Time for New Zealand to assert its independence from foreign superpowers.
“Twenty-nine academics, researchers and human rights advocates have written an open letter to Jacinda Ardern in support of China critic and Canterbury University politics professor Anne-Marie Brady.
“We have been shocked and disturbed by the reports of intimidation and harassment suffered by Professor Anne-Marie Brady,” the letter said.
“Attempts to intimidate and harass one academic in New Zealand have implications for freedoms of all the others – and indeed, for the freedoms of all who live here.”
The group also urged the prime minister to “make a clear statement in defence of academic freedom” in light of the case and to be “very clear that any intimidation and threats aimed at silencing academic voices in this country will not be tolerated”.
Damn right. Prof Brady: “The Education Act requires all political leaders and government agencies to protect and defend our academic freedom and uphold the critic and conscience role of the academic. So I do my job, and I expect the government to do their job.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister said she supported and defended the legal right to academic freedom, as set out in law. “The matters contained in this letter are under investigation by the police and it is not appropriate to comment on them before the investigation is finished.” But Prof Brady said the investigation was over, and the issue was now in the government’s hands. [RNZ]
So another Schrodinger’s Cat situation. The police investigation is over and is not over simultaneously. Truth lies somewhere between the two? Could be the PM’s spokesperson is misrepresenting the situation?
Perhaps someone will open the box and report whether the Cat is really alive or dead. And if the truth is that a police report must be written and obtained by the PM before the truth can be ascertained by her, the slowly-grinding wheels of public service bureaucracy will probably ensure that she goes to the xmas break none the wiser. Her relief at not having to do her job will probably be considerable! Will Chinese agents successfully eliminate Professor Brady while we wait?
Andrews actually went into the campaign beset by a number of controversies in his Victorian Labor Party but voters seem to have responded to his plans for major infrastructure spending across the state. And of course, all those Labor campaign billboards of state Liberal leader Guy hanging out with Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison helped.
There is a new game in town. Well, in America. Combining both waste and storm water for treatment, treated waters are redirected to spreading basins where they can percolate into the land and recharge aquifers.
While these methods are land intensive, they bring up some points worth noting.
We have done nothing towards recharging aquifers, despite corporate entities showing it is liquid gold.
2. We have significant wastewater resources in both rural and urban settings that contain revenue streams, we have not tapped these, namely: water for irrigation, composts for agriculture, biogas for power.
The resources are right there waiting for some government body to wake up. NZ water revenue should be returned, 100%, to NZ. The revenue generated can pay for improvements to water treatment and storm water diversion. Here we need to think big, but on a catchment by catchment basis.
In 2017 391 billion litres of bottled water were sold.
Billions, that’s what we are giving away. Take it back and get NZ on track.
There is an aquifer-recharge project being “scoped” in Southland, at Five Rivers, where it is proposed river water be “directed” into a depleted aquifer. In theory, the water will be taken at high flow, but I’ve concerns about the mixing of previously seperate “waters”, especially in light of their bacterial (and nitrogenous) make-up; natural filtering and time can clean surface water before it gets into an aquifer and this “direct injection” through reverse bore, will result in an “unnatural” introduction of pathogens, potentially. Of course, it may be that there’s no problem, but if successful there, other farming operations might see potential to fill their own aquifers with flood water, say, and be able to irrigate at a greater rate and thereby, intensify their farming operations. Mike Joy wouldn’t be a supporter, I’m guessing. I know there’s a lot of natural river/aquifer interaction in many cases, but it seems to me these geo-engineering jobs don’t always pan out well (if ever). All in my opinion, naturally 🙂
Wetlands are spreading basins. They could also be for tourism, aquaculture, ornithology, duck season, boating, walking, education…
The idea of topping aquifers from river flow is insane. We get our highly polluted shit and run it into our pristine sources. Then our potential for $ per litre goes down to parts of a cent per litre for shitty irrigation. How is that a good thing?
We need to stop falling over ourselves to accommodate farmers. Why build such an obviously shitty system? Farmers… that’s all.
Farmers should be playing a large part in recharging groundwater, but no, they merely take it. Imagine if we were to do something as simple as put floodgates at storm culverts letting the drainage systems of the country fill before overflowing (same flow capacity as it is governed by diameter of pipes under roads). All of a sudden the entire countryside is holding and percolating water after storm events. And that’s just getting started. Add swales and ponds…
Those stormwater drains, it makes no difference if they’re full or empty, except, when full they replenish the land, and are vast potential aquaculture infrastructure.
Who is it ‘scoping’ five rivers? They need a boot up the ass.
Well now, I couldn’t have said it like that, could I 🙂
Because there was such a hue and cry about “visible” dammed/damned water storage proposed by farmers in, especially North Canterbury, the industry has looked for hidden opportunities and aquifer recharge occurred to them. Have you done any work on the biology of aquifers? There’s living creatures down in them cold, dark waters! They probably won’t enjoy a dose of what their surface-dwelling cousins have to put up with .
A subterranean cave was explored by Charles Mitchell and some peers. They discovered sixty year old kokopu that had no food source. They’d lived purely through minerals ingested from water. Blind, albino kokopu.
One ‘silly idea’ I’ve had for Canterbury is to follow the Hawaiian example and run a tunnel through the mountain range taking west coast excess water to Canterbury.
Who was opposed to water bodies in Canterbury? Was it a large dam, or on farm ponds? I reckon turning the region into a monoculture desert is ugly enough, and ponds and plantings would improve the place. But what do I know.
Years ago “think big style” with electricity it was decided to redirect high flow water going into other waterway systems into the Taupo water system. So it’s gravitational potential energy could best be utilised.
There is no reason why your idea, that has been proposed for many rears, cannot be a reality.
Tunnel boring machines in the 1meter diameter range are cheap and you could create a little team of people running a site, creating a tube from one side to the other. The rock waste can be used in civil engineering.
If a big earthquake happens and the tube gets ruined, you accept it as part of reality, you then go in and fix it.
Making farms more productive because of water supply, because they become more drought resistant, or crops get water at the correct time of their life cycle. When farmland produces more from increasing the efficient use of sunlight everything is a benifit.
They absorb more CO2.
The farms Eco systems benifit.
If the farm is more efficient, profitable, it can invest in projects were fence to drain distances increase, a small area of trees and a wetland can be added, etc.
They can invest in environmental solutions. A farm of 100Ha doing mainstream farming can decide to try a few Ha in some radical new way, with the intent of lowering urea use, or improving production due to animal health benifits rather than off farm inputs. Diets creating less methane, plants that result in less nitrate leaching, etc etc.
The no to everything for farming is the wrong approach, and bringing water from the west coast as part of solving water issues should have happened decades ago.
Auckland city steals the Wiakato systems water for example. That happened because it was a good idea.
Are you on the turn @DJ?
Not too many days/weeks ago, you were coming in here as just another pompous trolling git.
These days……reading your thoughts and contributions is worthwhile
I saw something interesting by DJ the other day. Looked like real thought and not knee jerk stuff. Mmmm. You can’t be sure about anything these days. Grizzle.
That’s too far-fetched for me to believe 🙂
That said, we discovered a dog who’d been trapped in a glasshouse for 6 weeks over winter (hail and snow) without food, seemingly, who lived, though very thin (she went in plump). Curiously, there was no dog poo on the ground 🙂
Obscene profits being made (taken off NZ for private concerns).
A rich asshole I know was jizzing over these profits a decade ago as National came in. The Nats and their donors were in there like a shark feeding frenzy.
We have the Central Inceptor at a cost of $1.2b
Yet in a time of where “user Pays” still exists where greenfield developments have to provide infrastructure at the cost of the new locals and when these developments will have additional rates applied to pay for their infrastructure https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12159099 https://www.watercare.co.nz/About-us/News-media/Central-Interceptor-one-step-closer-to-start-date
Why do these wealthy inner city areas expect the rest of Auckland to pay for solutions to THEIR waste water issues ?
They already have the best public transport service available, subsidised by all rate payers. And as they are increasingly serviced e.g. new rail link, the value of their properties increase, yet they make no additional contributions for this.
“During wet weather the central wastewater network currently overflows to local waterways and the Waitematā Harbour at more than 100 locations and to the north-eastern Manukau Harbour at 14 locations. The Central Interceptor is expected to reduce the volume of overflows by over 80 per cent.”
Sounds really good. Not comprehensive but it is a large improvement.
I’m guessing actinobacteria are still the major issue in biological treatment (clumping), however, am very pleased they’ve not gone the silly chemical sanitation route, which produces treated yet unusable water. The clumping could be used for solids removal and processing as solid compost making the water treatment a lot easier. I’ve seen similar on a farm where solids were taken out before effluent ponding, the solids becoming compost. The Farmer could not get enough of the compost though it sat for a year and let the worms have at it to finish.
The composts from these processes can then feed non-edible crops to make them removed from human consumption/western sensibilities e.g. timber crops.
Exactly Herodotus, are the developers in particular those that are contributing the most to wastewater pollution with large high rises, are not being charged a new levy for ‘user pays’ with new builds for pollution and wastewater, as because as you rightly say, they are also getting the cream of public transport money too.
And often the inner city apartments are not good options for Kiwi families who sound like they are one of the poorest demographics now. But new builds and in particular apartments are open to be speculated on by the world’s wealthy as they are exempt from the OIA.
Meanwhile the poor on the outer city limits with no or few public transport options are forced to pay the petrol tax that the mostly inner/central city folks are largely exempted from for commuting to work or university.
Of course getting to the airport is a priority for work and holidays which is why that is PRIORITY number one for public transport. We can’t let the politicians get stuck in traffic going to Wellington or Phil Goff’s trip to China or expect them to pay an airline levy for the public transport link that Auckland ratepayers are expected to pay for.
Rampant development around beaches and more and more run off from roads are having a horrible effect.
Long Bay (rampant development) was the only beach to experience a more extreme red alert last summer with a reading of 810 enterococci/100ml taken on New Year’s Day after heavy rainfall.
Apparently…
“Recent historical data for the water quality of our swimming beaches is not available for comparison.
North Shore City Council stopped routine monitoring in 2008 because it was confident of its ability to identify water quality issues after analysing the previous 10 years worth of data.
Auckland Council resumed water quality testing on the North Shore last November because it felt there was an inconsistent approach to water safety across the city.”
I think the shell fish has also been effected around Long Bay regional park area, but any media about the pollution is quickly pulled. The developer seems to be able to keep it out of the media, surprise surprise.
P>S> hope those that once believed that the new housing was necessary for affordable housing for Kiwis, are now able to comprehend that allowing new builds to be sold and speculated around the world, firmly puts a stop to that idea and they are instead a way to do a Natz and keep the lazy economy moving within the Ponzi, while making the Kiwis who are rate payers pay for it and the residents and future generations pay for it with increased pollution and loss of quality of life, and new charges being dreamed up, for anything from petrol to wastewater around the city .
If we use this new diversion drain (central interceptor), AND capture roof water for gardens, we might actually cope in Auckland. Road runoff could be diverted more creatively too. Some to wetlands, some to industry…
Took the girls to the Santa Parade over in Richmond yesterday.
What kind of flag is that mum? They asked as a ‘redneck’ float went past.
That’s the confederate flag, it’s a symbol of white people using black people for slaves in the USA.
Woah, why is it in the parade mum?
Because, it was on the roof of a popular ‘redneck’ race car in a 1980’s TV series, which made a whole generation relate that flag to nothing else but two men and a Chrysler.
Some might say people are going PC mad, others might say we need to learn about real history rather than the Dukes of Hazard.
Was wondering if anyone else noticed….. looks like they did…PS the beer cans were tacky as.
“Because, it was on the roof of a popular ‘redneck’ race car in a 1980’s TV series, which made a whole generation relate that flag to nothing else but two men and a Chrysler.”
I think you kind of nailed it on the head here
I would think there are quite a lot of people who just aren’t aware of the fairly recent controversy around it, as they just don’t take a huge amount of interest in current US cultural issues.
They do just associate it with TDoH and that is what they got brought up as to what the flag represents. Personally I don’t actually put any blame on them, US events can sometimes be exceedingly dull and have zero relevance to NZ
Slight side point
Pretty sure the car was a Dodge Charger. Chrysler was the Aussie version.
Chrysler was owned by Dodge and the Dodge shared some structure, but it was a different shape etc.
The parent company was Chrysler right from the beginning in the 1920s up until the merger/bailout/buyout by Fiat a few years ago. The Dodge name was acquired not long after startup, and a bunch of other brands like De Soto, Plymouth, Imperial etc were acquired/created, used for a while, then killed/sold. Chrysler also got involved in various games of Big Boy’s Monopoly in buying and selling other car companies around the the world, such as the Rooted Group that was responsible for atrocities such as the Hillman Scavenger …
mmmm @ Andre.
I saw you more in a black Super Snipe.
It had that really really huge bonnet ahead of its steering wheel and some serious straight in-line cylinders. It was mainly driven by those that had reason (such as a J Toebes – gone but not forgotten).
But then it had many others who could only pretend and tryhard jobbie jobbie to emulate
Chris T is correct, and to give some context to the Dukes Of Hazard the car was named the General Lee and the thing they were celebrating was Lee being a “rebel”, and so were the Dukes. There’s also Billy Idols song Rebel Yell which refers to the shouts of the confederate army when going into battle. Of course we know better now, I see trucks with the flag all the time, either that or a Jim Beam flag, I doubt they put much thought into it other than it “looks cool”. Watch the TV series Atlanta which cleverly takes the piss out of southern racists.
I don’t think there is a “fairly recent controversy” over it. There’s been negative connotations surrounding that flag for decades.
I also find it difficult to reconcile that a bunch of people would openly parade around with that flag looking nothing like DoH and not have a second thought about how they come across.
The USA is our default godfather don’t you know, just listen to the news from RadioNZ every day, what other country gets the same coverage? And their citizens are a dime a dozen around the country. Free to enter almost at will and probably easy residency though few would give up their own States citizenship. They like having the best of both worlds, maybe ‘to have their cake and eat it too’.
Ain’t that the truth @ Greywarshark.
They’re probably the lowest of the low on that demographic immigration spreadsheet – oops, I meant ‘best practiced risk analysis’ immigration criteria reference’, just next to mother Britain and slightly above a Canadian.
I’m not exactly sure of the weightings or where the Okkers rank.
As for giving up their own States citizenship, I have a close relative who has now lived far more of his life in NuZull than the Greatest Nation on Earth. He even has one of those ONZ or Merity trinkets. Trying to renounce US citizenship was like being placed on a charge of treason.
I’m saying yes, he wanted to renounce his US citizenship. He no longer felt any sort of affinity with the place and had become more than disillusioned with its policies overseas (not that he ever publicly stated them). Most of his US based relatives had already karked it.
I think he retains dual citizenship to this day – the threats of tax audits and various other hurdles meant renouncing it just wasn’t worth it.
Oh, and to clarify…..I meant that non-US, non-Canadian, non-Brit dontcha know immigrants figure on the best practice risk analysis reference crib sheet whilst, as you suggest, the US citizen is automatically an asset and due for a rubber stamp on the PR application.
Anyway if you want people not fly those flags then a start, is to get people of NZ to understand history.
Because at present there is a dumbing down the NZ education system for arts and reducing tertiary departments for the arts, discouraging people to study the arts in NZ (apart from Law of course when we have all manner of fascists operating because they have no understanding of history, let alone morals), removing resources for the arts aka libraries, undermining history of western and local history at government and council level in real terms apart from surface representation with no real deep understanding of history, art and culture from different view points.
No floats from Hawera, far out those ‘lions’ really did my head in.
Am pretty sure both of those float theme’s came from similar generations.
There is a lack of diversity in Richmond, which results in a lack of understanding especially when it comes to different cultures. Tunnel vision as. Spot the brown person. You get the picture.
I know at the local school here in Motueka, they do learn about many different cultures. This is in part due to such diversity within the students and families here. And it’s awesome. It makes a huge difference, it really does, one of the reasons this white girl moved her little family here.
Absolutely get where you are coming from SaveNZ re history/culture/arts knowledge of different view points etc.
Western MSM expose their own total lack of integrity and pretense of being institutions of fair and balanced reporting through their own deafening silence in the defense of the creator of the most effective whistle blower delivery system the world has ever seen..
ON CONTACT: CRUCIFYING JULIAN ASSANGE
Chris Hedges and Joe Lauria, journalist and editor-in-chief, Consortium, discuss efforts to force WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange, out of the Ecuador Embassy in London and extradite him to the USA to stand trial.
Yes it is a very sad indictment on western ‘liberial’ media including our own RNZ that nearly all the (now former) heroes of western reportage Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald etc are all now effectively barred from having a voice on any of the outlets that used to champion them, we really are living is a Orwellian period of, half truths and out right lies.
love him or not, bomber bradbury being banned (alliteration!), from rnz the panel is another example.
i heard the segment when it was broadcast, and yes, twas bombastic.
i couldn’t disagree with him and found it refreshing to hear that attitude put so forthrightly.
Evidence-based public policy often uses science as basis, and science often uses stats. Don’t assume stats are reliable. Those commissioning research are inclined to try to leverage the outcome:
“A stunning report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine concludes that researchers often make “inappropriate requests” to statisticians. And by “inappropriate,” the authors aren’t referring to accidental requests for incorrect statistical analyses; instead, they’re referring to requests for unscrupulous data manipulation or even fraud.”
“The authors surveyed 522 consulting biostatisticians and received sufficient responses from 390. Then, they constructed a table (shown below) that ranks requests by level of inappropriateness. For instance, at the very top is “falsify the statistical significance to support a desired result,” which is outright fraud. At the bottom is “do not show plot because it did not show as strong an effect as you had hoped,” which is only slightly naughty.”
My supervisor was dead set against me removing data that could be dubious in case it also removed the result. I did it anyway as science idealistically is about getting to the truth of a thing, not a convenience. Had to argue black and blue to get things done ‘properly.’
This was UoA, 2016.
The result was that my result was that much stronger, even with a smaller data set. It really annoyed me when he tried to stifle my enthusiasm for getting to the crux of things. I’d prefer no result to a BS result, any day.
Yeah, me too. Doing college science in the sixties, we were taught never to eliminate anomalous data points, always put them on the graph even if miles away from the trend line makes them look wacky. Authenticity.
So you can imagine how I felt when reading the Climategate emails, seeing actual professors agreeing to remove outliers so they could defeat climate deniers more convincingly!! They say the end justifies the means. History shows that everyone slides down a slippery slope into evil if they use that attitude.
Sometimes outliers should be clearly taken out (a female in an all male dataset on muscle power) and some should be left in (Bill Gate’s income clearly belongs to a dataset about American incomes) … or not, depending on the point of the analysis.
Sometimes the answer is clear about what to do and sometimes it’s not clear which way to go (Does Peter Thiel’s income belong in a dataset about NZer’s incomes?). Usually, if you’re stuck not knowing what to do then analyse with and without outliers and see what difference it makes (and present both answers if there are clear differences).
Unfortunately, people want clear cut answers and sound nibbles – equivocation is taken as a weakness.
Reminds me of the Stanford prison experiment, which as far as I can see had no real concret ‘scientific’ results to speak of , but nonetheless was ( and probably still is) used as some sort of meaningful insight to human behaviour under certain conditions.
I just went to remind myself, and the wiki account has a bunch of interesting nuances. Critics make valid points, but I still agree with Zimbardo’s thesis. Human nature is indeed context-driven. Warping via context can be designed.
” but I still agree with Zimbardo’s thesis. Human nature is indeed context-driven. ”
I too agree completely with that thesis, this was the point I was trying to make with a producer from RNZ during an email exchange earlier in the year, her position was, we give people the stories they want to hear, so (according to her) people are more interested in peoples stories/lives from France or the USA than they are of people in Africa/Asia or the Middle East, to which I responded, people would be concerned or interested in other peoples lives and interests of any country in the World if those peoples lives were contextualised, given form and substance, a privilege that RNZ rarely gives to these ‘other’ people…so in fact the editorial decisions of RNZ becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Russell was the first thinker I stumbled across and liked ( probably because of his support of Muhammad Ali ) when I was a angry young 14 or 15 yo punk, I somehow found an audio of his debate with Father Frederick C. Copleston, it was a pivotal moment for me, there was something about the way these two thinkers with completely opposing concepts of reality sparred with an intellectual grace that greatly impressed me at the time, and still does.
I think Grey’s point was that good manners and a bit of grace in a genuine debate between intellectually mature people is as rare as a flying Dodo and a flying Moa doing air-acrobatics in your backyard.
That remark wasn’t being sarcastic or pointed at you Adrian – it was a great phrase that I liked the sound of and would like to aspire to. So there is no problem at all. We have enough already without misunderstanding each other. Sorry about that.
And ianmac you have also expressed yourself well. Very funny. The blog has been very interesting lately.
The data are unreliable, the stats are unreliable, the scientists are unreliable and thus so-called evidence-based public policy is unreliable? Is that your message, Dennis? So, we might as well flick a coin to make important decisions? An almost 50% chance of getting it right?
Things aren’t that bad. Yet. I think it signals a trend that has serious implications for public policy formulation. Reliance on stats is no longer a good idea. There’s still quite a prevalent tendency for folks to have blind faith in scientists. Sceptical appraisal makes more sense now.
The other thing to learn from this study is the extent to which motivation is likely to warp the findings of scientists. Climate science has exposed that too, but admissions from so many researchers that they had been offered inducements to produce suitable results indicates the likelihood of a proportion of acceptance.
Since those who take the money are unlikely to admit doing so, we can only speculate on that proportion. The bottom line is that truth and reality are not the only factors incentivising scientific discoveries: we now have good reason to suspect that some such are fake news. Which is where the scientific discipline of replication comes in. Such discoveries become reliable when confirmed by other researchers operating independently. Initial discoveries ought to be regarded as provisional. Of course, the media will ignore that need for caution.
I do struggle a little with the ambiguous term “scientific discovery” but can’t formulate a decent argument for discussion right now except to say that provisional findings make for poor public policy or (better) not at all. Maybe another time.
White women are a conservative force in the USA: “white women voters overwhelmingly threw their support behind conservative Republican male candidates. Again. They did it for President Trump, who won an estimated 53 percent of the white female vote in 2016. And they did it with Roy Moore, accused of sexually predatory behavior, in Alabama’s special Senate election last year.” https://www.vogue.com/article/white-women-voters-conservative-trump-gop-problem
““Our perception that white women are going to vote the way ‘we’ think they should has been proven false over and over again,” Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, historian and author of Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy, tells Vogue. She points to white women’s historic role in upholding racial segregation, from campaigning against the United Nations (on the grounds that it would upend the racial divide) to rallying against school integration after Brown v. Board of Education, including leading the charge against busing black students to new districts. The Confederate monuments that have caused so much modern-day controversy, McRae adds, were often funded by white women’s organizations, prior to the 19th Amendment.”
“The latest gut punches, courtesy of CNN polling: In the Georgia governor’s race, an estimated 75 percent of white women—more even than white men!—voted for Republican Brian Kemp, who is passionately pro-life, over Stacey Abrams, a staunch protector of women’s reproductive rights, while 97 percent of black women supported her. In Texas, 60 percent of white women cast their ballots for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a supporter of alleged assaulters President Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, over Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is dedicated to improving women’s health care. (Ninety-four percent of black women backed O’Rourke.)”
@ Dennis Frank. Interesting juxtaposition between your post on 6, showing how statistics are being manipulated with your post 7 suggesting that an estimated white women voted 53% in 2016 for Trump (also suggests that estimated 47% white women did not vote for Trump). Then add in voters who did not vote, any statistical error and based on who identifies as ‘white’ and who identifies as a ‘women’. Not sure what the point of your post of 7 is, actually? would be more interesting if you had the entire estimated voting gender/ethnicity.. otherwise what is the point of it especially as it seems like your selected demographic of ‘white women’ is actually pretty even between Trump and not voting for Trump (if that was the point of the statistic).
It actually shows that relying on identity politics in politics is probably not a good idea.. people are voting on their perception of who they think is the better candidate.. and going on about reproductive rights aka abortion, to christians might not be a good idea..
75% identified as Christian in US in 2015. But the number is dropping fast.
107:100 boys:girls, so close to half of them female.
> 60% white.
> 325 million Americans.
325 x 0.6 x 0.5 x 0.75 = approx 73 125 000 white christian women voters in US.
Churches with patriarchal bias = pretty much all of them.
1 Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent.”
Or this gem
Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”
Anyone with half a heart only has to read that cursed book to reject it.
Brainwashing in US however, runs very deep. All that patriotism doesn’t leave much room for grey matter. Republicans, like our own right w(h)ingers, love repugnant rhetoric espousing them as natural leaders. Here’s another pearl of wisdom from the ‘good book’.
1 Peter 2:18 “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.”
Here’s some breakdown of beliefs and political affiliation. Actual proportions of each religion would be nice to have as well.
the scary one is “Sources of guidance on right and wrong”
Republicans use religion to guide them 44% of the time, science 6%. Religion to guide them in their sexist racist homophobic genocidal ways. Science because Space Force!
Thanks WtB. I thought you were green, but you come in many colours like Josephs coat I see. The saying religiously-related applying to me:
‘The Lord loves a tryer’. Thanks for the help with the maths.
I was just reporting the Vogue writer’s framing (women voting against their common interests) but I agree with you that identity politics is unreliable. Stats are equally so. One could likewise argue that the conservative women identify with their husbands, their class interests, their skin colour etc…
Next May’s European elections will be pretty interesting as a real stress test for anti-immigration populism.
Here comes Yanis Varoufakis for EU Parliament, proposing to represent …………. Germany.
Yesterday he accepted the nomination on behalf of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), which he launched in 2016 to “democratize” the continent. He calls it the European Spring, after the Arab Spring.
My son is leaving to work again in Germany so I will report to you what the mood is over there now as when Sam (my Son) was in Germany working last during 2005 to 2006 he said then that Arabs/Turks and others were coming in and locals were fearful then to walk the streets at night so interesting times indeed.
Not unusual or recent my wife and I took a stroll in Southern French city in early 90s and began to notice we were in an area of group’s of men standing about, a lady pulled over in her car and suggested we hop in as the area was not safe for us and as we were feeling intimidated by the looks we were recieving we did.
That’s interesting. A boy on a bicycle in some USA city suburb was stopped by a large man with the Orthodox Jew hat and curl on. He was refused entry.
He felt quite uneasy.
nd who were afraid? It can be important for women in any town and city to know they will be safe at night, and if they have fears, they may hesitate to try but the fear may be unjustified.
I can’t say who we we afraid of but the looks we recieved from these men was not of welcome and the feeling was not good. On the same trip we arrived early in the morning from an overnight train and found ourselves in the midst of many homeless and rough sleepers with smiles we felt quite comfortable to sit take coffee and a bun. As a traveller I find it’s best to trust your feelings. In Sth East Asia I poke my nose into most situations but found in Cambodia stepping outside the tourist areas was quite uncomfortable. But seeing the horror museums and reading that to survive meant being able to smash your mother’s skull with a hoe I understand how the locals might feel less socially inclusive.
“The European Union has called on Russia and Ukraine to “act with utmost restraint to de-escalate” the situation in the Black Sea.
Ukraine says that three of its ships have been seized by the Russian coast guard, including two that were fired upon, and two crew members were wounded. Russia has blamed Ukraine for preparing and orchestrating “provocations.”
The EU, in a statement from foreign affairs spokeswoman Maja Kocijanic, also said that it expected Russia to “restore freedom of passage” through the Kerch Strait after Moscow blockaded it.”
nothing happened, nothing to see, move along citizen
Hmmm
Interesting timing, just as Kiev launches a move occupying village in buffer area between the front lines in Eastern Ukraine. , and as Poroshenkos ratings hit an all time low(7.8%) with elections coming up and Yulia Tymoshenko looking set to win
Poroshenko now has the consent of his national defence and security council to declare martial law , which would suspend parliament and elections , can be used to ban protests and activities by political parties, and allows for media, TV stations and newspapers to be shut down.
Russia has called for an emergency meeting of theUN SC scheduled in about 9 hours.
Poroshenko has scheduled a meeting with Stoltenberg.
Basically a squabble over whether Ukraine gave advance notice of intention to move through that Kerch area, which they say they did. The Russian coastguard says they didn’t.
Previously Ukraine has obeyed that protocol
poor russia, so hard done buy the big angry heavily armed superpower Ukraine, who always goes walkabouts invading in Russia, seizing Russian ships n just. Luckily Russia is calling for the help of the UN. Cause what would Russia do otherwise. Cry a bucket?
A day after Russia’s massive PD-50 drydock suddenly sank underneath the country’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, as it was receiving a long-awaited overhaul in frigid Murmansk, just how big a deal this may end up being for the Russian Navy is becoming clearer. The dry dock, which is the largest of its kind in Russian hands, appears to have sunk at first on a steep incline before it disappeared totally beneath the water’s surface. Russian officials are now saying that it could be many months before it is raised from the seabed 160 feet below and that doing so would be a very tedious and delicate operation. That’s if they decide to salvage it at all.
Regardless, PD-50 services all types of vessels that make up Russia’s most powerful fleet, including its largest submarines. So leaving it out of action for years, or even losing it altogether, would be a major hit for the Northern Fleet and the Russian Navy’s overall readiness.
Ukraine is seen as in the USA oriented nations, and which country knows what they will do next. White the USA surrounds itself with defensive sites. Didn’t help with September 2001 though.
malcolm gladwell has a great podcast series.
one of the episodes was looking at the movement of people across the mexican/u.s. border over 40 or so years.
the surprising conclusion was that when movement was less stringently controlled (up till the last 10 years), mexicans were far more likely to return and stay home, (not be aliens/illegal), than when the border got tightly controlled.
i thoroughly recommend revisionist history podcast.
i am not sure what this episode was.
another goodie was looking at french fries and how much better they tasted when they were cooked in beef fat compared to vege oils.
vege oils that are not good for you…
there are whole familys that are almost nomadic, they travel the various states for the harvest seasons and once done go back home. Rinse repeat every year.
but hey, what ever gets one elected as the candidate not beholden to corporate interest, self funded, and only worried about the economic anxiety of the white male working class.
After all, all mexicans are rapists and drug peddler. So said the Orange Saviour in 2015. In front of a camera and people and everyone just nodded and said: It is good.
“I think it’s just PC gone – I don’t know if it’s mad, but too far. You guys this morning are telling me that man didn’t walk on the moon, now you’re telling me Santa’s a woman – I just want a few things I can believe in.”
“…….We’ve got discrimination rules and they’re absolutely right, you know, whether it’s gender, whether it’s ethnicity,” said Mr Bridges.
“But I think the truth is on Santa, this is a traditional thing. Mary Poppins is a woman, Santa Claus is a man. That’s how it should be……”
My point is that you begin by a personal attack on AM Brady, with the intention of diminishing her credibility, as a preamble to dismissing whatever she has to say.
It seems like a shabby way to argue.
A.
[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.]
No Antione. You don’t have a point. I was quite explicit in saying “some may”, and gave another possibility too before writing that I wasn’t offering an opinion on either or either way.
I listened to what she said. Have you? I put up opinion and thoughts you could have engaged with.
You’ve chosen not to engage and to splatter a post with bullshit. So your comment’s now over here on Open Mike.
If I say “some may say X is a swivel-eyed loon but I couldn’t possibly comment”, then everyone will understand this as a coy way of saying “X is a swivel-eyed loon”.
Well, comport yourself as you like but don’t expect the rest of us to be impressed.
Sure. My bias was stated. And then there was substantive opinion and thought to read and commented on in light of that bias.
You want to spend a day engaged in stirring up vacuous personal bullshit in lieu of engaging with substantive content? That’s what bullshit message boards and facebook are for.
Hospital Workers get rises of 24% to 40% on their hourly rate, some back dated 6 mths and this over 2 and a half years. A piece of good news in the Herald today.
Thousands of hospital service workers will get pay rises of up to 40 per cent over the next three years.
The pay rises, of between 24 and 40 per cent on workers’ current rates will affect 3500 service workers, including cleaners, laundry workers, orderlies, catering and security staff across the 20 District Health Boards.
The immediate increase could be as high as 10 per cent for some and is backdated till June 25 this year.
Christmas Customs: St. Nicholas – der Heilige Nikolaus
Wer ist Sankt Nikolaus?
– Who is Saint Nicholas?
For a long time in Austria and some regions of Germany, particularly in Bavaria, St. Nicholas was the main character in the Christmas celebration.
But he was not Santa Claus, and he arrived earlier – on the 6th of December. His usual, less friendly escort went by different names in different places: “Belsnickle,” “Niglo,” “Pelznickel,” and others. Santa Claus or Father Christmas is a more recent tradition. Since the Germans (and the Dutch) brought many of their customs to America directly or indirectly, we need to look first at Europe in order to understand the American and worldwide Christmas celebration of today.
I am german, i am bavarian. Thanks for the history lesson. We only have St. Nicolaus on the 6th of December, on the eve of the 24th we give pressies, go to midnight mess if so inclined, and that was that. No one crawling through the chimney or anything. 25th and 26th are Christmas Holidays without any importance other then visiting family and eating way to much food, and drinking way to much booze.
Santa Claus is if anything dutch in nature, and then co-opted by Coca Cola. The dutch would have called him Sinter Claas, and his helper is generally refered to as het swarte piet. The black pete.
Hence my comment in the first place about the gender and the reality of Saint Nicolaus, Bishop of Bari whom the legend says went out during a particular hard winter and left overings of food, clothes and toys for the children in front of the houses of the poor.
He should not be ‘played by a women’ cause he was a man, in saying that in the convent that i grew up and lived in for many years it was Nuns who played the part of St. Nicolaus and Kramperl (his helper) was also played by a Nun. They came with the book of good deeds and bad deeds, scared the small children witless and us older ones running down the halls of the convent screeching trying to figure out who played whom. However we never did. The Nuns always outsmarted us. Such are nuns, what can i say.
However, fat Coca Cola Santa can and should be played by whomever applies for hte role and is best suited.
That is what my comment relates too.
As for those that like this bit, St. Barbara is held on the fourth of December, Patron Saint of miners. I have her in mind, while the bodies of the pike river miners are recovered. She is often depicted with a lantern in her hand, surrounded by praying/crying women and children at the entrance of a mining shaft.
yeah, i am very bavarian, and i like my little customs. So light a candle on the 4th Dec, for all the miners everywhere. And give sweets to the kids on the 6th of december thanks to Saint Nicolaus.
I’m not so interested in who “Father Christmas” was . I like to think about who he can be, from this moment on. This year, courtesy of my now-convincingly festive white beard, I’m going to play “Father Christmas’s ” dad, Grandfather Christmas and give out to children, hope and encouragement along with packets of vegetable seeds 🙂
Natioal Party may be behind these sudden vehicle liciencing issues being stirred up tas both Davaville and westland are both Labour strongholds we now await to see if a “Garage in a National stronghold is also pulled up” as the whole NZTA handling of vehicle licieces debate hots up.
Seocond garage found is “Westland tyre and Autos” is clearly a laour strondhold whom the NZTA agency has targetted now who has had that garage in Westland WoF licience evoked.
Will NZTA now target the National strongholds of West and north Auckland,,hamiton, Tauranga, Otago, and Southland?
We await for this with interest.
National Party seems to be causing trouble and friction among communities, only in labour held areas. it seems to be the new game of National politics.
So watch their ‘dark ops’ of “dirty politics” as time goes by.
Quote;
“It’s a reasonable bet that when Simon Bridges took on the job as leader in February he didn’t expect it would mostly involve wall-to-wall disaster management of National’s problems that would overshadow his attempts to harass the coalition government for its failings.”
As my bolg suggested; – National is trying now quietly to find as your article says; –
“problems that would overshadow his attempts to harass the coalition government for its failings.”
The Wof issue is one of those I suggest, as we already had this over the truck trailer issue last wanter when a Nelson enginerering shop signed off many truck trailers with false certificates, so now Bridges is causing further unrest amost the private vehicle liciencing now too.
Watch for this slimy Bridges character as he is a very slippery character.
So we do womder if he can dinger a Garage in his seat of Tauranga now for licience breaches of Wof’s?
Border Patrol fired off shots at a group trying to go through the fence. We ran and hid under train. They sent in CS gas. Babies are scared and crying. pic.twitter.com/FCM1DcG2o8— WendyFry (@WendyFry_) November 25, 2018
Shocking. What is the international game plan as signed up with UN about this?
Or has USA lost every sense of appropriate behaviour, decency, respect for humanity? Time for a Billy Graham mass Christian campaign calling all the sinners back to the fold, and also making America great again in one package. At present there is an evil message being absorbed under a false flag.
I was short of anybody with that pulling power to ‘USA Christians’. So I picked the wrong guy did I. But is there a new, better sort of preacher that would turn this tide of negativity, racism, hate and bellicose scapegoating that mixed together looks nasty.
You came up with a doozy of a link. So interesting and relevant to the voting for the Republicans and the connection with religion.
Also this on North Korea. I didn’t know the history and see why they have ‘ambivalent’ attitudes to the USA.
Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus Graham was advocating a policy to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief that on Nixon’s own estimate would have killed a million people.
The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.
(His execution did not deter the USAF from destroying the Toksan dam in North Korea, in 1953, thus deliberately wrecking the system that irrigated 75 percent of North Korea’s rice farms.)
You came up with a doozy of a link with that nypress one. So interesting and relevant to Republicans and voting and religion; this time anti-Jewish. And Billy Graham is very anti – doesn’t come across as a decent Christian for sure.
Also this on North Korea. I didn’t know the history and see why they have ‘ambivalent’ attitudes to the USA.
Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus Graham was advocating a policy to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief that on Nixon’s own estimate would have killed a million people.
The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.
(His execution did not deter the USAF from destroying the Toksan dam in North Korea, in 1953, thus deliberately wrecking the system that irrigated 75 percent of North Korea’s rice farms.)
and a useless fat ugly man is feeling all powerful, probably sexually aroused by the fear he creates and while watching fox news, eating literal shit sandwiches from MacDo gets off every time another canister gets shot across the border.
Cause nothing says powerful man more then crying mothers and children.
And this is how it starts. And this is how it always started. Some useless sadistic piece of shit supported by people cause……economic anxiety. T’was thus in Germany, and now we get to watch the sequel.
Holy shit I just got all the way to the bottom of open mic. And not a single thread was a complete waste of time scrolling paste petty bullshit. . I don’t even think I read a single pointless slogan.
Take bow people. 😏
Can we step back from little comments that add nothing. I did one yesterday and I promise not to do it again for a while. Could we all step back and let it go, unless having a rare poke whn the time is appropriate.
Jacinda dismantled him at her post-cabinet presser today. He’s desperate. And National are trying to get their polling back above 40% before it becomes a downward spiral.
Quite like the idea of referendums being included in the election. Cheaper than doing them separately. And possibly will make for a greater turn out of voters.
I don’t mind a referendum but the binding bit sticks in the craw.
It all depends on the wording of the question.
E.g. marijuana. I am all for decriminilising the weed.
That would also go hand in hand with restrictions and decent education.
Not the DARE type, Mr Mackey “drugs are bad mmkay?”
I have no care for legalisation, i.e. handing pot over to big business a la alcohol.
Plus it might mean celebrity survivor fans have a large influence.
Kia ora Newshub These helicopter are crashing often.
The virus outbreak up In North Land condolences to anyone who has lost love ones.
It a big mystery around Whale stranding 145 stranded down South have died that’s sad. The worst thing one can do is give the issue publicity
The NZ CEO over half don’t use twitter ???????? Equality half Wahine CEO is needed to fix most of our problems.
I agree the addiction needs to be treated so the people doing dump things will be able to straighten up there act that’s a smart way to a positive solution to a bad problem.
I back welcoming Refugees they are people in need we can not ignore there suffering
and ha the west has cause most of these Refugee problems.
With the Smoking tax debate its a addiction tax’s don’t treat the addiction they just rake money from poor people who can’t beat the addiction billions should be invested to find better treatments for the smokers addiction not higher TAX.
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori encourages all the WORLDS CHILDREN to protest about the inaction of the
Worlds Governments to do everything in there POWER’S to mitigate Climate Change as it is there FUTURE we are poisoning and turning into hell for all as it is our children who have to clean up there MESS.
And if teachers really care about there children they will tau toko/support there STAND.
Scott Morrison has been labelled “out of touch” for angrily condemning a national student strike to protest government inaction on climate change.
The prime minister implored children to stay in class rather than protesting things that “can be dealt with outside of school”.
Everything you want to know about climate change in #MyClimateQuestions
Read more
“Each day I send my kids to school and I know other members’ kids should also go to school but we do not support our schools being turned into parliaments,” Morrison told parliament on Monday. Ka kite ano Links Below
When school started in August this year, I decided enough was enough. Sweden had just experienced its hottest summer ever. The election was coming up. No one was talking about climate change as a crisis.
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So I decided to walk out of school and sit on the ground outside the Swedish parliament to demand our politicians treat climate change for what it is: the biggest issue we have ever faced.
Because if climate change has to stop, then we must stop it. It is black and white. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival. Either we continue as a civilisation or we don’t. One way or another, we have to change. Countries like mine and Australia must start reducing our emissions dramatically if we believe in equality and climate justice.Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal, one of the leading cause of climate change. Your politicians want to help Adani build one of the biggest coal mines in the world. Right now, there are no policies to change this. There are no rules to keep coal in the ground. We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed
Here you go he does not care about the billions of lives his ignorance is going to harm
donald trump has told reporters he doesn’t believe his own government’s climate change findings that the US economy will suffer substantially with continued warming from greenhouse gas pollution.
“I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine,” he said outside the White House on Monday. “I don’t believe it.”
From Facebook to climate change: how to bury bad news
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The report, called the National Climate Assessment, was quietly released the day after Thanksgiving. Also last Friday, the government slipped out another environment internal report with bad news about emissions from oil and gas drilling on federal lands. Link below ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub Tova Bulling is not acceptable and should be stamped out of all organizations.
That virus in North Land is shocking and in a place with high Maori population this tell me that we are a second class people .
The closing off Queen’s st to all but the essential vehicles is a really good move there are quite a few city’s around the world doing this with big success clean air.
Our children always have there faces in there Ph not I . I just do a lot of research for my mission I will be doing Eco Maori influencing for a long time.
The health supplements is not regulated.
Condolences to all the people who lost there houses in the big fire in Australia .
Everyone is buying Tesla cars A with GM lay off and some ones trade war is hurting the poor.
I have a consumers complaint every time I go to buy some thing some how they have not got the product I want so they say they will ring back but know O that’s just the bulling sandfly being muppets trying there best to try and upset me but no they are just small fry in Eco Maoris Papatuanuku.
Ka kite ano P.S some people think they know my whapapa but there is one line no one knows about.
Kia ora The Crowd Goes Mulls James & Wairangi Wild fingers crossed for the Black Caps.
The League dramas that move will get the punters out.
Yes Its cool that Joe Schmidts is stepping aside for his whano .
At the Bowls guys the Crowd is growing thats the way Tau toko them not to much cups of teas tho A.
That Hand glider person was lucky he only broke his wrist he would have had to change his ——
That was a good UFC KO kick the ref in the teeth lol we no what’s really in the water bottle mulls Ka kite ano
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Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Time for New Zealand to assert its independence from foreign superpowers.
“Twenty-nine academics, researchers and human rights advocates have written an open letter to Jacinda Ardern in support of China critic and Canterbury University politics professor Anne-Marie Brady.
“We have been shocked and disturbed by the reports of intimidation and harassment suffered by Professor Anne-Marie Brady,” the letter said.
“Attempts to intimidate and harass one academic in New Zealand have implications for freedoms of all the others – and indeed, for the freedoms of all who live here.”
The group also urged the prime minister to “make a clear statement in defence of academic freedom” in light of the case and to be “very clear that any intimidation and threats aimed at silencing academic voices in this country will not be tolerated”.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/376782/shocked-and-disturbed-by-alleged-chinese-govt-intimidaiton
Damn right. Prof Brady: “The Education Act requires all political leaders and government agencies to protect and defend our academic freedom and uphold the critic and conscience role of the academic. So I do my job, and I expect the government to do their job.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister said she supported and defended the legal right to academic freedom, as set out in law. “The matters contained in this letter are under investigation by the police and it is not appropriate to comment on them before the investigation is finished.” But Prof Brady said the investigation was over, and the issue was now in the government’s hands. [RNZ]
So another Schrodinger’s Cat situation. The police investigation is over and is not over simultaneously. Truth lies somewhere between the two? Could be the PM’s spokesperson is misrepresenting the situation?
Perhaps someone will open the box and report whether the Cat is really alive or dead. And if the truth is that a police report must be written and obtained by the PM before the truth can be ascertained by her, the slowly-grinding wheels of public service bureaucracy will probably ensure that she goes to the xmas break none the wiser. Her relief at not having to do her job will probably be considerable! Will Chinese agents successfully eliminate Professor Brady while we wait?
Yes I agree Parliament needs to be cleanned up pronto!!!!!
Fix the beehive and get rid of the National party clingon’s Jacinda Ardern firstly please.
These “anti-Government sypathisers are stopping your voters from communication with your Government ministers.
This we have discovered during our research.
So if you want “inclusion” in your Government please remove all National Party sympathizers from being in MP,s offices and in Government agencies.
Great to see Labor absolutely creaming the Liberals in Victoria on the weekend.
Not long before they clean them out in next years Federal elections.
Good news Ad.
Andrews actually went into the campaign beset by a number of controversies in his Victorian Labor Party but voters seem to have responded to his plans for major infrastructure spending across the state. And of course, all those Labor campaign billboards of state Liberal leader Guy hanging out with Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison helped.
Wastewater being dumped in the ocean is still an issue, and now AK’s richer tenants are making noise, something might get done.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12165591
There is a new game in town. Well, in America. Combining both waste and storm water for treatment, treated waters are redirected to spreading basins where they can percolate into the land and recharge aquifers.
https://phys.org/news/2017-08-tool-parched-regions-replenish-aquifers.html
While these methods are land intensive, they bring up some points worth noting.
We have done nothing towards recharging aquifers, despite corporate entities showing it is liquid gold.
2. We have significant wastewater resources in both rural and urban settings that contain revenue streams, we have not tapped these, namely: water for irrigation, composts for agriculture, biogas for power.
The resources are right there waiting for some government body to wake up. NZ water revenue should be returned, 100%, to NZ. The revenue generated can pay for improvements to water treatment and storm water diversion. Here we need to think big, but on a catchment by catchment basis.
In 2017 391 billion litres of bottled water were sold.
Billions, that’s what we are giving away. Take it back and get NZ on track.
There is an aquifer-recharge project being “scoped” in Southland, at Five Rivers, where it is proposed river water be “directed” into a depleted aquifer. In theory, the water will be taken at high flow, but I’ve concerns about the mixing of previously seperate “waters”, especially in light of their bacterial (and nitrogenous) make-up; natural filtering and time can clean surface water before it gets into an aquifer and this “direct injection” through reverse bore, will result in an “unnatural” introduction of pathogens, potentially. Of course, it may be that there’s no problem, but if successful there, other farming operations might see potential to fill their own aquifers with flood water, say, and be able to irrigate at a greater rate and thereby, intensify their farming operations. Mike Joy wouldn’t be a supporter, I’m guessing. I know there’s a lot of natural river/aquifer interaction in many cases, but it seems to me these geo-engineering jobs don’t always pan out well (if ever). All in my opinion, naturally 🙂
Seems like insanity to me Robert.
Aquifers are generally pristine for the very reason that it takes a very long time for water to filter down to them.
“Spreading basins” could be elegant…or revolting. The American feed lots for cattle show how appalling some of their “great ideas” can be.
Wetlands are spreading basins. They could also be for tourism, aquaculture, ornithology, duck season, boating, walking, education…
The idea of topping aquifers from river flow is insane. We get our highly polluted shit and run it into our pristine sources. Then our potential for $ per litre goes down to parts of a cent per litre for shitty irrigation. How is that a good thing?
We need to stop falling over ourselves to accommodate farmers. Why build such an obviously shitty system? Farmers… that’s all.
Farmers should be playing a large part in recharging groundwater, but no, they merely take it. Imagine if we were to do something as simple as put floodgates at storm culverts letting the drainage systems of the country fill before overflowing (same flow capacity as it is governed by diameter of pipes under roads). All of a sudden the entire countryside is holding and percolating water after storm events. And that’s just getting started. Add swales and ponds…
Those stormwater drains, it makes no difference if they’re full or empty, except, when full they replenish the land, and are vast potential aquaculture infrastructure.
Who is it ‘scoping’ five rivers? They need a boot up the ass.
Well now, I couldn’t have said it like that, could I 🙂
Because there was such a hue and cry about “visible” dammed/damned water storage proposed by farmers in, especially North Canterbury, the industry has looked for hidden opportunities and aquifer recharge occurred to them. Have you done any work on the biology of aquifers? There’s living creatures down in them cold, dark waters! They probably won’t enjoy a dose of what their surface-dwelling cousins have to put up with .
A subterranean cave was explored by Charles Mitchell and some peers. They discovered sixty year old kokopu that had no food source. They’d lived purely through minerals ingested from water. Blind, albino kokopu.
One ‘silly idea’ I’ve had for Canterbury is to follow the Hawaiian example and run a tunnel through the mountain range taking west coast excess water to Canterbury.
Who was opposed to water bodies in Canterbury? Was it a large dam, or on farm ponds? I reckon turning the region into a monoculture desert is ugly enough, and ponds and plantings would improve the place. But what do I know.
Ponds and plantings, yes, but the driver was increased intensification of dairying. Jaded greenies kicked up a stink 🙂
You have pretty much covered the solution.
Years ago “think big style” with electricity it was decided to redirect high flow water going into other waterway systems into the Taupo water system. So it’s gravitational potential energy could best be utilised.
There is no reason why your idea, that has been proposed for many rears, cannot be a reality.
Tunnel boring machines in the 1meter diameter range are cheap and you could create a little team of people running a site, creating a tube from one side to the other. The rock waste can be used in civil engineering.
If a big earthquake happens and the tube gets ruined, you accept it as part of reality, you then go in and fix it.
Making farms more productive because of water supply, because they become more drought resistant, or crops get water at the correct time of their life cycle. When farmland produces more from increasing the efficient use of sunlight everything is a benifit.
They absorb more CO2.
The farms Eco systems benifit.
If the farm is more efficient, profitable, it can invest in projects were fence to drain distances increase, a small area of trees and a wetland can be added, etc.
They can invest in environmental solutions. A farm of 100Ha doing mainstream farming can decide to try a few Ha in some radical new way, with the intent of lowering urea use, or improving production due to animal health benifits rather than off farm inputs. Diets creating less methane, plants that result in less nitrate leaching, etc etc.
The no to everything for farming is the wrong approach, and bringing water from the west coast as part of solving water issues should have happened decades ago.
Auckland city steals the Wiakato systems water for example. That happened because it was a good idea.
Are you on the turn @DJ?
Not too many days/weeks ago, you were coming in here as just another pompous trolling git.
These days……reading your thoughts and contributions is worthwhile
I saw something interesting by DJ the other day. Looked like real thought and not knee jerk stuff. Mmmm. You can’t be sure about anything these days. Grizzle.
That’s too far-fetched for me to believe 🙂
That said, we discovered a dog who’d been trapped in a glasshouse for 6 weeks over winter (hail and snow) without food, seemingly, who lived, though very thin (she went in plump). Curiously, there was no dog poo on the ground 🙂
6 weeks and nobody noticed? Bloody hell.
100% WeTheBleeple
Labour promised to stop water bottling before the election remember that!
How quickly people forget?
Labour need to review their broken promises and explain why these promises have not been kept here before the end of this year.
As a careful thought review of their performance in their first year of service to the community.
Those promises all need to be kept.
Obscene profits being made (taken off NZ for private concerns).
A rich asshole I know was jizzing over these profits a decade ago as National came in. The Nats and their donors were in there like a shark feeding frenzy.
Yes wethebleeple
“Money talks truth walks” is these rich lazy pricks only thought.
No care for well being of the community.
Toxic Leeches they all are.
Yes wethebleeple
“Money talks truth walks” is these rich lazy pricks only thought.
No care for well being of the community.
Toxic Leeches they all are.
Labour had better send them away in a leaky boat.
Nope.
I do remember a policy to do a commercial water levy. NZ1 scotched that.
We have the Central Inceptor at a cost of $1.2b
Yet in a time of where “user Pays” still exists where greenfield developments have to provide infrastructure at the cost of the new locals and when these developments will have additional rates applied to pay for their infrastructure https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12159099
https://www.watercare.co.nz/About-us/News-media/Central-Interceptor-one-step-closer-to-start-date
Why do these wealthy inner city areas expect the rest of Auckland to pay for solutions to THEIR waste water issues ?
They already have the best public transport service available, subsidised by all rate payers. And as they are increasingly serviced e.g. new rail link, the value of their properties increase, yet they make no additional contributions for this.
Thanks for that heads up.
“During wet weather the central wastewater network currently overflows to local waterways and the Waitematā Harbour at more than 100 locations and to the north-eastern Manukau Harbour at 14 locations. The Central Interceptor is expected to reduce the volume of overflows by over 80 per cent.”
Sounds really good. Not comprehensive but it is a large improvement.
I’m guessing actinobacteria are still the major issue in biological treatment (clumping), however, am very pleased they’ve not gone the silly chemical sanitation route, which produces treated yet unusable water. The clumping could be used for solids removal and processing as solid compost making the water treatment a lot easier. I’ve seen similar on a farm where solids were taken out before effluent ponding, the solids becoming compost. The Farmer could not get enough of the compost though it sat for a year and let the worms have at it to finish.
The composts from these processes can then feed non-edible crops to make them removed from human consumption/western sensibilities e.g. timber crops.
Exactly Herodotus, are the developers in particular those that are contributing the most to wastewater pollution with large high rises, are not being charged a new levy for ‘user pays’ with new builds for pollution and wastewater, as because as you rightly say, they are also getting the cream of public transport money too.
And often the inner city apartments are not good options for Kiwi families who sound like they are one of the poorest demographics now. But new builds and in particular apartments are open to be speculated on by the world’s wealthy as they are exempt from the OIA.
Meanwhile the poor on the outer city limits with no or few public transport options are forced to pay the petrol tax that the mostly inner/central city folks are largely exempted from for commuting to work or university.
Of course getting to the airport is a priority for work and holidays which is why that is PRIORITY number one for public transport. We can’t let the politicians get stuck in traffic going to Wellington or Phil Goff’s trip to China or expect them to pay an airline levy for the public transport link that Auckland ratepayers are expected to pay for.
Rampant development around beaches and more and more run off from roads are having a horrible effect.
Long Bay (rampant development) was the only beach to experience a more extreme red alert last summer with a reading of 810 enterococci/100ml taken on New Year’s Day after heavy rainfall.
Apparently…
“Recent historical data for the water quality of our swimming beaches is not available for comparison.
North Shore City Council stopped routine monitoring in 2008 because it was confident of its ability to identify water quality issues after analysing the previous 10 years worth of data.
Auckland Council resumed water quality testing on the North Shore last November because it felt there was an inconsistent approach to water safety across the city.”
I think the shell fish has also been effected around Long Bay regional park area, but any media about the pollution is quickly pulled. The developer seems to be able to keep it out of the media, surprise surprise.
Dirty water: Raw sewage flowing into Auckland Harbour will increase with new housing projects
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11785299
P>S> hope those that once believed that the new housing was necessary for affordable housing for Kiwis, are now able to comprehend that allowing new builds to be sold and speculated around the world, firmly puts a stop to that idea and they are instead a way to do a Natz and keep the lazy economy moving within the Ponzi, while making the Kiwis who are rate payers pay for it and the residents and future generations pay for it with increased pollution and loss of quality of life, and new charges being dreamed up, for anything from petrol to wastewater around the city .
I can affirm that (Long Bay) having heard it directly from a marine biologist investigating the site.
If we use this new diversion drain (central interceptor), AND capture roof water for gardens, we might actually cope in Auckland. Road runoff could be diverted more creatively too. Some to wetlands, some to industry…
Took the girls to the Santa Parade over in Richmond yesterday.
What kind of flag is that mum? They asked as a ‘redneck’ float went past.
That’s the confederate flag, it’s a symbol of white people using black people for slaves in the USA.
Woah, why is it in the parade mum?
Because, it was on the roof of a popular ‘redneck’ race car in a 1980’s TV series, which made a whole generation relate that flag to nothing else but two men and a Chrysler.
Some might say people are going PC mad, others might say we need to learn about real history rather than the Dukes of Hazard.
Was wondering if anyone else noticed….. looks like they did…PS the beer cans were tacky as.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/108856953/richmond-santa-parade-features-redneck-xmas-float-sporting-confederate-flag
That is so bad, its supposed to be about the kids!
What idiot would think, I know let’s advertise alcohol and bring in some racist overtones for the kids this year.
“Because, it was on the roof of a popular ‘redneck’ race car in a 1980’s TV series, which made a whole generation relate that flag to nothing else but two men and a Chrysler.”
I think you kind of nailed it on the head here
I would think there are quite a lot of people who just aren’t aware of the fairly recent controversy around it, as they just don’t take a huge amount of interest in current US cultural issues.
They do just associate it with TDoH and that is what they got brought up as to what the flag represents. Personally I don’t actually put any blame on them, US events can sometimes be exceedingly dull and have zero relevance to NZ
Slight side point
Pretty sure the car was a Dodge Charger. Chrysler was the Aussie version.
Chrysler was owned by Dodge and the Dodge shared some structure, but it was a different shape etc.
Yes that’s the one, a Dodge Charger, you are correct, Chrysler was the Aussie version. Is Mopar the umbrella for all of them?
I think you are correct in saying that many don’t pay much attention to current events in the USA, and as a result may not know any better.
The parent company was Chrysler right from the beginning in the 1920s up until the merger/bailout/buyout by Fiat a few years ago. The Dodge name was acquired not long after startup, and a bunch of other brands like De Soto, Plymouth, Imperial etc were acquired/created, used for a while, then killed/sold. Chrysler also got involved in various games of Big Boy’s Monopoly in buying and selling other car companies around the the world, such as the Rooted Group that was responsible for atrocities such as the Hillman Scavenger …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler
Thanks Andre 🙂
The Hillman Scavenger?
I’ve heard of a Hillman Avenger and Hillman Hunter, but not a Hillman Scavenger.
And what about the Hillman Shrimp?
I learned to drive in a Humbug 80 (along with a left hand drive series2 Landy that I took my license test in).
But I always figured the Hillman Minx couldn’t become a bigger object of derision no matter what you did to the name.
Yep, Minx is hard to ‘upgrade’..
mmmm @ Andre.
I saw you more in a black Super Snipe.
It had that really really huge bonnet ahead of its steering wheel and some serious straight in-line cylinders. It was mainly driven by those that had reason (such as a J Toebes – gone but not forgotten).
But then it had many others who could only pretend and tryhard jobbie jobbie to emulate
Aah
Wrong way round, sorry
Cheers for that info’
Chris T is correct, and to give some context to the Dukes Of Hazard the car was named the General Lee and the thing they were celebrating was Lee being a “rebel”, and so were the Dukes. There’s also Billy Idols song Rebel Yell which refers to the shouts of the confederate army when going into battle. Of course we know better now, I see trucks with the flag all the time, either that or a Jim Beam flag, I doubt they put much thought into it other than it “looks cool”. Watch the TV series Atlanta which cleverly takes the piss out of southern racists.
I don’t think there is a “fairly recent controversy” over it. There’s been negative connotations surrounding that flag for decades.
I also find it difficult to reconcile that a bunch of people would openly parade around with that flag looking nothing like DoH and not have a second thought about how they come across.
Yes there have been connections to slavery etc for decades, but the flag was largely put up with.
They even had it on the car in that dire movie version in 2005 with no controversy
It has only really got as massive as it is now since Charleston in 2015.
It fact they actually removed production and sales of their General Lee toys straight after because of this.
https://ew.com/article/2015/06/24/dukes-hazzard-general-lee-confederate-flag/
Maybe there was little controversy because the movie makers saw it as a significant issue back in 2005, and they had to address it within the script.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us7v8vQpmZg
The trailer also does it’s best to show the car lots and lots and obscure the flag.
It wasn’t just the flag. Within months after Charleston the flag was banned from most shops, was being removed from display every where.
As I say, before the Charleston event it was largely just put up with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_display_of_the_Confederate_flag#Reactions_to_2015_Charleston_church_shooting
It is also what kicked off the demolition and/or removal of statues and monuments.
The USA is our default godfather don’t you know, just listen to the news from RadioNZ every day, what other country gets the same coverage? And their citizens are a dime a dozen around the country. Free to enter almost at will and probably easy residency though few would give up their own States citizenship. They like having the best of both worlds, maybe ‘to have their cake and eat it too’.
Ain’t that the truth @ Greywarshark.
They’re probably the lowest of the low on that demographic immigration spreadsheet – oops, I meant ‘best practiced risk analysis’ immigration criteria reference’, just next to mother Britain and slightly above a Canadian.
I’m not exactly sure of the weightings or where the Okkers rank.
As for giving up their own States citizenship, I have a close relative who has now lived far more of his life in NuZull than the Greatest Nation on Earth. He even has one of those ONZ or Merity trinkets. Trying to renounce US citizenship was like being placed on a charge of treason.
Are you saying he wanted to give up USA citizenship, or can you become dual under NZ law? And they didn’t like him wanting to be in Godzone??
I’m saying yes, he wanted to renounce his US citizenship. He no longer felt any sort of affinity with the place and had become more than disillusioned with its policies overseas (not that he ever publicly stated them). Most of his US based relatives had already karked it.
I think he retains dual citizenship to this day – the threats of tax audits and various other hurdles meant renouncing it just wasn’t worth it.
Oh, and to clarify…..I meant that non-US, non-Canadian, non-Brit dontcha know immigrants figure on the best practice risk analysis reference crib sheet whilst, as you suggest, the US citizen is automatically an asset and due for a rubber stamp on the PR application.
Were their any float’s from Hawera?
Anyway if you want people not fly those flags then a start, is to get people of NZ to understand history.
Because at present there is a dumbing down the NZ education system for arts and reducing tertiary departments for the arts, discouraging people to study the arts in NZ (apart from Law of course when we have all manner of fascists operating because they have no understanding of history, let alone morals), removing resources for the arts aka libraries, undermining history of western and local history at government and council level in real terms apart from surface representation with no real deep understanding of history, art and culture from different view points.
If this is the standard https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/11/students-launch-petition-after-confusion-by-word-trivial-in-nzqa-exam.html we might have a lot more flags flying whether confederate or CCP or who know who else we can sell out to or start a race war over.
No floats from Hawera, far out those ‘lions’ really did my head in.
Am pretty sure both of those float theme’s came from similar generations.
There is a lack of diversity in Richmond, which results in a lack of understanding especially when it comes to different cultures. Tunnel vision as. Spot the brown person. You get the picture.
I know at the local school here in Motueka, they do learn about many different cultures. This is in part due to such diversity within the students and families here. And it’s awesome. It makes a huge difference, it really does, one of the reasons this white girl moved her little family here.
Absolutely get where you are coming from SaveNZ re history/culture/arts knowledge of different view points etc.
Western MSM expose their own total lack of integrity and pretense of being institutions of fair and balanced reporting through their own deafening silence in the defense of the creator of the most effective whistle blower delivery system the world has ever seen..
ON CONTACT: CRUCIFYING JULIAN ASSANGE
Chris Hedges and Joe Lauria, journalist and editor-in-chief, Consortium, discuss efforts to force WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange, out of the Ecuador Embassy in London and extradite him to the USA to stand trial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hyZktgMp4Q
Chris Hedges discussed the Death of the Liberal Class back in 2011.
Very prescient of him as it is only now that most commentators have noticed this.
Yes it is a very sad indictment on western ‘liberial’ media including our own RNZ that nearly all the (now former) heroes of western reportage Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald etc are all now effectively barred from having a voice on any of the outlets that used to champion them, we really are living is a Orwellian period of, half truths and out right lies.
love him or not, bomber bradbury being banned (alliteration!), from rnz the panel is another example.
i heard the segment when it was broadcast, and yes, twas bombastic.
i couldn’t disagree with him and found it refreshing to hear that attitude put so forthrightly.
Evidence-based public policy often uses science as basis, and science often uses stats. Don’t assume stats are reliable. Those commissioning research are inclined to try to leverage the outcome:
“A stunning report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine concludes that researchers often make “inappropriate requests” to statisticians. And by “inappropriate,” the authors aren’t referring to accidental requests for incorrect statistical analyses; instead, they’re referring to requests for unscrupulous data manipulation or even fraud.”
“The authors surveyed 522 consulting biostatisticians and received sufficient responses from 390. Then, they constructed a table (shown below) that ranks requests by level of inappropriateness. For instance, at the very top is “falsify the statistical significance to support a desired result,” which is outright fraud. At the bottom is “do not show plot because it did not show as strong an effect as you had hoped,” which is only slightly naughty.”
How prevalent is the coercion? Quite prevalent: “a whopping 24% — nearly 1 in 4 — said they were asked to remove or alter data. Unequivocally, that is a request to commit scientific fraud.” https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/10/30/1-4-statisticians-say-they-were-asked-commit-scientific-fraud-13554?fbclid=IwAR2K2vQwDeiso_lEA5U3Z_G3b3nh7E2mI62n-LcTlk5_ouSVikR9tqjpm0Y
My supervisor was dead set against me removing data that could be dubious in case it also removed the result. I did it anyway as science idealistically is about getting to the truth of a thing, not a convenience. Had to argue black and blue to get things done ‘properly.’
This was UoA, 2016.
The result was that my result was that much stronger, even with a smaller data set. It really annoyed me when he tried to stifle my enthusiasm for getting to the crux of things. I’d prefer no result to a BS result, any day.
Yeah, me too. Doing college science in the sixties, we were taught never to eliminate anomalous data points, always put them on the graph even if miles away from the trend line makes them look wacky. Authenticity.
So you can imagine how I felt when reading the Climategate emails, seeing actual professors agreeing to remove outliers so they could defeat climate deniers more convincingly!! They say the end justifies the means. History shows that everyone slides down a slippery slope into evil if they use that attitude.
The most interesting discoveries are often the outliers.
One salt tolerant species of Taro – do not report Taro are not salt tolerant – cultivate that superstar!
Sometimes outliers should be clearly taken out (a female in an all male dataset on muscle power) and some should be left in (Bill Gate’s income clearly belongs to a dataset about American incomes) … or not, depending on the point of the analysis.
Sometimes the answer is clear about what to do and sometimes it’s not clear which way to go (Does Peter Thiel’s income belong in a dataset about NZer’s incomes?). Usually, if you’re stuck not knowing what to do then analyse with and without outliers and see what difference it makes (and present both answers if there are clear differences).
Unfortunately, people want clear cut answers and sound nibbles – equivocation is taken as a weakness.
Very pleased to hear/see you stood your ground!
Reminds me of the Stanford prison experiment, which as far as I can see had no real concret ‘scientific’ results to speak of , but nonetheless was ( and probably still is) used as some sort of meaningful insight to human behaviour under certain conditions.
That was a doozy, indeed. They even made a movie about it: “The 2015 film The Stanford Prison Experiment is based on the experiment.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
I just went to remind myself, and the wiki account has a bunch of interesting nuances. Critics make valid points, but I still agree with Zimbardo’s thesis. Human nature is indeed context-driven. Warping via context can be designed.
” but I still agree with Zimbardo’s thesis. Human nature is indeed context-driven. ”
I too agree completely with that thesis, this was the point I was trying to make with a producer from RNZ during an email exchange earlier in the year, her position was, we give people the stories they want to hear, so (according to her) people are more interested in peoples stories/lives from France or the USA than they are of people in Africa/Asia or the Middle East, to which I responded, people would be concerned or interested in other peoples lives and interests of any country in the World if those peoples lives were contextualised, given form and substance, a privilege that RNZ rarely gives to these ‘other’ people…so in fact the editorial decisions of RNZ becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Stanford been debunked according to a report I heard recently.
And Bertrand Russell (I think) comes to mind on fools being quick in decision making while wisdom takes longer.
Russell was the first thinker I stumbled across and liked ( probably because of his support of Muhammad Ali ) when I was a angry young 14 or 15 yo punk, I somehow found an audio of his debate with Father Frederick C. Copleston, it was a pivotal moment for me, there was something about the way these two thinkers with completely opposing concepts of reality sparred with an intellectual grace that greatly impressed me at the time, and still does.
Oh for intellectual grace Oh Lord.
not quite sure what the problem with good manners and a bit of grace in a debate is…
I think Grey’s point was that good manners and a bit of grace in a genuine debate between intellectually mature people is as rare as a flying Dodo and a flying Moa doing air-acrobatics in your backyard.
That remark wasn’t being sarcastic or pointed at you Adrian – it was a great phrase that I liked the sound of and would like to aspire to. So there is no problem at all. We have enough already without misunderstanding each other. Sorry about that.
And ianmac you have also expressed yourself well. Very funny. The blog has been very interesting lately.
The data are unreliable, the stats are unreliable, the scientists are unreliable and thus so-called evidence-based public policy is unreliable? Is that your message, Dennis? So, we might as well flick a coin to make important decisions? An almost 50% chance of getting it right?
Things aren’t that bad. Yet. I think it signals a trend that has serious implications for public policy formulation. Reliance on stats is no longer a good idea. There’s still quite a prevalent tendency for folks to have blind faith in scientists. Sceptical appraisal makes more sense now.
The other thing to learn from this study is the extent to which motivation is likely to warp the findings of scientists. Climate science has exposed that too, but admissions from so many researchers that they had been offered inducements to produce suitable results indicates the likelihood of a proportion of acceptance.
Since those who take the money are unlikely to admit doing so, we can only speculate on that proportion. The bottom line is that truth and reality are not the only factors incentivising scientific discoveries: we now have good reason to suspect that some such are fake news. Which is where the scientific discipline of replication comes in. Such discoveries become reliable when confirmed by other researchers operating independently. Initial discoveries ought to be regarded as provisional. Of course, the media will ignore that need for caution.
Good reply, thanks.
I do struggle a little with the ambiguous term “scientific discovery” but can’t formulate a decent argument for discussion right now except to say that provisional findings make for poor public policy or (better) not at all. Maybe another time.
White women are a conservative force in the USA: “white women voters overwhelmingly threw their support behind conservative Republican male candidates. Again. They did it for President Trump, who won an estimated 53 percent of the white female vote in 2016. And they did it with Roy Moore, accused of sexually predatory behavior, in Alabama’s special Senate election last year.” https://www.vogue.com/article/white-women-voters-conservative-trump-gop-problem
““Our perception that white women are going to vote the way ‘we’ think they should has been proven false over and over again,” Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, historian and author of Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy, tells Vogue. She points to white women’s historic role in upholding racial segregation, from campaigning against the United Nations (on the grounds that it would upend the racial divide) to rallying against school integration after Brown v. Board of Education, including leading the charge against busing black students to new districts. The Confederate monuments that have caused so much modern-day controversy, McRae adds, were often funded by white women’s organizations, prior to the 19th Amendment.”
“The latest gut punches, courtesy of CNN polling: In the Georgia governor’s race, an estimated 75 percent of white women—more even than white men!—voted for Republican Brian Kemp, who is passionately pro-life, over Stacey Abrams, a staunch protector of women’s reproductive rights, while 97 percent of black women supported her. In Texas, 60 percent of white women cast their ballots for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a supporter of alleged assaulters President Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, over Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is dedicated to improving women’s health care. (Ninety-four percent of black women backed O’Rourke.)”
@ Dennis Frank. Interesting juxtaposition between your post on 6, showing how statistics are being manipulated with your post 7 suggesting that an estimated white women voted 53% in 2016 for Trump (also suggests that estimated 47% white women did not vote for Trump). Then add in voters who did not vote, any statistical error and based on who identifies as ‘white’ and who identifies as a ‘women’. Not sure what the point of your post of 7 is, actually? would be more interesting if you had the entire estimated voting gender/ethnicity.. otherwise what is the point of it especially as it seems like your selected demographic of ‘white women’ is actually pretty even between Trump and not voting for Trump (if that was the point of the statistic).
It actually shows that relying on identity politics in politics is probably not a good idea.. people are voting on their perception of who they think is the better candidate.. and going on about reproductive rights aka abortion, to christians might not be a good idea..
Is there a correlation between white women’s numbers who are linked to religious groups and churches with a patriarchal bias, and Republican voting?
75% identified as Christian in US in 2015. But the number is dropping fast.
107:100 boys:girls, so close to half of them female.
> 60% white.
> 325 million Americans.
325 x 0.6 x 0.5 x 0.75 = approx 73 125 000 white christian women voters in US.
Churches with patriarchal bias = pretty much all of them.
1 Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent.”
Or this gem
Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”
Anyone with half a heart only has to read that cursed book to reject it.
Brainwashing in US however, runs very deep. All that patriotism doesn’t leave much room for grey matter. Republicans, like our own right w(h)ingers, love repugnant rhetoric espousing them as natural leaders. Here’s another pearl of wisdom from the ‘good book’.
1 Peter 2:18 “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.”
Here’s some breakdown of beliefs and political affiliation. Actual proportions of each religion would be nice to have as well.
http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/party-affiliation/
the scary one is “Sources of guidance on right and wrong”
Republicans use religion to guide them 44% of the time, science 6%. Religion to guide them in their sexist racist homophobic genocidal ways. Science because Space Force!
Thanks WtB. I thought you were green, but you come in many colours like Josephs coat I see. The saying religiously-related applying to me:
‘The Lord loves a tryer’. Thanks for the help with the maths.
I was just reporting the Vogue writer’s framing (women voting against their common interests) but I agree with you that identity politics is unreliable. Stats are equally so. One could likewise argue that the conservative women identify with their husbands, their class interests, their skin colour etc…
Nice poem by poet Essa May Ranapiri
HOW COULD I MISS YOU WITH KUMARA IN THE OVEN
started reading the book backwards
to get through the 25 minutes
from notes to final section
to the middle to first line of first
poem to
acknowledgements to
isbn
every last word so brand new
i don’t need to be afraid of what comes next
if i’ve already looked at where the monster ends up
splotching plate with aioli
spearing each chip with the fork
i rinsed clean in the sink
after it lay in the sink
for about a week
i’m reminded our people travelled so far
and how far we’ve come coz
i’m scared to leave the couch
https://www.maoriart.org.nz/blog/how-could-i-miss-you-with-kumara-in-the-oven-a-poem-by-essa-may-ranapiri?fbclid=IwAR2KuVmSxqtrMzvrFLWzLHNM39i9XsOoxxRLYXMqwcMPQnqPOtKph2L_rI4
Very good poem. Thank you.
Next May’s European elections will be pretty interesting as a real stress test for anti-immigration populism.
Here comes Yanis Varoufakis for EU Parliament, proposing to represent …………. Germany.
Yesterday he accepted the nomination on behalf of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), which he launched in 2016 to “democratize” the continent. He calls it the European Spring, after the Arab Spring.
Ha, that’s funny, wonder what those gangsters at Deutsche Bank make of that?
Ad,
My son is leaving to work again in Germany so I will report to you what the mood is over there now as when Sam (my Son) was in Germany working last during 2005 to 2006 he said then that Arabs/Turks and others were coming in and locals were fearful then to walk the streets at night so interesting times indeed.
BTW @ CG – what happened with that visa situation you mentioned a few days ago?
Not unusual or recent my wife and I took a stroll in Southern French city in early 90s and began to notice we were in an area of group’s of men standing about, a lady pulled over in her car and suggested we hop in as the area was not safe for us and as we were feeling intimidated by the looks we were recieving we did.
That’s interesting. A boy on a bicycle in some USA city suburb was stopped by a large man with the Orthodox Jew hat and curl on. He was refused entry.
He felt quite uneasy.
nd who were afraid? It can be important for women in any town and city to know they will be safe at night, and if they have fears, they may hesitate to try but the fear may be unjustified.
I can’t say who we we afraid of but the looks we recieved from these men was not of welcome and the feeling was not good. On the same trip we arrived early in the morning from an overnight train and found ourselves in the midst of many homeless and rough sleepers with smiles we felt quite comfortable to sit take coffee and a bun. As a traveller I find it’s best to trust your feelings. In Sth East Asia I poke my nose into most situations but found in Cambodia stepping outside the tourist areas was quite uncomfortable. But seeing the horror museums and reading that to survive meant being able to smash your mother’s skull with a hoe I understand how the locals might feel less socially inclusive.
comments from friends in the US, Mexico closed its side of the border, and the US are firing tear gas into Mexico?
still waiting for something official well at least more then twitter,
https://twitter.com/annie_rose23/status/1066782639007232001?s=21
oh well, surely he is gonna make America great again, and bring freedoms and peace to some if not many, or something something something,
totally unrelated of course,
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/world/the-latest-ukraine-russia-opens-fire-on-ukrainian-vessels/878291999
“The European Union has called on Russia and Ukraine to “act with utmost restraint to de-escalate” the situation in the Black Sea.
Ukraine says that three of its ships have been seized by the Russian coast guard, including two that were fired upon, and two crew members were wounded. Russia has blamed Ukraine for preparing and orchestrating “provocations.”
The EU, in a statement from foreign affairs spokeswoman Maja Kocijanic, also said that it expected Russia to “restore freedom of passage” through the Kerch Strait after Moscow blockaded it.”
nothing happened, nothing to see, move along citizen
Hmmm
Interesting timing, just as Kiev launches a move occupying village in buffer area between the front lines in Eastern Ukraine. , and as Poroshenkos ratings hit an all time low(7.8%) with elections coming up and Yulia Tymoshenko looking set to win
Poroshenko now has the consent of his national defence and security council to declare martial law , which would suspend parliament and elections , can be used to ban protests and activities by political parties, and allows for media, TV stations and newspapers to be shut down.
Russia has called for an emergency meeting of theUN SC scheduled in about 9 hours.
Poroshenko has scheduled a meeting with Stoltenberg.
Basically a squabble over whether Ukraine gave advance notice of intention to move through that Kerch area, which they say they did. The Russian coastguard says they didn’t.
Previously Ukraine has obeyed that protocol
poor russia, so hard done buy the big angry heavily armed superpower Ukraine, who always goes walkabouts invading in Russia, seizing Russian ships n just. Luckily Russia is calling for the help of the UN. Cause what would Russia do otherwise. Cry a bucket?
TBF, poor Russia has a few problems of her own.
A day after Russia’s massive PD-50 drydock suddenly sank underneath the country’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, as it was receiving a long-awaited overhaul in frigid Murmansk, just how big a deal this may end up being for the Russian Navy is becoming clearer. The dry dock, which is the largest of its kind in Russian hands, appears to have sunk at first on a steep incline before it disappeared totally beneath the water’s surface. Russian officials are now saying that it could be many months before it is raised from the seabed 160 feet below and that doing so would be a very tedious and delicate operation. That’s if they decide to salvage it at all.
Regardless, PD-50 services all types of vessels that make up Russia’s most powerful fleet, including its largest submarines. So leaving it out of action for years, or even losing it altogether, would be a major hit for the Northern Fleet and the Russian Navy’s overall readiness.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/24572/russias-dry-dock-accident-could-have-far-larger-repercussions-than-a-damaged-carrier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIbvlwbq_CQ
I wonder if that is connected to climate change. Less ice in Murmansk, was it set on an ice plateau?
Whooosh!
Such malice Sabine and Joe90, aint good for your liver.
Ukraine is seen as in the USA oriented nations, and which country knows what they will do next. White the USA surrounds itself with defensive sites. Didn’t help with September 2001 though.
malcolm gladwell has a great podcast series.
one of the episodes was looking at the movement of people across the mexican/u.s. border over 40 or so years.
the surprising conclusion was that when movement was less stringently controlled (up till the last 10 years), mexicans were far more likely to return and stay home, (not be aliens/illegal), than when the border got tightly controlled.
i thoroughly recommend revisionist history podcast.
i am not sure what this episode was.
another goodie was looking at french fries and how much better they tasted when they were cooked in beef fat compared to vege oils.
vege oils that are not good for you…
there are whole familys that are almost nomadic, they travel the various states for the harvest seasons and once done go back home. Rinse repeat every year.
but hey, what ever gets one elected as the candidate not beholden to corporate interest, self funded, and only worried about the economic anxiety of the white male working class.
After all, all mexicans are rapists and drug peddler. So said the Orange Saviour in 2015. In front of a camera and people and everyone just nodded and said: It is good.
This happens in Queensland too. I met a few Thai couples who came over each year to pick tomatoes then went back.
Bridges weighs in on the great 2018 Santagate controversy.
Good to see him talking about the “important” issues
https://en.brinkwire.com/news/santa-claus-is-a-man-and-thats-how-it-should-be-simon-bridges/
“I think it’s just PC gone – I don’t know if it’s mad, but too far. You guys this morning are telling me that man didn’t walk on the moon, now you’re telling me Santa’s a woman – I just want a few things I can believe in.”
“…….We’ve got discrimination rules and they’re absolutely right, you know, whether it’s gender, whether it’s ethnicity,” said Mr Bridges.
“But I think the truth is on Santa, this is a traditional thing. Mary Poppins is a woman, Santa Claus is a man. That’s how it should be……”
Saint Nicolaus was a man, Santa Claus is a fat made up american bloke in costume created to sell coca cola.
gosh that man is tedious.
My point is that you begin by a personal attack on AM Brady, with the intention of diminishing her credibility, as a preamble to dismissing whatever she has to say.
It seems like a shabby way to argue.
A.
[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.]
No Antione. You don’t have a point. I was quite explicit in saying “some may”, and gave another possibility too before writing that I wasn’t offering an opinion on either or either way.
I listened to what she said. Have you? I put up opinion and thoughts you could have engaged with.
You’ve chosen not to engage and to splatter a post with bullshit. So your comment’s now over here on Open Mike.
Oh, come on.
If I say “some may say X is a swivel-eyed loon but I couldn’t possibly comment”, then everyone will understand this as a coy way of saying “X is a swivel-eyed loon”.
Well, comport yourself as you like but don’t expect the rest of us to be impressed.
A.
Sure. My bias was stated. And then there was substantive opinion and thought to read and commented on in light of that bias.
You want to spend a day engaged in stirring up vacuous personal bullshit in lieu of engaging with substantive content? That’s what bullshit message boards and facebook are for.
I don’t have a response to the remainder of your comment. Don’t know enough about the case and wouldn’t comment on here if I did.
A.
Hospital Workers get rises of 24% to 40% on their hourly rate, some back dated 6 mths and this over 2 and a half years. A piece of good news in the Herald today.
Which ‘hospital workers’ if I may ask? Everyone??
A.
Antoine, good point. Orderlies, laundry workers, cleaners, kitchen workers and attendants. Cheers.
Thank you, and good news. (It was nationwide?)
A.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/108861000/pay-rise-of-up-to-40-per-cent-for-thousands-of-hospital-services-workers
Very surprising that this didn’t get more attention here today …
Antione, yes MECA Multi Employer Collective Agreement.
Sabine at 11.1
“Saint Nicolaus was a man,Santa Claus is a fat made up american bloke in costume”
He was a man; – yes – and Saint Nicholas was not Santa Claus either!
According to this German historical record of the two men, known as “Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas.. – No mention of Coca cola though, sarc’.
https://www.german-way.com/history-and-culture/holidays-and-celebrations/christmas/saint-nicholas/
Christmas Customs: St. Nicholas – der Heilige Nikolaus
Wer ist Sankt Nikolaus?
– Who is Saint Nicholas?
For a long time in Austria and some regions of Germany, particularly in Bavaria, St. Nicholas was the main character in the Christmas celebration.
But he was not Santa Claus, and he arrived earlier – on the 6th of December. His usual, less friendly escort went by different names in different places: “Belsnickle,” “Niglo,” “Pelznickel,” and others. Santa Claus or Father Christmas is a more recent tradition. Since the Germans (and the Dutch) brought many of their customs to America directly or indirectly, we need to look first at Europe in order to understand the American and worldwide Christmas celebration of today.
I am german, i am bavarian. Thanks for the history lesson. We only have St. Nicolaus on the 6th of December, on the eve of the 24th we give pressies, go to midnight mess if so inclined, and that was that. No one crawling through the chimney or anything. 25th and 26th are Christmas Holidays without any importance other then visiting family and eating way to much food, and drinking way to much booze.
Santa Claus is if anything dutch in nature, and then co-opted by Coca Cola. The dutch would have called him Sinter Claas, and his helper is generally refered to as het swarte piet. The black pete.
Hence my comment in the first place about the gender and the reality of Saint Nicolaus, Bishop of Bari whom the legend says went out during a particular hard winter and left overings of food, clothes and toys for the children in front of the houses of the poor.
He should not be ‘played by a women’ cause he was a man, in saying that in the convent that i grew up and lived in for many years it was Nuns who played the part of St. Nicolaus and Kramperl (his helper) was also played by a Nun. They came with the book of good deeds and bad deeds, scared the small children witless and us older ones running down the halls of the convent screeching trying to figure out who played whom. However we never did. The Nuns always outsmarted us. Such are nuns, what can i say.
However, fat Coca Cola Santa can and should be played by whomever applies for hte role and is best suited.
That is what my comment relates too.
As for those that like this bit, St. Barbara is held on the fourth of December, Patron Saint of miners. I have her in mind, while the bodies of the pike river miners are recovered. She is often depicted with a lantern in her hand, surrounded by praying/crying women and children at the entrance of a mining shaft.
yeah, i am very bavarian, and i like my little customs. So light a candle on the 4th Dec, for all the miners everywhere. And give sweets to the kids on the 6th of december thanks to Saint Nicolaus.
I’m not so interested in who “Father Christmas” was . I like to think about who he can be, from this moment on. This year, courtesy of my now-convincingly festive white beard, I’m going to play “Father Christmas’s ” dad, Grandfather Christmas and give out to children, hope and encouragement along with packets of vegetable seeds 🙂
I found an educational video on Santa that might give you some ideas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpguHbHq3aE
Mihingarangi Forbes had a good idea on RNZ this arvo.
Having a kiwi character be the equivalent.
I think her suggestion was Rongo Ma Tane, God of cultivated plants and food.
How to make Auckland a city of the future? Give it back to the artists
https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/arts/how-to-make-auckland-city-of-the-future-give-it-back-to-artists/?fbclid=IwAR1PAjjOSuzW2bEys2T–1zb7PgQfkAppDMf6rZiEafZUHSstTi01Mgx8iI
Natioal Party may be behind these sudden vehicle liciencing issues being stirred up tas both Davaville and westland are both Labour strongholds we now await to see if a “Garage in a National stronghold is also pulled up” as the whole NZTA handling of vehicle licieces debate hots up.
Seocond garage found is “Westland tyre and Autos” is clearly a laour strondhold whom the NZTA agency has targetted now who has had that garage in Westland WoF licience evoked.
Will NZTA now target the National strongholds of West and north Auckland,,hamiton, Tauranga, Otago, and Southland?
We await for this with interest.
National Party seems to be causing trouble and friction among communities, only in labour held areas. it seems to be the new game of National politics.
So watch their ‘dark ops’ of “dirty politics” as time goes by.
Yes SaveNZ
you hit the mark there with the ‘Bridges issue’ here in your article see this statement made in the article https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/arts/how-to-make-auckland-city-of-the-future-give-it-back-to-artists/?fbclid=IwAR1PAjjOSuzW2bEys2T–1zb7PgQfkAppDMf6rZiEafZUHSstTi01Mgx8iI
Go to this site inside your article,
https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/simon-bridges-9-months-of-disaster-management/
Quote;
“It’s a reasonable bet that when Simon Bridges took on the job as leader in February he didn’t expect it would mostly involve wall-to-wall disaster management of National’s problems that would overshadow his attempts to harass the coalition government for its failings.”
As my bolg suggested; – National is trying now quietly to find as your article says; –
“problems that would overshadow his attempts to harass the coalition government for its failings.”
The Wof issue is one of those I suggest, as we already had this over the truck trailer issue last wanter when a Nelson enginerering shop signed off many truck trailers with false certificates, so now Bridges is causing further unrest amost the private vehicle liciencing now too.
Watch for this slimy Bridges character as he is a very slippery character.
So we do womder if he can dinger a Garage in his seat of Tauranga now for licience breaches of Wof’s?
The United States of America is firing chemical agents at women and children.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ds4MbkzU4AENr_m.jpg
Shocking. What is the international game plan as signed up with UN about this?
Or has USA lost every sense of appropriate behaviour, decency, respect for humanity? Time for a Billy Graham mass Christian campaign calling all the sinners back to the fold, and also making America great again in one package. At present there is an evil message being absorbed under a false flag.
The warmongering, anti-Semitic piece of shit’s memory should be rendered damnatio memoriae.
http://www.nypress.com/billy-graham-war-criminal/
I was short of anybody with that pulling power to ‘USA Christians’. So I picked the wrong guy did I. But is there a new, better sort of preacher that would turn this tide of negativity, racism, hate and bellicose scapegoating that mixed together looks nasty.
Anyone, as long as they take their damn fool book seriously.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14%3A13-21&version=NIV
You came up with a doozy of a link. So interesting and relevant to the voting for the Republicans and the connection with religion.
Also this on North Korea. I didn’t know the history and see why they have ‘ambivalent’ attitudes to the USA.
Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus Graham was advocating a policy to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief that on Nixon’s own estimate would have killed a million people.
The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.
(His execution did not deter the USAF from destroying the Toksan dam in North Korea, in 1953, thus deliberately wrecking the system that irrigated 75 percent of North Korea’s rice farms.)
You came up with a doozy of a link with that nypress one. So interesting and relevant to Republicans and voting and religion; this time anti-Jewish. And Billy Graham is very anti – doesn’t come across as a decent Christian for sure.
Also this on North Korea. I didn’t know the history and see why they have ‘ambivalent’ attitudes to the USA.
Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus Graham was advocating a policy to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief that on Nixon’s own estimate would have killed a million people.
The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.
(His execution did not deter the USAF from destroying the Toksan dam in North Korea, in 1953, thus deliberately wrecking the system that irrigated 75 percent of North Korea’s rice farms.)
and a useless fat ugly man is feeling all powerful, probably sexually aroused by the fear he creates and while watching fox news, eating literal shit sandwiches from MacDo gets off every time another canister gets shot across the border.
Cause nothing says powerful man more then crying mothers and children.
And this is how it starts. And this is how it always started. Some useless sadistic piece of shit supported by people cause……economic anxiety. T’was thus in Germany, and now we get to watch the sequel.
Seems good coverage of the Russian Ukraine matter with good accessabile map.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russia-closes-water-route-in-fresh-confrontation-with-ukraine/2018/11/25/a57adc3e-f0c1-11e8-99c2-cfca6fcf610c_story.html?utm_term=.c23cd49b3969
A Daily Mail version of the Russia Ukraine interaction.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6427285/Russian-Navy-opens-fire-Ukrainian-navy-boat-blocking-key-shipping-route-Crimea.html
Holy shit I just got all the way to the bottom of open mic. And not a single thread was a complete waste of time scrolling paste petty bullshit. . I don’t even think I read a single pointless slogan.
Take bow people. 😏
and you came along, and said nothing much of importance.
Take a bow. 🙂
Can we step back from little comments that add nothing. I did one yesterday and I promise not to do it again for a while. Could we all step back and let it go, unless having a rare poke whn the time is appropriate.
True
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has started trolling Fox News in Spanish…
https://mashable.com/article/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-fox-news-shoes/#pnwtiu3sCqqf
Anyone else splitting their sides laughing with simon bridges and nationals…. no new taxes announcement?
Was simon asleep during the johnkey years of government?
I’m pretty sure key promised the same then nek minute….. it’s a levy, it’s a fee, it’s not a tax, don’t forget raising gst.
No new taxes…. dosen’t mean we can’t increase the current ones.
Oh and if a CGT is introduced he is going to get rid of it, to help the poor (sarc)
Jacinda dismantled him at her post-cabinet presser today. He’s desperate. And National are trying to get their polling back above 40% before it becomes a downward spiral.
Hehehe nice.
Simon must be having a panic attack. I count 10 separate tweets and 2 retweets today.
https://mobile.twitter.com/simonjbridges?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
lmao the comments on his twitter.
It’s almost like he sends a tweet, bums out re the response, then decides to try again in desperation that someone, anyone will show him some support.
Freaking funny as, cheers for that Fireblade.
Possibly as many as 3 binding referendums at the next election? Our ballot papers will look like those enormous long ones they have in America.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/11/triple-header-referendum-looms-for-2020.html
Quite like the idea of referendums being included in the election. Cheaper than doing them separately. And possibly will make for a greater turn out of voters.
Agreed Cinny
I don’t mind a referendum but the binding bit sticks in the craw.
It all depends on the wording of the question.
E.g. marijuana. I am all for decriminilising the weed.
That would also go hand in hand with restrictions and decent education.
Not the DARE type, Mr Mackey “drugs are bad mmkay?”
I have no care for legalisation, i.e. handing pot over to big business a la alcohol.
Plus it might mean celebrity survivor fans have a large influence.
Kia ora Newshub These helicopter are crashing often.
The virus outbreak up In North Land condolences to anyone who has lost love ones.
It a big mystery around Whale stranding 145 stranded down South have died that’s sad. The worst thing one can do is give the issue publicity
The NZ CEO over half don’t use twitter ???????? Equality half Wahine CEO is needed to fix most of our problems.
I agree the addiction needs to be treated so the people doing dump things will be able to straighten up there act that’s a smart way to a positive solution to a bad problem.
I back welcoming Refugees they are people in need we can not ignore there suffering
and ha the west has cause most of these Refugee problems.
With the Smoking tax debate its a addiction tax’s don’t treat the addiction they just rake money from poor people who can’t beat the addiction billions should be invested to find better treatments for the smokers addiction not higher TAX.
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori encourages all the WORLDS CHILDREN to protest about the inaction of the
Worlds Governments to do everything in there POWER’S to mitigate Climate Change as it is there FUTURE we are poisoning and turning into hell for all as it is our children who have to clean up there MESS.
And if teachers really care about there children they will tau toko/support there STAND.
Scott Morrison has been labelled “out of touch” for angrily condemning a national student strike to protest government inaction on climate change.
The prime minister implored children to stay in class rather than protesting things that “can be dealt with outside of school”.
Everything you want to know about climate change in #MyClimateQuestions
Read more
“Each day I send my kids to school and I know other members’ kids should also go to school but we do not support our schools being turned into parliaments,” Morrison told parliament on Monday. Ka kite ano Links Below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/26/scott-morrison-tells-students-striking-over-climate-change-to-be-less-activist
This Swedish girl is protesting about the MESS the WORLD GOVERNMENTS are making of her future KA PAI /GOOD
When school started in August this year, I decided enough was enough. Sweden had just experienced its hottest summer ever. The election was coming up. No one was talking about climate change as a crisis.
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So I decided to walk out of school and sit on the ground outside the Swedish parliament to demand our politicians treat climate change for what it is: the biggest issue we have ever faced.
Because if climate change has to stop, then we must stop it. It is black and white. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival. Either we continue as a civilisation or we don’t. One way or another, we have to change. Countries like mine and Australia must start reducing our emissions dramatically if we believe in equality and climate justice.Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal, one of the leading cause of climate change. Your politicians want to help Adani build one of the biggest coal mines in the world. Right now, there are no policies to change this. There are no rules to keep coal in the ground. We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/26/im-striking-from-school-for-climate-change-too-save-the-world-australians-students-should-too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YQIaOldDU8
P.S I was just thinking that I did not see Paddy on the show Maui Dolphins are my favorites Tangaroa Mammal
Video for the above post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YQIaOldDU8
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOFvJVroAJE
Here you go he does not care about the billions of lives his ignorance is going to harm
donald trump has told reporters he doesn’t believe his own government’s climate change findings that the US economy will suffer substantially with continued warming from greenhouse gas pollution.
“I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine,” he said outside the White House on Monday. “I don’t believe it.”
From Facebook to climate change: how to bury bad news
Read more
The report, called the National Climate Assessment, was quietly released the day after Thanksgiving. Also last Friday, the government slipped out another environment internal report with bad news about emissions from oil and gas drilling on federal lands. Link below ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/26/trump-national-climate-assessment-dont-believe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szHhWhZZzTs#action=share
Eco Maori music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClU3fctbGls
Kia ora Newshub Tova Bulling is not acceptable and should be stamped out of all organizations.
That virus in North Land is shocking and in a place with high Maori population this tell me that we are a second class people .
The closing off Queen’s st to all but the essential vehicles is a really good move there are quite a few city’s around the world doing this with big success clean air.
Our children always have there faces in there Ph not I . I just do a lot of research for my mission I will be doing Eco Maori influencing for a long time.
The health supplements is not regulated.
Condolences to all the people who lost there houses in the big fire in Australia .
Everyone is buying Tesla cars A with GM lay off and some ones trade war is hurting the poor.
I have a consumers complaint every time I go to buy some thing some how they have not got the product I want so they say they will ring back but know O that’s just the bulling sandfly being muppets trying there best to try and upset me but no they are just small fry in Eco Maoris Papatuanuku.
Ka kite ano P.S some people think they know my whapapa but there is one line no one knows about.
Kia ora The Crowd Goes Mulls James & Wairangi Wild fingers crossed for the Black Caps.
The League dramas that move will get the punters out.
Yes Its cool that Joe Schmidts is stepping aside for his whano .
At the Bowls guys the Crowd is growing thats the way Tau toko them not to much cups of teas tho A.
That Hand glider person was lucky he only broke his wrist he would have had to change his ——
That was a good UFC KO kick the ref in the teeth lol we no what’s really in the water bottle mulls Ka kite ano