How times have changed. A few years ago a friend took exception to an employer secretly taping staff at his Service Station and took him to the Employment Court – and won.
“Austerity measures, wage cuts and rising unemployment have characterised the years since the crash of 2008 for working people. For the rich and super-rich, however, they have been the occasion for clawing back every penny of the initial losses made and adding a great deal more.
Today, the world’s wealthy are richer than before the crash and the number of individuals belonging to this highly exclusive club has grown.
The annual world wealth report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini identifies nearly 11 million “high net worth individuals” (HNWIs), defined as having more than $1 million in free cash, not including property and pensions. Their collective wealth reached $42.7 trillion in 2010, a 9.7 percent rise. This means that the wealth of this social layer has already surpassed the previous peak of $40.7 trillion reached in 2007.
…
The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as living on less than $2 a day. In 2001, some 1.1 billion people lived on less than $1 a day and 2.7 billion on less than $2 a day. Almost half of the world’s people—3 billion souls—live on less than $2.50 a day. One billion children—fully 50 percent of the world’s children—live in poverty. Six million children die of hunger every year, 17,000 every day.”
An economic and political system that tolerates such inequality and such economic brutality is an abomination and an obscenity. Yet we bleat about our won condition as we fight for our share of the cake. We are all caught living for the day, doing what we must to retain what comforts we have.
Those who have the wealth bear no useful function to our society, yet we by our own desires and demands are divided, ruled and conquered. Our compliance makes us accomplices and collaborators. We will only find redemption when we take action and expel the wealthy from our society.
Worse, we throw out items that a generation ago would still be working. We reward people to take away what should work and sell us something that will work for less long. If they raised the standards of housing, products and services, then we’d have more free time, more money left over and everything would be cheaper. Imagine that buying one toaster for your whole life, even getting it as a hand me down. And the strange thing is we will like the whole world have enough to eat, and live culturally rich lives. But no! We choose shallow regurgitated news cycle and movies, and worse of all dogmatic political economics from paid public and politicians who know better, or should be sacked or voted out. The funny, if you can see it that way, is history will call men like Brash and Key, and even Goff, fools. Their own grandchildren will be disinherited (unless a cheap form of energy is discovered), and so even today we know these men are fools since they don’t have the cheap energy source.
There’s no cheap energy source coming available for 20 years (or more). With additional safety requirements and fuel shortages, nuclear power is going to get more expensive not less. Even massive immediate discoveries in cold fusion will require many many years to commercialise safely into 100MW scale reactors.
So I reckon that by 2030 most will have to make do with a 1910’s level of per capita energy usage. It’s going to be a rough ride for western civilisation down the slope of depleting oil. $3/L petrol really is only a start.
Your grandchildren will not be disinheritted by energy depletion or a lack of the cheap material baubles of the oil age. I would prefer to think that we in three generations have disinheritted ourselves from the practical low energy based knowledge of life that our grandparents knew, and that our grandchildren will have to rediscover. Yes, life might be materially much harder but it might also be more spiritually rewarding given that we have divorced our spiriits from anything not from a manufactured technology derivation.
As a point of interest, the whole energy era of the last century has produced huge advances in knowledge and theory around mathematics and science, with towering intellects such as Einstein. Conversely in a sea of literature and arts I see no Shakespeare. Maybe technology and science have trumped the human spirit.
I agree with the sentiment. I just observe that our desires pick what we believe. Einstein had he not happened would have still seen the emergence of General Relativity, as would we have seen a ‘Darwin; if Darwin were not around. The times demanded new thought, a culture pregnant for new ideas.
Similarly now.
I find it astonishing that a man on the radio declared that people should starve and not get benefits, he sounded in his 20s having no doubt supped on the interest free student loans, and was sounded desperate to keep the good times going like he had a mortgage (may even less than the price of his home). What staggered me, was someone made unemployed might have no debts, might own their own home, might already be living a low carbon life, have savings in the local bank supporting local businesses, and doing everything right. And here was this smuck too smart for his own good, the ‘losers’ who supped on the tonic of high debt, who are carried and bailed out by the common community. Sorry but we so live in interesting times.
The great contraction has started. Do we want to make it easier on ourselves by fracting oil shale and leaving a wasteland that kills whole ecosystems for generations, killing the top predators like Eagles, or do we want to end the privately owned petroleum automobile culture and buy into wind farms that may or may not kill the odd eagle?
Activity for activity sake ‘economics’ is killing our planet, our future, and our yes very moral being, when our young smart people desperately peddle the far right wing greed at any cost is good. Sorry but real greed is knowing that too much greed harms you. We can have it all now, and nothing later, or we could have less now, more leisure time, more time with our kids doing low carbon, cost on society lowering healthy exercises running around playing footy with the kids.
I think our MSM has too many people who have too much debt and little common sense left.
But be warned they will come after us, criminalize or try to have us sanctioned for our political and social views. Its always the way with proto fascism.
Tocqueville observed of c.1840s American Democracy that Materialism was its shared value-system. That a basic urge to acquire more money and goods united all people and classes – and thus should be given free rein. Hence, American-style democratic capitalism.
What Tocqueville didn’t foresee is a time when the Materialistic ethos would become practically untenable due to shrinking resources and overpopulation. The challenge for Western democracies in coming years will be to replace Materialism with some other value-system that is compatible with democracy and broadly shared by all citizens. Otherwise, perhaps we will probably go toward some kind of Chinese-style political system.
Tocqueville was only one side of the equation though. In the 19th century there was a great interest in all things spiritual and philosophical in the US, a counter-reaction to the materialists who only believed in what they could own, buy, sell and touch.
At the end of the day the material capitalists may seem to have won out, but their victory is incomplete and as we can see now, increasingly shaky.
CV, yeah, I agree. In fact, Tocqueville himself saw religion as the great counter balance to materialism in American society. To some extent, this American religous strand continues to the present. But, just as the corporate capitalists have triumphed over the small business, the fundamentalists seem to have trumped the transcendentalists.
In some ways, the transcendentalist proto-hippy Henry David Thoreau presented a good model for a low-energy, low-labour, independent lifestyle. He was a bit unsociable though.
“Thousands to come off housing list” By Simon Collins Saturday Jun 25, 2011
________________________________________________________________________________
“With the continuation of Auckland’s serious housing crisis and families still languishing in sheds, garages and overcrowded and sub-standard accommodation, including those left homeless in Christchurch – the last thing any decent Government should be doing is privatising the state housing stock, using charities such as the Salvation Army and ‘trusts’ in a mixed economy to do it,” says Sue Henry, Spokesperson for the Housing Lobby.
“It is totally unacceptable to have Government policies in the 21st century that create instability, transience and homelessness.
There are several other aspects that are very concerning:
The ‘housing crisis’ will not be fixed by taking people off the waiting list.
Prime Minister John Key promised that there would be no asset sales in this first term of government. This is what John Key promised on 14 April 2008:
GUYON Alright you rightly point out it was sold by the National government in 1998 now that brings us to this position. What is your position now as a National Party on state asset sales?
JOHN Well National’s had some time to reflect on that and the position that we’ve decided to have is the following one.
That in the first term of the National government there will be no state assets that will be sold either partially or fully.
GUYON So no state assets, you’re completely firm on that?
JOHN That’s right.”
________________________________________________________________________________
“But Housing Minister Phil Heatley has said ‘some iwi groups wanted to take over managing state houses rather than buying them, but the Government wanted to sell them.’
Prime Minister John Key is breaking this promise.
The proposed sale of any state housing stock must cease forthwith.”
………………………
Sue Henry
Spokesperson
Housing Lobby
________________________________________________________________________________
Scrap over the housing stock
Scrap over the jobs
Scrap over the hospital waiting list
Scrap over cheaper places in childcare
Scrap over the specials at the supermarket
About 460 Housing NZ homes out of 6,000 in Christchurch are estimated to be reduced due to the earthquakes in the red and orange zones. The Government in 2011 are finishing off what they started in the mid 1990s concerning the housing stock for those with the most need.
About 460 Housing NZ homes out of 6,000 in Christchurch are estimated to be reduced due to the earthquakes in the red and orange zones. The Government in 2011 are finishing off what they started in the mid 1990s concerning the housing stock for those with the most need.
Yes, on RNZ and on TV, we keep hearing about home-owners, but what I want to know is: what has become of those who were renting, especially the poor? They are possibly in a much worse position than those in the Red zone who have discovered that their insurance companies aren’t going to pay out (which is bad enough).
HNZ stock is 6,000 in Canterbury my slight error. Vicky 32 do you mean those renting HNZ homes or private rental?
It is my understanding that if a HNZ tenant HNZ have relocated people in the red zone. Some in private rental have remained in their dwelling and no doubt there are tenancy issues.
It would be good to see a topic on this: rental stories from within the red zone regardless of being a private or HNZ tenant.
I was actually thinking about both, although it seems the HNZ tenants might (for a change!) be slightly more secure than those renting privately. (What I mean by that is that an HNZ tenant can be at the mercy of a loonie tenancy manager)
‘history will call men like Brash and Key, and even Goff, fools’
Anyone who knows what is actually happening with respect to energy and environment has been calling men like Brash, Key, anf Goff fools (or criminals) for several years.
Men (and women) like Brash, Key, Goff etc. have maintained their positions by ignoring reality as a matter of policy. Reality is now knocking at the door.
‘unless a cheap form of energy is discovered’
Cheap sources of energy were discovered (coal, oil and gas). They are what got us into this mess.
Fortunately there are no other forms of cheap energy. So, the present corrupt and inefficient political-economic system will collapse, almost certainly by 2015.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council said this week that excessive sludge on beaches is not associated with the discharge of dairy farm effluent. They said that the high levels of scum is all a part of nature and that surf diatoms are a type of phytoplankton, which is a main source of food for productive shellfish beds in the surf.
I sometimes listen to Radio Live talk back Saturdays ( no rude comments please) . Most interesting fellow named Keith Lewis , Certainly well on the political left. Anyone with any information. Last night said that Key was the most dangerous politician ever in NZ .Interesting because this is my belief too. It would be interesting to know something about him.
Remember those characters who wore a smiley mask on one side of their head and a demonic one on the other? Don’t know about Lewis but the masking would fit Key to a tee don’t ya see?
Until Madoff was uncovered, he was a light that people would recommend to their friends.
So is neo-liberal economics.
We will destroy ourselves by accepting at face value anything John Key has to say, not because its right or wrong (mostly wrong) but because we consent to everything he has done, is doing and will do in our names otherwise.
Periodically I put Key on par with Muldoon. The destruction Muldoon left is still around. E.g.
1) Crewe inquiry, 2) Colin Moyle inquiry, 3) Traumatised undercover cops trying to expose the short comings of being an undercover cop in particular Patrick O’ Brien (Iam no fan of high ranking cops at PNHQ as I know they have even concealed the truth in recent times), 4) Erebus inquiry.
I feel it in my bones that Key will be another Muldoon on how he performs regarding Pike River. Muldoon was mafia like concerning his dealings with the police because he NEVER held the police to account for 1) Who fed Rochelle, 2) Ensuring there was an internal police investigation into who in police leaked the Moyle incident, 3) The damage that resulted due to police undercover work, 4) What happened to Collins diary in the lock up at Mc Murdo Sound. Either the PM can have a commission of inquiry or the police commissioner can do an inquiry.
I am yet to see how Marshall performs regarding historical police matters which are still affecting people today.
There is one major difference between Muldoon and Key Treetop. Muldoon was an overt bully and a bastard. Key is a covert bully and a bastard. Also, it became quite well known that Muldoon used the SIS for his own political purposes. I don’t think Key will have tried that one on… unlikely to get away with it in this day and age.
Anne I knew that you would respond. Your idea on a book is a first rate idea. Of interest, goings on in the 1970s are being written about more now days. My library has Vol 1 but not Vol 2 “In New Zealand As it Might Have Been” by Hugh Eldred-Grigg. There is a chapter on Moyle in it. I need to read both volumes and have a think about what has really changed in 35 years between the police and certain prime ministers.
Did you know that Muldoon was Key”s idol in Key”s teen years and Muldoon got Key interested in politics. For all I know Muldoon could be Key’s hobby!
Pink Postman – this you may mean Keith Stewart. He is one of the few talkback hosts coming from the left and his show is often very interesting. Mikey Havoc was on Radio Live recently, he also appears to come from the left. Also made interesting talkback, wish they would give him a permanet job. Talkback radio can actually provide some interesting debate occasionally as opposed to the usual rightwing propaganda believe it or not!
Yes and thank you Belldonna. In fact I was listening to Keith Lewis the wonderfull NZ tenor and got the names mixed up. Im getting old and funny ,
However I am most impressed by K.Stewart and I would like to know about his background . Like you say it makes a change to get a good Leftie on talk back
The political left gained a victory this weekend with te Mana’s Hone Harawira winning the Tai Tokerau by-election. It’s a fantastic result considering the short amount of time te Mana had to launch their campaign and the negative media campaign run against the new party…
Press Release: New Publication Available Online Now
E-Release Only
Matters To A Head
Cannabis, mental illness & recovery
By Kate K
This highly readable and exciting new book explores the links between cannabis and mental illness through the personal and professional experiences of New Zealand author Kate K.
[This isn’t a place for a long advertisement, thanks, though you’ll probably get away with something short and a link to your web site. r0b]
This has made my day – smart girls from a decile one school and bees – one of the most important ecological issues of out time.
Against the odds, four young Kiwi girls have out-smarted some of the world’s top problem solvers. Oturu School placed second in the community section at the International Future Problem Solving Finals in the United States….
Deputy principal Heather Greaves, who travelled with the students, said the judges were impressed by the students’ ambitious plan to save the honey bee.
1000 new species, including a new species of dolphin, found in the Papua New Guinea rainforests and coast; profound, because this is now the third largest rain forest in the world, is on our door step and is at risk from climate change and exploitation of resources – such wonderful diversity, just found, but could be gone in a century.
Second – you may remember those TV road safety adverts with the old scary guy with the roulette wheel who decided whether they would crash, near miss, be killed, etc. How about a campaign at major intersection with people dressed as Key, English, etc, but instead having ‘Asset sales’, Privatisation, no GST increase, etc as the outcomes.
I do love the ads idea, only problem is that it is a very negative and downbeat campaign. Labour needs to present a different vision of the future, not just negate National’s crap.
It could however form the basis of a secondary viral campaign 🙂
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Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
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Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
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In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
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 ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
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. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
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. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
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Spying on workers made legal.
Presumably this new law also makes it legal for unions to install secret cameras to spy on bosses and hire private detectives to do so?
I can’t wait the day, that a manager is caught on tape plotting to victimise a worker who dares to join a union.
How times have changed. A few years ago a friend took exception to an employer secretly taping staff at his Service Station and took him to the Employment Court – and won.
How mad is that! Wow, sneaky… (I haven’t heard that reported on the radio or TV)
Wealth of the world’s richest rose nearly 10 percent in 2010
“Austerity measures, wage cuts and rising unemployment have characterised the years since the crash of 2008 for working people. For the rich and super-rich, however, they have been the occasion for clawing back every penny of the initial losses made and adding a great deal more.
Today, the world’s wealthy are richer than before the crash and the number of individuals belonging to this highly exclusive club has grown.
The annual world wealth report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini identifies nearly 11 million “high net worth individuals” (HNWIs), defined as having more than $1 million in free cash, not including property and pensions. Their collective wealth reached $42.7 trillion in 2010, a 9.7 percent rise. This means that the wealth of this social layer has already surpassed the previous peak of $40.7 trillion reached in 2007.
…
The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as living on less than $2 a day. In 2001, some 1.1 billion people lived on less than $1 a day and 2.7 billion on less than $2 a day. Almost half of the world’s people—3 billion souls—live on less than $2.50 a day. One billion children—fully 50 percent of the world’s children—live in poverty. Six million children die of hunger every year, 17,000 every day.”
An economic and political system that tolerates such inequality and such economic brutality is an abomination and an obscenity. Yet we bleat about our won condition as we fight for our share of the cake. We are all caught living for the day, doing what we must to retain what comforts we have.
Those who have the wealth bear no useful function to our society, yet we by our own desires and demands are divided, ruled and conquered. Our compliance makes us accomplices and collaborators. We will only find redemption when we take action and expel the wealthy from our society.
Worse, we throw out items that a generation ago would still be working. We reward people to take away what should work and sell us something that will work for less long. If they raised the standards of housing, products and services, then we’d have more free time, more money left over and everything would be cheaper. Imagine that buying one toaster for your whole life, even getting it as a hand me down. And the strange thing is we will like the whole world have enough to eat, and live culturally rich lives. But no! We choose shallow regurgitated news cycle and movies, and worse of all dogmatic political economics from paid public and politicians who know better, or should be sacked or voted out. The funny, if you can see it that way, is history will call men like Brash and Key, and even Goff, fools. Their own grandchildren will be disinherited (unless a cheap form of energy is discovered), and so even today we know these men are fools since they don’t have the cheap energy source.
There’s no cheap energy source coming available for 20 years (or more). With additional safety requirements and fuel shortages, nuclear power is going to get more expensive not less. Even massive immediate discoveries in cold fusion will require many many years to commercialise safely into 100MW scale reactors.
So I reckon that by 2030 most will have to make do with a 1910’s level of per capita energy usage. It’s going to be a rough ride for western civilisation down the slope of depleting oil. $3/L petrol really is only a start.
Your grandchildren will not be disinheritted by energy depletion or a lack of the cheap material baubles of the oil age. I would prefer to think that we in three generations have disinheritted ourselves from the practical low energy based knowledge of life that our grandparents knew, and that our grandchildren will have to rediscover. Yes, life might be materially much harder but it might also be more spiritually rewarding given that we have divorced our spiriits from anything not from a manufactured technology derivation.
As a point of interest, the whole energy era of the last century has produced huge advances in knowledge and theory around mathematics and science, with towering intellects such as Einstein. Conversely in a sea of literature and arts I see no Shakespeare. Maybe technology and science have trumped the human spirit.
I agree with the sentiment. I just observe that our desires pick what we believe. Einstein had he not happened would have still seen the emergence of General Relativity, as would we have seen a ‘Darwin; if Darwin were not around. The times demanded new thought, a culture pregnant for new ideas.
Similarly now.
I find it astonishing that a man on the radio declared that people should starve and not get benefits, he sounded in his 20s having no doubt supped on the interest free student loans, and was sounded desperate to keep the good times going like he had a mortgage (may even less than the price of his home). What staggered me, was someone made unemployed might have no debts, might own their own home, might already be living a low carbon life, have savings in the local bank supporting local businesses, and doing everything right. And here was this smuck too smart for his own good, the ‘losers’ who supped on the tonic of high debt, who are carried and bailed out by the common community. Sorry but we so live in interesting times.
The great contraction has started. Do we want to make it easier on ourselves by fracting oil shale and leaving a wasteland that kills whole ecosystems for generations, killing the top predators like Eagles, or do we want to end the privately owned petroleum automobile culture and buy into wind farms that may or may not kill the odd eagle?
Activity for activity sake ‘economics’ is killing our planet, our future, and our yes very moral being, when our young smart people desperately peddle the far right wing greed at any cost is good. Sorry but real greed is knowing that too much greed harms you. We can have it all now, and nothing later, or we could have less now, more leisure time, more time with our kids doing low carbon, cost on society lowering healthy exercises running around playing footy with the kids.
I think our MSM has too many people who have too much debt and little common sense left.
But be warned they will come after us, criminalize or try to have us sanctioned for our political and social views. Its always the way with proto fascism.
Tocqueville observed of c.1840s American Democracy that Materialism was its shared value-system. That a basic urge to acquire more money and goods united all people and classes – and thus should be given free rein. Hence, American-style democratic capitalism.
What Tocqueville didn’t foresee is a time when the Materialistic ethos would become practically untenable due to shrinking resources and overpopulation. The challenge for Western democracies in coming years will be to replace Materialism with some other value-system that is compatible with democracy and broadly shared by all citizens. Otherwise, perhaps we will probably go toward some kind of Chinese-style political system.
Tocqueville was only one side of the equation though. In the 19th century there was a great interest in all things spiritual and philosophical in the US, a counter-reaction to the materialists who only believed in what they could own, buy, sell and touch.
At the end of the day the material capitalists may seem to have won out, but their victory is incomplete and as we can see now, increasingly shaky.
CV, yeah, I agree. In fact, Tocqueville himself saw religion as the great counter balance to materialism in American society. To some extent, this American religous strand continues to the present. But, just as the corporate capitalists have triumphed over the small business, the fundamentalists seem to have trumped the transcendentalists.
In some ways, the transcendentalist proto-hippy Henry David Thoreau presented a good model for a low-energy, low-labour, independent lifestyle. He was a bit unsociable though.
MORE broken promises from National and John Key?
This time on the privatisation of state housing assets?
This is a BIGGIE!
Looking forward to ALL the parties that are opposed to privatisation and assets sales going BALLISTIC on this one!
Seen this?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1106/S00319/stop-privatisation-of-state-housing-assets.htm
26 June 2011
PRESS RELEASE: Response from Sue Henry Spokesperson Housing Lobby:
“STOP PRIVATISATION OF STATE HOUSING ASSETS!”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10734409
“Thousands to come off housing list” By Simon Collins Saturday Jun 25, 2011
________________________________________________________________________________
“With the continuation of Auckland’s serious housing crisis and families still languishing in sheds, garages and overcrowded and sub-standard accommodation, including those left homeless in Christchurch – the last thing any decent Government should be doing is privatising the state housing stock, using charities such as the Salvation Army and ‘trusts’ in a mixed economy to do it,” says Sue Henry, Spokesperson for the Housing Lobby.
“It is totally unacceptable to have Government policies in the 21st century that create instability, transience and homelessness.
There are several other aspects that are very concerning:
The ‘housing crisis’ will not be fixed by taking people off the waiting list.
Prime Minister John Key promised that there would be no asset sales in this first term of government. This is what John Key promised on 14 April 2008:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0804/S00195.htm
“Transcript: Agenda IV’s John Key
Monday, 14 April 2008, 10:57 am
Article: Agenda
GUYON Alright you rightly point out it was sold by the National government in 1998 now that brings us to this position. What is your position now as a National Party on state asset sales?
JOHN Well National’s had some time to reflect on that and the position that we’ve decided to have is the following one.
That in the first term of the National government there will be no state assets that will be sold either partially or fully.
GUYON So no state assets, you’re completely firm on that?
JOHN That’s right.”
________________________________________________________________________________
“But Housing Minister Phil Heatley has said ‘some iwi groups wanted to take over managing state houses rather than buying them, but the Government wanted to sell them.’
Prime Minister John Key is breaking this promise.
The proposed sale of any state housing stock must cease forthwith.”
………………………
Sue Henry
Spokesperson
Housing Lobby
________________________________________________________________________________
Penny Bright
http://waterpressure.wordpress.com
Scrap over the housing stock
Scrap over the jobs
Scrap over the hospital waiting list
Scrap over cheaper places in childcare
Scrap over the specials at the supermarket
About 460 Housing NZ homes out of 6,000 in Christchurch are estimated to be reduced due to the earthquakes in the red and orange zones. The Government in 2011 are finishing off what they started in the mid 1990s concerning the housing stock for those with the most need.
Yes, on RNZ and on TV, we keep hearing about home-owners, but what I want to know is: what has become of those who were renting, especially the poor? They are possibly in a much worse position than those in the Red zone who have discovered that their insurance companies aren’t going to pay out (which is bad enough).
HNZ stock is 6,000 in Canterbury my slight error. Vicky 32 do you mean those renting HNZ homes or private rental?
It is my understanding that if a HNZ tenant HNZ have relocated people in the red zone. Some in private rental have remained in their dwelling and no doubt there are tenancy issues.
It would be good to see a topic on this: rental stories from within the red zone regardless of being a private or HNZ tenant.
I was actually thinking about both, although it seems the HNZ tenants might (for a change!) be slightly more secure than those renting privately. (What I mean by that is that an HNZ tenant can be at the mercy of a loonie tenancy manager)
‘history will call men like Brash and Key, and even Goff, fools’
Anyone who knows what is actually happening with respect to energy and environment has been calling men like Brash, Key, anf Goff fools (or criminals) for several years.
Men (and women) like Brash, Key, Goff etc. have maintained their positions by ignoring reality as a matter of policy. Reality is now knocking at the door.
‘unless a cheap form of energy is discovered’
Cheap sources of energy were discovered (coal, oil and gas). They are what got us into this mess.
Fortunately there are no other forms of cheap energy. So, the present corrupt and inefficient political-economic system will collapse, almost certainly by 2015.
The week that was 19 – 26 June
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council said this week that excessive sludge on beaches is not associated with the discharge of dairy farm effluent. They said that the high levels of scum is all a part of nature and that surf diatoms are a type of phytoplankton, which is a main source of food for productive shellfish beds in the surf.
I sometimes listen to Radio Live talk back Saturdays ( no rude comments please) . Most interesting fellow named Keith Lewis , Certainly well on the political left. Anyone with any information. Last night said that Key was the most dangerous politician ever in NZ .Interesting because this is my belief too. It would be interesting to know something about him.
Remember those characters who wore a smiley mask on one side of their head and a demonic one on the other? Don’t know about Lewis but the masking would fit Key to a tee don’t ya see?
Until Madoff was uncovered, he was a light that people would recommend to their friends.
So is neo-liberal economics.
We will destroy ourselves by accepting at face value anything John Key has to say, not because its right or wrong (mostly wrong) but because we consent to everything he has done, is doing and will do in our names otherwise.
“…the most dangerous politician in ever in NZ…”
This is very, very true.
Periodically I put Key on par with Muldoon. The destruction Muldoon left is still around. E.g.
1) Crewe inquiry, 2) Colin Moyle inquiry, 3) Traumatised undercover cops trying to expose the short comings of being an undercover cop in particular Patrick O’ Brien (Iam no fan of high ranking cops at PNHQ as I know they have even concealed the truth in recent times), 4) Erebus inquiry.
I feel it in my bones that Key will be another Muldoon on how he performs regarding Pike River. Muldoon was mafia like concerning his dealings with the police because he NEVER held the police to account for 1) Who fed Rochelle, 2) Ensuring there was an internal police investigation into who in police leaked the Moyle incident, 3) The damage that resulted due to police undercover work, 4) What happened to Collins diary in the lock up at Mc Murdo Sound. Either the PM can have a commission of inquiry or the police commissioner can do an inquiry.
I am yet to see how Marshall performs regarding historical police matters which are still affecting people today.
There is one major difference between Muldoon and Key Treetop. Muldoon was an overt bully and a bastard. Key is a covert bully and a bastard. Also, it became quite well known that Muldoon used the SIS for his own political purposes. I don’t think Key will have tried that one on… unlikely to get away with it in this day and age.
Anne I knew that you would respond. Your idea on a book is a first rate idea. Of interest, goings on in the 1970s are being written about more now days. My library has Vol 1 but not Vol 2 “In New Zealand As it Might Have Been” by Hugh Eldred-Grigg. There is a chapter on Moyle in it. I need to read both volumes and have a think about what has really changed in 35 years between the police and certain prime ministers.
Did you know that Muldoon was Key”s idol in Key”s teen years and Muldoon got Key interested in politics. For all I know Muldoon could be Key’s hobby!
Pink Postman – this you may mean Keith Stewart. He is one of the few talkback hosts coming from the left and his show is often very interesting. Mikey Havoc was on Radio Live recently, he also appears to come from the left. Also made interesting talkback, wish they would give him a permanet job. Talkback radio can actually provide some interesting debate occasionally as opposed to the usual rightwing propaganda believe it or not!
Yes and thank you Belldonna. In fact I was listening to Keith Lewis the wonderfull NZ tenor and got the names mixed up. Im getting old and funny ,
However I am most impressed by K.Stewart and I would like to know about his background . Like you say it makes a change to get a good Leftie on talk back
Sour Grapes
The political left gained a victory this weekend with te Mana’s Hone Harawira winning the Tai Tokerau by-election. It’s a fantastic result considering the short amount of time te Mana had to launch their campaign and the negative media campaign run against the new party…
Press Release: New Publication Available Online Now
E-Release Only
Matters To A Head
Cannabis, mental illness & recovery
By Kate K
This highly readable and exciting new book explores the links between cannabis and mental illness through the personal and professional experiences of New Zealand author Kate K.
[This isn’t a place for a long advertisement, thanks, though you’ll probably get away with something short and a link to your web site. r0b]
To contact the author:
Kate K
16 Beach Haven Place
Paraparaumu 5032
M. 021 024 79861
Email: 444kate@gmail.com
http://katekennedyonline.blogspot.com
Deborah Coddington nails into National and ACT for trashing their female MPs and loving recycled old male ones
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10734513
This has made my day – smart girls from a decile one school and bees – one of the most important ecological issues of out time.
Awesome 🙂
Two thoughts for this evening, one profound, one mildly amusing/creative.
First the profound – look at the pictures on here http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2011/jun/26/wwf-animal-research#/?picture=376126227&index=0
1000 new species, including a new species of dolphin, found in the Papua New Guinea rainforests and coast; profound, because this is now the third largest rain forest in the world, is on our door step and is at risk from climate change and exploitation of resources – such wonderful diversity, just found, but could be gone in a century.
Second – you may remember those TV road safety adverts with the old scary guy with the roulette wheel who decided whether they would crash, near miss, be killed, etc. How about a campaign at major intersection with people dressed as Key, English, etc, but instead having ‘Asset sales’, Privatisation, no GST increase, etc as the outcomes.
I do love the ads idea, only problem is that it is a very negative and downbeat campaign. Labour needs to present a different vision of the future, not just negate National’s crap.
It could however form the basis of a secondary viral campaign 🙂