There’s “a whole lot of new rules designed to get rid of the assholes. A wide range of article topics – like 1080, vaccinations and the disputed region of Kashmir – just won’t have the comments open anymore. Along with that, they plan to be a lot tougher on where the line that cannot be crossed is. And – in what might seem like an unrealistically utopian development – they even plan to have an ‘editor’s pick’ function to highlight the best, most enlightening comments.”
Carrot as well as stick. A traditional formula, usually works fairly well. “We asked Stuff’s editor in chief Patrick Crewdson why he was shutting down free speech. Why are you shutting down free speech? Because I’ve been ordered to by the World Government.”
“Toldya so!” will probably be the most frequent response from WhaleOil commenters.
“We’ve always had rules for comments, and before today we were rejecting around a third of the 7000 comments we receive daily. So this isn’t about the era of free speech coming to an end. It’s about our community standards, and drawing the boundary in a different place.”
Cool, let’s have more fluid boundaries. Fixed boundaries are boring. “One of the other stipulations is that comments will be rejected if they “just generally aren’t very nice.” Hypothetically, say you had an article about The Spinoff on your site. What would be an example of a not very nice comment that would be rejected?”
“I feel you’re trying to trick me into being mean to you.” Trickster is good, very valuable social archetype, pan-cultural too, let’s have more of that…
Yeah well it’s about bloody time. Corporations have a social responsibility too. Just what a shame it takes a tragedy to give them the proverbial boot they need.
Stuff have been extremely complicit- and encouraging- of beneficiary bashing which of course reached it’s zenith under the last regieme. By republishing the Natz press releases verbatim with no proper journalism to check the validity, then by opening the comments for the inevitably vile to be spewed. If they let what they did be published I hate to think what they rejected… A lot of what went though met the criteria for breaches of the Human Rights Act. So nice to see they won’t be opening comments for articles related to beneficiaries anymore, but proof in pudding and all that.
As I said in an OM post a few days ago, this is hate speech and words can kill.
Even our resident tabloid had the decency to quit with the comments years ago. If these coordinated (and probably paid) haters can’t handle the fact they’ve lost a large platform, tough shit.
“drawing the boundary in a different place.”
Cool, let’s have more fluid boundaries. Fixed boundaries are boring.
It is possible to reset fixed boundaries every now and then. That does not make them ‘fluid’. It is how organisations and organisms adapt to environmental change.
If I were a media owner, I’d be looking at it from a cost perspective. Do I want to pay employees to spend all day moderating comments?
Being Green, I also see it from an ecosystem perspective. Toxic commentators are like the worst weeds: those that grow fast & often. One must be a busy gardener to extract them.
Greywarshark – yes it would, but the Chinese government simply would not allow that. The Uighurs are seen as a threat to the communist party, and effectively isolated from the wider Chinese Empire.
Falun Gong pose a very real threat to the government of China, as they are openly anti China in their publications. The communist government can not and will not tolerate any organised group, regardless of their views. Says just how insecure they are.
I think the Chinese Empire will go the way of the USSR, and break apart. Nei Mongolia. Sichuan. Xinjiang. Xizhang. Take those away and China will be a rump of its current size. Will happen without a doubt.
Censorship usa style …. supporting the peacful BDS movement …. Or mention the HUGE influence the AIPAC israel lobby has on usa policy …. then your either breaking the law ……or your supporting anti semitisim , under the new ( and perverted) definition of it
I was reading the wiki page of Maajid Nawaz the other day after both David Farrar and Bryce Edwards had linked to an article of his post Christchurch (and if you want an idea of Edwards’ political leanings these days then there it is).
The wiki page had a featured quote:
It’s not Islamophobic to scrutinise Islam just as it’s not Christianophobic to scrutinise Christianity.
Maajid Nawaz The Big Questions (BBC show)
I wondered if his supposition would hold for Judaism?
And while we’re on the subject of lateral thinking, why not apply it to the Waiho Bridge? Instead of spending all that money replacing it every time climate change washes it away, just put a big hinge on the side of the damn thing!
Then either incorporate auto-opening with red lights to stop traffic every time the river gets high enough, or a trigger-release that gets activated when the river almost reaches the road. After the flood, get a truck and chain to pull it closed again.
If the bridge has been washed away many times before, it won’t be due to climate change, it will be as a result of south Westland getting horrendous floods which it has done just about forever.
They anticipate this by building a bailey bridge (basically a short term military bridge used when existing bridges have been blown up).
They could actually build a decent bridge, which could be future proofed against climate change. Probably would cost $30 million or so, but in the long run would seem better than a rickety old bailey bridge.
Was amused to hear the Westland mayor saying it was unusual for a “100 year event” on the Ciast to be so geographically widespread.
He didn’t sound older than about 55.
They need a bridge which spans the entire river, and at least 50 metres of the bank, in one leap. No piles in the shifting and unstable bed to get undermined.
… it won’t be due to climate change, it will be as a result of south Westland getting horrendous floods which it has done just about forever.
Yes, but it probably started out to be a one in 20 year flood, then it dropped to a one in 10 year flood and so on… now its happening frequently enough due to CC that it has weakened the bridge’s structure and the stability of the river bed.
It is working OK now though as they have shaved a little off it. That bridge works of course because the hinged bit is only wide enough to let a boat through. The Waiho Bridge is obviously too long for this to work. There is also hugely more water going under it.
There is a HUGE movement of gravel washing down the Waiho and raising the riverbed. Only a handful of years ago that Waiho bridge was raised about 3m or so due to the riverbed lifting to the underside of the bridge. In that handful of years the riverbed has lifted again.
This is a common occurence with all bridges in NZ. They constrain the river being bridged, which results in the gravel building up and up and up as it cannot spill out the side. It happens everywhere, but is more noticeable on the coast due to the extent of rainfall and one of the world’s highest mountain erosion rates. These rivers need digging out frequently.
The Waiho in particular has this HUGE gravel bulge coming down the river (due to glacier retreat). It has many years to go yet. Franz is in trouble. Everyone knows it. That is why that bridge has been a bailey-type bridge – easier to repair/replace every few decades.
Building a more permanent bridge would require more work to each end than actually building the bridge, such is the geography of the site.
The other point – much of NZ’s roading infrastrcture was built around 50-70 years ago. It is at the end-of-life point, in two main ways. One, all the roads were cut into hillsides and they are now eroding from above to an unpreventable level (e.g. Manawatu Gorge). Two, the constrained rivers are full to bursting, and are bursting.
Thank you, I was busy typing out a similar response but far less informed. Temporary bridges aren’t all bad, they have speed and weight limits and are a bit inconvenient, but from an engineering perspective make a great deal of sense in this sort of highly unstable environment.
And then of course there’s the Alpine Fault, (running through the township of Franz Joseph), that is due to go any day now ….
The Alpine Fault is one of the world’s major plate boundaries and New Zealand’s most hazardous earthquake-generating fault. It runs for 650 kilometres along the spine of New Zealand’s South Island and we know that it ruptures on average every 300 years, producing an earthquake of about magnitude 8.
The last time the Alpine Fault went was in 1717, when it shunted land horizontally by eight metres and uplifted the mountains a couple of metres.
Would need to be very well hinged! (As opposed to unhinged …)
NZ roads were never designed to carry 60 tonne trucks either.
*As they built the roads and the under base to carry a laden weight of only 20 tonnes or less,- then, as vehicles back then trucks were an average of 9 tonnes and rail carried 90% of our freight.
*But now that whole picture has reversed.
* Now 60+ tonne trucks are now 8 times heavier and carry 90% of our freight.
* Rail only carries 6% of our freight.
So vto; – common sense says “something had to give”.
Our problems are that the road transport industry is far to powerful and has far to much control and heavy influence over our politicians today and rail needs to now take at least half the freight.
Unless the government does change this, – this problem we will never fix the problem.
Uhh, yeah, railways are really relevant to a thread about a bridge failure hundreds of kilometres from the nearest railway, and is hundreds of kilometres from anywhere 60+ tonne trucks are allowed by the HPMV regulations.
You wanna start lobbying for a brand new railway line down the West Coast?
Not according to Jewish people who are not affiliated to Aipac or extreme zionisim Bewildered … these honest people think the false anti semite smear …. like you just dishonestly used ….. are the real threat to Israel …. and the rise of real anti Semitic feelings worldwide .
Your Blatant nasty dishonesty is ugly …. it’s so obvious ….and reflects very poorly upon honest Jewish people …. who would never spread your lies …. Bewildered.
Your a disgrace …. tainting others with your filth
But back to the good people …. like this Jewish man …. a brother to those seeking justice and truth
Previously Stuart Nash was against tighter gun controls. Today he has revised his opinion. It’s a pity that people in national or local government are governing by opinion which is limited by their own ignorance and lack of desire to obtain and understand the facts of the situation.
Teachable moment. Took my son and his friend to school today both aged 11. Raining here. They bought up climate change and we discussed increased energy and wilder extremes of weather. Had just helped homework with the boy around the difference between heat and temperature. They said that we (olders) weren’t doing enough and leaving them to deal with it. I said yep that is happening and we must continue to do all we can do including creating sustainability and resilience and community. I learnt so much from those young boys.
Given recent times, the chances of mistaken identities with our NZ PM must be next to nil, as Jacinda goes to embark on a whirlwind international diplomacy trip to meet the China heads of state.
Being able to do such whirlwind foreign engagements though, even amidst the ongoing backdrop of the past week or so, then beyond trade numbers and volumes, it would surely be very valuable to NZ if culturally more of an eye starts to be kept out for any headline get togethers as involves Ivanka Trump to gender equality promotions with leadership/corporate decision making structures.
Ivanka is very well known around the world in different places, including China, and there are far worse ideas of reference for a place in often chaotic world traffic than a layperson stickability like Ivanka, Jacinda, Gender Equality, New Zealand, to be understood with.
As I predicted a couple of months ago, Pentagon gets Trump’s wall started by shifting $1b of internal funds, unilaterally. Armed Forces Committee may complain, but DoD is its own kingdom with plenty of discretion.
Trump will now go to the electorate with tax reform, corruption scandals behind him, and wall started.
Dems are such a long way from a single candidate that they may simply run out of time to take Trump out.
It’s a point well made and worth repeating; our political landscape seems as much shaped by sullen incompetence on the left as it is by sly malfeasance on the right.
That seems a quotable quote RedLogix. And if that is not acceptable grammar to anyone, I note that stuff have included banning comments that protest against grammatical errors in its latest tranche of changes. It is good though if the piece is readable. I complain at large bricks without paras. Good thinking through things can be bypassed if its too dense, or having difficulty to get through someone’s brain that is too dense!
ROFL, so the whole Russian collusion conspiracy theory has just fallen over, and handed trump the sympathy card.
Could people play it any worse – oh wait this is the centre left were talking about so, yeah this could get way worse…
trump is going to walk in, becasue the centre left lost its mind and spent two years down the rabbit hole chasing a conspiracy theory.
An apology for the muppets who pushed the Russian Collusion conspiracy theory would be nice. Or at least an apology for the name calling of ‘putin puppets’ would be a good place to start.
AT least one thing to like about the centre left, when it comes to going crazy, at least you do it on a grand scale.
So this main actor goes into the Mosque. And passage-way-extra-guy1 is on the floor with bare feet. The main actor goes out, comes back in, and now the passage-way-extra-guy1 is still in the same place but now wearing socks, blue socks! I shit you not, it has been filmed in two takes! This is the level of BS in the video, super-fake and a very strange situation we find ourselves in. No surprise that Islamic leaders in NZ calling it how it looks.
[No more disrespectful comments, please. The next false flag fantasy sees you removed from the site. TRP]
Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar, gave a speech questioning where the gunman got his funding from. He said he suspected it came from “Mossad” and “Zionist business”.
When links get broken (like the link to the quote I give above), then I shout it louder. I would truly like to understand where you folk are coming from. Why should we censor all views other than the lone-wolf narrative? Do folk here believe that it is in the interests of national security? Is it fear? I read quotes from our leaders like Marama D calling for the truth. To quote James S, “when the facts change, we change our mind”. How do we avoid the polarisation of opinion? By making sure there is only one opinion? I respect that our leaders’ hands’ are politically tied, but that means that it’s up to us, farmers and unionist, to say the uncomfortable truths. If not us, now? Then who, and when? Perhaps I’m too direct. If so, then please, demonstrate to me the more graceful way. But to simply put on a head scarf and bury the truth, this is a sad defeat for us all.
In the setting of the bigger picture, as financial melt-down warms, with the US ready for civil war, Israel given the green light for expansion… sorry for the fear porn, but surely we would want to keep our local communities informed, if these impulses where to act upon our shores. The truth is safe if you remain empathetic with it. I thought the audience here was political. If I can’t share the truth here, then where? Well I have said my piece, and will leave you folk in peace now. Much to do on farm.
Yeah you are far from understanding anything here when you ask:
Why should we censor all views other than the lone-wolf narrative? Do folk here believe that it is in the interests of national security? Is it fear?
Here you will find the opposite – that views are broadly tolerated other than the ‘hate speech’ of your so-called lone-wolf narrative and other false-flag shit. This is where a line gets drawn – some don’t like it – but I entirely agree with such censorship.
Fear Porn, as you call it, seems to be at the heart of your rants.
Me disrespectful? How about NZ Police Commissioner Bush, is he being respectful by turning aspects of this investigation over to the FBI? (sorry my computer is too hacked to cut-n-paste at this minute, I’ll paraphrase his statement): “We are getting help from the FBI to paint a better picture of the (singular) attacker.” Is he turning it over to the FBI? Are NZ police not up to the job? Is he narrowing the focus down to one man? Sorry, I’m agreeing with mosque leader Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar. Smells like rat to me too.
But there’s some facts in Corodales comments. They aren’t all about his dumb opinions.
(Why did you put that Corodale? About socks and all that? Get some respect for the gravity of this matter. This is not a time for interesting discussion like about something minor that you saw on tv or a film!)
Facts as reported correctly one expects:
* The Mt Roskill leader of the local church was quoted as mentioning Mossad etc. mosque leader Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar.
** Jews have been quoted as being outraged about Mossad, their spy organisation, being referred to in a suspicious way by the Mt Roskill mosque chairman.
*** Commissioner Bush has mentioned that the FBI are here and the Australian Federal police and that they are in touch withother jurisdictions around the world. Video update 10 Can’t see any date (on-line seems chary about dates). e&oe https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=438111816929508
Study shows IPCC is underselling climate change
March 19, 2019, University of Adelaide
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
A new study has revealed that the language used by the global climate change watchdog, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is overly conservative – and therefore the threats are much greater than the Panel’s reports suggest.
Published in the journal BioScience, the team of scientists from the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, the University of Bristol (UK), and the Spanish National Research Council has analysed the language used in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (from 2014).
“We found that the main message from the reports—that our society is in climate emergency—is lost by overstatement of uncertainty and gets confused among the gigabytes of information,” says lead author Dr. Salvador Herrando-Pérez, from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.
“The IPCC supports the overwhelming scientific consensus about human impact on climate change, so we would expect the reports’ vocabulary to be dominated by greater certainty on the state of climate science—but this is not the case.”
Clearing the mind of some of the nitty gritty to let the major matters emerge. That’s what is so important I think cleangreen. (Don’t read any further if you are inclined to depression – someone pointing out things clearly you sort of know is too much to take on sometimes. Did you have to say that? is the angry thought.)
Those points you put up are major, and so true about not getting the clear message we need to take on board. But often it’s more than I can cope with, and i am ahead of others. The young ones are still trying to make their lives and constantly be flexible, adapting to the new technology, demands, etc. If older people only think of pleasure, going on holidays, meeting at cafes for meals and chat, keeping up with the children and grand-children, limited input to keep up with society, who is actually confronting the problems? Big nasty ones too. That is the situation.
And that is why I won’t get tv again, Sky can keep ringing and I am polite most of the time to the worker at the end of the line. But I haven’t time. I am in a minority amongst people I meet in the everyday world who pay attention to the future, who regards with cynicism the pretty speeches of politicians and the ones about how love will keep us together. If it was so easy it would have been done decades ago. Love is essential, and it will enable us to decide what is the best thing to do for our families, our neighbourhood and what we are going to help with, and how to retire from the world when it becomes essential to do so. We might decide it is better to train as medical personnel and go into the war-torn areas there and help the brave and moral people attempting to act nobly and practically for instance. We are only costing the country money to keep us alive and active and doing our own thing in the midst of growing disaster. The eye of the storm we are living in at present.
Knowing the coldness and self-absorption of the better-off, which is the same all the way up to the leaders and manipualtors to whom money is no barrier, I can’t have hope that they will do anything to keep things going that is not expedient for them. Trying to improve anything back to the way it was is tremendously difficult because the people in power want to lower conditions down to necessities for the people, and the necessities are in their sights also. Our right to be able to afford our own homes, or even have decent rental ones is an example.
I hope that we can find true-hearted people to work with and do what we can to avoid the worst situations. But any slip-slide away to cults and
glamorous ideas and leave you in the lurch when you try to do anything, when you try to get a practical working group going that will fix on a system that is good in theory, and prove it in practice and change to meet changing needs and times, and not cling to historical methods.
The feedback practice on Stuff is being changed to meet criteria of the well-run ethical business they want to be Our political systems for instance shouldn’t be set in stone. Each plan is a compromise and should have clear objectives to be proud of, and then when not achieving them some change is acceptable, say each year.
corodale. Thanks for the link…I’m a little OCD about such things.
And bugger me, there it is….Bush saying how the FBI are over here helping out with the investigation. I thought I was keeping up but that wee tidbit had escaped me.
All I can say is, thank heavens for The FBI…..they have a sterling reputation for sorting shit out. /sarc 😉
We certainly have to be careful. There is a very snappy approach showing up on here at present. The shock has made us all tense and our reactions can be triggered. I was annoyed with someone starting a discussion referring to other tragedies and wondering if this was worse, rating it on a scale I felt which bothered me. That was picking up on our PM saying that the tragedy was unprecedented in NZ.
I agree grey. We’re going through the “angry” phase at present and I currently have a low tolerance level for bullshit and crank statements. This is in part because of personal historical experiences and the fact the people making them are flying in the face of present reality.
But a fence is not a wall, guys, what part of following instructions do you just not get?? I foresee tv pictures of hordes of locals jumping up & down in unison chanting “We Wanna Wall! We Wanna Wall!”
“The Pentagon has authorised army engineers to begin construction of additional fencing on the US-Mexico border, diverting an initial $1bn after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to bypass Congress on the matter. The army would begin planning and building 57 miles of 18-foot-high fencing in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, according to a statement by acting defence secretary Patrick Shanahan.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-border-wall-mexico-funding-pentagon-security-congress-vote-a8839811.html
corodale can you understand that huge amount of unknown information that affects anybody’s ability to make a reasoned decision? And how much time is wasted that could be spent on learning the facts, but is wasted in engaging with dunderheads like you and similar smart-arses.
This is an expression of the thinking about information and its complexity.There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns
I suggest you don’t pretend ignorance about known things, otherwise you will never catch up with the quest for knowledge that others are on.
I think Dennis at 11, was in reply to 9 about the wall from joe90. He has put up a copy of the letter refusing Defence from taking $1 billion from its booty to help Trumpy and his wall. It could actually be a major tourist attraction for Mexico, and a place where artists hang out decorating it and fighting over where Banksy- like people can keep their art for posterity. The Berlin Wall was covered in graffiti.
Simultaneous writing actually. I was expecting to be first with the news but got beaten by a few minutes, so didn’t know the other report was in the pipeline – fortunately my quote provided more detail, so supplementing the other.
I find the fence/wall thing weird, inasmuch as the fence has been there awhile apparently – in some locations, even if not continuous. But we never got an explanation from Trump re Mexico funding so he’s just ad hoc.
I’m not sure why you’d be applauding that. Right leaning employer sacks employee making left wing comment might attract some consternation, and rightly so. Is that what you’re suggesting?
“Hooray!” probably needed a /sarc tag after it. This is actually a horrifying development, and I hope the current government is moving to give people working for temp agencies greater protection against this kind of thing. If the guy had been directly employed by Placemakers it would have been much harder to dismiss him (which is one of the reasons employers use temp agencies – the workers have fewer rights).
Yep thought it was sarcasm. More than 20,000 workers have been sacked in the last year who were on 90 day trials. Making political comments I suspect is one “justification” used by employers.
He could just not say things that marty mars retrospectively and without hearing them declares to be hate speech? Yes, that is too hard. Effectively, your argument is “He could just not say things.”
something to consider – now days indigenous peoples often focus on decolonising the mind. Basically as colonization occured it took from indigenous peoples and replaced with the unshakable belief that all euro aspects are the peak and naturally are the best way. Politics, social structure, law and ways of thinking about law, everything. Decolonising the mind is realizing the truth that there is no white supremacy in ANYTHING including how to think, react, what’s important and what isn’t.
So your logic and approach is not mine. Get used to it.
Given you have openly endorsed punishing people who say things you don’t like, I should point out that this is a system us toxic white people (and others) have tried out at various times in the past century or so, and demonstrated to be a catastrophically bad idea.
On the other hand you may have better luck with it.
and your first sentence is not correct. I applaud people being protected against white supremacist hate speech and religious hate speech. I think it hurts people and is sick anytime but especially now. Pity you don’t.
I stand on my track record here going back over a decade as being implacably opposed to religious zealots and fundamentalists of any kind. At the same time I’ve made it clear I am not an atheist, I have a long standing relationship with religion and I’ve spoken in respectful terms whenever the topic arose.
Indeed I’ve taken more than some flack for this over the years from people who hold all religions in contempt; ‘sky fairies’ and the like.
Long before it became the issue it has been this past 10 days.
Well the romans outlawed greek practitioners of rhetoric,then again they also outlawed athletics as the Greeks performed this naked in public,but allowed violent spectator sports (a bit like television programming)
Alexander Pope summed up the problems on discourse in his Epistle to man.
But errs not Nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
“No, (’tis replied) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen’ral laws;
Th’ exceptions few; some change since all began:
And what created perfect?”—Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then Nature deviates; and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show’rs and sunshine, as of man’s desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp’rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav’n’s design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?
Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar’s mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?
From pride, from pride, our very reas’ning springs;
Account for moral, as for nat’ral things:
Why charge we Heav’n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right is to submit.
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never passion discompos’d the mind.
But ALL subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The gen’ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.
There is only one logic Marty to argue otherwise is illogical Also there is a reason the world flock to western countries, democracies and ideals and not the other way round Hint , it’s not about colour
…there is a reason the world flock to western countries…
There was a reason western countries flocked to the world over the last 500 years, too. Indigenous people in many countries have some views on that. So, maybe not the best argument to offer to one of them (which I believe marty mars is)?
Reason isn’t “White,” it just is. If you mistake rational argument for a Pākehā cultural affectation and “decolonise” it from your mind, your ability to argue for your views will be damaged, not improved.
Reason – you assess information and reach conclusions. You’re not a machine – only some information is assessed – what info and why those ones? You reach conclusions based on past experience, knowledge etc. Its all subjective. If you live in society and every day the variables considered important are reinforced and others not which ones become natural? White isn’t a colour to me but a set of privileges attached to groups. Some have more, some less.
True, there are an infinite number of ways we assess information and one of the core ideas the radical left has embraced is that none of them are privileged above the other; they’re all equally valid.
I presume then you’d have no quibble with me ‘decolonising’ my modern western mind and embracing my Viking heritage:
You reach conclusions based on past experience, knowledge etc. Its all subjective.
Its even worse than that. We reach conclusions based on personal prejudices, emotions we’re feeling, whatever hormone happens to be getting the most traction at the time, things we believe are true but aren’t – there’s a big list.
That’s why reason is so important. What are the rational arguments for the conclusions I’ve reached? If I can’t come up with any, or I do but they’re a collection of logical fallacies and other people tear them to shreds in front of me, it’s time to figure out what’s really led me to those conclusions.
Yet when I speak seriously to the notion of a global civilisation, one that unites the best aspects of all cultures, one that expands our moral and emotional horizons to embrace the entire human race … as I have done many times … you go all silent on me.
In the global civilisation I have in mind, us white people would compose just 1 billion of the 7 or more billion humans. There is plenty of diversity to go around.
The members of your whanau are all unique and different people, yet together they are united as family. As with the citizens of a nation. We are all unique, diverse and individuals, while at the same time connected and merged at many different levels.
Unity does not imply uniformity; it means connection and the ability to work to a common purpose.
He said he knew as soon as the words came out of his mouth that he’d said the wrong thing.
Maybe he should have thought first.
But then a “qualified engineer” reduced to fruitpicking probably has other issues, too.
But although I don’t have much sympathy for him, arbitrarily kicking him was wrong. There should have been a disciplinary meeting, and based on exactly what he said (not his description of what he said) appropriate disciplinary action should have been taken.
Good you’re on board. It seemed like his co workers were a bit frightened and the boss listened to them and fair enough imo. Times change and they just did for this country.
Suppose his co-workers were “a bit frightened” because he spoke te reo Maōri or expressed support for tino rangatiratanga – still good if the boss listens to them and makes sure the troublemaker doesn’t get to “frighten” them again? Now that times have changed and it’s apparently OK to dismiss people for saying something you don’t like, an’ all that?
You’re not good on context imo – nothing is happening in a vacuum is it. Your principles are constructed yet you hold them so tight. They appear fragile if they can’t take this stuff.
My principles are so far from fragile that I can cope with hearing unpopular opinions without wanting to get the holders of the opinions sacked. It would be good if yours were equally robust.
You’re dreaming mate – you spent days here moaning about a call to prayer for a God you dont believe in. Lol wake up and be honest at least with yourself.
Gods you don’t believe in can kill you, as a lot of people have found out over the last few thousand years. They may kill you by proxy, via the people who do believe in them, but you end up just as dead. Don’t assume that gods you don’t believe in are trivial, because it’s not true.
Islam’s merely the ugliest of them. I wrote “gods” plural for a reason – the Christian ones have probably clocked up a bigger body count than Allah over the centuries, especially when you take the Americas into account. There have been plenty of others.
Influencers – this phenomenon is beyond me. This is a good article. Gives the vegan haters some good material and by jeeze they need it ha ha ha. Fishgate.
“Not only was Mendoza promoting a restrictive diet that was making her sick, she was extolling dangerous practices, such as 25-day water fasts, to her millions of followers. And she is far from the only influencer promoting extreme eating. Jordan Peterson, a prominent psychologist, has been outspoken about his all-beef diet, claiming it cured his depression and his gum disease. (Unfortunately, it hasn’t cured his pseudo-intellectual prattling.)”
Fortunately Peterson also makes it clear it’s a diet he has found addresses specific issues his family have encountered over the years. Nowhere does he recommend or promote it as a generally good idea. Indeed whenever someone does ask him about, he says it’s a restrictive and onerous diet he doesn’t like much at all.
Incidentally gum disease has been recently implicated in Alzheimers:
thanks for that – alzheimers eh – not good – I certainly wouldn’t wish that on him and i can’t imagine a journalist doing this connection thing you’ve bought up – it appears you’ve connected those dots all by yourself 🙂
‘Dental care is not only cosmetic’- it is part of our whole health and well being.
I got a clear message about this two years ago.
In 2016 my teeth got damaged after a boating accident and this was around Xmas and dental care was not carried out until four months later due to ACC hangups, and by then infections had been set in causing blood poisoning that threatened my life and I spend two years after wards getting the teeth fixed with 6 root canals and seven restorations.
Gum abbess infections and resulting blood poisoning from gum infections can destroy anyone’s health, mind and body,.
Don’t let the teeth health be left out of healthcare funding here; – as many cannot afford to pay for dental care.
It actually is sort of serious and just becoming known, so cleany felt he would give us the facts Gabby. Taking quite a few sentences to explain it which takes time and a desire to be helpful, just not pass judgment.
To be able to charge loads of fees
To be able to make parents buy devices they cannot afford
To pander to internation students
To kick out ‘dumb kids’ that make their schools look bad
**TO RUN SCHOOLS AS A TRADEABLE BUSINESS COMMODITY AND NOT A PUBLIC SERVICE**
To be honest, I trust civil servants to run schools than the red faced reactionary bourgeois hacks that control most boards of trustees, and have their own little networks.
The Hubs are going to shine some light on all the corruption and nepotism that goes on in our education system, and some people dont like that.
millsy
I noticed that the nice Maori woman keen and willing to be a good Board member didn’t get voted in to my local primary school with a catchment of mostly pakeha, and many professionals. Board members came from the public, but the accountant, businessman, the solicitor or solicitor’s wife were the vast majority
( could be both women). So having Boards chosen from the public giving the impression of reflecting the whole community is misleading.
And the middle class are not really open to progressive ideas, they just want their kids to learn get good jobs and know how to be naice. Their standards are derisory, they will want religion and allow any obsessive to prate on; they will want sex education but on the end of a barge pole, or not discussed on a level of personal experience of the youngsters, and the dry facts miss the chance of putting to them that they could take time before experiencing it, be a bit wary of jumping in because others start at 13 or 14. Why not decide for yourself that you will try it out after 18? A suggestion not a sacred promise. There is so much conservatism and also limitation in subjects that the Boards can decide. What they themselves know can form a protective barrier around school subjects and ways, and they are reluctant to allow the other ideas in, or not till everyone else is accepting them.
In both cases they spoke unwisely, through frustration or lips loosened by alcohol but what they said still stands. It’s what they said, it’s what they think, it’s what has escaped into the public arena. Excuses as to why they said it don’t retract what they actually said.
“I went to get a flight attendant and informed her of what was going on. They checked other witness accounts and the head of the flight service (a woman) asked the man to move.
“He resisted then started swearing at me and asked to talk to the boss and the head flight attendant said ‘I’m the boss, this is really serious and we could land the plane’.
“He moved. The attendants checked in with the young woman and wrote up a report.”
Airline staff later gave Ms Chiu and the other woman cards thanking them for stepping in and helping.
This book published in 2001 defines five lines of stress on the world and us. The summary sounds pretty right. Anyone read it?
Five Holocausts by Derek J Wilson
Paperback, 2001, 472pages, very good condition
Reviews:
Derek Wilson?s 10-year labour of love proposes that the world faces ruin through five intertwining apocalypses of human construction: militarism, human oppression, economic destitution, population explosion and environmental destruction.
The five holocausts cannot be understood or dealt with in isolation. The problems are vast and indisputable; uncounted acres of taxpayer gold are thoroughly wasted on armaments, trillions of dollars spin round the world in unproductive speculation, people enslave each other given half a chance, rich nations use vast shares of the Earth?s resources and the environment is in accelerating decline.
The point of a New Zealand-produced book on the subject ? given that none of the above registers in the average Kiwi?s day to day ? is that acting to stop it all is in everyone?s interests. (Alistair Bone Listener reviewer)
This authoritative book gives a clear and thorough overview of the impending global crisis, connecting the constituent parts of the global predicament. Derek Wilson draws attention to many dynamic and hopeful initiatives that are growing in response to the overall challenge and makes an impassioned case for action by government, institutions and society generally.
This is a book with a powerful challenge, packed with vital, thoroughly interesting information. (From the foreword by George Porter, founder and past President of the Pacific Institute of Resource Management, Aotearoa New Zealand)
Yes, I have. Bought a copy a few years ago and read it. Should go back and revisit it soon, just to see if it stands up.
I ‘enjoyed’ the read, being a local publication and very straightforward about the crises we face, but recall thinking it is not for the faint-hearted.
Thanks for the warning Molly. Perhaps one should be like the Oz politicians, take on some whiskies, and then that weakens the effect of the ideas, for a while.
Don’t mean to put anyone off. Probably those who visit this website regularly will find it a good read. Just mean that recommending it to people who aren’t politically active or interested in current affairs might be problematic.
I’ll have to dig it out after renovations and revisit it again. I know I was sufficiently interested enough to have a look for Derek Wilson to see if he was still alive and perhaps publishing or speaking.
They counted 1 to 12 reasons to put it back up. It’s the new bible for a drifting
generation whose parents have no idea of what principles to tell their children to live by. We are getting into loose hippy ideas of branching out, dropping out,
and making changes, so what do you do – you find some cult figure to tell you.
They had the Vietnam war looming which they were rejecting; we have the end of our world. That would make anyone grab at something like a calf will suck your thumb for comfort.
You nailed it GWS. A distinct lack of leadership and answers in tumultuous times.
I don’t see Peterson as a nasty type right, more a mediator among them. A bloke they identify with who might talk them back from a ledge. He got famous re: the pronoun debate and upset a lot of left wing people. This enamored him with a lot of disaffected right wing youth.
He’s asked them to be introspective. I like that, far cry from blaming immigrants for everything. He’s taken on their nihilism with instructions for self-responsibility.
And people mock his readers like slow children – for trying not to be nihilistic butt-heads. There’s a lot worse types out there they might have glommed on to.
I also rate his lectures on the bible stories. I’ve not read his recent book.
Audrey Young has been absent from writing her column since the christchurch massacre. Maybe she has been on leave? Her chosen topic for her first article is about Winston Peters supposedly falling asleep in Turkey.
The msm bias against the Coalition, Labour and Ardern is so very obvious right now.
I heard a woman ring in while out driving and give a robust account of how disgusted she was with Shorn Plunket’s pre-show blurb on Winston, you could apply her concerns to almost every host they have on that particular station now – with the slight exception that Brendan Telfer did play devil’s advocate on occasion to contest their rabid opinions.
She called it “talk at” rather than talk back and she is 100% correct.
Sadly Telfer is only a fill in for a couple of weeks for the equally horrible Peter Williams – his lack of experience shows as well but that seems no bar for a station who chose him for his familiar name and allow their hosts to push their personal barrows with contentious subjects in a very one-sided way.
A man dead from what seems to be a self inflicted stab wound – after refusing to surrender to Police. Cache of arms found on dead mans property after public tip off.
There is nowhere near enough information. It seems a suicide in preference to giving himself up. IF this is so, it is a very extreme reaction, and this guy was maybe up to something very nasty and/or is hiding other nasty people and designs.
IF he killed himself rather than give up.
Another scenario is that he was hurt by someone else, but that makes no sense in light of the standoff. If a so called associate tried silence you, you’d have second thoughts about dying to protect them.
But Killary!
How the fuck any person with an ounce of intelligence can say this current administration is as good as what might have been, had there not be an electoral college to stuff up the popular vote, I will never know.The environmental vandalism that has been carried out by t.rump and “friends” is unbelievable. This is just another sick instance of short term profit for a few takes precedence over all else.
Interesting books I have come across on Trade me. The first one is major along with climate change in its harsh effects on us if we can’t mobilise to think how we can manage. No-one else will! And the book by Derek J Wilson above talks about 5 holocausts we are facing. These books relate to all sorts of strife we are noticing.
“I am writing from inside the tech bubble to let you know that we are coming for your jobs.” So begins Andrew Yang’s book, The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future.
Despite the tagline, this isn’t fundamentally a book about Universal Basic Income (UBI). It’s about the market, and our attitude towards it….It isn’t simply the case that American society is separating into strata, Yang argues, but that the elites are consciously working to put the rest of society out of work.
The sectors where “normal” people tend to work—administration, retail, food service, transportation, and manufacturing—have high levels of repetitiveness and are highly susceptible to automation. Since competition in these sectors is quite fierce, companies are sooner or later forced to automate to keep up with their competition. Once a single competitor automates, the others must follow. In many cases, automation is not only cheaper, but also produces better products or services. The natural result is, as Yang relates through conversations he’s had with people in the tech industry, a race to make “normal” people redundant….
Keeping At It
The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
by Paul Volcker and Christine Harper
Paul Volcker has devoted his life’s work to public service and the critical importance of open, disciplined and efficient government. As chairman of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987) he literally rescued the American economy from destroying itself, summoning the courage to take radical and controversial steps to slay the inflation dragon.
And whenever the going got really tough–the financial crash of 2008, the need to reform banking, the oil for food UN scandal, the turmoil in Switzerland over theft of Holocaust victims, cheating in Major League Baseball–US presidents and other leaders said to ‘get Volcker in here to help me work this thing through.’… http://fortune.com/2018/10/30/paul-volcker-book-review/
Lost Enlightenment S. Frederick Starr
In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia’s medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds–remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world.
Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia–drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects.
They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth’s diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world’s greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America–five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impac ..
I thought that vid was as a parody at first Andre – bloody hell. And mark hamill is cool. Enjoyed visiting his Twitter feed- that one about t.rumps signature was good.
Thinking about it a bit, I’ve started to wonder if there’s a hidden message in that photo of a bunch of babies all the same age and fairly clearly mixed parentage. Y’know, Mike Lee being a libertarian-leaning Mormon an all.
The failure of the Left and the cowardice of the Centrists.
Green New Deal blocked. Democratic Senators abstain, (four voted against it).
….At 0-57, the nonbinding measure fell short of the necessary 60-vote threshold needed. No senators voted in support of it. Four members of the Democratic caucus voted against it. And most Democrats simply voted “present.”
How many votes did AOC get in her constituent like 15k. She’s about 70 million votes short of getting legislation across the house floor. Perhaps she should learn her craft first before assigning blame to others.
Sam 25.1
28 March 2019 at 6:53 am
How many votes did AOC get in her constituent like 15k……
In fact it is remarkable that AOC has a seat in Congress at all.
Usually money from corporate donors to fund your campaign is needed to win a seat, in the US congress.
Corporate backers that “most” Democratic Senators can’t afford to offend.
The Democratic Caucus know what needs to be done. This is shown by the fact, that “most” didn’t vote against the Green New Deal. That they didn’t actively vote for it, shows that they are afraid of offending their corporate sponsors.
What a cop out. How about using her position to lobby congress people instead of buying them off before she goes off half cocked proclaiming that America should give up air travel. Finger waving and facial features do not make up for a lack of support.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute. https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4
There should be a story about there not being a complaint process for the common person to make. Police Station have no complaints procedure that actually works.??????????????
snonky housing short has worked a treat one can not even rent a furniture storage in Rotorua I new that was going to happen that + no housing to rent. What a joke Ka kite ano link below
Jenny Eco Maori says it about time the government made laws to make the wealthy rent out the house they buy make them rent them out to the POOR COMMON PEOPLE. KA KITE ANO
I go to the gas station this morning and Eco Maori get a funny smell then I look around for the sandflys stalkers and sure enough there it is a 6 3 bald man peeping at me from behind the petrol pump. You see whanau were ever I go the sandflys are stalking here is a photo of one of there stalkers cars stalking me now. Ka kite ano.P.S the setting on. My phone are playing up when I get the bad smell it means they intend to ATTACK ECO MAORI
Don’t believe all the negative stories the oil barron have commissioned against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s the WEALTHY are shaking in their boots because of her MANA WAHINE Kia kaha Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub It’s sad to see that humpback whale tangled with old fish gear mabe Dock could have a hot line so when the public see a issue like that with our wild life they can report it.
That beluga whale is a beautiful looking creature I miss the story on them. I know someone who has payed 10000 deposit on getting a new roof as far as I know he is still waiting 3 months later for his new roof I offered to help him but know some people have no scrupulous. I seen that Ruaumoko is waking up in Mexico.
Tawhirirmate is very powerful Mike Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Te ao Maori News its good to see that there was a good atmosphere in Christchurch today.
I that was a awesome sung NZ ational anthem I think you have a few songs on YouTube that I listened to. Poor Hine got it when she sang the Maori ational anthem in England at a All Blacks test Mana Wahine. I say if tangata whenua te reo is receiving GREAT Interest than Kapa Haka is receiving the same KA PAI.
Aroha is Nice but I want justice and Equal rights Equality. P.S you media people know how much attention the Authorities are paying to ECO MAORI subjects What I am getting at is everything I say is True you know the old saying the best trick the devil has pulled is no one believes it exists even when its ight in front of our EYES
These sandflys are using all the dirtiest tricks in their little books to try and stop Eco Maori but know I have something they know Eco Maori is UNTOUCHABLE Ka kite ano
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The appointment of Elizabeth Longworth as Chair of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO was one of just two press statements on the government’s official website today. Perhaps that’s because ministers have been busy preparing speeches for the Labour Party faithful who have gathered in Wellington for the party’s ...
Alarm bells have been rung by the department after its Deputy Director-General for Operations warns, ‘the initial view shows that we do not have sufficient funding to cover our basic running costs’.Thomas Cranmer writes – Following last week’s budget, alarm bells have been rung by the Department ...
Luxon went after the NIMBY vote, declaring National’s 2021 bipartisan deal with Labour to make it much easier to put three townhouses on a regular section ‘wrong’. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: The week’s news in Aotearoa’s political economy I covered via The Kākā for subscribers included:The Labour ...
Hello! This is the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the week.Here’s what you may have missed.Last Sunday’s column was about the budget A big chunk of this year’s budget coverage was brought to us by the words crass, gauche and venal. The big questions ...
Hi,Usually Webworms are quite focussed — this one is the opposite. No rhyme or reason. A bit like my brain: sometimes ultra-focussed, other times utterly unable to settle on a goddamn thing. And as we head into the weekend, there are a bunch of things buzzing around in my head ...
The Mainstream Media, and especially the New Zealand Herald, regularly carry misinformed columns on the causes of the country’s low-grade economic performance over recent years. One old codger, John Gascoigne, who describes himself as “a Cambridge-based economic commentator” (not the university, alas!) correctly told us early this week that New ...
The Treasury released its budget economic forecasts. What do they say about the economy over the next four months?Let me begin me with an irritation. One post-budget headline was ‘Treasury optimistic over recession risk in Budget 2023'. Treasury being optimistic is almost an oxymoron. They fire down the centre.It is ...
Photo by Ron Fung on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with special guests:5.00 pm ...
1. Who most likely gave LOTO Luxon the idea to pull the rug on the urban density policy?a. A leading thinker on affordable housing b. A leading thinker on 15 minute cities c. A leading thinker on sustainable urban planning d. National-Party-supporting property developers2 . With what was this illustration made?a. Artificial inseminationb. ...
Buzz from the BeehivePoint of Order tallied $314.4 million of spending in the latest ministerial statements posted on the government’s official website. This includes a lump of money to – yes, really – help identify businesses in tourism and hospitality which treat their staffs well and to fund the ...
It’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for an hour from midday (my apologies for the late start today), including:the Government’s payment of $130 million of Climate Emergency Fund money to NZ Steel to help it cut ...
National/ACT would have 62 seats in a 120 seat Parliament if the latest poll results were replicated in the October election, but micro-movements around the median and the size of Te Pāti Māori’s caucus will decide who governs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: National/ACT could govern alone after October ...
Welcome to Friday – again! Hard to believe we’re almost in June. Here’s our latest roundup of stories that caught our eye this week. The Week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Matt covered the transport highlights from this year’s Budget. On Tuesday, Matt asked if the end is ...
What should one make of the Reserve Bank Governor’s extraordinary donation of a hostage to fortune in forecasting an end to interest rate hikes? Conspiracy theorists will be scratching their tinfoil hats and mumbling about positioning for a whacking great payoff on being forced out by a new government. ...
During New Zealand First coalition negotiations our policy was to train and resource 1800 new frontline police. We secured this coalition policy win to ensure our streets had a police force that could tackle crime - after years of neglect. Remember those previous nine years of neglect saw a ‘tag ...
Katie Kenny from Stuff published an article today with a lazy attempt at so-called ‘fact checking’ my recent comments on the World Health Organisation’s concerning new regulations being developed. What is most surprising is that throughout this entire ‘fact checking’ process, Kenny never once rang me asking for my side ...
The National Party has released another confused and rushed policy that will only further worsen the inequality that is driven by unaffordable housing. ...
Welcome to sunny and calm Wellington, which I know those of you who are visiting would of course expect to be the case. It’s been a busy week since we put forward the 2023 Budget. Labour MPs have been out across the motu giving the good oil on the Budget. ...
Kia orana, Talofa lava, Mālo e lelei, Taloha ni, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Noa’ia e mauri, Ni sa bula vinaka, Kia ora, Tena Koutou Katoa. Labour Party President Jill Day, Prime Minister Hipkins, Party faithful, delegates and comrades, whānau and friends, it’s a privilege to be here today. I begin my ...
One of my kaumātua up North stood before the Waitangi Tribunal and said: ‘He aha kē ahau, te tangata kore hara i mua i te Atua, e tu nei kia whakawaatia e koe, te tangata tāhae, te tangata hara, te tangata kore tikanga?Ko koe kē te tika, kia tū ...
New Zealanders will be highly concerned that the World Health Organisation proposes to effectively take control of independent decision making away from sovereign countries and place control with the Director General. W.H.O International Health Regulations on future outbreaks of disease aim to give the Director General extraordinary and wide-sweeping powers. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take responsibility for reducing inflation by taxing wealth instead of leaving RBNZ to continue hiking the Official Cash Rate. ...
The Green Party has released its list of candidates for the 2023 election. With a mix of familiar faces, fresh new talent, and strong tangata whenua voices, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to set the direction of the next Government. ...
Thank you for your invitation to be here, after yesterday's budget, and for the opportunity to talk with you. In the economic and social turmoil following the arrival of COVID 19 in New Zealand many concerns emerged. How would we keep our economy going and maintain our exports which are ...
At the heart of Budget 2023 is a cost of living package, designed to ease the pressure on New Zealanders in the face of global inflation and the challenges of rebuilding from extreme weather events. It provides practical cost of living relief across some of the core expenses facing Kiwis ...
A long standing Green Party policy has been extended yet again in this year’s Budget. This will deliver warmer homes for thousands of people, lower power bills, and cut climate pollution. ...
The Green Party is fully on board with free bus and train travel for under 12s and half price travel for under 25s - next stop, free travel for all under 18s, students, and apprentices. ...
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced a billion dollar flood and cyclone recovery package as part of Budget 2023. This is about doing the basics - repairing and rebuilding what has been damaged and making smart investments, including $100 million of protection funding to ensure future events don’t cause ...
The Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill would: boost New Zealand’s fuel supply resilience and economic security enable the minimum stockholding obligation regulations to be adapted as the energy and transport environment evolves. “Last November, I announced a six-point plan to improve the resiliency of our fuel supply from ...
The Government is making sure those on low incomes will no longer have to wait five weeks to get the minimum weekly rate of ACC, and improving the data collected to make the system fairer, Minister for ACC Peeni Henare said today. The Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) ...
A compulsory code of conduct will ensure school board members are crystal clear on their responsibilities and expected standard of behaviour, Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said. It’s the first time a compulsory code of conduct has been published for state and state-integrated school boards and comes into effect on ...
Tena koutou katoa and thank you, Mayor Nadine Taylor, for your welcome to Marlborough. Thanks also Doug Saunders-Loder and all of you for inviting me to your annual conference. As you might know, I’m quite new to this job – and I’m particularly pleased that the first organisation I’m giving a ...
The Government will enter into a funding arrangement with councils in cyclone and flood affected regions to support them to offer a voluntary buyout for owners of Category 3 designated residential properties. It will also co-fund work needed to protect Category 2 designated properties. “From the beginning of this process ...
The Government has announced changes to strengthen requirements in venues with pokie (gambling) machines will come into effect from 15 June. “Pokies are one of the most harmful forms of gambling. They can have a detrimental impact on individuals, their friends, whānau and communities,” Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds said. ...
The total Police workforce is now the largest it has ever been. Police constabulary stands at 10,700 officers – an increase of 21% since 2017 Māori officers have increased 40%, Pasifika 83%, Asian 157%, Women 61% Every district has got more Police under this Government The Government has delivered on ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta met with Korea President Yoon, as well as Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna, during her recent visit to Korea. “It was an honour to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the first Korea – Pacific Leaders’ Summit. We discussed Pacific ambitions under the ...
The Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive has supported more than $2 billion of New Zealand business innovation – an increase of around $1 billion in less than nine months. "Research and innovation are essential in helping us meet the biggest challenges and seize opportunities facing New Zealand. It’s fantastic ...
The next ‘giant leap’ in New Zealand’s space journey has been taken today with the launch of the National Space Policy, Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds announced. “Our space sector is growing rapidly. Each year New Zealand is becoming a more and more attractive place for launches, manufacturing space-related technology ...
A new Year 7-13 designated character wharekura will be built in Pāpāmoa, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The wharekura will focus on science, mathematics and creative technologies while connecting ākonga to the whakapapa of the area. The decision follows an application by the Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore ...
Protecting the environment by establishing a stronger, more consistent system for freedom camping Supporting councils to better manage freedom camping in their region and reduce the financial and social impacts on communities Ensuring that self-contained vehicle owners have time to prepare for the new system The Self-Contained Motor Vehicle ...
A new law passed last night could see up to 25 percent of Family Court judges’ workload freed up in order to reduce delays, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan said. The Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill will establish a new role known as the Family Court Associate. The ...
New Zealand businesses will begin reaping the rewards of our gold-standard free trade agreement with the United Kingdom (UK FTA) from today. “The New Zealand UK FTA enters into force from today, and is one of the seven new or upgraded Free Trade Agreements negotiated by Labour to date,” Prime ...
The Government will reform outdated surrogacy laws to improve the experiences of children, surrogates, and the growing number of families formed through surrogacy, by adopting Labour MP Tāmati Coffey’s Member’s Bill as a Government Bill, Minister Kiri Allan has announced. “Surrogacy has become an established method of forming a family ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little departs for Singapore tomorrow to attend the 20th annual Shangri-La Dialogue for Defence Ministers from the Indo-Pacific region. “Shangri-La brings together many countries to speak frankly and express views about defence issues that could affect us all,” Andrew Little said. “New Zealand is a long-standing participant ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang met in Wellington today and affirmed the two countries’ long-standing science relationship. Minister Wang was in New Zealand for the 6th New Zealand-China Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation. Following ...
5 percent uplift clearer and simpler to navigate Domestic productions can access more funding sources 20 percent rebate confirmed for post-production, digital and visual effects Qualifying expenditure for post-production, digital and visual effects rebate dropped to $250,000 to encourage more smaller productions The Government is making it easier for the ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs (Pacific Region) Carmel Sepuloni will represent New Zealand at Samoa’s 61st Anniversary of Independence commemorations in Apia. “Aotearoa New Zealand is pleased to share in this significant occasion, alongside other invited Pacific leaders, and congratulates Samoa on the milestone of 61 ...
The Government is continuing to support retailers with additional funding for the highly popular Fog Cannon Subsidy Scheme, Police and Small Business Minister Ginny Andersen announced today. “The Government is committed to improving retailers’ safety,” Ginny Andersen said. “I’ve seen first-hand the difference fog cannons are making. Not only do ...
The Government has received the first independent review of the Intelligence and Security Act 2017, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says. The review, considered by the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, was presented to the House of Representatives today. “Ensuring the safety and security of New Zealanders is of the utmost ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has expressed condolences on behalf of New Zealand to the Kingdom of Tonga following the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu Fotofili. “New Zealand sends it’s heartfelt condolences to the people of Tonga, and to His Majesty King Tupou VI at this time ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has expressed condolences on behalf of New Zealand to the Kingdom of Tonga following the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu Fotofili. “New Zealand sends it’s heartfelt condolences to the people of Tonga, and to His Majesty King Tupou VI at this time ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little and Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta have today announced the extension of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) deployment to Solomon Islands, as part of the regionally-led Solomon Islands International Assistance Force (SIAF). “Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of working alongside the Royal Solomon ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to the Republic of Korea today to attend the Korea–Pacific Leaders’ Summit in Seoul and Busan. “Korea is an important partner for Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific region. I am eager for the opportunity to meet and discuss issues that matter to our ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor joined ministerial representatives at a meeting in Detroit, USA today to announce substantial conclusion of negotiations of a new regional supply chains agreement among 14 Indo-Pacific countries. The Supply Chains agreement is one of four pillars being negotiated within the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework ...
Our most spoken Pacific language is taking centre stage this week with Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa – Samoa Language Week kicking off around the country. “Understanding and using the Samoan language across our nation is vital to its survival,” Barbara Edmonds said. “The Samoan population in New Zealand are ...
Over 90 per cent of New Zealanders are expected to receive this year’s nationwide test of the Emergency Mobile Alert system tonight between 6-7pm. “Emergency Mobile Alert is a tool that can alert people when their life, health, or property, is in danger,” Kieran McAnulty said. “The annual nationwide test ...
ENGLISH: Whakatōhea and the Crown sign Deed of Settlement A Deed of Settlement has been signed between Whakatōhea and the Crown, 183 years to the day since Whakatōhea rangatira signed the Treaty of Waitangi, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Whakatōhea is an iwi based in ...
Elizabeth Longworth has been appointed as the Chair of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, Associate Minister of Education Jo Luxton announced today. UNESCO is the United Nations agency responsible for promoting cooperative action among member states in the areas of education, science, culture, social science (including peace and ...
Tourism and hospitality employer accreditation scheme to recognise quality employers Better education and career opportunities in tourism Cultural competency to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces Innovation and technology acceleration to drive satisfying, skilled jobs Strengthening our tourism workers and supporting them into good career pathways, pay and working conditions ...
Tourism and hospitality employer accreditation scheme to recognise quality employers Better education and career opportunities in tourism Cultural competency to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces Innovation and technology acceleration to drive satisfying, skilled jobs Strengthening our tourism workers and supporting them into good career pathways, pay and working conditions ...
Greater access to primary care, including 193 more front line clinical staff More hauora services and increased mental health support Boost for maternity and early years programmes Funding for cancers, HIV and longer term conditions Greater access to primary care, improved maternity care and mental health support are ...
Greater access to primary care, including 193 more front line clinical staff More hauora services and increased mental health support Boost for maternity and early years programmes Funding for cancers, HIV and longer term conditions Greater access to primary care, improved maternity care and mental health support are ...
The Government continues progress on the survivor-led independent redress system for historic abuse in care, with the announcement of the design and advisory group members today. “The main recommendation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s Abuse in Care interim redress report was for a survivor-led independent redress system, and the ...
Aotearoa New Zealand is providing NZ$7.75 million to respond to urgent humanitarian needs in the Horn of Africa, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The Horn of Africa is experiencing its most severe drought in decades, with five consecutive failed rainy seasons. At least 43.3 million people require lifesaving and ...
Health Minister Ayesha Verrall has opened two new state-of-the-art mental health facilities at the Christchurch Hillmorton Hospital campus, as the Government ramps up its efforts to build a modern fit for purpose mental health system. The buildings, costing $81.8 million, are one of 16 capital projects the Government has funded ...
The Government is continuing to invest in our regional economies by announcing another $24 million worth of investment into ten diverse projects, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan says. “Our regions are the backbone of our economy and today’s announcement continues to build on the Government’s investment to boost regional economic ...
An $8 million boost to New Zealand Māori Tourism will help operators insulate themselves for the future. Spread over the next four years, the investment acknowledges the on-going challenges faced by the industry and the significant contribution Māori make to tourism in Aotearoa. It builds on the $15 million invested ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the first 18 Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles for the New Zealand Army, alongside personnel at Trentham Military Camp today. “The arrival of the Bushmaster fleet represents a significant uplift in capability and protection for defence force personnel, and a milestone in ...
New Zealand's big emitters are under pressure to do more as the country heads towards its zero carbon 2050 target. NZ Steel's the first mover with a big deal with the Government to help it cut its emissions. Who will be next? The $300 million deal between NZ Steel ...
This week on the Raw Politics podcast: National struggles to deal with race relations and Labour and National fall out over housing density - plus the risk of a caucus breakdown for ACT The Raw Politics team takes a look at how National's leader and MPs are dealing with ...
The ANZ Premiership grand final will be a showdown of netball’s great wingwomen – Mystics’ Michaela Sokolich-Beatson vs Stars’ Gina Crampton. Suzanne McFadden speaks to both athletes, on a common mission. It’s a gritty battle just too close to call. Stars wing attack Gina Crampton and Mystics wing defence Michaela ...
The first King's Birthday Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, described by Steve Braunias FICTION 1 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35) Next week's Book of the Week review at ReadingRoom is by Philip Matthews (crowned Best Reviewer at last year's ...
Aotearoa has vast tracts of suburban and urban terrain. The possibilities for reformulating under-used landscapes into massive carbon-capture terrains are enormousOpinion: Many New Zealanders are engaged in the environmental work that needs to be done to halt the degradation of our planet. However, addressing increasing carbon dioxide emissions and ...
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A new poem by Wellington poet Victoria Lewis. Carmine well – the cherries appeared quietly there on the kitchen bench as if to smile and say i love you,and you dared to forget those gleaming fruit form a prayer, a devotion bloody on the inside, taut on the out ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra nitpicker/Shutterstock By coincidence, the furore around the consultancy firm PwC is raging just as the National Anti-Corruption Commission is gearing up for its start of business on July 1. The PwC scandal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ricardo Villegas, Senior Lecturer of Law, University of South Australia Today, Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko handed down his long-awaited judgment in the defamation case that Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living former SAS soldier, brought against the Age, the Sydney Morning ...
Wayne Brown has named and attempted to shame councillors who oppose the sale of the council's airport shares, but some are returning fire, saying he does not have the votes to pass his plan. ...
Some certainty has arrived for those impacted by severe weather events earlier this year but the bulk of the detail for a buyout scheme affecting at least 700 homes is a work in progress, writes political editor Jo Moir.Analysis: Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson has been determined since February ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Rolph, Professor of Law, University of Sydney At the heart of the spectacular defamation trial brought by decorated Australian soldier Ben Roberts-Smith were two key questions. Had the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times damaged his reputation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Bateson, Professor of Practice, University of Sydney Shutterstock Australians’ access to a range of contraceptive options depends on where they live and how wealthy they are. A recent parliamentary inquiry recommends ways to end this “postcode lottery” for people ...
Labour's campaign chair is standing by a social media post which likens National's prescriptions policy to dystopian TV show and novel The Handmaid's Tale. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition’s decision to oppose the Voice to Parliament has put its moderate members in a jam. Some moderates are active yes advocates, while others are trying to keep low profiles. Bridget Archer, the outspoken ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling out the agriculture industry’s "undue influence" over the Government’s agricultural emissions policy, saying that " predatory denial and delay " have stalled the development of plans to price and reduce ...
“The huge fire in South Auckland illustrates the serious human health risks of incinerating flock, the residual material left over from the scrap metal process. It is one reason we will be opposing the building of a waste incinerator in Te Awamutu ...
It’s reassuring to think that by paying for private treatment you’re ‘freeing up a bed’ in a public hospital. But the reality is private beds don’t free up public beds, they replace them. Ethicists argue that healthcare is special. Unlike other consumer goods, its availability and accessibility should be based ...
The office of mayor Wayne Brown has hit back at criticism journalists were “cherry-picked” for this morning’s budget announcement. A number of media outlets, including The Spinoff, Stuff, TVNZ and Newshub, were not invited to hear Brown’s budget address. Some, however, made it into the room after Brown had started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Klugman, Research Fellow, Institute for Health & Sport, member of the Community, Identity and Displacement Research Network, and Co-convenor of the Olympic Research Network, Victoria University Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains mention of the Stolen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sudyumna Dahal, PhD Student, Australian National University Shutterstock The human costs of tobacco and smoking worldwide are huge. 1.3 billion people use tobacco, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. More than 8 million people die prematurely because of tobacco, at ...
Today, the Government released a discussion document: Safer Online Services and Media Platforms. It aims to reduce people’s exposure to harmful content, and create a system that is easier to navigate if people need to report harmful content. The ...
The Act Party’s compared a proposal to improve online safety to the government’s doomed hate speech laws, and pledged to “kill” it off as well. Consultation is set to begin on a Department of Internal Affairs proposal to change how online content is regulated in New Zealand. But David Seymour ...
A new report from the Auditor-General on four initiatives to improve outcomes for Māori has highlighted the importance of strong relationships between public organisations and Māori, and of taking the time needed to build these relationships. However, ...
The Broadcasting Standards Authority welcomes today’s launch of the public discussion document, Safer Online Services and Media Platforms, on a proposed new content regulation framework. The Authority has long been an advocate for a more flexible regulatory ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alice Clement, Research Associate in the College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology, Author providedPalaeontology is the study of evolution and prehistoric life, usually preserved as fossils in rocks. It combines aspects of geology ...
Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono welcomes the release of the Safer Online Services and Media Platforms report from Te Tari Taiwhenua, dealing with content regulation for media and social media. “We welcome the move to an independent regulator that ...
The drearily titled “Safer Online Services and Media Platforms” document has just been released. Here’s a TLDR summary from The Spinoff’s Shanti Mathias: The suggested changes are pretty different from what we have right now. All digital industries that publish content, including overseas companies like Meta and Google and local ...
The drearily titled “Safer Online Services and Media Platforms” document has just been released. Here’s a TLDR summary from The Spinoff’s Shanti Mathias: The suggested changes are pretty different from what we have right now. All digital industries that publish content, including overseas companies like Meta and Google and local ...
The Safer Online Services and Media Platforms document has just been released by the government’s Content Regulatory Review. It does more than capitalise nouns – here’s what you need to know about what’s inside. What is this document with the world’s most boring name?It’s a proposal from the Department ...
The Safer Online Services and Media Platforms document has just been released by the government’s Content Regulatory Review. It does more than capitalise nouns – here’s what you need to know about what’s inside. What is this document with the world’s most boring name?It’s a proposal from the Department ...
The 2010s musical theatre phenomenon has finally made it to Spark Arena. Does does it live up to the years of expectation? This Angelica Schuyler is transcendent Full disclosure: I am overly familiar with Hamiton without being a full-on Hamilstan. I’ve listened to the cast recording countless times, watched it ...
The 2010s musical theatre phenomenon has finally made it to Spark Arena. Does does it live up to the years of expectation? This Angelica Schuyler is transcendent Full disclosure: I am overly familiar with Hamiton without being a full-on Hamilstan. I’ve listened to the cast recording countless times, watched it ...
Members of the press being turned away from the door distracted from the announcement of asset sales and inflation-pegged rates in Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s final budget proposal Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown didn’t mince words at a fiery press conference this morning where he confirmed he’d be calling for a ...
During New Zealand First coalition negotiations our policy was to train and resource 1800 new frontline police. We secured this coalition policy win to ensure our streets had a police force that could tackle crime - after years of neglect. Remember those ...
The government and councils will offer a buyout option to property owners whose land is too risky to rebuild on, and co-fund protection works for those who need it. ...
The government will work with councils to offer a “voluntary buyout” for owners of homes written off by Cyclone Gabrielle and other recent severe weather. About 700 category three properties – those where it’s deemed the risk of future severe weather cannot be sufficiently mitigated – are expected to be ...
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s proposed budget presents a dangerous false choice between cutting public services and privatising Auckland’s assets. The proposal to councillors offers to reinstate funding for public services and increase the pay ...
A leaked consultation document from the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) shows plans to draft and introduce legislation that would entirely restructure the New Zealand censorship regime, bringing online speech, such as material on social media ...
A crucial day for the future of the city, and the mayor’s message to hundreds of thousands of Aucklanders: I don’t want to talk to you. Wayne Brown was right. The media is awash with drongos. I personally have behaved drongoistically – to borrow a Winstonism – at least twice ...
The PSA is pleased Te Whatu Ora has listened to its concerns and is seeking further consultation with unions on a major restructuring as it seeks to remove duplication and centralise services. "This will be a huge relief for workers," said ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images When TVNZ cancelled reality TV show Police Ten 7 earlier this year, it certainly rattled some law-and-order cages. The show’s former host Graham Bell, who described suspects variously ...
A new survey from Consumer NZ has once again found customer’s prefer the country’s smaller power providers. For the third year in a row, Powershop has come out on top with a satisfaction score of 74% – the sixth time overall it has achieved the accolade. Frank Energy received a ...
Applications to mine in the ocean could begin in July. Why are scientists and activists so concerned?Far from the light of the surface, animals are pale; some glow in the dense darkness, have translucent shells; grow very big or very small. Even the most comprehensive list of deep ocean ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that a Police dog handler was not justified in using his dog to bite a man who was resisting arrest but was justified in using the dog against a second man who threatened Police. At a Whanganui suburb ...
The interdisciplinary artist from Te Whanganui-a-Tara shares all the mahi that happens behind the scenes. Ana (Ngāti Tāwhaki, Ngāi Tūhoe) has won multiple awards for her theatre work, and has been the recipient of the Te Tumu Toi New Zealand Arts Foundation Springboard Award, where she was mentored by ...
Sustainable Tarras (ST) supports today’s commitment from the new Christchurch City Holdings (CCHL) board seeking increased transparency and community engagement on the Tarras airport, as debated with Christchurch City Council (CCC) at today’s ...
This Sunday, 4 June, Wellington and Christchurch will join over 300 cities worldwide in observing the National Animal Rights Day. The events remember the billions of animals who lose their lives each year due to human actions, and acknowledge the ...
EDS has lodged its submission on “ Strengthening National Direction on Renewable Electricity Generation and Electricity Transmission ”, a consultation document prepared by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment and the Ministry ...
Auckland’s mayor snubbed most journalists from a morning launch of his new budget. While the Herald was among a select few allowed in the room, reporters from outlets like Stuff weren’t sent an invitation. In a story headlined “Wayne Brown snubs Stuff readers on major Auckland Council budget update”, a ...
A nationwide poll on pay gaps shows nearly 2 out of every 3 New Zealanders consider pay gaps to be a ‘significant’ or ‘very significant’ issue (64%), with a similar number supporting new pay transparency policies to address the issue (63%). ...
I said we could still be friends but now I just want him to leave me alone.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to [email protected]Dear HeraTowards the end of last year, I was surprised to see a university acquaintance from a different city – we’d had one tutorial together – at ...
Wayne Brown’s proposed budget will see rates increases pegged to inflation – but it requires his desired sell-off of Auckland Airport shores. The mayor is presenting his budget in Auckland today. Few were invited to witness the moment live, with media like Stuff reportedly left out (The Spinoff was not ...
When it was first unveiled, the government’s extension in this year’s Budget of 20 hours free early childhood education to 2-year-olds from next March was hailed as a masterstroke. The Minister of Finance said it would save qualifying households ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Pang, Research Fellow in Psychology, Monash University Shutterstock The human brain is made up of around 86 billion neurons, linked by trillions of connections. For decades, scientists have believed that we need to map this intricate connectivity in detail ...
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High time social media toxicity resulted in an antidote: “New Zealand’s biggest news site has closed a huge swathe of their notorious comments section. Stuff editor in chief Patrick Crewdson spoke to The Spinoff about why they made the choice.” https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/27-03-2019/free-speech-under-attack-why-stuff-are-reining-in-their-comment-section/
There’s “a whole lot of new rules designed to get rid of the assholes. A wide range of article topics – like 1080, vaccinations and the disputed region of Kashmir – just won’t have the comments open anymore. Along with that, they plan to be a lot tougher on where the line that cannot be crossed is. And – in what might seem like an unrealistically utopian development – they even plan to have an ‘editor’s pick’ function to highlight the best, most enlightening comments.”
Carrot as well as stick. A traditional formula, usually works fairly well. “We asked Stuff’s editor in chief Patrick Crewdson why he was shutting down free speech. Why are you shutting down free speech? Because I’ve been ordered to by the World Government.”
“Toldya so!” will probably be the most frequent response from WhaleOil commenters.
“We’ve always had rules for comments, and before today we were rejecting around a third of the 7000 comments we receive daily. So this isn’t about the era of free speech coming to an end. It’s about our community standards, and drawing the boundary in a different place.”
Cool, let’s have more fluid boundaries. Fixed boundaries are boring. “One of the other stipulations is that comments will be rejected if they “just generally aren’t very nice.” Hypothetically, say you had an article about The Spinoff on your site. What would be an example of a not very nice comment that would be rejected?”
“I feel you’re trying to trick me into being mean to you.” Trickster is good, very valuable social archetype, pan-cultural too, let’s have more of that…
Yeah well it’s about bloody time. Corporations have a social responsibility too. Just what a shame it takes a tragedy to give them the proverbial boot they need.
Stuff have been extremely complicit- and encouraging- of beneficiary bashing which of course reached it’s zenith under the last regieme. By republishing the Natz press releases verbatim with no proper journalism to check the validity, then by opening the comments for the inevitably vile to be spewed. If they let what they did be published I hate to think what they rejected… A lot of what went though met the criteria for breaches of the Human Rights Act. So nice to see they won’t be opening comments for articles related to beneficiaries anymore, but proof in pudding and all that.
As I said in an OM post a few days ago, this is hate speech and words can kill.
Even our resident tabloid had the decency to quit with the comments years ago. If these coordinated (and probably paid) haters can’t handle the fact they’ve lost a large platform, tough shit.
It is possible to reset fixed boundaries every now and then. That does not make them ‘fluid’. It is how organisations and organisms adapt to environmental change.
There’s “a whole lot of new rules designed to get rid of the assholes.
A wide range of article topics – like 1080, vaccinations and the disputed region of Kashmir –
just won’t have the comments open anymore
And there it is…articles can be authored…and go unchallenged and unchecked…
A preordained list of subjects…where will the subject matter boundaries be…will a list be made public…
This is what folks asked for…
If I were a media owner, I’d be looking at it from a cost perspective. Do I want to pay employees to spend all day moderating comments?
Being Green, I also see it from an ecosystem perspective. Toxic commentators are like the worst weeds: those that grow fast & often. One must be a busy gardener to extract them.
They are rather careful not to mention the forced organ donations. Might have decided diplomacy best.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/111544569/muslim-group-wants-2-million-donation-to-be-returned-to-china
And it would b good if it could be spent on Muslim support and positive projects there. It would be needed help, not wasted.
Greywarshark – yes it would, but the Chinese government simply would not allow that. The Uighurs are seen as a threat to the communist party, and effectively isolated from the wider Chinese Empire.
I think they are more concerned with the forced imprisonment and reeducation of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, which our government is so silent on.
Forced organ donations are across the board in China, not a specifically Muslim thing.
They are predominantly taken from Uighurs + practitioners of Falong Gong.
No doubt.
Falun Gong pose a very real threat to the government of China, as they are openly anti China in their publications. The communist government can not and will not tolerate any organised group, regardless of their views. Says just how insecure they are.
I think the Chinese Empire will go the way of the USSR, and break apart. Nei Mongolia. Sichuan. Xinjiang. Xizhang. Take those away and China will be a rump of its current size. Will happen without a doubt.
And it can’t happen soon enough.
Tibetans, Mongolians and Uyghurs all deserve their own independent states (though no doubt the Mongolians of Inner Mongolia would join Mongolia).
Maybe even the Cantonese speaking Han would form a new country.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1110170205748187136
Censorship usa style …. supporting the peacful BDS movement …. Or mention the HUGE influence the AIPAC israel lobby has on usa policy …. then your either breaking the law ……or your supporting anti semitisim , under the new ( and perverted) definition of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=javzUCQbbeQ
I was reading the wiki page of Maajid Nawaz the other day after both David Farrar and Bryce Edwards had linked to an article of his post Christchurch (and if you want an idea of Edwards’ political leanings these days then there it is).
The wiki page had a featured quote:
Maajid Nawaz The Big Questions (BBC show)
I wondered if his supposition would hold for Judaism?
Probably not.
Or perhaps Zionism.
And while we’re on the subject of lateral thinking, why not apply it to the Waiho Bridge? Instead of spending all that money replacing it every time climate change washes it away, just put a big hinge on the side of the damn thing!
Then either incorporate auto-opening with red lights to stop traffic every time the river gets high enough, or a trigger-release that gets activated when the river almost reaches the road. After the flood, get a truck and chain to pull it closed again.
If the bridge has been washed away many times before, it won’t be due to climate change, it will be as a result of south Westland getting horrendous floods which it has done just about forever.
They anticipate this by building a bailey bridge (basically a short term military bridge used when existing bridges have been blown up).
They could actually build a decent bridge, which could be future proofed against climate change. Probably would cost $30 million or so, but in the long run would seem better than a rickety old bailey bridge.
Was amused to hear the Westland mayor saying it was unusual for a “100 year event” on the Ciast to be so geographically widespread.
He didn’t sound older than about 55.
They need a bridge which spans the entire river, and at least 50 metres of the bank, in one leap. No piles in the shifting and unstable bed to get undermined.
… it won’t be due to climate change, it will be as a result of south Westland getting horrendous floods which it has done just about forever.
Yes, but it probably started out to be a one in 20 year flood, then it dropped to a one in 10 year flood and so on… now its happening frequently enough due to CC that it has weakened the bridge’s structure and the stability of the river bed.
Wayne Mapp = climate change denier.
Everyone’s an engineer.
They tried a cool neo-Bascule luft design in Whangarei. They forgot heat expansion so it stuck.
It is working OK now though as they have shaved a little off it. That bridge works of course because the hinged bit is only wide enough to let a boat through. The Waiho Bridge is obviously too long for this to work. There is also hugely more water going under it.
Punt.
Boosting local economy via employment? Good thinking. Have another govt workshop this morning, yesterday’s was excellent.
Flying fox.
There is a HUGE movement of gravel washing down the Waiho and raising the riverbed. Only a handful of years ago that Waiho bridge was raised about 3m or so due to the riverbed lifting to the underside of the bridge. In that handful of years the riverbed has lifted again.
This is a common occurence with all bridges in NZ. They constrain the river being bridged, which results in the gravel building up and up and up as it cannot spill out the side. It happens everywhere, but is more noticeable on the coast due to the extent of rainfall and one of the world’s highest mountain erosion rates. These rivers need digging out frequently.
The Waiho in particular has this HUGE gravel bulge coming down the river (due to glacier retreat). It has many years to go yet. Franz is in trouble. Everyone knows it. That is why that bridge has been a bailey-type bridge – easier to repair/replace every few decades.
Building a more permanent bridge would require more work to each end than actually building the bridge, such is the geography of the site.
The other point – much of NZ’s roading infrastrcture was built around 50-70 years ago. It is at the end-of-life point, in two main ways. One, all the roads were cut into hillsides and they are now eroding from above to an unpreventable level (e.g. Manawatu Gorge). Two, the constrained rivers are full to bursting, and are bursting.
It’s a biggie thing
Thank you, I was busy typing out a similar response but far less informed. Temporary bridges aren’t all bad, they have speed and weight limits and are a bit inconvenient, but from an engineering perspective make a great deal of sense in this sort of highly unstable environment.
And then of course there’s the Alpine Fault, (running through the township of Franz Joseph), that is due to go any day now ….
The Alpine Fault is one of the world’s major plate boundaries and New Zealand’s most hazardous earthquake-generating fault. It runs for 650 kilometres along the spine of New Zealand’s South Island and we know that it ruptures on average every 300 years, producing an earthquake of about magnitude 8.
The last time the Alpine Fault went was in 1717, when it shunted land horizontally by eight metres and uplifted the mountains a couple of metres.
Would need to be very well hinged! (As opposed to unhinged …)
http://theconversation.com/new-zealands-alpine-fault-reveals-extreme-underground-heat-and-fluid-pressure-77868
vto; yes
NZ roads were never designed to carry 60 tonne trucks either.
*As they built the roads and the under base to carry a laden weight of only 20 tonnes or less,- then, as vehicles back then trucks were an average of 9 tonnes and rail carried 90% of our freight.
*But now that whole picture has reversed.
* Now 60+ tonne trucks are now 8 times heavier and carry 90% of our freight.
* Rail only carries 6% of our freight.
So vto; – common sense says “something had to give”.
Our problems are that the road transport industry is far to powerful and has far to much control and heavy influence over our politicians today and rail needs to now take at least half the freight.
Unless the government does change this, – this problem we will never fix the problem.
Uhh, yeah, railways are really relevant to a thread about a bridge failure hundreds of kilometres from the nearest railway, and is hundreds of kilometres from anywhere 60+ tonne trucks are allowed by the HPMV regulations.
You wanna start lobbying for a brand new railway line down the West Coast?
http://nzta.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e00b3ac6ab524cb19a369fc5c2b4e6fa
Two good women standing out … and standing up to …. the garbage enviromen and reporting …surrounding usa politic s.
And the comments directed towards Ilhan Omar on her twitter feed …. whaleoil / kiwi blog sickness does not even begin to describe it.
All the little Masa s commenting against her are sick …. in the worlds master nation
I’m surprised Mark Rubio has not threatened to Lynch her … as he sometimes tweets such stuff …. as a warning to those not doing what the Masa says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr2qh9uTsBY
Isn’t she a racist anti Semite publicly and privately ? Very nice smile though
Not according to Jewish people who are not affiliated to Aipac or extreme zionisim Bewildered … these honest people think the false anti semite smear …. like you just dishonestly used ….. are the real threat to Israel …. and the rise of real anti Semitic feelings worldwide .
Your Blatant nasty dishonesty is ugly …. it’s so obvious ….and reflects very poorly upon honest Jewish people …. who would never spread your lies …. Bewildered.
Your a disgrace …. tainting others with your filth
But back to the good people …. like this Jewish man …. a brother to those seeking justice and truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAEwCQApNMc
Regarding the unlawful theft of the Golan heights …,. this honest sister shows up the gangster ethos … in the Trump and Netanyahu crime partnership
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQk_m4RcTDo
In the sense that you’re a racist alcoholic diaper wearing masochist beewee or in a different sense? Very quizzical befuddled gape though.
She manages to keep her sense of humor …. when speaking to the worst of people …. Are you as good looking as Eliots Abrams Bewildered ?
As in …….. Do your looks match your personality ….. does your smile scare children ? 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IeJGbmjWqw
She’s a diamond.
From a few week ago.
West Coast Regional Council wants proof of human-caused climate change before supporting Zero Carbon Bill
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/110223334/west-coast-regional-council-wants-proof-of-humancaused-climate-change-before-supporting-zero-carbon-bill
Today
State of emergency as massive deluge hits West Coast, with more to come
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111533664/heavy-rain-moving-up-nz-from-the-south-in-significant-weather-event-live-coverage
Previously Stuart Nash was against tighter gun controls. Today he has revised his opinion. It’s a pity that people in national or local government are governing by opinion which is limited by their own ignorance and lack of desire to obtain and understand the facts of the situation.
Thanks for the reminder dv.
I hope the locals have more sense next local body elections to vote out the neanderthals running their council.
Teachable moment. Took my son and his friend to school today both aged 11. Raining here. They bought up climate change and we discussed increased energy and wilder extremes of weather. Had just helped homework with the boy around the difference between heat and temperature. They said that we (olders) weren’t doing enough and leaving them to deal with it. I said yep that is happening and we must continue to do all we can do including creating sustainability and resilience and community. I learnt so much from those young boys.
Given recent times, the chances of mistaken identities with our NZ PM must be next to nil, as Jacinda goes to embark on a whirlwind international diplomacy trip to meet the China heads of state.
Being able to do such whirlwind foreign engagements though, even amidst the ongoing backdrop of the past week or so, then beyond trade numbers and volumes, it would surely be very valuable to NZ if culturally more of an eye starts to be kept out for any headline get togethers as involves Ivanka Trump to gender equality promotions with leadership/corporate decision making structures.
Ivanka is very well known around the world in different places, including China, and there are far worse ideas of reference for a place in often chaotic world traffic than a layperson stickability like Ivanka, Jacinda, Gender Equality, New Zealand, to be understood with.
As I predicted a couple of months ago, Pentagon gets Trump’s wall started by shifting $1b of internal funds, unilaterally. Armed Forces Committee may complain, but DoD is its own kingdom with plenty of discretion.
Trump will now go to the electorate with tax reform, corruption scandals behind him, and wall started.
Dems are such a long way from a single candidate that they may simply run out of time to take Trump out.
It’s a point well made and worth repeating; our political landscape seems as much shaped by sullen incompetence on the left as it is by sly malfeasance on the right.
That seems a quotable quote RedLogix. And if that is not acceptable grammar to anyone, I note that stuff have included banning comments that protest against grammatical errors in its latest tranche of changes. It is good though if the piece is readable. I complain at large bricks without paras. Good thinking through things can be bypassed if its too dense, or having difficulty to get through someone’s brain that is too dense!
Gentlemen, start your lawsuits.
It’s on!
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1110572158126833664
ROFL, so the whole Russian collusion conspiracy theory has just fallen over, and handed trump the sympathy card.
Could people play it any worse – oh wait this is the centre left were talking about so, yeah this could get way worse…
trump is going to walk in, becasue the centre left lost its mind and spent two years down the rabbit hole chasing a conspiracy theory.
An apology for the muppets who pushed the Russian Collusion conspiracy theory would be nice. Or at least an apology for the name calling of ‘putin puppets’ would be a good place to start.
AT least one thing to like about the centre left, when it comes to going crazy, at least you do it on a grand scale.
And right on cue…
Trump ‘gifts Golan’…having already gifted Jerusalem…
Yeah…but…Russian interference…
“Jews outraged after mosque leader blames Mossad for Christchurch …
https://www.newshub.co.nz/…/jews-outraged-after-mosque-leader-blames-mossad-for-…”
Link hacked and redirected, so search for yourself (I believe Yippy.com is an option to avoid the Google engine)
So this main actor goes into the Mosque. And passage-way-extra-guy1 is on the floor with bare feet. The main actor goes out, comes back in, and now the passage-way-extra-guy1 is still in the same place but now wearing socks, blue socks! I shit you not, it has been filmed in two takes! This is the level of BS in the video, super-fake and a very strange situation we find ourselves in. No surprise that Islamic leaders in NZ calling it how it looks.
[No more disrespectful comments, please. The next false flag fantasy sees you removed from the site. TRP]
Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar, gave a speech questioning where the gunman got his funding from. He said he suspected it came from “Mossad” and “Zionist business”.
Why are you repeating this shit here?
When links get broken (like the link to the quote I give above), then I shout it louder. I would truly like to understand where you folk are coming from. Why should we censor all views other than the lone-wolf narrative? Do folk here believe that it is in the interests of national security? Is it fear? I read quotes from our leaders like Marama D calling for the truth. To quote James S, “when the facts change, we change our mind”. How do we avoid the polarisation of opinion? By making sure there is only one opinion? I respect that our leaders’ hands’ are politically tied, but that means that it’s up to us, farmers and unionist, to say the uncomfortable truths. If not us, now? Then who, and when? Perhaps I’m too direct. If so, then please, demonstrate to me the more graceful way. But to simply put on a head scarf and bury the truth, this is a sad defeat for us all.
In the setting of the bigger picture, as financial melt-down warms, with the US ready for civil war, Israel given the green light for expansion… sorry for the fear porn, but surely we would want to keep our local communities informed, if these impulses where to act upon our shores. The truth is safe if you remain empathetic with it. I thought the audience here was political. If I can’t share the truth here, then where? Well I have said my piece, and will leave you folk in peace now. Much to do on farm.
Life, Light and Love
Yeah you are far from understanding anything here when you ask:
Here you will find the opposite – that views are broadly tolerated other than the ‘hate speech’ of your so-called lone-wolf narrative and other false-flag shit. This is where a line gets drawn – some don’t like it – but I entirely agree with such censorship.
Fear Porn, as you call it, seems to be at the heart of your rants.
Me disrespectful? How about NZ Police Commissioner Bush, is he being respectful by turning aspects of this investigation over to the FBI? (sorry my computer is too hacked to cut-n-paste at this minute, I’ll paraphrase his statement): “We are getting help from the FBI to paint a better picture of the (singular) attacker.” Is he turning it over to the FBI? Are NZ police not up to the job? Is he narrowing the focus down to one man? Sorry, I’m agreeing with mosque leader Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar. Smells like rat to me too.
Go away you nasty piece of work.
+ 1
You said that far too nicely marty.
hard words spoken softly
always superior
But there’s some facts in Corodales comments. They aren’t all about his dumb opinions.
(Why did you put that Corodale? About socks and all that? Get some respect for the gravity of this matter. This is not a time for interesting discussion like about something minor that you saw on tv or a film!)
Facts as reported correctly one expects:
* The Mt Roskill leader of the local church was quoted as mentioning Mossad etc. mosque leader Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar.
** Jews have been quoted as being outraged about Mossad, their spy organisation, being referred to in a suspicious way by the Mt Roskill mosque chairman.
*** Commissioner Bush has mentioned that the FBI are here and the Australian Federal police and that they are in touch withother jurisdictions around the world. Video update 10 Can’t see any date (on-line seems chary about dates). e&oe
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=438111816929508
And the other quote about Mt Roskill was on this link earlier supplied from which I copied. And put again.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/03/jews-outraged-after-mosque-leader-blames-mossad-for-christchurch-attack.html
[Rambling rant removed. Banned till 1st May. Repeat this behaviour when you return and the ban will be significantly longer. TRP]
Yes greywarshark
There is always two sides to every story, and some don’t want to accept this and just want to rubbish others and are not helping anything doing that.
Perhaps solka and marty need to read this. latest 19th March 2019 study;
” IPCC is underselling climate change”
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-ipcc-underselling-climate.html
Study shows IPCC is underselling climate change
March 19, 2019, University of Adelaide
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
A new study has revealed that the language used by the global climate change watchdog, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is overly conservative – and therefore the threats are much greater than the Panel’s reports suggest.
Published in the journal BioScience, the team of scientists from the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, the University of Bristol (UK), and the Spanish National Research Council has analysed the language used in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (from 2014).
“We found that the main message from the reports—that our society is in climate emergency—is lost by overstatement of uncertainty and gets confused among the gigabytes of information,” says lead author Dr. Salvador Herrando-Pérez, from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.
“The IPCC supports the overwhelming scientific consensus about human impact on climate change, so we would expect the reports’ vocabulary to be dominated by greater certainty on the state of climate science—but this is not the case.”
Clearing the mind of some of the nitty gritty to let the major matters emerge. That’s what is so important I think cleangreen. (Don’t read any further if you are inclined to depression – someone pointing out things clearly you sort of know is too much to take on sometimes. Did you have to say that? is the angry thought.)
Those points you put up are major, and so true about not getting the clear message we need to take on board. But often it’s more than I can cope with, and i am ahead of others. The young ones are still trying to make their lives and constantly be flexible, adapting to the new technology, demands, etc. If older people only think of pleasure, going on holidays, meeting at cafes for meals and chat, keeping up with the children and grand-children, limited input to keep up with society, who is actually confronting the problems? Big nasty ones too. That is the situation.
And that is why I won’t get tv again, Sky can keep ringing and I am polite most of the time to the worker at the end of the line. But I haven’t time. I am in a minority amongst people I meet in the everyday world who pay attention to the future, who regards with cynicism the pretty speeches of politicians and the ones about how love will keep us together. If it was so easy it would have been done decades ago. Love is essential, and it will enable us to decide what is the best thing to do for our families, our neighbourhood and what we are going to help with, and how to retire from the world when it becomes essential to do so. We might decide it is better to train as medical personnel and go into the war-torn areas there and help the brave and moral people attempting to act nobly and practically for instance. We are only costing the country money to keep us alive and active and doing our own thing in the midst of growing disaster. The eye of the storm we are living in at present.
Knowing the coldness and self-absorption of the better-off, which is the same all the way up to the leaders and manipualtors to whom money is no barrier, I can’t have hope that they will do anything to keep things going that is not expedient for them. Trying to improve anything back to the way it was is tremendously difficult because the people in power want to lower conditions down to necessities for the people, and the necessities are in their sights also. Our right to be able to afford our own homes, or even have decent rental ones is an example.
I hope that we can find true-hearted people to work with and do what we can to avoid the worst situations. But any slip-slide away to cults and
glamorous ideas and leave you in the lurch when you try to do anything, when you try to get a practical working group going that will fix on a system that is good in theory, and prove it in practice and change to meet changing needs and times, and not cling to historical methods.
The feedback practice on Stuff is being changed to meet criteria of the well-run ethical business they want to be Our political systems for instance shouldn’t be set in stone. Each plan is a compromise and should have clear objectives to be proud of, and then when not achieving them some change is acceptable, say each year.
corodale. Please don’t ” quote” without linking to the source. It undermines credibility.
“Bush said FBI agents have traveled to New Zealand to help with the investigation.” https://www.foxnews.com/world/new-zealand-holds-first-funerals-for-mosque-shooting-victims
(sorry my computer was hanging, and I couldn’t cut-n-paste, I’ll lost my previous link)
corodale. Thanks for the link…I’m a little OCD about such things.
And bugger me, there it is….Bush saying how the FBI are over here helping out with the investigation. I thought I was keeping up but that wee tidbit had escaped me.
All I can say is, thank heavens for The FBI…..they have a sterling reputation for sorting shit out. /sarc 😉
You’re mad corodale.
Anne Nice please be nice not rude here,
It hurts and offends people; – as we are supposed to be living in a freedom of civil expression here.
Corridale said sorry; – so what do you want?
cleangreen look at the times. I posted mine in answer to his earlier mad rants. Since when there has been a plethora of replies to later comments.
I see he has now been banned until 1st May.
Check the facts before bursting into print eh?
We certainly have to be careful. There is a very snappy approach showing up on here at present. The shock has made us all tense and our reactions can be triggered. I was annoyed with someone starting a discussion referring to other tragedies and wondering if this was worse, rating it on a scale I felt which bothered me. That was picking up on our PM saying that the tragedy was unprecedented in NZ.
I agree grey. We’re going through the “angry” phase at present and I currently have a low tolerance level for bullshit and crank statements. This is in part because of personal historical experiences and the fact the people making them are flying in the face of present reality.
I will endeavour to curb my reactions to them. 🙂
But a fence is not a wall, guys, what part of following instructions do you just not get?? I foresee tv pictures of hordes of locals jumping up & down in unison chanting “We Wanna Wall! We Wanna Wall!”
“The Pentagon has authorised army engineers to begin construction of additional fencing on the US-Mexico border, diverting an initial $1bn after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to bypass Congress on the matter. The army would begin planning and building 57 miles of 18-foot-high fencing in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, according to a statement by acting defence secretary Patrick Shanahan.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-border-wall-mexico-funding-pentagon-security-congress-vote-a8839811.html
Will engineers factor in the curvature of the earth, or is it presumed to be flat?
“Presumed”? By engineers?
corodale can you understand that huge amount of unknown information that affects anybody’s ability to make a reasoned decision? And how much time is wasted that could be spent on learning the facts, but is wasted in engaging with dunderheads like you and similar smart-arses.
This is an expression of the thinking about information and its complexity.There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns
I suggest you don’t pretend ignorance about known things, otherwise you will never catch up with the quest for knowledge that others are on.
not an either or question
it is both flat and curved
can you get your head around such?
I think Dennis at 11, was in reply to 9 about the wall from joe90. He has put up a copy of the letter refusing Defence from taking $1 billion from its booty to help Trumpy and his wall. It could actually be a major tourist attraction for Mexico, and a place where artists hang out decorating it and fighting over where Banksy- like people can keep their art for posterity. The Berlin Wall was covered in graffiti.
Simultaneous writing actually. I was expecting to be first with the news but got beaten by a few minutes, so didn’t know the other report was in the pipeline – fortunately my quote provided more detail, so supplementing the other.
I find the fence/wall thing weird, inasmuch as the fence has been there awhile apparently – in some locations, even if not continuous. But we never got an explanation from Trump re Mexico funding so he’s just ad hoc.
Good one. Dont tolerate hate speech. We are changing our country slowly but surely.
“A man lost his job after making comments about Muslims following the Christchurch terror attack.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12216465
We are changing our country slowly but surely.
Into one where you can lose your job for saying something your boss doesn’t like. Hooray!
PM
I’m not sure why you’d be applauding that. Right leaning employer sacks employee making left wing comment might attract some consternation, and rightly so. Is that what you’re suggesting?
“Hooray!” probably needed a /sarc tag after it. This is actually a horrifying development, and I hope the current government is moving to give people working for temp agencies greater protection against this kind of thing. If the guy had been directly employed by Placemakers it would have been much harder to dismiss him (which is one of the reasons employers use temp agencies – the workers have fewer rights).
Yep thought it was sarcasm. More than 20,000 workers have been sacked in the last year who were on 90 day trials. Making political comments I suspect is one “justification” used by employers.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1903/S00039/tens-of-thousands-of-kiwi-workers-sacked.htm
I spose he could just not say hate speech – too hard?
He could just not say things that marty mars retrospectively and without hearing them declares to be hate speech? Yes, that is too hard. Effectively, your argument is “He could just not say things.”
Ball gags for all employees…the idea has merit
Oh dear.
something to consider – now days indigenous peoples often focus on decolonising the mind. Basically as colonization occured it took from indigenous peoples and replaced with the unshakable belief that all euro aspects are the peak and naturally are the best way. Politics, social structure, law and ways of thinking about law, everything. Decolonising the mind is realizing the truth that there is no white supremacy in ANYTHING including how to think, react, what’s important and what isn’t.
So your logic and approach is not mine. Get used to it.
Given you have openly endorsed punishing people who say things you don’t like, I should point out that this is a system us toxic white people (and others) have tried out at various times in the past century or so, and demonstrated to be a catastrophically bad idea.
On the other hand you may have better luck with it.
Cool good to know.
and your first sentence is not correct. I applaud people being protected against white supremacist hate speech and religious hate speech. I think it hurts people and is sick anytime but especially now. Pity you don’t.
I stand on my track record here going back over a decade as being implacably opposed to religious zealots and fundamentalists of any kind. At the same time I’ve made it clear I am not an atheist, I have a long standing relationship with religion and I’ve spoken in respectful terms whenever the topic arose.
Indeed I’ve taken more than some flack for this over the years from people who hold all religions in contempt; ‘sky fairies’ and the like.
Long before it became the issue it has been this past 10 days.
Well the romans outlawed greek practitioners of rhetoric,then again they also outlawed athletics as the Greeks performed this naked in public,but allowed violent spectator sports (a bit like television programming)
Alexander Pope summed up the problems on discourse in his Epistle to man.
But errs not Nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
“No, (’tis replied) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen’ral laws;
Th’ exceptions few; some change since all began:
And what created perfect?”—Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then Nature deviates; and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show’rs and sunshine, as of man’s desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp’rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav’n’s design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?
Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar’s mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?
From pride, from pride, our very reas’ning springs;
Account for moral, as for nat’ral things:
Why charge we Heav’n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right is to submit.
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never passion discompos’d the mind.
But ALL subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The gen’ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.
Martians are boring.
There is only one logic Marty to argue otherwise is illogical Also there is a reason the world flock to western countries, democracies and ideals and not the other way round Hint , it’s not about colour
…there is a reason the world flock to western countries…
There was a reason western countries flocked to the world over the last 500 years, too. Indigenous people in many countries have some views on that. So, maybe not the best argument to offer to one of them (which I believe marty mars is)?
“Also there is a reason the world flock to western countries”
You mean Maori, Islander, Aboriginal and Amerindian countries.
But carry on in your delusion you are the greatest.
Reason isn’t “White,” it just is. If you mistake rational argument for a Pākehā cultural affectation and “decolonise” it from your mind, your ability to argue for your views will be damaged, not improved.
Reason – you assess information and reach conclusions. You’re not a machine – only some information is assessed – what info and why those ones? You reach conclusions based on past experience, knowledge etc. Its all subjective. If you live in society and every day the variables considered important are reinforced and others not which ones become natural? White isn’t a colour to me but a set of privileges attached to groups. Some have more, some less.
True, there are an infinite number of ways we assess information and one of the core ideas the radical left has embraced is that none of them are privileged above the other; they’re all equally valid.
I presume then you’d have no quibble with me ‘decolonising’ my modern western mind and embracing my Viking heritage:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings
Who do you think would win a waka full of Maori toa, or a longboat of Vikings? 🙂
You reach conclusions based on past experience, knowledge etc. Its all subjective.
Its even worse than that. We reach conclusions based on personal prejudices, emotions we’re feeling, whatever hormone happens to be getting the most traction at the time, things we believe are true but aren’t – there’s a big list.
That’s why reason is so important. What are the rational arguments for the conclusions I’ve reached? If I can’t come up with any, or I do but they’re a collection of logical fallacies and other people tear them to shreds in front of me, it’s time to figure out what’s really led me to those conclusions.
@ red
Yeah good you’re being a smartarse cos it shows you’re worried and uncertain. That’s the point really.
@pm
“and other people tear them to shreds in front of me,”
There are other ways of doing it.
@ marty
Yet when I speak seriously to the notion of a global civilisation, one that unites the best aspects of all cultures, one that expands our moral and emotional horizons to embrace the entire human race … as I have done many times … you go all silent on me.
@ red – I oppose merging. I like uniqueness and variety.
In the global civilisation I have in mind, us white people would compose just 1 billion of the 7 or more billion humans. There is plenty of diversity to go around.
The members of your whanau are all unique and different people, yet together they are united as family. As with the citizens of a nation. We are all unique, diverse and individuals, while at the same time connected and merged at many different levels.
Unity does not imply uniformity; it means connection and the ability to work to a common purpose.
Maybe he should have thought first.
But then a “qualified engineer” reduced to fruitpicking probably has other issues, too.
But although I don’t have much sympathy for him, arbitrarily kicking him was wrong. There should have been a disciplinary meeting, and based on exactly what he said (not his description of what he said) appropriate disciplinary action should have been taken.
Alleged hate speech mardymardy.
Good you’re on board. It seemed like his co workers were a bit frightened and the boss listened to them and fair enough imo. Times change and they just did for this country.
Ok so you won’t complain if a worker gets sacked on day 89 of his 90 day trial for merely praising the PM…
Suppose his co-workers were “a bit frightened” because he spoke te reo Maōri or expressed support for tino rangatiratanga – still good if the boss listens to them and makes sure the troublemaker doesn’t get to “frighten” them again? Now that times have changed and it’s apparently OK to dismiss people for saying something you don’t like, an’ all that?
You’re not good on context imo – nothing is happening in a vacuum is it. Your principles are constructed yet you hold them so tight. They appear fragile if they can’t take this stuff.
My principles are so far from fragile that I can cope with hearing unpopular opinions without wanting to get the holders of the opinions sacked. It would be good if yours were equally robust.
You’re dreaming mate – you spent days here moaning about a call to prayer for a God you dont believe in. Lol wake up and be honest at least with yourself.
Gods you don’t believe in can kill you, as a lot of people have found out over the last few thousand years. They may kill you by proxy, via the people who do believe in them, but you end up just as dead. Don’t assume that gods you don’t believe in are trivial, because it’s not true.
I’m aware of your views on Islam but feel free to spell them out for others who may not know.
Islam’s merely the ugliest of them. I wrote “gods” plural for a reason – the Christian ones have probably clocked up a bigger body count than Allah over the centuries, especially when you take the Americas into account. There have been plenty of others.
Influencers – this phenomenon is beyond me. This is a good article. Gives the vegan haters some good material and by jeeze they need it ha ha ha. Fishgate.
“Not only was Mendoza promoting a restrictive diet that was making her sick, she was extolling dangerous practices, such as 25-day water fasts, to her millions of followers. And she is far from the only influencer promoting extreme eating. Jordan Peterson, a prominent psychologist, has been outspoken about his all-beef diet, claiming it cured his depression and his gum disease. (Unfortunately, it hasn’t cured his pseudo-intellectual prattling.)”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/26/the-furore-over-the-fish-eating-vegan-influencer-is-a-warning-to-us-all
Fortunately Peterson also makes it clear it’s a diet he has found addresses specific issues his family have encountered over the years. Nowhere does he recommend or promote it as a generally good idea. Indeed whenever someone does ask him about, he says it’s a restrictive and onerous diet he doesn’t like much at all.
Incidentally gum disease has been recently implicated in Alzheimers:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2191842-gum-disease-may-be-the-cause-of-alzheimers-heres-how-to-avoid-it/
So maybe the author of this smear by association piece has it entirely backwards.
thanks for that – alzheimers eh – not good – I certainly wouldn’t wish that on him and i can’t imagine a journalist doing this connection thing you’ve bought up – it appears you’ve connected those dots all by yourself 🙂
Yeah, look after your gums. Gum disease seems to *cause* all kinds of other maladies – heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, pancreatic cancer …
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/gum-disease-and-the-connection-to-heart-disease
and because of this Dental care is cosmetic, not a health care. 🙂
Sabine,
No!!
‘Dental care is not only cosmetic’- it is part of our whole health and well being.
I got a clear message about this two years ago.
In 2016 my teeth got damaged after a boating accident and this was around Xmas and dental care was not carried out until four months later due to ACC hangups, and by then infections had been set in causing blood poisoning that threatened my life and I spend two years after wards getting the teeth fixed with 6 root canals and seven restorations.
Gum abbess infections and resulting blood poisoning from gum infections can destroy anyone’s health, mind and body,.
Don’t let the teeth health be left out of healthcare funding here; – as many cannot afford to pay for dental care.
Irony isn’t your bag is it cleany.
It actually is sort of serious and just becoming known, so cleany felt he would give us the facts Gabby. Taking quite a few sentences to explain it which takes time and a desire to be helpful, just not pass judgment.
That’s good RL. Thanks. I can use that information.
Reposted from last night’s Daily Review..
The rich schools oppose the plan to return education to being a public service for the greater good:
http://www.communityschools.org/
They want:
To be able to charge loads of fees
To be able to make parents buy devices they cannot afford
To pander to internation students
To kick out ‘dumb kids’ that make their schools look bad
**TO RUN SCHOOLS AS A TRADEABLE BUSINESS COMMODITY AND NOT A PUBLIC SERVICE**
To be honest, I trust civil servants to run schools than the red faced reactionary bourgeois hacks that control most boards of trustees, and have their own little networks.
The Hubs are going to shine some light on all the corruption and nepotism that goes on in our education system, and some people dont like that.
millsy
I noticed that the nice Maori woman keen and willing to be a good Board member didn’t get voted in to my local primary school with a catchment of mostly pakeha, and many professionals. Board members came from the public, but the accountant, businessman, the solicitor or solicitor’s wife were the vast majority
( could be both women). So having Boards chosen from the public giving the impression of reflecting the whole community is misleading.
And the middle class are not really open to progressive ideas, they just want their kids to learn get good jobs and know how to be naice. Their standards are derisory, they will want religion and allow any obsessive to prate on; they will want sex education but on the end of a barge pole, or not discussed on a level of personal experience of the youngsters, and the dry facts miss the chance of putting to them that they could take time before experiencing it, be a bit wary of jumping in because others start at 13 or 14. Why not decide for yourself that you will try it out after 18? A suggestion not a sacred promise. There is so much conservatism and also limitation in subjects that the Boards can decide. What they themselves know can form a protective barrier around school subjects and ways, and they are reluctant to allow the other ideas in, or not till everyone else is accepting them.
What has that link got to do with NZ ?
Two separate articles in today’s news on separate topics but they seem to me to point out a common error.
When people try to excuse poor conduct, it does not help to excuse what they said by trying to explain it away by why they said it.
The two events are the Marlborough Federated Farmers’ president, Philip Neal, whose excuse was that he was frustrated at proposed taxation on such as farmers when he slagged beneficiaries as ‘useless’.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/111537528/farmers-share-tax-reform-fears-but-dont-back-beneficiary-bashing
The second is the excuse by the Australian One Nation’s party men who blamed alcohol for their talk about getting the American NRA to fund their party.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/111571472/one-nation-staffers-blame-booze-for-their-nra-boasting
In both cases they spoke unwisely, through frustration or lips loosened by alcohol but what they said still stands. It’s what they said, it’s what they think, it’s what has escaped into the public arena. Excuses as to why they said it don’t retract what they actually said.
They thought it, they said it, it’s the truth outing under stress without the protective cover of equivocation.
This is the story that counters the story of how a woman on a flight to NZ was sexually assulted and nothing was done.
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/journalist-intervenes-after-creep-harasses-teen-seated-beside-him-on-plane/news-story/8fc72dfd7abbf1c4df10a59e673ef8b0
“I went to get a flight attendant and informed her of what was going on. They checked other witness accounts and the head of the flight service (a woman) asked the man to move.
“He resisted then started swearing at me and asked to talk to the boss and the head flight attendant said ‘I’m the boss, this is really serious and we could land the plane’.
“He moved. The attendants checked in with the young woman and wrote up a report.”
Airline staff later gave Ms Chiu and the other woman cards thanking them for stepping in and helping.
This book published in 2001 defines five lines of stress on the world and us. The summary sounds pretty right. Anyone read it?
Five Holocausts by Derek J Wilson
Paperback, 2001, 472pages, very good condition
Reviews:
Derek Wilson?s 10-year labour of love proposes that the world faces ruin through five intertwining apocalypses of human construction: militarism, human oppression, economic destitution, population explosion and environmental destruction.
The five holocausts cannot be understood or dealt with in isolation. The problems are vast and indisputable; uncounted acres of taxpayer gold are thoroughly wasted on armaments, trillions of dollars spin round the world in unproductive speculation, people enslave each other given half a chance, rich nations use vast shares of the Earth?s resources and the environment is in accelerating decline.
The point of a New Zealand-produced book on the subject ? given that none of the above registers in the average Kiwi?s day to day ? is that acting to stop it all is in everyone?s interests. (Alistair Bone Listener reviewer)
This authoritative book gives a clear and thorough overview of the impending global crisis, connecting the constituent parts of the global predicament. Derek Wilson draws attention to many dynamic and hopeful initiatives that are growing in response to the overall challenge and makes an impassioned case for action by government, institutions and society generally.
This is a book with a powerful challenge, packed with vital, thoroughly interesting information. (From the foreword by George Porter, founder and past President of the Pacific Institute of Resource Management, Aotearoa New Zealand)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=2197594
Derek J. Wilson
Yes, I have. Bought a copy a few years ago and read it. Should go back and revisit it soon, just to see if it stands up.
I ‘enjoyed’ the read, being a local publication and very straightforward about the crises we face, but recall thinking it is not for the faint-hearted.
Thanks for the warning Molly. Perhaps one should be like the Oz politicians, take on some whiskies, and then that weakens the effect of the ideas, for a while.
Don’t mean to put anyone off. Probably those who visit this website regularly will find it a good read. Just mean that recommending it to people who aren’t politically active or interested in current affairs might be problematic.
I’ll have to dig it out after renovations and revisit it again. I know I was sufficiently interested enough to have a look for Derek Wilson to see if he was still alive and perhaps publishing or speaking.
I see Whitcoulls have Jordan Peterson’s book back on their shelves. Must have decided it was a silly decision to remove it.
They counted 1 to 12 reasons to put it back up. It’s the new bible for a drifting
generation whose parents have no idea of what principles to tell their children to live by. We are getting into loose hippy ideas of branching out, dropping out,
and making changes, so what do you do – you find some cult figure to tell you.
They had the Vietnam war looming which they were rejecting; we have the end of our world. That would make anyone grab at something like a calf will suck your thumb for comfort.
You nailed it GWS. A distinct lack of leadership and answers in tumultuous times.
I don’t see Peterson as a nasty type right, more a mediator among them. A bloke they identify with who might talk them back from a ledge. He got famous re: the pronoun debate and upset a lot of left wing people. This enamored him with a lot of disaffected right wing youth.
He’s asked them to be introspective. I like that, far cry from blaming immigrants for everything. He’s taken on their nihilism with instructions for self-responsibility.
And people mock his readers like slow children – for trying not to be nihilistic butt-heads. There’s a lot worse types out there they might have glommed on to.
I also rate his lectures on the bible stories. I’ve not read his recent book.
Is it in the fairytale section now beewee?
Nah, it’s next to Marie Kondo’s latest. Does this spark joy? I know someone’s laughing.
Yep, right next to Mein Campf fairies in the garden
Audrey Young has been absent from writing her column since the christchurch massacre. Maybe she has been on leave? Her chosen topic for her first article is about Winston Peters supposedly falling asleep in Turkey.
The msm bias against the Coalition, Labour and Ardern is so very obvious right now.
I heard a woman ring in while out driving and give a robust account of how disgusted she was with Shorn Plunket’s pre-show blurb on Winston, you could apply her concerns to almost every host they have on that particular station now – with the slight exception that Brendan Telfer did play devil’s advocate on occasion to contest their rabid opinions.
She called it “talk at” rather than talk back and she is 100% correct.
Sadly Telfer is only a fill in for a couple of weeks for the equally horrible Peter Williams – his lack of experience shows as well but that seems no bar for a station who chose him for his familiar name and allow their hosts to push their personal barrows with contentious subjects in a very one-sided way.
A man dead from what seems to be a self inflicted stab wound – after refusing to surrender to Police. Cache of arms found on dead mans property after public tip off.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/resident-says-he-heard-gunshot-in-overnight-incident-suburban-christchurch
There is nowhere near enough information. It seems a suicide in preference to giving himself up. IF this is so, it is a very extreme reaction, and this guy was maybe up to something very nasty and/or is hiding other nasty people and designs.
IF he killed himself rather than give up.
Another scenario is that he was hurt by someone else, but that makes no sense in light of the standoff. If a so called associate tried silence you, you’d have second thoughts about dying to protect them.
Wild speculation. Not facts at all.
All those firearms and he stabs himself???
Thread about how the evil fuckers and their mates in the poisoning business are determined to kill every damn thing.
https://twitter.com/EricLiptonNYT/status/1110522380550590464
https://tttthreads.com/thread/1110522380550590464.html
http://archive.li/B7RdC
But Killary!
How the fuck any person with an ounce of intelligence can say this current administration is as good as what might have been, had there not be an electoral college to stuff up the popular vote, I will never know.The environmental vandalism that has been carried out by t.rump and “friends” is unbelievable. This is just another sick instance of short term profit for a few takes precedence over all else.
Interesting books I have come across on Trade me. The first one is major along with climate change in its harsh effects on us if we can’t mobilise to think how we can manage. No-one else will! And the book by Derek J Wilson above talks about 5 holocausts we are facing. These books relate to all sorts of strife we are noticing.
“I am writing from inside the tech bubble to let you know that we are coming for your jobs.” So begins Andrew Yang’s book,
The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future.
Despite the tagline, this isn’t fundamentally a book about Universal Basic Income (UBI). It’s about the market, and our attitude towards it….It isn’t simply the case that American society is separating into strata, Yang argues, but that the elites are consciously working to put the rest of society out of work.
The sectors where “normal” people tend to work—administration, retail, food service, transportation, and manufacturing—have high levels of repetitiveness and are highly susceptible to automation. Since competition in these sectors is quite fierce, companies are sooner or later forced to automate to keep up with their competition. Once a single competitor automates, the others must follow. In many cases, automation is not only cheaper, but also produces better products or services. The natural result is, as Yang relates through conversations he’s had with people in the tech industry, a race to make “normal” people redundant….
Keeping At It
The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
by Paul Volcker and Christine Harper
Paul Volcker has devoted his life’s work to public service and the critical importance of open, disciplined and efficient government. As chairman of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987) he literally rescued the American economy from destroying itself, summoning the courage to take radical and controversial steps to slay the inflation dragon.
And whenever the going got really tough–the financial crash of 2008, the need to reform banking, the oil for food UN scandal, the turmoil in Switzerland over theft of Holocaust victims, cheating in Major League Baseball–US presidents and other leaders said to ‘get Volcker in here to help me work this thing through.’…
http://fortune.com/2018/10/30/paul-volcker-book-review/
Lost Enlightenment S. Frederick Starr
In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia’s medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds–remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world.
Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia–drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects.
They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth’s diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world’s greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America–five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impac ..
new green deal is extinct.
https://twitter.com/RyanMaue?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1110591219804049408
AOC and Waleed Shahid are much too kind to Mr Lee. The other posters are vastly more hilarious.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-lee-green-new-deal_n_5c9a64aae4b072a7f6006c44
edit: normally I just shitcan the autoplay video as soon as it starts, but this one’s worth watching.
There’s a disturbance in the force;
https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1110583992938450944
+ 1 x 3
Thanks you three.
I thought that vid was as a parody at first Andre – bloody hell. And mark hamill is cool. Enjoyed visiting his Twitter feed- that one about t.rumps signature was good.
Thinking about it a bit, I’ve started to wonder if there’s a hidden message in that photo of a bunch of babies all the same age and fairly clearly mixed parentage. Y’know, Mike Lee being a libertarian-leaning Mormon an all.
Just dormant poisson.
There is no housing shortage.
And inevitably, just as predicted, the over supply of houses is leading to perfectly good houses being demolished.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/111576642/saving-surplus-houses-from-demolition-is-helping-solve-housing-crisis
This is only the beginning
The wanton destruction, can only accelerate as more and more un-affordable new houses reach completion and can’t find buyers.
It won’t be much longer before newly built homes will also go under the wrecking ball.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-ghost-house-epidemic-and-the-invisible-hand/#comment-1188477
We must not allow this
What is really needed is a government prepared to do what they did in Vancouver,
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/vancouver-bc-wields-7450-a-day-fine-in-crackdown-on-empty-homes/
The failure of the Left and the cowardice of the Centrists.
Green New Deal blocked. Democratic Senators abstain, (four voted against it).
How many votes did AOC get in her constituent like 15k. She’s about 70 million votes short of getting legislation across the house floor. Perhaps she should learn her craft first before assigning blame to others.
In fact it is remarkable that AOC has a seat in Congress at all.
Usually money from corporate donors to fund your campaign is needed to win a seat, in the US congress.
Corporate backers that “most” Democratic Senators can’t afford to offend.
The Democratic Caucus know what needs to be done. This is shown by the fact, that “most” didn’t vote against the Green New Deal. That they didn’t actively vote for it, shows that they are afraid of offending their corporate sponsors.
https://splinternews.com/democrats-who-swore-off-corporate-campaign-donations-ar-1830082624
What a cop out. How about using her position to lobby congress people instead of buying them off before she goes off half cocked proclaiming that America should give up air travel. Finger waving and facial features do not make up for a lack of support.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4
There should be a story about there not being a complaint process for the common person to make. Police Station have no complaints procedure that actually works.??????????????
snonky housing short has worked a treat one can not even rent a furniture storage in Rotorua I new that was going to happen that + no housing to rent. What a joke Ka kite ano link below
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11630414
Jenny Eco Maori says it about time the government made laws to make the wealthy rent out the house they buy make them rent them out to the POOR COMMON PEOPLE. KA KITE ANO
I go to the gas station this morning and Eco Maori get a funny smell then I look around for the sandflys stalkers and sure enough there it is a 6 3 bald man peeping at me from behind the petrol pump. You see whanau were ever I go the sandflys are stalking here is a photo of one of there stalkers cars stalking me now. Ka kite ano.P.S the setting on. My phone are playing up when I get the bad smell it means they intend to ATTACK ECO MAORI
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/F4sNi2PUiWM
Don’t believe all the negative stories the oil barron have commissioned against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s the WEALTHY are shaking in their boots because of her MANA WAHINE Kia kaha Ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/28/dogs-can-smell-when-seizures-are-about-to-begin-scientists-
find
https://youtu.be/m5M8vvEhCFI
The fear they feel is probably what is behind the latest rule changes designed to keep popular progressive representatives like Ocasio-Cortez, out.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/28/progressive-caucus-rips-dccc-attack-primary-challengers-slap-face-democratic-voters?
https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2019/mar/27/people-are-dying-ocasio-cortez-delivers-fiery-speech-on-climate-inaction-video link for my story above people are dieing because of climate change the rich try and put a spin on the subject and call us leftys greens intelligent people Elite’s look in the – – – mirror BOY Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub It’s sad to see that humpback whale tangled with old fish gear mabe Dock could have a hot line so when the public see a issue like that with our wild life they can report it.
That beluga whale is a beautiful looking creature I miss the story on them. I know someone who has payed 10000 deposit on getting a new roof as far as I know he is still waiting 3 months later for his new roof I offered to help him but know some people have no scrupulous. I seen that Ruaumoko is waking up in Mexico.
Tawhirirmate is very powerful Mike Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Te ao Maori News its good to see that there was a good atmosphere in Christchurch today.
I that was a awesome sung NZ ational anthem I think you have a few songs on YouTube that I listened to. Poor Hine got it when she sang the Maori ational anthem in England at a All Blacks test Mana Wahine. I say if tangata whenua te reo is receiving GREAT Interest than Kapa Haka is receiving the same KA PAI.
Aroha is Nice but I want justice and Equal rights Equality. P.S you media people know how much attention the Authorities are paying to ECO MAORI subjects What I am getting at is everything I say is True you know the old saying the best trick the devil has pulled is no one believes it exists even when its ight in front of our EYES
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/1SN7Pko_jCM
AT I HAVE A ASULT ON MY FREEDOM EVERYDAY OF THE YEAR JUSTICE EQUALITY WHAT A JOKE
Some things go missing from my house quite regularly can you guess who muppets.
https://youtu.be/tgVVG5EknuI
These sandflys are using all the dirtiest tricks in their little books to try and stop Eco Maori but know I have something they know Eco Maori is UNTOUCHABLE Ka kite ano
https://youtu.be/Yd2T3o-Ybow