions by the children of immigrants in post war years.
FFS: I can easily find exactly the same stupid ill-informed and ignorant bullshit you are sprouting when I read the commentary about Huguenots or Dutch refugees in previous centuries.
The problem is groups who don’t feel connected for one reason or another to the society they are inside, and who attack it for their own benefits and reasons for some manner or another.
I’d also point out that you appear to know fuckall about Islam – and like you I’m not going to be bothered explaining my assumptions about why.
I know plenty about Islam, you just dislike the conclusions I’ve drawn from that knowledge.
And I don’t recall reading about Huguenots mounting terrorist attacks because they were ideologically opposed to the country they’d settled in – the fact is that there is a distinction.
I’d take a bet that I can take any argument that you use for Islam, and apply EXACTLY the same argument for Christianity of some branch or another doing the same things somewhere in the world and history.
There were a lot of complaints about the Huguenots trying to get England involved in a internal religious battle in another country. Many of those activities involved what was defined as terrorism by both the government of the time in both countries. There were some pretty authoritarian actions by the british government of the time trying to stop them doing it. Your definition of the citizens of Britian going and fighting for ISIL is EXACTLY the same. Is it just that you are comfortable with Christians doing that, or you really need to read (and understand) some more history.
I’d point out that I’m quite irreligious. I have a great respect for the odd people I run across who can have faith and live within the precepts of those faiths. But generally I treat all religions as being inherently dangerous when they are used as an excuse by dangerous bigots, populists or the dispossessed of society.
Consequently I can’t see any difference between the morons professing an allegiance to Islam and Christianity, or oft times with you as well.
An intelligent person can take any position and argue for it, that’s what debating’s all about. But fuck history – this isn’t the 17th Century, or even the 1930s, the religion that is a serious threat to enlightenment values in the present day is Islam, not Christianity or any other variant of religious superstition. And it’s all the more dangerous because it’s fundamentally illiberal out-of-the-box – no distortions or additions are required to make it toxic to liberal democracy. People who won’t face that are naive, wilfully ignorant or deliberately disingenuous.
…the religion that is a serious threat to enlightenment values in the present day is Islam, not Christianity or any other variant of religious superstition.
Obviously not the case just on the face of it. They simply don’t have the capabilities. Just think about what is required to take out any civilization or ethos. It only happens with crushing defeat and destruction or an partisan internal civil war of some kind or an argument that changes the paradigms of society. For instance in my lifetime on the latter – the role of women, homosexuality, and the lessons of the NZ civil war started in the 1860s come to mind.
So Pakistan has a couple of nukes. Not exactly a threat on the death and destruction side (maybe worth considering if you are in India). At least not compared to the thought of some idiot fundamentalist protestant in the US or a fundamentalist Russian orthodox or Donald Trump getting unrestricted access to the stockpiles of nukes in the US or Russia.
Offhand I can’t think of any partisan civil war triggered by immigrants with inferior technology. Even the recent historic invasions of here, the Americas required the immigrants to have far superior technology.
What historical analogy are you considering? The Mongols? The Huns?
And if a society isn’t capable of defending its ideas or assimilating external ideas, then you’d have to ask exactly how well it was founded.
Or are you simply being a simple bigot throwing up clash of civilisations idea with no fucking basis for it having happened in the recent past. Which is kind of where I suspect you are.
In NZ, I have heard the exact type of simple-minded alarmist nonsense in my life-time with Paheka, Irish, Dutch, Polynesians, South Africans, Chinese and bloody Poms. In fact it is hard to enumerate the number of times I’ve heard your EXACT argument expressed both in past history, recent history, or my lifetime with absolutely no basis behind it apart from the simple bigotry of the human tribal hardwiring for being scared of the stranger. Hell I’ve heard it expressed about geeks like me.
You don’t count anything that isn’t an existential threat as a threat? The fact that it’s a threat we can deal with easily if enough people decide secular liberalism is worth defending doesn’t make it a non-threat.
What historical analogy are you considering?
Too many to count, mostly involving Christianity, because that was the chief opponent of enlightenment values until recently. These days it’s a trivial opponent, but that wasn’t true historically. Now, having finally dealt with that opponent after centuries of conflict, we’re inviting in an even tougher one – it’s moronic and we shouldn’t be doing it.
Or are you simply being a simple bigot throwing up clash of civilisations idea with no fucking basis for it having happened in the recent past. Which is kind of where I suspect you are.
Assuming someone must be an arsehole because they disagree with you isn’t a good way either of testing or of improving your own opinions.
As a pretty enthusiastic atheist, I will take Muslim immigrants over Christian ones any day of the week, especially the ones not already from liberal democracies, as they actually understand the alternative to secularism and don’t want a bar of it. They might have some culture shocks getting used to the exact nature of society here, or not knowing all of the rights they’re getting, but that’s the same for anyone changing regime types, it’s not particular to Muslims, and there are actually similar shocks for those immigrating from the UK and USA, as their laws are getting increasingly draconian.
Anyone who’s cool with secular democracy, liberalism, and non-discrimination should be allowed in, I don’t care WHERE they’re from. And there’s no good evidence that Muslims are any worse than any other group- in fact, if we want to be wary of regressive religious views, we should be looking at restricting immigration for all religious conservatives, but good luck selling that to the National Party.
You don’t seem to get that the opponent isn’t the people who genuinely want in to more liberal democracies, it’s the people who are getting bombed overseas. We don’t need to touch immigration policy to deal with that, we need to not participate in US wars of aggression, and we need to use leverage to advocate for innocent civilians.
Plenty of muslims in Auckland from quite a lot of locations, Like every other group, I work with them (I’m in IT – we have everyone), occasionally argue with them, and have a vast level of amusement when they discuss their preconceptions with others.
You haven’t seen anything until you see a cross purposes discussion between a strong muslim and a fundamentalist christian who has a short creationist timeframe.
Personally I don’t notice much difference between any immigrants based on their religions or usually from their countries of origin. For instance a muslim pakistani who migrated here will usually seem more rational to me than many of the English from the UK with their rather strange expectations about how NZ should be.
But I’m a native Aucklander – I’m used to immigrants. I see more real differences when I hit provincial NZ and suddenly find those strange inherited class structures. Those differences always appeared more startling to me because of the strange twist of assumptions in people who were raised here as well.
Most of the Muslims I’ve met (and yes, plenty – more than you for sure) have been pleasant enough people too. It would be nice if that were in some way relevant to the discussion.
In europe, it seems it’s generally not the immigrant generation that gets radicalised. It’s the next generation, growing up in slums staring at a crap future, that seem to be the more common radicals.
Which points to the importance of maintaining a welcoming society. High levels of immigration that stretches our infrastructure and plausibly contributes to other problems like low wages and exploitation of workers is likely to test our ability to continue to make immigrants feel a welcome and valued part of society.
You’re absolutely right that we should stick to our actual capacity to take in new migrants. That’s sensible policy no matter your attitude on migration.
That said, I would point out that the phenomenon of radicalisation of the children of immigrants (or subsequent generations) is likely down to a confluence of factors. As you say, poverty could play a role, but so could structural racism, and so could foreign policy that looks insufficiently compassionate to people like them, in either race or religion, especially if it extends to actual wars.
So basically, the problem is never the immigration, as radicals are far more likely to be home-grown than actual immigrants, so you need to look at other policy areas to prevent radicalisation, and in the meantime, use good enforcement policies that hold the line between preventing attacks and not trampling on people’s liberties.
We also need to keep terrorism in perspective. There were accidents that killed more people than the London incident. It’s news, sure, but it’s a footnote. We’ve been panicking over terrorism for way too long for something that’s not fucking new anymore.
Assuming someone must be an arsehole because they disagree with you isn’t a good way either of testing or of improving your own opinions.
That is because you haven’t said anything about the source of your (to me) quite irrational fears.
I assume that anyone doing that and being unable to articulate the source of their assertions is hiding a nefarious reason. If you can’t articulate your assumptions then people can’t respond to them, and point out the mistakes that they think you are making.
The overwhelmingly most common reason I have run across for that kind of hidden motive assertion based behaviour in the past has been cases of simple bigotry. So I tend to start with that as the likely explanation until I find a reason to change my mind.
As a strategy, this usually works. It also certainly saves me considerable time trying to be nice as I weasel the real reasons out of people.
Besides, I really don’t like being nice. I think it is against my personal belief systems.
That is because you haven’t said anything about the source of your (to me) quite irrational fears.
What fears? A few weeks back there was a discussion here about the need to be vigilant against right-wing extremism, triggered by an event so trivial as to be ridiculous (a student group at UoA with a dodgy slogan). No-one wittered on about the people demanding vigilance being bigots or being afraid, because they weren’t – they just didn’t like extremist political groups getting mainstream acceptance. I don’t either, and people like Mr Mansoor give much better reasons for that dislike than some crackpot starting up a student group.
I assume that anyone doing that and being unable to articulate the source of their assertions is hiding a nefarious reason.
In what sense unable? Seeing as you immediately declared I must be ignorant of Islam, I assumed you must know a bit about it yourself and I therefore didn’t need to explain to you why it’s a problem. If you do need it explained, let me know. But the precis is that totalitarian ideologies tend to produce people you don’t want to have around, so encouraging adherents of that ideology to move to your country is a bad idea.
Posted similar a little while back. Radical Islamic terrorism is a threat. You have to be up front about that.
It’s just a vastly overblown threat that is used as a rationale by governments to do impressively world-scale dumb things, many of which undermine any superiority of virtue to Enlightenment ideals.
“As an ethnic Brit myself, it annoys the fuck out of me to see the Guardian or BBC reporting that a “Briton” has been killed fighting for Da’esh in Syria – those guys are about as “British” as a taco.”
that is such bullshit and so selectivly bigotted – ethnic brit ffs what a plonker
When does the melting pot actually melt? My father was English, loved being English from Bournemouth, very proud. When did the invasions and influences down there stop being them and instead became us. Is it generations, where you are born, die, grow, have kids, what you look like, what you believe? When?
It happened for your kin when are you going to allow other people the same privedge?
I recall one of those british crime dramas (morse/frost/whatever) where they asked the grieving widow if there was someone who could sit with her, like a neighbour. The response was “no, we’ve only lived here for three years”.
Ethnicity isn’t about being born somewhere – if it was there’d be upwards of 4 million “Maori” in Aotearoa. For my money, if some prick considers himself a member of the umma first, a Pakistani second, and British a distant third, if at all, there’s no point in me pretending he’s wrong.
English – stick to the point – so religion is one of the things you think is English and not English. Is it also that loyalty to the English group is lower than loyalty to some belief systems?
See? Your whole argument is bullshit mixed with bigotry. It’s okay many feel the same that’s why this world is fucked up.
Being a member of the umma is not the same as believing in a religion. Lip-service-only Muslims have no problem being British, but true believers have basically ruled it out.
Still, it’s good to know my kids can call themselves Maori because they were born here, I’m sure it will come in handy one day.
Well, what do you want? You call me a plonker for fondly imagining I have an ethnicity and people who don’t share it shouldn’t be pretended to share it, accuse me of bullshit and bigotry, and now claim the fact I gave you a snide answer says something about me. Actually, it does; a less-patient commenter would have told you to get fucked.
Ethnic brit makes more sense because English depends on political boundaries – enjoy debating with scots and welsh about the validity of modern boundaries. Ethnic brit says your biological heritage is primarily anglosaxon/northern European / norse/Anglo Norman/celtic/ Briton, with a pinch of Roman perhaps.
Whereas Maori can include Tariana Turia, Christian Cullen and Tony Brown.
Data on British population genetics suggest he could be <50% Anglo-Saxon.
"The majority of eastern, central and southern England is made up of a single, relatively homogeneous, genetic group with a significant DNA contribution from Anglo-Saxon migrations (10-40% of total ancestry). This settles a historical controversy in showing that the Anglo-Saxons intermarried with, rather than replaced, the existing populations."
So they are going to get rid of 26 mermaids, truckies will love that, those guys have the biggest safety impact of all but aren’t actually sworn police because of their specialist skill set. But the moves of a dying National government, damn the consequences, let’s look after our mates and keep those donations coming in.
Also big ups to the union, the Police Association, for calling them out on this.
Whenever a National government goes into a death spiral, they ram through as much nasty, self-serving crap as they can in the short time they have left. This is business as usual for them, given the circumstances.
Yeah, it’s sad, but also pleasing in a way that they have come to this stage.
Let’s see our loyal opposition call them out on this and get talking about how the problem should be solved, and that’s by resourcing the Police properly. And all the other services that are falling to bits.
In some respects yes, since A.C.T. and United Future, literally only exist in Parliament because Messrs Seymour (with no small amount of help from National) and Dunne won seats.
They barely got anything outside of these two electorates. Certainly not enough to get in on the Party vote.
Because of said absence of support – less than 1% combined, 47 + 1 = 48%, which last time I looked was not a majority.
“Whenever a National government goes into a death spiral, they ram through as much nasty, self-serving crap as they can in the short time they have left. This is business as usual for them, given the circumstances.”
Classic national, not only fiddle while she burns but chuck some fuel on in between tunes.
Heard of a commercial bus driver the other week struggling with the steering as it was obviously pulling…….he thanked the passenger who was going to report it as he’s had no luck getting it sorted in the brighter future.
Following logging trucks lately that weave about the road like drunken sailors.
“Bill English went to see Adele last night-Rumour has it, Adele buying exclusive Queenstown property and has citizenship sewn into the deal”
I liked the guy on Morning Report this AM who flew from Hawaii for the concert. Also I think they said 40 people flew from one of the pacific islands for the show.
This is very weird. This project would have been structured in the minutest detail to be released on time. Sure, sometimes projects run over but this one was visibly ahead of schedule. I drive past it several times a week and the structures around the tunnel were completed months ago. Pre-publicity stories about the tunnel also appeared months ago.
The Herald reported earlier this month that the new motorway was set to open in April, most likely the weekend of April 8 and 9.
I’ve got two theories: One, initial testing was completed at the designated time but the tunnel, on/off ramps, or traffic engineering model failed and they are now setting about either fixing what failed or getting another opinion that ensures it won’t fail, in true John Key style.
Two, the Nats have ordered the delay of the project so that it can be opened closer to the election thereby ensuring many thousands of temporarily happy Aucklanders vote for the status quo believing their transport woes have been addressed.
Number two is my preferred option.
A stonking big gridlock on election day to remind the average Aucklander why its a bad idea to drive to work, and a reminder of how ill served they are by their elected officials, local and Government.
“NZTA has released a written statement about the project, but a spokeswoman for the organisation refused a request for an interview to answer further questions.
No, I don’t buy that and I addressed it in my comment.
Delays do happen but not at this stage they are quite clearly visible from months or years out. Something has gone wrong with the engineering plan as a result of shortcuts taken earlier. Physically the whole thing is ready to go and for them to delay just two weeks out from opening a $1.4 Billion project smells like shit to me.
It is politics in that it’s know cheap Chinese steel was used and if this is an indicator then other similar concessions will have been made in the name of cutting costs.
I knew absolutely nothing about it at all – had never heard it mentioned. Yet from your link it sounds like a very big deal.
“New corporate structures and corporate management, and rules making it easier to partition land, will make it easier for Maori land to be lost to foreigners.
“And changes to current legislation will allow people with no whakapapa connection to make decisions over the land, allow a minority of owners to make decisions without telling the rest of the owners, and allow Maori land to be sold to foreigners without the approval of its owners.
You any idea where various political parties and others stand on it?
I don’t read the herald, that aside. You have posted a local rag, all well and good – but if you speaking out about somthing, do it nationally. Hone did it on a national scale, and he is not even an MP.
It has nothing to do with Māori news/issues it has to do with methodology. I get Meka has spoken out, but not well, particularly on a national scale. And putting in the cheap shot in the Waatea piece, was bloody pointless.
If you haven’t been aware of this bill it is your responsibility – it is not because Meka was unable to get her press releases taken up by a form of media that you read. There has been plenty of discussion about this bill in the past year within Māori circles – I am Pākehā and I have known about it for quite some time.
Hone is a candidate in the upcoming election and he has signed an agreement with the Māori Party, so his opposition to a bill promoted by Te Ururoa Flavell is bound to attract media attention. My question would be why didn’t Hone bring it up with Te Ururoa during their negotiations?
I do agree that Meka’s critcism of Hone in the Waatea piece was unnecessary.
Perhaps they did discuss it and agreed to disagree – I don’t know but if that is the case I would have thought there would be some reference to their discussions in this press statement.
This bill is one that Te Ururoa has been backing enthusiastically for some time – I don’t think he will be happy to read this from Hone. Then again, the MP/Mana agreement does allow for criticism of each other’s policies so he can’t do much about it.
Labour and the Greens both oppose it. Meka Whaitiri has been pointing out its flaws for quite some time now, as have a number of the people who have submitted against it, yet it is being railroaded through the parliament without any attempt to address the many concerns. This is typical of many of the objections:
I see some guy who looks like the offspring of Phil Spector and Roger Stone has lawyered up. He can afford a much better wig than Phillip Smith, but it looks a bit odd on…
Just visited the NZ Herald site. Pics of Grant Robertson and James Shaw with the caption, “Would you trust them with your money?” Not exactly impartial, Granny H!
It’s the most coverage Grant Robertson has ever got in the NZHerald, including his leadership tilt. NZHerald did well giving them uninterrupted 2 whole pages.
Handing out jobs for the girls. Got to look out for one another.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/327400/govt-rejects-nz-first-'shoulder-tap'-claim
Maggie Barry sepent her time as a mouthpiece on RadioNZ learning all the cliches about government behaviour such as saying it was a ‘conspiracy theory’ of NZ First’s Winston Peters when he criticised over-spending and jobs for the birls (women who have learned to behave like males) .
Documents obtained by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters show that in May last year Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Maggie Barry wrote to Dame Jenny asking her to accept the role.
In November, a Cabinet committee considered a long-list of potential candidates before Dame Jenny was officially selected. Mr Peters said that was clearly unfair.
“It’s totally unfair on the rest of the candidates – they think they’re involved in a fair process.
“They’re going through the whole steps and rigmarole of the process only to find out it’s been determined before they even started. Now, that is disgraceful,” Mr Peters said.
Ms Barry said New Zealand First’s assertion that it was not above board was nothing more than a conspiracy theory, and due process had been followed
That rocky outcrop in the article is amazing.
The government has put up $3.5 million to celebrate finding NZ and will get a replica of Endeavour and others to sail right around to prove that we are still here. However we haven’t yet become civilised, being still prone to land grabs wherever people can get away with it, and trying to chop down the trees of Eden to make the country over into a paradise for social climbers.
I suggest we put that $3.5 million into teaching civics, how democracies work to define what policies will be best for the present and the future to enhance life, enjoyable community and the environment, and how to learn methods for getting on with others to create a society to be proud of in the 21st century. This is the one where the flower of human intelligence should be awe-inspiring in its creativity and humanity cutting through harmful short-term thinking.
Instead we are regressing back to nostalgia for our historic folk tales that are projected onto our ignorance so that the total exceeds the sum of the parts.
Someone that should be commemorated, as we think of Endeavour’s voyage, is Sydney Parkinson who did the painting depicted on the announcement of the remembrance voyage of Cook’s Endeavour to NZ.
Wikipedia:
Parkinson was employed by Joseph Banks to travel with him on James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific in 1768,[1] in HMS Endeavour. Parkinson made nearly a thousand drawings of plants and animals collected by Banks and Daniel Solander on the voyage.
He had to work in difficult conditions, living and working in a small cabin surrounded by hundreds of specimens. In Tahiti he was plagued by swarms of flies which ate the paint as he worked. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Parkinson
This young bloke died of dysentery on the voyage, at the age of only 26. Ther is more details about his life and work, which is poorly recorded and only in the 1980s was his work recorded. http://www.botanicalartandartists.com/sydney-parkinson.html
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Having watched and read about the Conference of the Paranoid, Angry and just plain Crazy (CPAC), including the Orange Merkin’s return to the political centre stage, I am more convinced then ever that if US conservatism, and indeed the US itself, is to find its way back to some semblance ...
Back in 2019, following media revelations that bullying was widespread within the police, the Independent Police Conduct Authority announced that it would be investigating the issue. Today, they reported back, and found the police to be a completely toxic organisation: An independent report into police culture has described a ...
Dr Ben Gray*New Zealand has begun to roll out its Covid-19 vaccination programme, starting with those working at the border, including in the Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) facilities. There have been calls for prioritising other groups such as those in South Auckland [1] and meat industry workers ...
The Climate Change Commission’s recommendations span the breadth of the economy. They are required to come up with sector-by-sector climate budgets consistent with getting New Zealand with net zero emissions under the Zero Carbon Act. The sector-by-sector budgets rest on underlying models. The models build predictions about what will happen ...
Revolution From Below: The original “Long March” was, of course, undertaken by Mao Zedong and what was left of his communist military forces. They did not, however, head off for the nearest school or university, government office or medical clinic. Their goal was not to infiltrate the institutions of capitalism, but ...
There are some genre authors who like to demonstrate their edgy, iconoclastic credentials by sticking the boot into J.R.R. Tolkien. Michael Moorcock springs to mind, with the much-beaten dead horse that is the Epic Pooh essay. Each to their own, I suppose, though seeing as Epic Pooh really boils ...
John SchwartzElizabeth Kolbert lives her stories. In the course of reporting her new book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” she got hit by a leaping carp near Ottawa, Illinois (“It felt like someone had slammed me in the shin with a Wiffle-ball bat”) and visited ...
New Zealand has an excellent Emissions Trading Scheme covering everything except agriculture – a non-trivial exclusion, but we can come back to that later. The ETS has a cap. Net emissions from the covered sector cannot exceed the cap. So any other regulations that affect sectors covered by the cap ...
Michael SchulsonDays before the inauguration of President Joe Biden, at a time when some Americans were animated by the false conviction that former President Donald J. Trump had actually won the November election, a man in Colorado began texting warnings to his family. The coming days, he wrote, would ...
Last year, Beef and Lamb New Zealand produced a bought-and-paid-for report claiming that their industry was already carbon neutral, so didn't need to do anything to reduce emissions. The report was full of obviously dodgy accounting - basicly, it didn't bother to follow international carbon accounting rules, because they would ...
Last year, the government chickened out on clean rivers, setting "water standards" that failed to properly control poisonous nitrates. So who was to blame? MPI: The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) opposed introducing a tough bottom line for nitrogen levels in rivers over concerns the economic impact would outweigh ...
Robert Greenberg, University of AucklandThe world was excited by the news last week that NASA’s Perseverance rover had successfully landed in a Martian crater. The rover will now set about collecting samples from what scientists say was an ancient lake fed by a river. The name of this exotic ...
Faith In The Essentials: Fenced-in, almost literally, by motorways. Located, seemingly permanently, at the bottom of politicians’ priority-lists. Heaped with praise for their cultural vibrancy, but not rewarded for it by the presence of white pupils in their public schools, South Aucklanders (like people of colour everywhere) provide their paler ...
Image credit:POLITICAL BLOG 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 the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL ...
Since the pandemic began, the UK government has restricted protests in an effort to contain the plague. But of course, they're plotting to make these restrictions permanent: Concern over the government’s limitation of the right to protest during lockdown continues to mount after it emerged that the home secretary, ...
Completed reads for February: The Dream of Scipio, by CiceroThe Dragon Masters, by Jack Vance The Dream of Scipio is Pearman’s translation. A very quiet month in the reading department… but a truly excellent one in the writing department. Better yet, this was not merely short stories, but solid ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Colombia, 18 February 2020) Two soldiers, Jhony Andrés Castillo Ospino and Jesús Alberto Muñoz Segovia, fell into the hands of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN; National Liberation Army). Their capture produced the usual reactions that they had been kidnapped when in fact they were prisoners ...
As much of the world is still implementing lockdowns, including New Zealand, it is a good time to see how Sweden has fared. After being demonised for a year for having relatively moderate restrictions the Swedish death toll is rather much in line with other years. Sweden followed the standard ...
Under The Influence Of The "Governance" Kool-Aid: The furore surrounding Mayor Andy Foster's "review" of the Wellington City Council's "governance" is but the latest example of the quite conscious delegitimization, and sinister re-framing, of spirited political opposition and debate as irresponsible, immature and “dysfunctional”. It shows how very far from ...
Hello there everybody. I’ve been asked by Mr Thinks to come on his blog today and speak my mind about stuff. The government has a lot to answer for. I was sitting there last week as Auckland came out of it’s latest lockdown and I knew the government was making ...
There are times when tikanga needs to be broken for tikanga to survive.I recently gave a presentation on Māori economic history based on my Not in Narrow Seas. Its most important message was that Māori proved to be a very adaptable people continually evolving as new opportunities arose. The European ...
Some of you may remember our blog post "A conundrum: our continued presence on Facebook" in which we detailed our misgivings about and decision to stick with Facebook for the time being. So these latest developments - reposted from the Cranky Uncle homepage - might come as a bit of surprise! ...
Image credit:Quick Data Lessons: Data Dredging Oh dear – another scientific paper claiming evidence of toxic effects from fluoridation. But a critical look at the paper shows evidence of p-hacking, data dredging and motivated reasoning to derive their conclusions. And it was published in a journal shown to be ...
We've had a housing crisis for the past decade, and successive governments have done nothing to solve it. Why not? Bernard Hickey gets it right when he says its all about protecting the rich: The Government is reluctant to push down house prices fearing they'll loses the support of ...
There’s more of the Obama legacy here and Deporter in Chief: Obama chucks out 2,000,000 and Can Trump really deport more people than Obama? and Obama, gay rights and the killing drones ...
My Department Right Or Wrong: Far from “politicians involving themselves in some Corrections matters” being a bad thing, their involvement – along with that of the Ombudsman – constitutes a necessary check upon the unreasonable and unlawful exercise of authority over prison inmates by prison staff. A Corrections Minister who ...
New Zealand is supposed to have a progressive tax system, which taxes people according to their ability to pay. But it turns out that the rich are cheating: The wealthiest New Zealanders pay just 12 per cent of their total income in tax on average, according to research from ...
Ground truths on warming When we think about rapid climate change of the kind we've accidentally unleashed and the warming of Earth systems inherent in the process, we tend to focus on phenomena in order of their immediate tangibility, their drama. Sea ice loss in the Arctic, atmospheric and ocean ...
by Daphna Whitmore The Department of Corrections has called in the police over a pamphlet that supports protests at Waikeria Prison, saying the material might incite another riot. The group People Against Prisons Aotearoa denies it advocates for riots and has said it “encourages persistent, peaceful protest action such as striking from ...
One theme in the literature dedicated to democratic theory is the notion of a “tyranny of the minority.” This is where the desire to protect the interests of and give voice to electoral minorities leads to a tail wagging the dog syndrome whereby minorities wind up having disproportionate influence in ...
I've just lodged my fourth complaint to the Ombudsman for deemed refusal of an OIA request by police this year. That brings their total to four for four - every request I have sent them has not been answered within the legal timeframe, even when they extend it to give ...
Will the health reforms proposed for the Labour Government make the system better or worse? Health commentator Ian Powell (formerly the Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists) gives his analysis of what change is most necessary, and what should be avoided. The review of the Health ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections An off-course polar vortex meandered toward the Mexican border, bringing with it frigid Arctic air rarely seen as far south as Texas. Frozen equipment rendered power generation systems in the state inoperable, forcing grid operators to begin rolling blackouts to customers then left to fend ...
Just as National once produced a “rock star economy” that Grant Robertson rejected as being only for the rich, the Labour Government has produced an economic “bounce back” that leaves out the poor. Branko Marcetic argues for a rise in benefit levels to give the poor a real bounce back. ...
Virginia has voted to abolish the death penalty: State lawmakers gave final approval on Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in Virginia, a dramatic turnaround for a state that has executed more people than any other. The legislation repealing the death penalty now heads to the ...
Yesterday a New Zealand Judge issued a formal finding that the Department of Corrections had treated prisoners in a cruel, degrading and inhumane manner, illegally detaining them, using excessive force, denying them basic necessities unless they performed degrading rituals of submission first. Some of the conduct appears to be criminal: ...
The Herald reports that there is a "storm brewing for the Climate Change Commission". The "problem"? Polluters are unhappy with its economic projections saying that action will not be as costly as they have previously claimed: Last week a coalition of over a dozen New Zealand business and industry ...
You're Move: What would a genuinely powerful Maori Caucus do? What policies would it insist upon? More to the point, since the single most important question in politics is always “Or you’ll what?”, does the Maori Caucus possess the wherewithal to enforce its demands?THAT LABOUR’S MAORI CAUCUS is potentially powerful ...
This post is a mix of a few recent reports on trends, recent discoveries or developments. Topics covered are the future of work, the geopolitical shift from oil to semiconductors, transition to low carbon futures, disappearing Artic sea ice, and AI in health care. Yesterday’s Gone A Canadian report ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson One of the hottest years in U.S. history, 2020 was besieged by a record number of billion-dollar disasters, led by two of the most dangerous phenomena with links to climate change: wildfires and hurricanes. In its initial U.S. climate summary for 2020, ...
Just because something is bad, doesn’t mean it’s easy to criminalise. Graham Adams argues that the proposed ban on gay conversion therapy is messier than many realise, and he delves into some of the difficulties facing the Government in their promise to legislate. A highly successful petition has inadvertently ...
Story of the Week... Editorial 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... ‘Absolutely ridiculous’: top scientist slams UK government over coalmineExclusive:Prof Sir Robert Watson says backing of ...
Over the weekend we learned that Turkey plans to deport a New Zealand woman and her children who had fled Syria after previously joing the Islamic State. Which means that Andrew Little's tyrannical Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Act 2019 - rammed through under all-stages urgency on the basis of an ...
While it has made a lot of noise about inequality, Labour has resolutely avoided reversing the 1990 benefit cuts and improving living standards for the poorest in our society. Meanwhile, 70% of kiwis think they should: A survey has found seven out of 10 New Zealanders believe the government ...
Anti-Philosopher President? Emmanuel Macron and his party’s reaction to the terrorist atrocities committed on French soil targets the very same philosophical movements excited and emboldened by New Zealand’s own terrifying tragedy.IT IS NOT the sort of thought experiment New Zealanders are encouraged to conduct in these culturally sensitive times. Even ...
If Jacinda Ardern or ay of her Auckland-based cabinet ministers stepped outside this weekend, they would have realised that this afternoon’s cabinet decision on whether to move Auckland back to Level 1 has already been made. The residents of our biggest city have voted with their feet.While some places where ...
According to epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker, the decision to end the second Auckland lockdown after just three days was a ‘calculated risk’. The possibility of undetected community transmission cannot be ruled out. In the United States, modelling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the ...
As I rose for the first time to speak from the Despatch Box in the House of Commons, I had the comfort of seeing that the Despatch Box had on it the inscription “A Gift from the People of New Zealand”. But I was also a little daunted, like so ...
This article is by Laura Biggs, from the Marxist-Feminist blog On the Woman Question. The term ‘sex work’ has come to replace the word ‘prostitution’ in contemporary discussions on the subject. This is not accidental. The phrase ‘sex work’ has been adopted by liberal feminists and powerful lobbyists in a ...
Sometimes it’s smaller, intensive studies that shed light on issues. Just reported results of daily sampling of COVID-19 patients indicate patients with the B.1.1.7 variant first observed in Kent, UK may have a longer infection compared to patients infected with non-B.1.1.7 variants. This is the variant seen in NZ’s most ...
Redline has just passed one million views – as I start writing this we have reached 1,000,015 views. It took us nearly seven years to reach our first 500,000 and just three months short of three years to reach our second 500,000, with 2019 being our best year, with over ...
. . As the rest of the world was perceived to be “going to hell in a handbasket with an out-of-control pandemic; ructions in Europe as Britain copes with “Brexit” chaos; Trumpism in the United States climaxing with the 6 January mob-led coup attempt in Washington’s Capitol; a deadly ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Feb 14, 2021 through Sat, Feb 20, 2021Editor's ChoiceQ&A: Is Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Book a Hopeful Look at the Promise of Technology, or a Cautionary Tale?The Pulitzer Prize-winning ...
Session Thirty-Five. We have had some in-game and out-of-game indication that we are drawing to the end of the Dreamland adventure… which has lasted since the fourth session. Getting back to the Waking World will require some mental adjustment, especially considering that Annalax has spent thirty-odd sessions not ...
A Friend In Need: I have grown up, and grown old, within earshot of New Zealand’s public broadcaster. Through times of peace and plenty, through days of tumult and recrimination, it has been a constant and reliable presence. The calm and authoritative voices of Radio New Zealand kept their fellow ...
This article, authored by Dr Lisa Schipper, Dr Morgan Scoville-Simonds, Dr Katharine Vincent and Prof Siri Eriksen, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Feb 10, 2021. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments posted on Carbon Brief. Photo by ...
The Green Party are calling on the Government to assess how the COVID-19 leave support scheme can be better improved, distributed and enforced so that workers can properly take leave when self-isolating. ...
We know that when our rural communities do well, all of New Zealand benefits. Labour is committed to supporting our regions so that, together, we can achieve even more. Here are just some of the ways we’re backing rural communities. ...
Government data today shows that the wealthiest New Zealanders aren’t paying their fair share of tax, whilst everyone else chips in, Green Party spokesperson on Finance Julie Anne Genter said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the change in the Reserve Bank’s remit to consider the impacts on housing when making financial decisions, but housing affordability shouldn’t be left to the Reserve Bank, Green Party Co-leader and Housing spokesperson Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the passing of the Local Electorate Act Māori Wards Amendment Bill which ensures Māori have a say on local issues across Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
New UMR research reveals that 69 percent of New Zealanders agree that the government should increase the amount if income support paid to those on low incomes or not in paid work. ...
The Green Party are celebrating the Labour Government bringing forward the timeline to ban conversion therapy, and will push to ensure any draft bill properly protects all of our Rainbow communities. ...
The Green Party is joining the call for ‘brave policy action’ to address rapidly increasing inequality in New Zealand, which is likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
Green MPs currently in Auckland, Marama Davidson, Chlöe Swarbrick and Golriz Ghahraman, will remain in Auckland for the next 72 hours. Those in Auckland today for Big Gay Out who have flown home will self-isolate for 72 hours. These decisions will be subject to any new information that may arise ...
It’s Pride month, and as we celebrate our LGBTIA+ community, we’re taking the next steps towards a more inclusive Aotearoa. From investing in mental health services to banning harmful conversion therapy, we’re building a New Zealand where everyone can be safe, healthy and happy. ...
The Government has confirmed details of COVID-19 support for business and workers following the increased alert levels due to a resurgence of the virus over the weekend. Following two new community cases of COVID-19, Auckland moved to Alert Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand moved to Alert Level ...
The Government remains committed to hosting the Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2022 should a decision be made by World Rugby this weekend to postpone this year’s tournament. World Rugby is recommending the event be postponed until next year due to COVID-19, with a final decision to ...
Community and social service support providers have again swung into action to help people and families affected by the current COVID-19 alert levels. “The Government recognises that in many instances social service, community, iwi and Whānau Ora organisations are best placed to provide vital support to the communities impacted by ...
The Government is following through on an election promise to conduct an independent review into PHARMAC, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Andrew Little announced today. The Review will focus on two areas: How well PHARMAC performs against its current objectives and whether and how its performance against these ...
Some of the country’s most forward-thinking early-career conservationists are among recipients of a new scholarship aimed at supporting a new generation of biodiversity champions, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. The Department of Conservation (DOC) has awarded one-year postgraduate research scholarships of $15,000 to ten Masters students in the natural ...
I acknowledge our whānau overseas, joining us from Te Whenua Moemoeā, and I wish to pay respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all today. I am very pleased to be part of the conversation on Indigenous business, and part ...
Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced today that main benefits will increase by 3.1 percent on 1 April, in line with the rise in the average wage. The Government announced changes to the annual adjustment of main benefits in Budget 2019, indexing main benefit increases to the average ...
A Deed of Settlement has been signed between Ngāti Maru and the Crown settling the iwi’s historical Treaty of Waitangi claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The Ngāti Maru rohe is centred on the inland Waitara River valley, east to the Whanganui River and its ...
With a suite of Government income support packages available, Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni is encouraging people, and businesses, connected to the recent Auckland COVID-19 cases to check the Work and Income website if they’ve been impacted by the need to self-isolate. “If you are required to ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has expressed her condolences at the passing of long-serving former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. “Our thoughts are with Lady Veronica Somare and family, Prime Minister James Marape and the people of Papua New Guinea during this time of great ...
E te tī, e te tā Tēnei te mihi maioha ki a koutou Ki te whenua e takoto nei Ki te rangi e tū iho nei Ki a tātou e tau nei Tēnā tātou. It’s great to be with you today, along with some of the ministerial housing team; Hon Peeni Henare, the ...
The Government is backing a new project to use drone technology to transform our understanding and protection of the Māui dolphin, Aotearoa’s most endangered dolphin. “The project is just one part of the Government’s plan to save the Māui dolphin. We are committed to protecting this treasure,” Oceans and Fisheries ...
Major water reform has taken a step closer with the appointment of the inaugural board of the Taumata Arowai water services regulator, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. Former Director General of Health and respected public health specialist Dame Karen Poutasi will chair the inaugural board of Crown agency Taumata Arowai. “Dame ...
The newly completed Hibiscus Coast Bus Station will help people make better transport choices to help ease congestion and benefit the environment, Transport Minister Michael Wood and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said today. Michael Wood and Phil Goff officially opened the Hibiscus Coast Bus Station which sits just off the ...
New funding announced by Conservation Minister Kiri Allan today will provide work and help protect the unique values of Northland’s Te Ārai Nature Reserve for future generations. Te Ārai is culturally important to Te Aupōuri as the last resting place of the spirits before they depart to Te Rerenga Wairua. ...
Today the Government has taken a key step to support Pacific people to becoming Community Housing providers, says the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio. “This will be great news for Pacific communities with the decision to provide Pacific Financial Capability Grant funding and a tender process to ...
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan is encouraging New Zealanders to have their say on a proposed marine mammal sanctuary to address the rapid decline of bottlenose dolphins in Te Pēwhairangi, the Bay of Islands. The proposal, developed jointly with Ngā Hapū o te Pēwhairangi, would protect all marine mammals of the ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges. Two of the appointees will take up their roles on 1 April, replacing sitting Judges who have reached retirement age. Kirsten Lummis, lawyer of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to ...
Government announces list of life-shortening conditions guaranteeing early KiwiSaver access The Government changed the KiwiSaver rules in 2019 so people with life-shortening congenital conditions can withdraw their savings early The four conditions guaranteed early access are – down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s disease and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder An alternative ...
The Reserve Bank is now required to consider the impact on housing when making monetary and financial policy decisions, Grant Robertson announced today. Changes have been made to the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s remit requiring it to take into account government policy relating to more sustainable house prices, while working ...
The Labour Government will invest $6 million for 70 additional adult cochlear implants this year to significantly reduce the historical waitlist, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “Cochlear implants are life changing for kiwis who suffer from severe hearing loss. As well as improving an individual’s hearing, they open doors to ...
The Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill passed its third reading today and will become law, Minister of Local Government Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. “This is a significant step forward for Māori representation in local government. We know how important it is to have diversity around ...
The Government has added 1,000 more transitional housing places as promised under the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan (HAP), launched one year ago. Minister of Housing Megan Woods says the milestone supports the Government’s priority to ensure every New Zealander has warm, dry, secure housing. “Transitional housing provides people ...
A second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived safely yesterday at Auckland International Airport, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “This shipment contained about 76,000 doses, and follows our first shipment of 60,000 doses that arrived last week. We expect further shipments of vaccine over the coming weeks,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni has today announced $18 million to support creative spaces. Creative spaces are places in the community where people with mental health needs, disabled people, and those looking for social connection, are welcomed and supported to practice and participate in the arts ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little today welcomed Moriori to Parliament to witness the first reading of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill. “This bill is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from all the parties involved. “I am delighted to reach this significant milestone today,” Andrew ...
22,400 fewer children experiencing material hardship 45,400 fewer children in low income households on after-housing costs measure After-housing costs target achieved a year ahead of schedule Government action has seen child poverty reduce against all nine official measures compared to the baseline year, Prime Minister and Minister for Child Poverty ...
It’s time to recognise the outstanding work early learning services, kōhanga reo, schools and kura do to support children and young people to succeed, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins says. The 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards are now open through until April 16. “The past year has reminded us ...
Three new Jobs for Nature projects will help nature thrive in the Bay of Plenty and keep local people in work says Conservation Minister Kiri Allan. “Up to 30 people will be employed in the projects, which are aimed at boosting local conservation efforts, enhancing some of the region’s most ...
The Government has accepted all of the Holidays Act Taskforce’s recommended changes, which will provide certainty to employers and help employees receive their leave entitlements, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said the Government established the Holidays Act Taskforce to help address challenges with the ...
The Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and faster than expected economic recovery has been acknowledged in today’s credit rating upgrade. Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) today raised New Zealand’s local currency credit rating to AAA with a stable outlook. This follows Fitch reaffirming its AA+ rating last ...
Tena koutou e nga Maata Waka Ngai Tuahuriri, Ngai Tahu whanui, Tena koutou. Nau mai whakatau mai ki tenei ra maumahara i te Ru Whenua Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga ora ki te hunga ora Tena koutou, Tena ...
The Minister of Justice has reaffirmed the Government’s urgent commitment, as stated in its 2020 Election Manifesto, to ban conversion practices in New Zealand by this time next year. “The Government has work underway to develop policy which will bring legislation to Parliament by the middle of this year and ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and Social Development Hon Carmel Sepuloni today launched a new Creative Careers Service, which is expected to support up to 1,000 creatives, across three regions over the next two years. The new service builds on the most successful aspects of the former Pathways to ...
Overseas consumers eager for natural products in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have helped boost honey export revenue by 20 percent to $425 million in the year to June 30, 2020, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says. “The results from the latest Ministry for Primary Industries’ 2020 Apiculture Monitoring ...
Thanks to more than $10-million in new services from the Government, more rangatahi will be able to access mental health and addiction support in their community. Minister of Health Andrew Little made the announcement today while visiting Odyssey House Christchurch and acknowledged that significant events like the devastating earthquakes ten ...
Two month automatic visitor visa extension for most visitor visa holders Temporary waiver of time spent in New Zealand rule for visitor stays Visitor visa holders will be able to stay in New Zealand a little longer as the Government eases restrictions for those still here, the Minister of Immigration ...
The Tourism and Conservation Ministers say today’s report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) adds to calls to overhaul the tourism model that existed prior to COVID19. “The PCE tourism report joins a chorus of analysis which has established that previous settings, which prioritised volume over value, are ...
The Government is providing certainty for the dietary supplements industry as we work to overhaul the rules governing the products, Minister for Food Safety Dr Ayesha Verrall said. Dietary supplements are health and wellness products taken orally to supplement a traditional diet. Some examples include vitamin and mineral supplements, echinacea, ...
The Government is joining the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (the Budapest Convention), Justice Minister Kris Faafoi and Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications Dr David Clark announced today. The decision progresses a recommendation by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terror attack to accede to ...
New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga’s latest discussion document looks at the state of play of infrastructure in the resource recovery and waste sector. One of a series of reports into key infrastructure sectors, it highlights some of ...
E tū, the biggest private sector union in Aotearoa New Zealand, says that workers should not lose out on pay when they are required to self-isolate, or otherwise miss work, because of COVID-19. E tū has been calling for workers’ wages to lead the ...
The shortlist for the prestigious Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry, which carries prize money worth $10,000, was made public this morning. Our poetry editor Chris Tse is ecstatic. Here’s a sobering statistic: since 2001, only two non-Pākehā poets have won the poetry category at the book awards – David ...
Over the weekend Jacinda Ardern appeared on Newshub The Nation and made some problematic comments about lifting people out of poverty, saying the Labour government has prioritised targeting families with children. “This is the problem - Jacinda Ardern and this ...
Cohort life tables track the mortality experience of people born in each year from 1876. Visit our website to read this information release and to download CSV: New Zealand cohort life tables: March 2021 update CSV files for download ...
Unlike most developed countries, New Zealand doesn’t have a capital gains tax. But if we did, it would bring in billions worth of revenue over the next five years. Here are some of the things you could spend that money on.There’s little point dwelling on things that didn’t happen. Lamenting ...
The public attacks and investigations against a Hutt City Councillor asking questions about allegations relating to the Mayor, look more like a vindictive witch hunt than a Council striving for good ethical standards, says the Taxpayers’ Union . “For ...
The latest documentary in the New Zealand Wars series hit different for presenter Mihingarangi Forbes. She explains why to Leonie Hayden.Content warning: contains descriptions of the murder of women and children, and sexual assault.The military campaign by the British Crown to suppress Māori sovereignty and acquire Māori land for the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Drum, Lecturer Politics and International Relations, University of Notre Dame Australia Time is running out for the Western Australian Liberal Party. Polling points to a massive Labor landslide at the upcoming state election on March 13. Following last month’s Newspoll, which ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A substantial minority of Chinese-Australians have experienced a backlash from the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 deterioration in bilateral relations, according to a survey from the Lowy Institute. In the poll, 37% said they had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Neeraja Sanmuhanathan, Senior Sexual Assault Counsellor, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Lecturer in Counselling, University of Notre Dame Australia As a senior sexual assault counsellor working with Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, I often sit across from people on the worst day of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monique Retamal, Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney We all know it’s wrong to toss your rubbish into the ocean or another natural place. But it might surprise you to learn some plastic waste ends up in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cody Reynolds, Researcher & Educator, University of Newcastle “She’s more crazy than she is female.” So declared a senior student in a furious critique of Sylvia Plath’s poetry. The classroom was entirely male, myself included. As the teacher, I mediated discussion but ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Stokes, Senior Lecturer in Digital and Information Literacy (Education Futures), University of South Australia Starting university is usually a time of hope focused on bright futures. This year feels different. As cities move in and out of lockdown, new students are ...
Live coverage of the snap lockdown and the search for a source of the latest infection. Auckland is now at alert level three, NZ at level two. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.45am: ‘An encouraging sign’ – no new Covid-19 cases overnightThere are no new community cases of Covid-19 this morning, ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Pharmac review unlikely to give patient advocates what they want, feedback shows confusion on managed isolation communication, and National wants more generous Covid leave scheme.An independent review into Pharmac has been announced, and will focus on how and how quickly ...
Ahead of the Finance Minister's speech to the National Economic Forum, Otago University's Dr Dennis Wesselbaum says the Government's focus on wellbeing has undermined the ability of economic research to inform policy-making, just when we need rigorous research the most Since the end of the Second World War, the New ...
The government has been quietly investigating if returnees and border workers should use a phone app that can detect Covid-19 two or three days before symptoms set in. ...
“The Prime Minister has some serious explaining to do after her Government's Official COVID-19 Facebook Page contradicted her claim that Case J (Kmart worker) and Case L (KFC worker) were told to isolate. The Page replied to a member of the public saying ...
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The Southland Times editorial this morning, “A glaring need for answers” begins,
“The Government needs to order a full investigation into a New Zealand led raid on two tiny villages in Afghanistan in 2010”, and later adds, “Prime Minister Bill English should order a proper inquiry”.
And in the Herald this morning Robert… check this out..
“A NZ Special Air Service soldier has confirmed civilians were killed in a 2010 raid carried out by the unit and says the truth is widely known among the elite military group.”
“The soldier told the Herald the two people found shot dead were killed by NZSAS marksmen who believed they were acting under “Rules of Engagement” governing their actions on the battlefield.”
woahs… “The soldier said it was not the only situation in which there had been civilian casualties from a NZSAS operation and which the soldiers blamed on faulty US-sourced intelligence.”
Did they give this evidence at the time? If so, how was it covered up and by whom?
Edit: from the Herald article the answer to the first question looks like “yes”.
yes it totally seems like a coverup, the last sentence in the Herald article is very telling.
“He said (the SAS soldier) he did not know why the civilians casualties had not been made public. “Whatever decision was made to suppress that was made higher.”
Personally I am so sick and tired of the lies from those in positions of power in our country.
Imagine you are a deal-making Prime Minister intent on currying favour with a powerful “ally”, and it was looking likely that any independent inquiry would result in substantial criticism of said ally, plus you just committed a war crime?
What would you not do, as this deal-making Prime Minister?
“What would you not do, as this deal-making Prime Minister?”
I would not open the door
“shit”, “meet fan” (latest breaking “hit and run”)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11824691&ref=NZH_Tw
Good to hear, bravo Deborah Manning, Rodney Harrison QC and Richard McLeod.
“The law firm says it has asked Attorney General Chris Finlayson and Prime Minister Bill English to clarify what happened as they say that “every day there’s a different version” of events.”
I wonder what excuse we will hear from the outgoing PM today. Apparently he is waiting for his morbidly obese Minister of Defence to return. How bigger hole can they dig for themselves?
They are gutless if they can’t stand up to the Defence Force, if I were them I would immediately engage in an independent inquiry, maybe even going so far as to put a few of the big boys on leave until it is cleared up. Maybe even suspend all of Keys ‘benefits’ as well until it’s sorted.
At the very least the outgoing government needs to stop denying the collateral damage.
“Let us test, says oil industry” – Front page, The Southland Times.
They only want to test, so Southlanders should relax; dolphins won’t be harmed, . Judith Collins “reiterated the Government’s commitment to the dolphins”.
“it’s often a 70 to 75 % chance of finding nothing”, says Big Oil.
Don’t worry, Southland; jobs, home heating.
I refuse to believe that down the bottom they will fall for this bullshit – times are always tough down there – the jobs line is really pathetic and weak. Come on Murihiku.
We always knew they were the face of evil – emails between EPA and Monsanto released.
https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/congress-must-investigate-collusion-between-monsanto-and-epa-now
Glyphospate is carcinogenic.
http://foodbabe.com/2017/03/21/emails-epa-monsanto-now-revealed-contents-sickening/
I recommend spending less time on nutbar activist sites – it’s very bad for your brain.
Do the links prevent you from addressing the content?
Your comments indicate a belief in monsanto and GMO as ‘science’…moreover,you endorse it
As an aside, being that you capacity for thought is limited, illustrated by your own words…it is no surprise the best you can offer is to slate Asleepwhilewalking, personally while ignoring the content in the links…
I’m pointing it out because you’re scared so you project….evolve or don’t, that’s your choice
Self reflection is a cyclical process…
Try it sometime. ..
Glyphosate has been used so widely and in such volumes for decades, that i am confident that any significant link to cancer would have emerged regularly on sites more credible than this. Things like the Lancet, BMJ, NEJM, JAMA
The conversation is wider than one constituent part
Confidence tricks have existed since early times…
Many have fortified the ability to understand when their confidence is a false sense of security…then ego prevents them from admitting it and moving on in a meaningful way
So many words, so little coherence.
OK, let’s address the content the nutbar activist site links to. It consists of a couple of cancer sufferers who were convinced that glyphosate gave them cancer, and some evidence of dodgy dealings by Monsanto of the kind that for-profit organisations tend to be noted for.
Against that, we have the fact that glyphosate is one of the most-tested chemicals ever to be sold and every major regulator has come to the conclusion that it’s safe when used as directed (at which point we should note that water and all other chemicals are likewise only safe “when used as directed”).
Which of these is more persuasive? Well, it depends on the extent to which your capacity for rational thought has been debilitated by exposure to nutbar activist web sites, but for the record it’s the second one.
Vision is not a strong suit for too many people, including yourself…
The wider and indisputable problem is the merging of so called government agencies, with corporations. Essentially they are one and the same thing, having been enabled using various tecniques like ‘revolving door’ and ‘lobbying’
Bias (among other flaws) hinders your ability to observe at levels required to evaluate the core issues, you turn to insults…because that is your default level..
So, you’re proposing a massive conspiracy that involves many of the world’s scientists and regulatory agencies, and my skepticism that such a conspiracy exists is an artifact of bias and a lack of vision. I think we’re done here.
That is precisely the response (interpretation) I expected…because it is how you self protect…
…by ignoring what is an obvious and decades long exposė of corporate and state collusion in some of the most ethically and morally bankrupt activities carried out against humanity and all living beings…
Such exposė is readily searchable on ‘mainstream’ establishment vehicles…
Look into it…or don’t it’s your own stunted existence which others get to tolerate…
If you wish to understand what is happening in London read ‘The Secret Agent’ by Joseph Conrad.
Brexit is suddenly less prominent in the media.
Why don’t you give a quick precis to give us the relevance of your reference.
Long time since I did Stage 1 English Lit.
You think Masood was an agent provocateur in the pay of the Russians? I must admit to finding that somewhat unlikely.
Yes excellent book j’Accuse……..but in yesterday’s events it appears a lone nutter with no terrorist links ran 3 people over then stabbed a policeman. It’s hardly Twin Towers stuff. Talk about media hype.
Not sure how lone wolf he was.
The English Police have arrested 7 other people in relation to their enquiry into the attack.
That suggests that there was some kind of support cell behind him.
nope. It suggests that the powers of arrest in terrorist investigations are pretty bloody extreme.
See how many charges come out of it. Then how many convictions, and for what. After the Boston Bombing most, if any, were related to panicking after the event that they didn’t know would happen. Not to mention the ones arrested for being in the vicinity while Arab.
Hey, the seven arrested this time might have helped him plan the attack, buy a knife, and so on. But equally, the most any of them knew could be that the dude kept mouthing off about doing “something” and they just thought he was a blowhard.
Or they happened to be in the wrong place at the time.
That suggests that there was some kind of support cell behind him.
It suggests he knew at least seven people – whether there’s any more to it than that remains to be seen.
Agreed McFlock and Psycho. The wave of arrests perpetuates the terrorist hype. Nothing I’ve heard suggests these 7 people were part of some massive conspiracy; just people the guy associated with.
This is what I mean by my post above
https://twitter.com/hashtag/westminster?src=hash
As a consequence I suspect that I’m going to have to deal up with the usual gormless anti-immigrant bigots today who are appear to be too stupid to look past those selective headline ‘facts’.
It’s neither gormless nor bigoted to draw conclusions from this about the wisdom of allowing large-scale Muslim immigration into western democracies. This particular Muslim was born in Britain – all that says to me is that the British were mugs to create the situation in which that occurred. As an ethnic Brit myself, it annoys the fuck out of me to see the Guardian or BBC reporting that a “Briton” has been killed fighting for Da’esh in Syria – those guys are about as “British” as a taco.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
I don’t see the distinction. It simply doesn’t make any frigging difference if the problem is east-end crime in the 1950s, incompetent ‘mercenaries’ in the 1970s, drug dealing gangs, or various actions by the children of immigrants in post war years.
FFS: I can easily find exactly the same stupid ill-informed and ignorant bullshit you are sprouting when I read the commentary about Huguenots or Dutch refugees in previous centuries.
The problem is groups who don’t feel connected for one reason or another to the society they are inside, and who attack it for their own benefits and reasons for some manner or another.
I’d also point out that you appear to know fuckall about Islam – and like you I’m not going to be bothered explaining my assumptions about why.
I know plenty about Islam, you just dislike the conclusions I’ve drawn from that knowledge.
And I don’t recall reading about Huguenots mounting terrorist attacks because they were ideologically opposed to the country they’d settled in – the fact is that there is a distinction.
Does the Boer war count?
I’d take a bet that I can take any argument that you use for Islam, and apply EXACTLY the same argument for Christianity of some branch or another doing the same things somewhere in the world and history.
There were a lot of complaints about the Huguenots trying to get England involved in a internal religious battle in another country. Many of those activities involved what was defined as terrorism by both the government of the time in both countries. There were some pretty authoritarian actions by the british government of the time trying to stop them doing it. Your definition of the citizens of Britian going and fighting for ISIL is EXACTLY the same. Is it just that you are comfortable with Christians doing that, or you really need to read (and understand) some more history.
I’d point out that I’m quite irreligious. I have a great respect for the odd people I run across who can have faith and live within the precepts of those faiths. But generally I treat all religions as being inherently dangerous when they are used as an excuse by dangerous bigots, populists or the dispossessed of society.
Consequently I can’t see any difference between the morons professing an allegiance to Islam and Christianity, or oft times with you as well.
An intelligent person can take any position and argue for it, that’s what debating’s all about. But fuck history – this isn’t the 17th Century, or even the 1930s, the religion that is a serious threat to enlightenment values in the present day is Islam, not Christianity or any other variant of religious superstition. And it’s all the more dangerous because it’s fundamentally illiberal out-of-the-box – no distortions or additions are required to make it toxic to liberal democracy. People who won’t face that are naive, wilfully ignorant or deliberately disingenuous.
Obviously not the case just on the face of it. They simply don’t have the capabilities. Just think about what is required to take out any civilization or ethos. It only happens with crushing defeat and destruction or an partisan internal civil war of some kind or an argument that changes the paradigms of society. For instance in my lifetime on the latter – the role of women, homosexuality, and the lessons of the NZ civil war started in the 1860s come to mind.
So Pakistan has a couple of nukes. Not exactly a threat on the death and destruction side (maybe worth considering if you are in India). At least not compared to the thought of some idiot fundamentalist protestant in the US or a fundamentalist Russian orthodox or Donald Trump getting unrestricted access to the stockpiles of nukes in the US or Russia.
Offhand I can’t think of any partisan civil war triggered by immigrants with inferior technology. Even the recent historic invasions of here, the Americas required the immigrants to have far superior technology.
What historical analogy are you considering? The Mongols? The Huns?
And if a society isn’t capable of defending its ideas or assimilating external ideas, then you’d have to ask exactly how well it was founded.
Or are you simply being a simple bigot throwing up clash of civilisations idea with no fucking basis for it having happened in the recent past. Which is kind of where I suspect you are.
In NZ, I have heard the exact type of simple-minded alarmist nonsense in my life-time with Paheka, Irish, Dutch, Polynesians, South Africans, Chinese and bloody Poms. In fact it is hard to enumerate the number of times I’ve heard your EXACT argument expressed both in past history, recent history, or my lifetime with absolutely no basis behind it apart from the simple bigotry of the human tribal hardwiring for being scared of the stranger. Hell I’ve heard it expressed about geeks like me.
You don’t count anything that isn’t an existential threat as a threat? The fact that it’s a threat we can deal with easily if enough people decide secular liberalism is worth defending doesn’t make it a non-threat.
What historical analogy are you considering?
Too many to count, mostly involving Christianity, because that was the chief opponent of enlightenment values until recently. These days it’s a trivial opponent, but that wasn’t true historically. Now, having finally dealt with that opponent after centuries of conflict, we’re inviting in an even tougher one – it’s moronic and we shouldn’t be doing it.
Or are you simply being a simple bigot throwing up clash of civilisations idea with no fucking basis for it having happened in the recent past. Which is kind of where I suspect you are.
Assuming someone must be an arsehole because they disagree with you isn’t a good way either of testing or of improving your own opinions.
As a pretty enthusiastic atheist, I will take Muslim immigrants over Christian ones any day of the week, especially the ones not already from liberal democracies, as they actually understand the alternative to secularism and don’t want a bar of it. They might have some culture shocks getting used to the exact nature of society here, or not knowing all of the rights they’re getting, but that’s the same for anyone changing regime types, it’s not particular to Muslims, and there are actually similar shocks for those immigrating from the UK and USA, as their laws are getting increasingly draconian.
Anyone who’s cool with secular democracy, liberalism, and non-discrimination should be allowed in, I don’t care WHERE they’re from. And there’s no good evidence that Muslims are any worse than any other group- in fact, if we want to be wary of regressive religious views, we should be looking at restricting immigration for all religious conservatives, but good luck selling that to the National Party.
You don’t seem to get that the opponent isn’t the people who genuinely want in to more liberal democracies, it’s the people who are getting bombed overseas. We don’t need to touch immigration policy to deal with that, we need to not participate in US wars of aggression, and we need to use leverage to advocate for innocent civilians.
That would be my point as well.
Plenty of muslims in Auckland from quite a lot of locations, Like every other group, I work with them (I’m in IT – we have everyone), occasionally argue with them, and have a vast level of amusement when they discuss their preconceptions with others.
You haven’t seen anything until you see a cross purposes discussion between a strong muslim and a fundamentalist christian who has a short creationist timeframe.
Personally I don’t notice much difference between any immigrants based on their religions or usually from their countries of origin. For instance a muslim pakistani who migrated here will usually seem more rational to me than many of the English from the UK with their rather strange expectations about how NZ should be.
But I’m a native Aucklander – I’m used to immigrants. I see more real differences when I hit provincial NZ and suddenly find those strange inherited class structures. Those differences always appeared more startling to me because of the strange twist of assumptions in people who were raised here as well.
Most of the Muslims I’ve met (and yes, plenty – more than you for sure) have been pleasant enough people too. It would be nice if that were in some way relevant to the discussion.
In europe, it seems it’s generally not the immigrant generation that gets radicalised. It’s the next generation, growing up in slums staring at a crap future, that seem to be the more common radicals.
Which points to the importance of maintaining a welcoming society. High levels of immigration that stretches our infrastructure and plausibly contributes to other problems like low wages and exploitation of workers is likely to test our ability to continue to make immigrants feel a welcome and valued part of society.
You’re absolutely right that we should stick to our actual capacity to take in new migrants. That’s sensible policy no matter your attitude on migration.
That said, I would point out that the phenomenon of radicalisation of the children of immigrants (or subsequent generations) is likely down to a confluence of factors. As you say, poverty could play a role, but so could structural racism, and so could foreign policy that looks insufficiently compassionate to people like them, in either race or religion, especially if it extends to actual wars.
So basically, the problem is never the immigration, as radicals are far more likely to be home-grown than actual immigrants, so you need to look at other policy areas to prevent radicalisation, and in the meantime, use good enforcement policies that hold the line between preventing attacks and not trampling on people’s liberties.
We also need to keep terrorism in perspective. There were accidents that killed more people than the London incident. It’s news, sure, but it’s a footnote. We’ve been panicking over terrorism for way too long for something that’s not fucking new anymore.
Assuming someone must be an arsehole because they disagree with you isn’t a good way either of testing or of improving your own opinions.
That is because you haven’t said anything about the source of your (to me) quite irrational fears.
I assume that anyone doing that and being unable to articulate the source of their assertions is hiding a nefarious reason. If you can’t articulate your assumptions then people can’t respond to them, and point out the mistakes that they think you are making.
The overwhelmingly most common reason I have run across for that kind of hidden motive assertion based behaviour in the past has been cases of simple bigotry. So I tend to start with that as the likely explanation until I find a reason to change my mind.
As a strategy, this usually works. It also certainly saves me considerable time trying to be nice as I weasel the real reasons out of people.
Besides, I really don’t like being nice. I think it is against my personal belief systems.
That is because you haven’t said anything about the source of your (to me) quite irrational fears.
What fears? A few weeks back there was a discussion here about the need to be vigilant against right-wing extremism, triggered by an event so trivial as to be ridiculous (a student group at UoA with a dodgy slogan). No-one wittered on about the people demanding vigilance being bigots or being afraid, because they weren’t – they just didn’t like extremist political groups getting mainstream acceptance. I don’t either, and people like Mr Mansoor give much better reasons for that dislike than some crackpot starting up a student group.
I assume that anyone doing that and being unable to articulate the source of their assertions is hiding a nefarious reason.
In what sense unable? Seeing as you immediately declared I must be ignorant of Islam, I assumed you must know a bit about it yourself and I therefore didn’t need to explain to you why it’s a problem. If you do need it explained, let me know. But the precis is that totalitarian ideologies tend to produce people you don’t want to have around, so encouraging adherents of that ideology to move to your country is a bad idea.
+10 LPrent
Posted similar a little while back. Radical Islamic terrorism is a threat. You have to be up front about that.
It’s just a vastly overblown threat that is used as a rationale by governments to do impressively world-scale dumb things, many of which undermine any superiority of virtue to Enlightenment ideals.
“As an ethnic Brit myself, it annoys the fuck out of me to see the Guardian or BBC reporting that a “Briton” has been killed fighting for Da’esh in Syria – those guys are about as “British” as a taco.”
that is such bullshit and so selectivly bigotted – ethnic brit ffs what a plonker
Technically it should be ethnic English, my mistake.
When does the melting pot actually melt? My father was English, loved being English from Bournemouth, very proud. When did the invasions and influences down there stop being them and instead became us. Is it generations, where you are born, die, grow, have kids, what you look like, what you believe? When?
It happened for your kin when are you going to allow other people the same privedge?
Q: why do the English have a different accent or dialect every 20 miles?
A: So they know who their enemies are.
Must have been written by an American. Everyone knows that real English would never speak to their neighbours
lol
I recall one of those british crime dramas (morse/frost/whatever) where they asked the grieving widow if there was someone who could sit with her, like a neighbour. The response was “no, we’ve only lived here for three years”.
Ethnicity isn’t about being born somewhere – if it was there’d be upwards of 4 million “Maori” in Aotearoa. For my money, if some prick considers himself a member of the umma first, a Pakistani second, and British a distant third, if at all, there’s no point in me pretending he’s wrong.
English – stick to the point – so religion is one of the things you think is English and not English. Is it also that loyalty to the English group is lower than loyalty to some belief systems?
See? Your whole argument is bullshit mixed with bigotry. It’s okay many feel the same that’s why this world is fucked up.
Being a member of the umma is not the same as believing in a religion. Lip-service-only Muslims have no problem being British, but true believers have basically ruled it out.
Still, it’s good to know my kids can call themselves Maori because they were born here, I’m sure it will come in handy one day.
And your snide answer shows me I’ve got to your wee wall of self belief – here you can work on your bigotry if you wanted.
Well, what do you want? You call me a plonker for fondly imagining I have an ethnicity and people who don’t share it shouldn’t be pretended to share it, accuse me of bullshit and bigotry, and now claim the fact I gave you a snide answer says something about me. Actually, it does; a less-patient commenter would have told you to get fucked.
Whatever – attack is often the best form of defence – especially when compared with the alternatives eh cuz
The diversity of London.
https://twitter.com/georgeeaton/status/844863098171277313
Ouch the comments are tough
Ethnic brit makes more sense because English depends on political boundaries – enjoy debating with scots and welsh about the validity of modern boundaries. Ethnic brit says your biological heritage is primarily anglosaxon/northern European / norse/Anglo Norman/celtic/ Briton, with a pinch of Roman perhaps.
Whereas Maori can include Tariana Turia, Christian Cullen and Tony Brown.
Ethnicity is cultural as well as genealogical, so neither ethnic Brit nor ethnic English make sense. I’m guessing what PM meant was Anglosaxon.
Data on British population genetics suggest he could be <50% Anglo-Saxon.
"The majority of eastern, central and southern England is made up of a single, relatively homogeneous, genetic group with a significant DNA contribution from Anglo-Saxon migrations (10-40% of total ancestry). This settles a historical controversy in showing that the Anglo-Saxons intermarried with, rather than replaced, the existing populations."
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0315/180315-fine-scale-british-isle-genetic-map
His cultural ethnicity could be worked out from his comments, maybe.
Data on British population genetics suggest he could be <50% Anglo-Saxon.
Fucking awesome. Now tell us about all those “part-Maoris” making the Treaty of Waitangi meaningless.
Our Police doing their bit for the road transport industry,
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/disbanding-police-mechanics-opposed
So they are going to get rid of 26 mermaids, truckies will love that, those guys have the biggest safety impact of all but aren’t actually sworn police because of their specialist skill set. But the moves of a dying National government, damn the consequences, let’s look after our mates and keep those donations coming in.
Also big ups to the union, the Police Association, for calling them out on this.
Whenever a National government goes into a death spiral, they ram through as much nasty, self-serving crap as they can in the short time they have left. This is business as usual for them, given the circumstances.
Yeah, it’s sad, but also pleasing in a way that they have come to this stage.
Let’s see our loyal opposition call them out on this and get talking about how the problem should be solved, and that’s by resourcing the Police properly. And all the other services that are falling to bits.
47% is death spiral?
In some respects yes, since A.C.T. and United Future, literally only exist in Parliament because Messrs Seymour (with no small amount of help from National) and Dunne won seats.
They barely got anything outside of these two electorates. Certainly not enough to get in on the Party vote.
Because of said absence of support – less than 1% combined, 47 + 1 = 48%, which last time I looked was not a majority.
still beats the crap out of 30 and 12
English is death process.
“Whenever a National government goes into a death spiral, they ram through as much nasty, self-serving crap as they can in the short time they have left. This is business as usual for them, given the circumstances.”
+1
@wensleydale
You must mean the RMA reforms-may the Maori Party rot in hell for giving the Nats the numbers to pass these.
Classic national, not only fiddle while she burns but chuck some fuel on in between tunes.
Heard of a commercial bus driver the other week struggling with the steering as it was obviously pulling…….he thanked the passenger who was going to report it as he’s had no luck getting it sorted in the brighter future.
Following logging trucks lately that weave about the road like drunken sailors.
Sounds like they are going to outsource/privatise the roadside traffic inspections.
So sad – the comments are so funny too
https://i.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/90807099/adele-a-lyrical-genius-says-pm-bill-english
Thanks for that marty-hilarious.
“Bill English went to see Adele last night-Rumour has it, Adele buying exclusive Queenstown property and has citizenship sewn into the deal”
I liked the guy on Morning Report this AM who flew from Hawaii for the concert. Also I think they said 40 people flew from one of the pacific islands for the show.
He can’t quite pull it off like Key could.
But he is right about Adele, she is one of the few female vocalists worth listening to in the modern era.
Seriously. If you’re gushing over Adele you need to hand in your man card.
This is very weird. This project would have been structured in the minutest detail to be released on time. Sure, sometimes projects run over but this one was visibly ahead of schedule. I drive past it several times a week and the structures around the tunnel were completed months ago. Pre-publicity stories about the tunnel also appeared months ago.
I’ve got two theories: One, initial testing was completed at the designated time but the tunnel, on/off ramps, or traffic engineering model failed and they are now setting about either fixing what failed or getting another opinion that ensures it won’t fail, in true John Key style.
Two, the Nats have ordered the delay of the project so that it can be opened closer to the election thereby ensuring many thousands of temporarily happy Aucklanders vote for the status quo believing their transport woes have been addressed.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11824825
Number two is my preferred option.
A stonking big gridlock on election day to remind the average Aucklander why its a bad idea to drive to work, and a reminder of how ill served they are by their elected officials, local and Government.
“NZTA has released a written statement about the project, but a spokeswoman for the organisation refused a request for an interview to answer further questions.
The spokeswoman said the Herald reporting on concerns about the project had been “irresponsible”, leaving them “reluctant” to comment.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11824825
Delays happen all the time, especially at this scale.
It’s not politics, it’s just fix the tags now and make sure you get less grief upon opening.
No, I don’t buy that and I addressed it in my comment.
Delays do happen but not at this stage they are quite clearly visible from months or years out. Something has gone wrong with the engineering plan as a result of shortcuts taken earlier. Physically the whole thing is ready to go and for them to delay just two weeks out from opening a $1.4 Billion project smells like shit to me.
It is politics in that it’s know cheap Chinese steel was used and if this is an indicator then other similar concessions will have been made in the name of cutting costs.
Or they could just need to replace and test several hundred sprinkler heads that had intermittent failures
Brett Gliddon from NZTA is doing the right thing erring on the side of safety here. Fully support the delay.
I’ve been inside it a couple of times. Awesome kit. Too much at stake to go wrong.
This is a very important issue that most know nothing about – the Ture Whenua
Māori Bill
http://mananews.co.nz/wp/?p=10019
I knew absolutely nothing about it at all – had never heard it mentioned. Yet from your link it sounds like a very big deal.
“New corporate structures and corporate management, and rules making it easier to partition land, will make it easier for Maori land to be lost to foreigners.
“And changes to current legislation will allow people with no whakapapa connection to make decisions over the land, allow a minority of owners to make decisions without telling the rest of the owners, and allow Maori land to be sold to foreigners without the approval of its owners.
You any idea where various political parties and others stand on it?
Supported by gnats and Māori Party. I’m on my phone so not that easy to search and post links for other ones
It’s a long way along the process.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/00DBHOH_BILL68904_1/te-ture-whenua-m%C4%81ori-bill
I’ve heard very little, to nothing about this on Māori Television
This on waatea, but a rehash of the link marty mars put up with attack on Hone.
http://www.waateanews.com/waateanews?story_id=MTU5NDE=
Struggled to find public criticism made by Meka Whaitiri, but good on her for opposing it. That said, cheap shot at Hone.
I don’t think her own blog counts as to public. http://mekawhaitiri.org.nz/tag/te-ture-whenua-maori-bill/
There are times when labour MP’s should just put things like this on the standard.
Meka has been speaking out about it for quite some time.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503459&objectid=11612798
It isn’t easy to get material about Māori issues in the MSM.
Select committee
Plus
http://equaljusticeproject.co.nz/2016/07/cross-examination-understanding-the-opposition-to-the-te-ture-whenua-maori-bill/
I don’t read the herald, that aside. You have posted a local rag, all well and good – but if you speaking out about somthing, do it nationally. Hone did it on a national scale, and he is not even an MP.
It has nothing to do with Māori news/issues it has to do with methodology. I get Meka has spoken out, but not well, particularly on a national scale. And putting in the cheap shot in the Waatea piece, was bloody pointless.
If you haven’t been aware of this bill it is your responsibility – it is not because Meka was unable to get her press releases taken up by a form of media that you read. There has been plenty of discussion about this bill in the past year within Māori circles – I am Pākehā and I have known about it for quite some time.
Hone is a candidate in the upcoming election and he has signed an agreement with the Māori Party, so his opposition to a bill promoted by Te Ururoa Flavell is bound to attract media attention. My question would be why didn’t Hone bring it up with Te Ururoa during their negotiations?
I do agree that Meka’s critcism of Hone in the Waatea piece was unnecessary.
He kai kei aku ringa
“My question would be why didn’t Hone bring it up with Te Ururoa during their negotiations?”
What makes you think he didn’t?
Perhaps they did discuss it and agreed to disagree – I don’t know but if that is the case I would have thought there would be some reference to their discussions in this press statement.
This bill is one that Te Ururoa has been backing enthusiastically for some time – I don’t think he will be happy to read this from Hone. Then again, the MP/Mana agreement does allow for criticism of each other’s policies so he can’t do much about it.
Labour and the Greens both oppose it. Meka Whaitiri has been pointing out its flaws for quite some time now, as have a number of the people who have submitted against it, yet it is being railroaded through the parliament without any attempt to address the many concerns. This is typical of many of the objections:
http://gisborneherald.co.nz/localnews/2451265-135/tairawhiti-has-its-say-on-te
Lol. Labour literally governing from opposition.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/auckland-city-harbour-news/90825342/plans-to-introduce-light-rail-from-auckland-airport-to-city-centre-confirmed
It is so laughable that this do nothing government meekly announces Labour social and infrastructure policy.
Who says NZ doesn’t have a strong opposition?
Didn’t they promise 10 bridges to Northland too?
Only problem is that national have done their usual – announced somthing putting it 30 years in the future.
They are so useless – the press should cut them a new one for this.
Yeah, how they are doing it now, our clayton’s government says it will do something in 30 (or 40) years to solve a current crisis.
“National, the government you’re having when you’re not having a government”
I see some guy who looks like the offspring of Phil Spector and Roger Stone has lawyered up. He can afford a much better wig than Phillip Smith, but it looks a bit odd on…
Just visited the NZ Herald site. Pics of Grant Robertson and James Shaw with the caption, “Would you trust them with your money?” Not exactly impartial, Granny H!
Didn’t the Natz give away 1 billion to SCF?
It’s the most coverage Grant Robertson has ever got in the NZHerald, including his leadership tilt. NZHerald did well giving them uninterrupted 2 whole pages.
Handing out jobs for the girls. Got to look out for one another.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/327400/govt-rejects-nz-first-'shoulder-tap'-claim
Maggie Barry sepent her time as a mouthpiece on RadioNZ learning all the cliches about government behaviour such as saying it was a ‘conspiracy theory’ of NZ First’s Winston Peters when he criticised over-spending and jobs for the birls (women who have learned to behave like males) .
Documents obtained by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters show that in May last year Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Maggie Barry wrote to Dame Jenny asking her to accept the role.
In November, a Cabinet committee considered a long-list of potential candidates before Dame Jenny was officially selected. Mr Peters said that was clearly unfair.
“It’s totally unfair on the rest of the candidates – they think they’re involved in a fair process.
“They’re going through the whole steps and rigmarole of the process only to find out it’s been determined before they even started. Now, that is disgraceful,” Mr Peters said.
Ms Barry said New Zealand First’s assertion that it was not above board was nothing more than a conspiracy theory, and due process had been followed
http://www.mch.govt.nz/first-encounters-250-commemoration-launchedOnly Jenny Shipley has the mana to host and run this. Perhaps she has a space now that some of her other portfolios have been sliding down.
That rocky outcrop in the article is amazing.
The government has put up $3.5 million to celebrate finding NZ and will get a replica of Endeavour and others to sail right around to prove that we are still here. However we haven’t yet become civilised, being still prone to land grabs wherever people can get away with it, and trying to chop down the trees of Eden to make the country over into a paradise for social climbers.
I suggest we put that $3.5 million into teaching civics, how democracies work to define what policies will be best for the present and the future to enhance life, enjoyable community and the environment, and how to learn methods for getting on with others to create a society to be proud of in the 21st century. This is the one where the flower of human intelligence should be awe-inspiring in its creativity and humanity cutting through harmful short-term thinking.
Instead we are regressing back to nostalgia for our historic folk tales that are projected onto our ignorance so that the total exceeds the sum of the parts.
Someone that should be commemorated, as we think of Endeavour’s voyage, is Sydney Parkinson who did the painting depicted on the announcement of the remembrance voyage of Cook’s Endeavour to NZ.
Wikipedia:
Parkinson was employed by Joseph Banks to travel with him on James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific in 1768,[1] in HMS Endeavour. Parkinson made nearly a thousand drawings of plants and animals collected by Banks and Daniel Solander on the voyage.
He had to work in difficult conditions, living and working in a small cabin surrounded by hundreds of specimens. In Tahiti he was plagued by swarms of flies which ate the paint as he worked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Parkinson
This young bloke died of dysentery on the voyage, at the age of only 26. Ther is more details about his life and work, which is poorly recorded and only in the 1980s was his work recorded.
http://www.botanicalartandartists.com/sydney-parkinson.html