Paddy performs as expected and is valued by the DP movers and shakers as the attack dog with a national tv soapbox. Sacked ! ha more likely just some firm directions on toning it down to appear considered and suck more sheeple in.
The whole current crop of so called journalists can go, im so sick of them telling us their views of the news instead of just reporting the news, Gower is the worst that pillock will burst a blood vessel one day while he is glorifying in somebody elses misfortune
I don’t believe it ! Yesterday the Herald had a column which commented favourably on Andrew Little’s state of nation speech, this morning there is another one PLUS an editorial which states :
“Mr Little has the luxury of time to produce more definitive solutions to the issues still facing the country, Mr Key does not. He urgently needs to give his Government new themes and impetus. This time last year he announced an imaginative education initiative, yesterday was an opportunity lost. ”
Are things finally starting to look up for Labour ? ?
Are things finally starting to look up for Labour ? ?
That’s how it looks. There’s a long way to go but up looks an attainable direction now.
There’s evidence too that opponents see Little as a threat that they are not sure how to deal with.
Key competing on the same day is one indication.
And Slater has been running a long and frequent series of attempted hits on Little (at least five posts yesterday alone), including repeated digs at Little’s appearance and his temperament. It looks like flailing around trying to seed something to attack with. It’s not working.
Another promising step along the way for Little yesterday. A lot still to do but it looks like the beginning of a recovery and rebuild, at last.
About FJK: “Key confirmed plans to sell 1000 to 2000 state houses in the next year to community housing providers and up to 8000 over the next four years.
Housing New Zealand would remain the biggest provider of social housing with at last 60,000 properties by 2017 against 68,000 now.”
It doesn’t take advanced mathematics to see that the have stopped building state houses altogether. Did FJK actually mention that?
The print version of the Herald has a half page devoted to rating the Key and Little speeches. The result according to them?
8/10 for Key and 4/10 for Little. So, no, I am afraid there is no change of tack in that right wing rag.
The odd pat on the head for Little means nothing unless they take Key to task instead of sheltering him from scrutiny.
Right at the moment they will be lining Little-Labour up in the business hearld with something stupid like “former Union Boss buckles to his union mates demands to abolish 90 day trial” (fire at will bill).
Where is the attack on bullshit artist Key over selling state housing, something he lied about in his pre election campaign ‘no further assets sales’.
How about, what exactly do you mean by part of the proceeds of state housing sales goes for capital infrastructure, what paying for roading projects?
Or, won’t you be paper shuffling and applying colorful accounting, referring to the sale of state houses to balance (fudge) the books?
I thought the focus of Andrew’s speech excellent. Small and medium business are the heart and blood of this bilateral nation. A labour government focussed on job creation through improving conditions for small business is a vote winner.
Positive and practical messaging and policies to increase the volume of money flowing through communities clogged by unemployment and impoverishment is a vote winner.
The biggest and immediate issue confronting Māori communities is the lack of jobs. Young people are rotting on unemployment and many are not on benefits.
Job creation should be the primary focus of any Labour Government otherwise it should relabel itself as Non-Labour Government.
Police Association president Greg O’Connor says Sabin is entitled to natural justice. But he believes it is unfair the MP, who is an ex-cop, is not held accountable to the same standards as police staff put before him.
“Any police officer who is under any sort of a cloud, generally, the first thing that happens is that they are stood down.
“So there would be a certain irony in police officers who would be subject to that being questioned. If one of those police officers in front of the select committee was under the same cloud, then they wouldn’t be there. However, we as police work on the principle innocent until proven guilty.”
h/t Tracey.
Conflict of interest much? How is this Key’s call?
Just heard the very good justice lawyer and friend Kelly Ellis rubbing Sabin’s nose into the dirt. Love that lady’s witty style. Yip what an ebarrasment Sabin is by pushing for the removal of a right to silence, and choosing silence himself, oh the hypocrisy makes me laugh.
Maybe John Key will ‘break the silence’ and force Sabin into retirement from politics.
My experience has been more along the lines of “However, we as police work on the principle innocent until bashed sufficiently to confess, or until we can do a deal with some jailhouse informant, or until we can fabricate sufficient evidence.”
Gower is an example of a TV presenter who believe they are more important than the message. Or worse maybe he is so deluded he thinks that people enjoy some rantings of a brown nosed National simpleton, with a brain smaller than his large teeth that he bares in some hideous attempt at entertainment. Again the Rugby thicko TV execs don’t notice that people are watching TV less and less in particular news …. I wonder why?
What is it with these political commentators/radio hosts, listened to that muppet Duncan (gotcha) Garner with his “epic fail” comment r.e Littles speach yesterday, at least hes consistant as he pulls the same crap with everyone, he is nothing but a sound bite merchant but that sound bite is now being replayed every hour, and he tries to make out he left political life because of all the nastiness well i say that trait has a bit more to do with him than his previous job
Rant over
The link to the news item is pay-walled but apparently local government have blocked a development so the addled have decided to do something for their friendly corporate.
New demands on the justice system requiring restorative justice talks even when the victirm doesn’t want it, are meaning three times the appearances for one very minor offence when only one was used to be needed. The system is grinding to a halt.
Ideological not practical or pragmatic. In 2012 submissions were made against this.
Perhaps we should call it the Bazley effect. Minister Amy Adams (not the celebrity) is looking at it. But it was pushed through by the previous Minimal of Justice so being new on the Block she might not have any authority. Has she the perspicacity?
This regime is fast gaining a deserved reputation for ignoring all expert on-the-ground advice in various areas and running solely on their own ideology.
@ vto
Let’s make it third-terminalitis!
After all balloons filled with hot air and helium only stay out of reach at the ceiling for a time. What goes up must come down.
As I listened to the talk about selling off, hiving off, our social housing I thought of a subtitle for our country – New Zealand/Aotearoa, the Islands of Reduced Circumstances.
We are like the elderly ladies in many Brit stories I have read who have been living on Father’s legacy or annuity which has dwindled as they have got older, and gradually they have been forced to sell heirlooms and treasured family belongings. Poor old lady NZ reduced to poverty in the land of much milk and less honey, and suffering the kind attentions of loan sharks, hucksters and high rollers.
edited
A survey by the website voteforpolicies.org.uk reports that in blind tests (the 500,000 people it has polled were unaware of which positions belong to which parties), the Green party’s policies are more popular than those of any other. If people voted for what they wanted, the Greens would be the party of government.
And that’s just a small taste. There is so much more in that article that can be directly transferred to NZ.
The head of the US military has had to launch an essay competition to find someone to write something nice about the brutal ruler who John Key honoured this week by ordering the lowering of the New Zealand flag to half mast.
Maybe General Martin Dempsey, Chair of the US Joint heads of staff could have saved himself the effort, and just instead asked the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to tell the world what he personally admired about the late King Addullah of Saudi Arabia.
Maybe JK could wax lyrical about the multiply beheadings and dismemberments, and the jailing of government critics, or possibly the lack of civil rights for women. Or the Saudi Government’s legal sanction of child abuse, paternal rape and murder, or the flogging and jailing of bloggers and writers critical of the government. (Lynn Prentice, Eleanor Catton take note).
I am certain that an essay written by John Key on these subjects as well as creating an international sensation would easily win US Chief of Staff General Dempsey’s prize. (As well as winning the approval of the US State Department and President Obama’s office, something John Key has always been mindful of.)
I guess sometimes the truth hurts. I particularly liked this quote:
“It has to belong to everybody or the country really doesn’t want to know about it.”
It irritates me that the politicians and the wealthy in this country are very quick to celebrate their own achievements, which clearly result from their hard work, but if someone else does something worth of recognition it suddenly becomes “we did,” not “he did,” or “she did.” Even the phrase “New Zealand’s own…” suggests ownership.
Why not suggest support, instead? My degree contributed nothing toward her success, nor did anything else I’ve done in the last year. Perhaps a few cents from my taxes did, in some small way, but it was her talents that won her the award, not my taxes or even her nationality.
I’m disgusted by the behaviour of the media toward Miss Catton, but I can’t find a suitable word to describe my feelings for the Prime Minister, a man who brags that he had the support of the taxpayer as a child and made his way unaided after that, forgetting his free degree, and he now deserves his wealth and power.
When do we get our slice of the fortune our taxes created for him?
In NZ I notice that any time the UNACTS want to smear goo on a policy they label it Green. The worst sort of thing that could be imagined. They must huddle together at parties and down their alcohol in buckets while they shiver fearfully at some gory story about the frightening Greens, the new vampires.
On 4 July 2014 USA population given as 318,881,992. How much average per person of Koch $889,000,000?
In NZ the 2014 popuation was 4,500,000. How much if this is multipled by USA individual
amount?
And think of the spending and influence power of just one uber-rich group.
And Koch is giving that money to media and PR firms who already have all the infrastructure and staff in place and are ready to roll. So the $$$ will go much further.
“The government position is that basic commodity shortages are being caused by elements of the private sector that control the importation, production and distribution of food and other products and criminal speculators and smugglers who are sometimes allied with this sector. These actors are allegedly responsible or complicit in the illegal stockpiling of products in warehouses aimed at bringing about artificial shortages. There is empirical evidence for such claims. Thousands of tons of products, including subsidized items, have been diverted from the marketplace for sale in Colombia in 2014. Warehouses full of goods that ought to be on store shelves are frequently discovered by the authorities. Subsidized food items are often purchased by speculators for resale at higher prices in the domestic market. Some importers have been buying products at the subsidized currency exchange rate but then selling those products as though they were purchased at the much higher parallel rate. Fictitious “importers” are also blamed for massive amounts of currency fraud by obtaining divisas (dollars) at the preferential exchange rate under pretext of importing priority goods and then selling those dollars on the parallel market or holding on to them in expectation of further devaluation of the bolivar, a practice that suggests the corruption of some public servants as well. What are we to make of these observations about scarcity?”
Wow! Who would have thought that distorting the economy by providing subsidies or imposing price controls would lead to people taking advantage of these to make money?
The solution seems obvious. You remove the distortions and then the people won’t sell subsidised goods in neighbouring countries.
Also I love how some leftists think they can just dictate problems away.
“For Maduro, the game is up for the economic coup being waged by the political opposition and its allied collaborators in the private sector. He has delivered an ultimatum to food distributors to cooperate with efforts to overcome food shortages…”
Goostepper i do so like pointing out that you have only used parts of your own link that suits your agenda.
Trying to dictate what we think and say.
But your own link points out that the right wing in Venezuela are trying to undermine a democratically elected govt the same way as the CIA did in Chile underming Allende and installing a murdurous Dictator.
South America is littered with the mass graves of American foreign Policy of keeping corrupt murderous dictators and drug lords in power!
Thankfully we live in a capatlist society where the free market allows people to operate in an honest and open way never taking advantage of the lack of regulation and controls. In our great system people making huge amounts off speculation alone would never create a situation that endangers the economy of the enitre world for their own profit.
Stupid socialists identifying people breaking their laws designed to try and help people. They should totally do things the way we do.
If you think you can construct laws that solve problems of economic distribution and supply you are very, very wrong. Attempting to legislate prices at a level below what people are willing to pay for them will just lead to exactly the problem the Venezuelan government is facing now. People will stop producing and/or sell the items on the black market or across the border in places where they can get higher prices. You may try to claim this behaviour is unethical or immoral but then many people always try to blame others for problems they themselves have caused.
Gooseman you have only chosen selected parts of the story gooseman.
The reason why food shortages are occuring is because the right wing are using the same tactics as the CIA used to overthrow a democratically elected Allende and installing a murderous fascist dictator!
Fascist Murderous Dictators were installed in just about every South American country one stage or another.
Maduro was elected the right wing are deliberately with the collusion of the CIA underming democracy.
Don’t get me started on the war on drugs in South America.
Fact is South America is littered with mass graves as a direct result of American nihilistic foreign policy.
Democracy freedoms have been undermined!
Yes, it’s funny how the most freedom for the market seems to require the least freedom for workers and the strongest state apparatus.
A good example was the military dictatorship in Chile, the students of Milton Friedman economics.
Apparently you can’t tell the market what to do, but the state required by the ‘free’ market can not only tell you what to do but lock you up, torture you and kill you if you don’t obey.
How exactly is the right wing doing this? They seem terribly effective if they are as well. the economy is close to collapse. Perhaps it is best not to start a fight with them.
Of course you could try prosecuting the corrupt public servants. We could set an example by prosecuting those who handed out SFC assets to Key’s neighbour, for cents in the dollar.
But yeah Gooseman, you are right on one point. Capitalist scum like yourself cannot be trusted not to enrich themselves at the cost of the rest of us. You lot are criminals and should be treated as such. Funny that you are all willing to trot out the traitor label for someone who makes some mild criticisms.
I was told by a good source that Waiariki Institute of Technology is charging Indian Students $20k to do its Agricultural course, which is fine (nothing like exploiting people who are desperate to get out of their country)
BUT
Farmers can employ these students between May and November (busy calving time) for $200 per week. This needs to be investigated because these students are being exploited, its displacing local people and there is no way that this falls within minimum pay rates legislation.
Re the $200/wk, is that true for students who are residents too? Indian students only? i.e is this via immigration or via tertiary practice of making these deals.
One of the union people from round here should get on to this .
There has always been a good amount of farm owners treating there workers like dirt but they seem to get away with it Out sight out of mind I guess.
If you want to know who was behind Jordan Williams’s attack on Eleanor Catton yesterday, look no further than David Farrar: http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/who_we_are
The Taxpayers Union is just a thinly disguised recruiting tool for National Party members.
Danyl at Dimpost pointing out the two tracks is up and running again,
There are lots of good pieces on the Eleanor Catton contretemps – Morgan Godfrey, Brian Easton, Gordon Campbell, Andrew Geddis, Simon Wilson – all focusing on issues around intellectuals and criticism and New Zealand attitudes towards same, which are all valid points. But what’s also meaningful, I think, is that this is a reprise of National’s two-track communications strategy we spent so much time talking about last year. Sean Plunket isn’t just a talk-radio dofus: he’s very close to the National government and, just like his mate Cameron Slater, Plunket is there to smear and bully and intimidate anyone who speaks out against John Key or National, so that National themselves don’t have to.
If – like most of the country – you haven’t heard anything from Plunket since he left Morning Report a few years back then his attack on Catton probably seemed very strange. But if you listened to him during the 2014 election campaign, most of which he spent in a state of flat-out hysteria ranting about terrorists and traitors, culminating in Plunket phoning Paddy Gower live on air and accusing him of being involved in a conspiracy against the government because he was reporting on Dirty Politics, it’s easier to see that abusing critics of the National Party – real or imaginary – is pretty much just his day to day role.
The past year has seen a massive upsurge of working class communities in the south of Ireland against the attempt of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to impose a household water tax. This follows on the household tax itself, cuts in social welfare payments, the raising of the retirement age and other anti-working class measures.
In a rake of working class communities people are physically preventing the installation of meters and sabotaging them where the state-capitalist water company, Irish Water, does manage to install them.
This is all very different from New Zealand, where workers remain almost obdurately passive in the face of the whittling away of rights and conditions and living standards by the bosses and by successive National and Labour governments.
Why is the NZ working class so passive compared to workers in Ireland?
We’ve tentatively explored the question a few times on Redline, but we need to do a lot more work on it.
I agree with you about the 1980s (and early 1990s).
But even at its most militant, the labour movement in NZ wasn’t really all that militant.
Take, for instance, 1913. In NZ workers fought for a few weeks. (And, in terms of workers involved, this was the most significant labour dispute in NZ history). At the same time the most significant industrial dispute in Irish history was taking place. Impoverished Dublin workers fought for *six months*.
When Massey’s Cossacks clubbed workers here, they complained about it. When the police in Dublin clubbed workers, the workers formed a workers militia, got armed, and paraded around Dublin streets tooled up; the cops kept their distance.
Those workers, the Irish Citizen Army, went on to be the driving force of the 1916 Rebellion. A number of their officers and a section of the ranks were women.
One reason I’ve become sympathetic to the idea of Australia and NZ merging is that the Aussies are much more Bolshie in defending their rights and we need some damn thing to harden up the working class here.
I think if I was young and had kids, I’d emigrate. I just couldn’t bear my kids growing up in a society where workers are so supine; I wouldn’t want my kids thinking that eating shit sandwiches is normal. I’d go to Oz or to Ireland.
maybe cos we have tended to lead the world, our work force swallow the oft fed line “you are not as badly off as xxx,”, with its implication to not seem ungrateful… we tend to be a polite and deferential lot
8 hour day
40 hour week
women voting
labour govts
ACC
health and safety
every day someone tells the poor or the workers of New Zealand how grateful they should be, they just use different and more nasty words. Kiwis apparently dont like to stick out from the crowd to be seen to be making a fuss, not risk-takers our fellow average kiwis.
For some reason, this country is infested with the idea of “I’ve got mine, screw you.” Everyone thinks they’re on their way up, through their own hard work, but nobody else is.
Anecdotes:
My brother overheard some (highly paid) managers at the last election time, saying that they were going to vote National because Labour were just going to give money to poor people, and why should they get something for nothing?
(Funny. I recall working long days and getting bitchy emails from my manager, telling me that I wasn’t working enough unpaid hours. He got a lot of something for nothing.)
I hear that kind of thing a lot. Before he retired, one of my father’s co-workers said that he worked 40 years to get whatever his wage was, he doesn’t see why he should help anybody else.
Many of us pride ourselves on our charity and thoughtfulness toward others, most especially Christians, but so very many of us seem to act contrary to that.
Then there’s the whole ideal that if a manager gets a pay increase, they deserve it for working hard, but if I want more than minimum wage I’m just being greedy.
Three or four years ago, one of the guys who worked with me was getting $15/hour. He was senior staff, and asked for a pay increase. I heard our boss tell him that if he wants a pay increase then he’d better upskill and become more valuable to the company.
I can do everything that other guy did with a single exception, and a whole lot more than he ever learned. I get minimum wage and there are no pay increases. According to my boss the only guy who gets a pay increase (and a Christmas bonus) is the CEO. The rest of us munters are just out of luck.
I’ve tried organising. Supporting my initial statements, one guy doesn’t care, he’s just funding his studies while another feels that he’ll be recognised as a true talent any day now, either promoted or hired somewhere else, and this is just his investment in his career.
These are only symptoms of the issue, though. I don’t know what’s causing it, or why we think we’re special and everyone else is lazy. I do know that it makes us easy prey for reducing our rights, and creating a low-wage economy.
Kiwis grow up in a culture that says you should have your own business and your own house to be a success. We really are Napoleon’s nation of shopkeepers and never developed a deeply entrenched sense of class. Even Bomber, a supposed left wing mouthpiece, carries on about rubbish like generational differences and almost never gives an analysis in terms of class. I wish it was different.
With regard to Oz, there is also the important factor that the ostensibly Labour government of Lange was the one that achieved a tko on its supporters. The union bureaucrats were busy agreeing with Douglas rather than building resistance. In Oz it was a Liberal government that tried most of it on, and the unions instinctively fought back, even if only to protect their relationship with the Labor Party.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s much better over here. You might find militant class warriors marching in support of “Stop the Boats” or complaining about Kiwis taking their jobs. It’s no proletarian paradise, comrade.
“The union bureaucrats were busy agreeing with Douglas rather than building resistance. ”
They got big fat redundancy payouts for themselves and their members. Then they could set their own businesses, contract back to the SOE’s, and pole vault themselves into the middle bourgeois class.
30 odd years later, National has a new layer of voters.
I’ve been bouncing back in time, thse past few days, when I click on comments and even the “feeds”.
Oddly, usually to the same two places, one a blog from 2014. I’m starting to feel like my computer, or ths site has some misguided Hal* which is trying to bring something to my attention.
Wikipedia tell us: “The Imitation Game was both a critical and commercial success. The film was included in both the National Board of Review’s and American Film Institute’s “Top 10 Films of 2014″. At the 87th Academy Awards, it has been nominated in eight categories including Best Picture, Best Director for Tyldum, Best Actor for Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley. It also garnered five nominations in the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and was nominated in three categories at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In addition, it received nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations including Best Film and Outstanding British Film.”
Alan Turing, the person the film is mainly about, was the guy mainly responsible for cracking the Nazis’ ‘enigma code’ during WW2. In 1952, however, Turing was convicted of ‘gross indecency’, the usual name for male homosexual acts.
Last August the British queen announced a royal pardon of Turing.
An interesting indication of the changes in capitalism and in bourgeois ideology in recent decades:
and he possibly committed suicide when a nation turned on him because of who he loved…
“Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behaviour was still criminalised in the UK. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death a suicide; his mother and some others believed it was accidental.[9] In 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated”. Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.[10][11][12]”
The Brits did a pretty good job of taking hate on the road too when they colonised…
I’m not sure Turing was the guy mainly responsible. The effort began with the Polish military and mathematicians even before WW2. Commandos and Royal Marines also played an important role, as well as spies and French intelligence. Turing played a crucial role and it would have taken longer without him, but others were important as well. There is an interesting book:
Little had some good digs at the current government in his speech and all we get is bull shit from the press about lack of policy when Little said he wasn’t doing policy .
Reporters are either thick as pigshit or owned.
Ross, the NZLP was in the news all day yesterday and again today. The party (mainly Andrew Little) got some decent coverage on their own initiatives, National’s housing fail and Sabin’s case. It’s not compulsory to watch the TV news or read the papers, but it’s a good idea before you make comments like that to do some prep, lest you look like a bridge dweller.
TRP. Unfortunately, I no longer live in my own country. I wish I could. I subscribe to feeds and get my thrills through TS. What you say is, no doubt, correct. But I do the research I can. That research, for now, reveals almost zero penetration of the fog by Labour or any opposition. I often get more news about NZ from the Guardian than I do through Stuff. That’s a comment about the media. An opposition’s job is to find a way around that. Why doesn’t a Labour MP get a shovel and dig a spud patch on the front lawn at parliament? Why? To feed our starving kids! Why doesn’t one of the useless fools order a truck load of concrete sewerage pipes to be dumped alongside the potato patch? Why? To house our homeless!
Here one for you and for everyone that opposes these Key’s State house sell off:
Take a look, make a stand and sign the petition now.
This is the email message I received from Phil Twyford.
“Key finally admitted his plans to sell off thousands of our state houses over the next two and a bit years.
Now he’s fronted the policy, it raises the stakes. He’ll want to push the sell-off through as soon as possible as he’ll be scared of losing face if his plans fall through.
It means if we’re going to have a chance to stop the sell-off, we need to move quickly. In our tens of thousands. But it also means John Key is vulnerable.
The first step of this campaign is proving the levels of public opposition to the sell-off. Already, nearly 22,000 of us have signed a petition against it.
We need thousands more. If you’ve not yet added your name, time is running out to act – so please add your name today”
Once your name’s on the petition, please forward this email to your friends and family – every name on the petition will make our campaign stronger.
Next week, we’ll be in touch with an exciting plan to use our huge petition to make sure the Government can’t just force this issue through without the rest of New Zealand being made aware of their plans. But first, we need to work together to get as many people to sign the petition as possible.
Please take a minute to sign the petition and forward it on to other people you know who will be concerned about John Key’s state house sell-off.
@Phil not that I know of and i would think it is very very unlikely that this occurs in NZ.
The larger issue in NZ is the continuing limiting of registration of certain medical specialties to ensure a large enough practice and waiting lists – although to some extent for example in orthopaedics this is a function of limited theatre space.
“Or do you find evidence of the crime that the National Party is often accused of: deliberately running public health down for money.”
No evidence of that whatsoever.
Health services in NZ are generally speaking of a very high quality and from memory the money going into vote health has been rising year on year for quite some time – as i’m sure you understand we could put our entire GDP into health and there’d still be unmet demand for services.
The Urologists and ophthalmologists used to limit the numbers admitted into their particular specialties to make sure there were enough population per surgeon to ensure a good patient stream in public and private.
There are other surgical specialties which tend to do the same.
Cabinet minister Nick Smith has chartered another helicopter for television cameras – this time using tax-payer cash set aside for the families of the Pike River victims.
Why does the minister even have access to that money?
But of all the ways that Uber could change the world, the most far-reaching may be found closest at hand: your office. Uber, and more broadly the app-driven labor market it represents, is at the center of what could be a sea change in work, and in how people think about their jobs. You may not be contemplating becoming an Uber driver any time soon, but the Uberization of work may soon be coming to your chosen profession.
Contrary to many Leftists I’m actually cautiously optimistic about this but it does, IMO, show that these types of services need to be run through government servers. Running it through government servers will get rid of the capitalist bludgers that are making millions from other people being paid minimum wage or less. The government will just be getting the taxes and so the dead-weight loss of profit will be removed from the equation.
Also shows the needs for a UBI for two reasons. Firstly if you don’t get enough work you’ll still have enough to get by on with out dropping into poverty or having the risk of losing everything. Secondly it would remove the need to ‘have a job’. Essentially you could tell your employer to fuck off and still have work. Again, it helps remove the dead-weight loss of profit.
It’ll be the one thing that National and employers really hate – an actual free and flexible labour market. How do I know that they hate it? Because that’s what an unemployment benefit allows and National always undermines that.
If Russia killed a UN peacekeeper,
it would be headline news for days on the BBC
And of course, Israel can strike Syria without the UN batting an eyelid. Says it all about the state of of international law in at the present time. One law for official enemies, and quite another for us.
Colonial Rawshark, why did you make that comment? It has nothing to do with the item I posted.
Also, I do not believe it is legitimate to “mock Jews”. Of course it’s perfectly legitimate to mock war criminals and sanctimonious, murderous hypocrites—including Israeli ones. But it’s their criminality, sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy that should be attacked, not their Jewishness.
Leave the crude race-baiting to the likes of David Rankin, Leighton Smith, Larry “Lackwit” Williams and Nevil “Breivik” Gibson.
I don’t think CR was mocking Jews. I don’t think he’s either that depraved or that foolish. I just think he needs to be careful how he expresses his ideas.
In other words, abusing or mocking Jews as Jews is as unacceptable as the Charlie Hebdo speciality of mocking and antagonizing Algerians.
Yes, that is correct. I’m interested in serious analysis, not in crude ethnic or religious stereotyping. If you want to indulge in that dismal nonsense, ring Kerre McIvor on NewstalkZB.
“… Charlie Hebdo speciality of mocking and antagonizing Algerians.”
Yeah, I’m totally sure you’ve got a cite for that, Moz. And CV, splitting hairs is pretty sad. Bigotry is bigotry. Anti-semitism is pathetic, whatever the specific religion turns out to be.
Those cartoons were aimed at insulting, humiliating and antagonizing French Muslims—most of whom are Algerian. It’s an old tactic of the extreme right, made no more acceptable by the fact it has been taken up by people who like to think of themselves as liberals.
Marine Le Pen knew perfectly well what the Charlie Hebdo folk were up to, and endorsed them completely. As did such liberal heroes as Binyamin Netanyahu and David Cameron.
It’s a French magazine. It attacked Muslims. It sells in France. Most Muslims in France are Algerians. French people would tend to identify Muslims in France as Algerians.
Really? You think that French people can’t recognise different ethnicities? Perhaps zay all look ze same to zem, non?
Algerians are not the majority in the Muslim religious demographic. Some folk might think that only a racist would think they were, but I’m sure that’s not the case with you, Murray.
CH attacks Muslims does not equal CH attacks Algerians. Moz was wrong.
You’re trying to suggest I am racist, even though you’re sure that’s not the case. Fairly typical of your debating style.
There are more than 5 million Algerians in France. The majority of these are Sunni Muslim. There are estimated to be something like 6 million Muslims in France. Who are the majority?
I think Morrisey is correct on this one.
Nice try saying the French can recognise different ethnicities, followed by some stupid imitation of Franglais. Who said they couldn’t?
Your numbers are wrong, Murray. Algerians make up around a third of the ‘immigrant’ Muslim population of France. That is, about 1.5 million people. In fact, they are about half of the population that hails from the Maghreb.
So, if you want to avoid looking dodgy, check your facts before opining and don’t conflate one ethnic group with others.
I did check my numbers and I am not conflating one ethnic group with another. Any further accusations, font of all that is true and righteous? Where does your figure of 1.5 million come from?
By the way, I couldn’t give a fuck if you think I look dodgy. Your life would have no meaning without the opportunity to try and look superior on a blog. You make a habit of it.
And CV, splitting hairs is pretty sad. Bigotry is bigotry. Anti-semitism is pathetic, whatever the specific religion turns out to be.
So now, stating facts = splitting hairs?
I stated what had actually happened at Charlie Hebdo. A cartoonist got fired in 2009 and threatened with charges for something which was interpreted as being anti-Jewish. So much for the freedom of speech argument that Charlie Hebdo would later frequently use whenever they published things interpreted as being anti-Muslim.
Again I stated that fact plain and simple, and contrasted to bring the hypocrisy in to distinct relief. Not my problem if you don’t like the illustration I used.
Yes, that’s one way of looking at it. Taking a semantic approach to an issue instead of recognising the wider truth. Yep, a good definition of splitting hairs.
The cartoonist that got fired all those years ago appealed the sacking and won. I’m sure the folk at CH learned a valuable lesson. Your bigotry is not based on anything substantial, CV, just word wankery.
Ps: “So much for the freedom of speech argument that Charlie Hebdo would later frequently use whenever they published things interpreted as being anti-Muslim.”
They never actually used that defence, because they didn’t need a defence. They were defiantly proud of being anti-religion.
The Petulant Entitlement Syndrome of Journalists
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, 29 January 2015
As intended, Jonathan Chait’s denunciation of the “PC language police” – a trite note of self-victimization he’s been sounding for decades – provoked intense reaction: much criticism from liberals and praise from conservatives (with plenty of exceptions both ways). I have all sorts of points I could make about his argument – beginning with how he tellingly focuses on the pseudo-oppression of still-influential people like himself and his journalist-friends while steadfastly ignoring the much more serious ways that people with views Chait dislikes are penalized and repressed – but I’ll instead point to commentary from Alex Pareene, Amanda Marcotte and Jessica Valenti as worthwhile responses. In sum, I fundamentally agree with Jill Filipovic’s reaction: “There is a good and thoughtful piece to be written about language policing & ‘PC’ culture online and in academia. That was not it.” I instead want to focus on one specific point about the depressingly abundant genre of journalists writing grievances about how they’re victimized by online hordes, of which Chait’s article is a very representative sample….
Records about to be broken for driest January on record in Auckland and Wellington.
Yet Fairfax media fails to mention climate change once in this article.
You do wonder who is in control of the conversation at these organisations.
A mining magnate by the name of Julia Reinhard?
Pu is on the mark. I detest his prescription but he is correct labour is little more than national lite, tweaking at the boundaries, why change, barring if your of that persuasion the greens get their hands on the lever of powers. Labours dilemma at every election, no matter who their leader is
If Syriza is the answer it must have been a pretty stupid question
Castro Cuba. Chavez Venezuela all hard left lefties that led their county to nirvana why is Syria different little red riding hood ( to stay on the fairy tail theme been your realm of reality)
Re delusional The govenor of the Bank of England disagrees with you to redelusion.
Syrizia has gone into coalition with ACT type party of the far right.
So re delusional your argument is!
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
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. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
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When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
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The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
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. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick WilsonWhile it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
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All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes.Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks.When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns.AUCKLANDAll ...
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s plan to cover revenue shortfalls through borrowing without cutting low priority spending is immoral, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “Businesses and households across the country are meeting financial challenges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin John Brophy, Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, University of Melbourne “Katrina, I had in mind a prayer, but only this came,” Bruce Dawe wrote to his infant daughter, new-born, in intensive care, her life in the balance, declaring as poets must ...
The shock closure of Bauer NZ – and with it all of the country’s current affairs magazines – is a stark reminder of the fragile state of local media, writes Mel Bunce, the author of a book on the subject.It is a dark week for journalism in New Zealand, with ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāmere/FridayWe made it to the end of week one e te whānau. It wasn’t that hard! In fact it was… Māori made easy.To end our week of pronunciation practice we’re going to revisit everything we ...
India faces more challenges battling Covid-19 than any other country in the world. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, hundreds of different languages spoken, and an estimated 80% of the workforce daily wage earners currently without jobs, it could be a recipe for disaster.I’ve been living in India for more than three ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi of Pacific Media Watch The Vanuatu government is using the Covid-19 to impose draconian measures and authoritarian rule by end of last month. Wholesale censorship of all Covid-19 related content has been instituted. Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) took the extraordinary step to ...
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming, prompting the majority of species on Earth to die out. In ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentMedia Henry Cooke (Stuff): There’s no easy way for Government to save media drowning. But a fast fix is ...
Just after midday a cyclist was killed on a straight road on a clear day, after being hit by a van in North Canterbury. Lucinda Rees from NZ School Speeds is asking for the mandatory cyclist/vulnerable road user passing gap, which is in consultation, ...
By Indra Singh in Suva Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says that if Fijians continue to disregard the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic directives from authorities, a nationwide 24-hour curfew could be imposed. His comments come as Fiji yesterday recorded its two latest coronavirus cases, taking the total to seven. Bainimarama said ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée.Yes, a few cyclists out and about. I remember my first bike bought from Farmers around 1942, five shillings a ...
Internal memos from NZ’s biggest magazine company, which announced its sudden closure yesterday, state they were lobbying to change a ban on publication. But the minister responsible, Kris Faafoi, has doubled down on rejecting that position, calling those internal communications ‘contradictory’ to what they said to him directly.Magazine publishing giant ...
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...
The loss of a loved one can be difficult in the best of times. But it’s even more painful when the planes are grounded.Late on Saturday night, three days into New Zealand’s level four lockdown, Harish got a call from his sister in India telling him that his father had ...
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...
Open mike 29/01/2015 
Open mike is your post.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...5 hours ago
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...7 hours ago
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...10 hours ago
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...13 hours ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...1 day ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...2 days ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...2 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...2 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...2 days ago
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...2 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...3 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 4 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...4 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...4 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...6 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...1 week ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...1 day ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...1 week ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...1 week ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...1 day ago
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes. Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks. When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...8 hours ago
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...9 hours ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...10 hours ago
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...11 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...12 hours ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...19 hours ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...19 hours ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...20 hours ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...20 hours ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...20 hours ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...20 hours ago
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Patrick Gower making a complete fool of him self on TV the 1st minute was all about him .When will they sack the chump.
Paddy performs as expected and is valued by the DP movers and shakers as the attack dog with a national tv soapbox. Sacked ! ha more likely just some firm directions on toning it down to appear considered and suck more sheeple in.
The size of his ego is unbelievable I reackon a paul henry/Paul Holmes type offensive outburst is the best chance of seeing the back of the fool.
That’s what I thought, all about him. A very pissy item from Gower.
State of the Nation speeches aren’t supposed to be for the entertainment of journalists. They mark a serious start to the serious year of politics.
Maybe Gower should take a longer holiday if that’s the best he can do. Awful.
The whole current crop of so called journalists can go, im so sick of them telling us their views of the news instead of just reporting the news, Gower is the worst that pillock will burst a blood vessel one day while he is glorifying in somebody elses misfortune
how is it possible for labour under little to ‘move further away from social-policies’..
..when in 2014 they offered beneficiaries..nothing..
..so you wd think there was nowhere for them to ‘move’ to..
..what will they do in ’17…?
..promise to cut benefits..?
I don’t believe it ! Yesterday the Herald had a column which commented favourably on Andrew Little’s state of nation speech, this morning there is another one PLUS an editorial which states :
“Mr Little has the luxury of time to produce more definitive solutions to the issues still facing the country, Mr Key does not. He urgently needs to give his Government new themes and impetus. This time last year he announced an imaginative education initiative, yesterday was an opportunity lost. ”
Are things finally starting to look up for Labour ? ?
one editorial-chastisement of key – does not a labour govt make….
Are things finally starting to look up for Labour ? ?
That’s how it looks. There’s a long way to go but up looks an attainable direction now.
There’s evidence too that opponents see Little as a threat that they are not sure how to deal with.
Key competing on the same day is one indication.
And Slater has been running a long and frequent series of attempted hits on Little (at least five posts yesterday alone), including repeated digs at Little’s appearance and his temperament. It looks like flailing around trying to seed something to attack with. It’s not working.
Another promising step along the way for Little yesterday. A lot still to do but it looks like the beginning of a recovery and rebuild, at last.
Fearfax Media spin it differently.
‘Key trumps Little’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/65525196/key-trumps-little-on-speech-day
About FJK: “Key confirmed plans to sell 1000 to 2000 state houses in the next year to community housing providers and up to 8000 over the next four years.
Housing New Zealand would remain the biggest provider of social housing with at last 60,000 properties by 2017 against 68,000 now.”
It doesn’t take advanced mathematics to see that the have stopped building state houses altogether. Did FJK actually mention that?
+1.
Well said, Pete.
: roll :
Good comment Jenny but don’t hold your breath, my guess is that they will swing back to the right ,hope I am wrong.
The print version of the Herald has a half page devoted to rating the Key and Little speeches. The result according to them?
8/10 for Key and 4/10 for Little. So, no, I am afraid there is no change of tack in that right wing rag.
Darn it ! thought for a brief moment there, might have been a change of tack ……
obviously someone other than mr roughan wrote today’s editorial !
i wouldn’t give little more than 4/10 for that speech..
..that is quite a generous mark..
While driving about half an hour ago, I heard Chtis Trotter and Rodney Hide on roadio live analysing the speeches of key and Little.
Both praised Little for the points he made in his speech and were luke worm about Key’s speech.
Hide had NZH were wrong and pretty stupid in their two scores and said he would reverse that and give Little 7/10 and key, 4/10.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Audio.aspx
Listen in from 2 pm onwards today (Click on January 29, Thursday, 14:00)
The first 8 minutes is news.
Squalid right wing rag.
FIFY 😈
The odd pat on the head for Little means nothing unless they take Key to task instead of sheltering him from scrutiny.
Right at the moment they will be lining Little-Labour up in the business hearld with something stupid like “former Union Boss buckles to his union mates demands to abolish 90 day trial” (fire at will bill).
Where is the attack on bullshit artist Key over selling state housing, something he lied about in his pre election campaign ‘no further assets sales’.
How about, what exactly do you mean by part of the proceeds of state housing sales goes for capital infrastructure, what paying for roading projects?
Or, won’t you be paper shuffling and applying colorful accounting, referring to the sale of state houses to balance (fudge) the books?
Q. How is an ‘endorsement’ from the NZH a positive for Little ?
A pat on the head for a status quo speech i would say
+ 1..
It’s no longer the Media – It’s “The Ministry of Truth”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Truth
Kiaora Jenny
I thought the focus of Andrew’s speech excellent. Small and medium business are the heart and blood of this bilateral nation. A labour government focussed on job creation through improving conditions for small business is a vote winner.
Positive and practical messaging and policies to increase the volume of money flowing through communities clogged by unemployment and impoverishment is a vote winner.
The biggest and immediate issue confronting Māori communities is the lack of jobs. Young people are rotting on unemployment and many are not on benefits.
Job creation should be the primary focus of any Labour Government otherwise it should relabel itself as Non-Labour Government.
National Party values in the news.
h/t Tracey.
Conflict of interest much? How is this Key’s call?
Just heard the very good justice lawyer and friend Kelly Ellis rubbing Sabin’s nose into the dirt. Love that lady’s witty style. Yip what an ebarrasment Sabin is by pushing for the removal of a right to silence, and choosing silence himself, oh the hypocrisy makes me laugh.
Maybe John Key will ‘break the silence’ and force Sabin into retirement from politics.
My experience has been more along the lines of “However, we as police work on the principle innocent until bashed sufficiently to confess, or until we can do a deal with some jailhouse informant, or until we can fabricate sufficient evidence.”
Gower is an example of a TV presenter who believe they are more important than the message. Or worse maybe he is so deluded he thinks that people enjoy some rantings of a brown nosed National simpleton, with a brain smaller than his large teeth that he bares in some hideous attempt at entertainment. Again the Rugby thicko TV execs don’t notice that people are watching TV less and less in particular news …. I wonder why?
We shouldn’t criticise Gower for his teeth….hmm, ok, maybe just the front ones. He reminds me of a rat looking around for some easy food.
What is it with these political commentators/radio hosts, listened to that muppet Duncan (gotcha) Garner with his “epic fail” comment r.e Littles speach yesterday, at least hes consistant as he pulls the same crap with everyone, he is nothing but a sound bite merchant but that sound bite is now being replayed every hour, and he tries to make out he left political life because of all the nastiness well i say that trait has a bit more to do with him than his previous job
Rant over
Yes, he’s incredibly thick and doesn’t present well – I’ve often wondered how he’s survived at all – are they that hard up?
The Germans again come up with a novel way to deal with intolerance and simplistic political debate.
This time, giving out stickers and banners to anti-Islam marchers that direct people to a website that go over concerns with considered information and practical actions that are non-divisive.
Yes I saw that too Molly – very good work there and both subtle and direct.
heh
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2015/01/26/anti-islam-san-francisco-muni-ads-defaced-with-messages-of-love/
I can’t believe those ads were allowed on the side of public transport buses. Wtf?
Anything goes in the land of the free.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/19/pamela-geller-new-york-buses-subways-islam-james-foley
“the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AMDI)”
yeah, because the freedoms of US citizens are under threat from Muslims not the US govt, bankers and corporations.
The link to the news item is pay-walled but apparently local government have blocked a development so the addled have decided to do something for their friendly corporate.
Joe Sonka @joesonka
A prayer circle for Walmart
New demands on the justice system requiring restorative justice talks even when the victirm doesn’t want it, are meaning three times the appearances for one very minor offence when only one was used to be needed. The system is grinding to a halt.
Ideological not practical or pragmatic. In 2012 submissions were made against this.
Perhaps we should call it the Bazley effect. Minister Amy Adams (not the celebrity) is looking at it. But it was pushed through by the previous Minimal of Justice so being new on the Block she might not have any authority. Has she the perspicacity?
This regime is fast gaining a deserved reputation for ignoring all expert on-the-ground advice in various areas and running solely on their own ideology.
Third-termitis
@ vto
Let’s make it third-terminalitis!
After all balloons filled with hot air and helium only stay out of reach at the ceiling for a time. What goes up must come down.
Considering that they were doing that right from the start I don’t think Third-termitis applies. Just pure arrogance and hubris.
As I listened to the talk about selling off, hiving off, our social housing I thought of a subtitle for our country – New Zealand/Aotearoa, the Islands of Reduced Circumstances.
We are like the elderly ladies in many Brit stories I have read who have been living on Father’s legacy or annuity which has dwindled as they have got older, and gradually they have been forced to sell heirlooms and treasured family belongings. Poor old lady NZ reduced to poverty in the land of much milk and less honey, and suffering the kind attentions of loan sharks, hucksters and high rollers.
edited
+111
@ grey
..+ 1
Follow your convictions – this could be the end of the politics of fear
And that’s just a small taste. There is so much more in that article that can be directly transferred to NZ.
DTB
Great link. Thanx.
hence parties, espesh our Nat party, spend time and money manipulating the populace towant what isn’t actually good for them but to believe it is.
The head of the US military has had to launch an essay competition to find someone to write something nice about the brutal ruler who John Key honoured this week by ordering the lowering of the New Zealand flag to half mast.
Maybe General Martin Dempsey, Chair of the US Joint heads of staff could have saved himself the effort, and just instead asked the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to tell the world what he personally admired about the late King Addullah of Saudi Arabia.
Maybe JK could wax lyrical about the multiply beheadings and dismemberments, and the jailing of government critics, or possibly the lack of civil rights for women. Or the Saudi Government’s legal sanction of child abuse, paternal rape and murder, or the flogging and jailing of bloggers and writers critical of the government. (Lynn Prentice, Eleanor Catton take note).
I am certain that an essay written by John Key on these subjects as well as creating an international sensation would easily win US Chief of Staff General Dempsey’s prize. (As well as winning the approval of the US State Department and President Obama’s office, something John Key has always been mindful of.)
Let us celebrate, moderate beheadings
What with New Zealand being peacefully settled, you never know what previously unknown pearls of wisdom Key will come out with.
He had more important threats to democracy to deal with, A Man Booker Prize winner for starters.
I guess sometimes the truth hurts. I particularly liked this quote:
“It has to belong to everybody or the country really doesn’t want to know about it.”
It irritates me that the politicians and the wealthy in this country are very quick to celebrate their own achievements, which clearly result from their hard work, but if someone else does something worth of recognition it suddenly becomes “we did,” not “he did,” or “she did.” Even the phrase “New Zealand’s own…” suggests ownership.
Why not suggest support, instead? My degree contributed nothing toward her success, nor did anything else I’ve done in the last year. Perhaps a few cents from my taxes did, in some small way, but it was her talents that won her the award, not my taxes or even her nationality.
I’m disgusted by the behaviour of the media toward Miss Catton, but I can’t find a suitable word to describe my feelings for the Prime Minister, a man who brags that he had the support of the taxpayer as a child and made his way unaided after that, forgetting his free degree, and he now deserves his wealth and power.
When do we get our slice of the fortune our taxes created for him?
Oh, I forgot. He achieved that on his own.
In NZ I notice that any time the UNACTS want to smear goo on a policy they label it Green. The worst sort of thing that could be imagined. They must huddle together at parties and down their alcohol in buckets while they shiver fearfully at some gory story about the frightening Greens, the new vampires.
Not directly relevant to us, but the Koch brothers are preparing to spend $889 million on the next election.
Is that the going rate?
$889 p.r.o.i. (political return on ‘investment’)
Political candidates on sale and to be bought by the 0.1%!
Maybe we could all chip in a few coins and buy ourselves a US politician to lobby for us.
🙂 chump change
i inadvertently left out the ‘m’ (millions) but, yah, big money buys big politicians.
On 4 July 2014 USA population given as 318,881,992. How much average per person of Koch $889,000,000?
In NZ the 2014 popuation was 4,500,000. How much if this is multipled by USA individual
amount?
And think of the spending and influence power of just one uber-rich group.
$2.79 per person.
$12.5 million equivalent in Aotearoa. Much more than Dotcom spent.
And Koch is giving that money to media and PR firms who already have all the infrastructure and staff in place and are ready to roll. So the $$$ will go much further.
I do so enjoy reading leftist excuses for failed policies. This one about Venezuela takes the prize for most bizarre rant.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/27/revolution-counter-revolution-and-the-economic-war-in-venezuela/
“The government position is that basic commodity shortages are being caused by elements of the private sector that control the importation, production and distribution of food and other products and criminal speculators and smugglers who are sometimes allied with this sector. These actors are allegedly responsible or complicit in the illegal stockpiling of products in warehouses aimed at bringing about artificial shortages. There is empirical evidence for such claims. Thousands of tons of products, including subsidized items, have been diverted from the marketplace for sale in Colombia in 2014. Warehouses full of goods that ought to be on store shelves are frequently discovered by the authorities. Subsidized food items are often purchased by speculators for resale at higher prices in the domestic market. Some importers have been buying products at the subsidized currency exchange rate but then selling those products as though they were purchased at the much higher parallel rate. Fictitious “importers” are also blamed for massive amounts of currency fraud by obtaining divisas (dollars) at the preferential exchange rate under pretext of importing priority goods and then selling those dollars on the parallel market or holding on to them in expectation of further devaluation of the bolivar, a practice that suggests the corruption of some public servants as well. What are we to make of these observations about scarcity?”
Wow! Who would have thought that distorting the economy by providing subsidies or imposing price controls would lead to people taking advantage of these to make money?
The solution seems obvious. You remove the distortions and then the people won’t sell subsidised goods in neighbouring countries.
Also I love how some leftists think they can just dictate problems away.
“For Maduro, the game is up for the economic coup being waged by the political opposition and its allied collaborators in the private sector. He has delivered an ultimatum to food distributors to cooperate with efforts to overcome food shortages…”
What a complete moron.
Replying to your own posts now Gossy?
Sheesh, must be a lonely world your in…
Goostepper i do so like pointing out that you have only used parts of your own link that suits your agenda.
Trying to dictate what we think and say.
But your own link points out that the right wing in Venezuela are trying to undermine a democratically elected govt the same way as the CIA did in Chile underming Allende and installing a murdurous Dictator.
South America is littered with the mass graves of American foreign Policy of keeping corrupt murderous dictators and drug lords in power!
+ 1..
Q. Can you use “I do so enjoy” more often ?
Not convinced you have completely overused it just yet
Thankfully we live in a capatlist society where the free market allows people to operate in an honest and open way never taking advantage of the lack of regulation and controls. In our great system people making huge amounts off speculation alone would never create a situation that endangers the economy of the enitre world for their own profit.
Stupid socialists identifying people breaking their laws designed to try and help people. They should totally do things the way we do.
If you think you can construct laws that solve problems of economic distribution and supply you are very, very wrong. Attempting to legislate prices at a level below what people are willing to pay for them will just lead to exactly the problem the Venezuelan government is facing now. People will stop producing and/or sell the items on the black market or across the border in places where they can get higher prices. You may try to claim this behaviour is unethical or immoral but then many people always try to blame others for problems they themselves have caused.
Gooseman you have only chosen selected parts of the story gooseman.
The reason why food shortages are occuring is because the right wing are using the same tactics as the CIA used to overthrow a democratically elected Allende and installing a murderous fascist dictator!
Fascist Murderous Dictators were installed in just about every South American country one stage or another.
Maduro was elected the right wing are deliberately with the collusion of the CIA underming democracy.
Don’t get me started on the war on drugs in South America.
Fact is South America is littered with mass graves as a direct result of American nihilistic foreign policy.
Democracy freedoms have been undermined!
Yes, it’s funny how the most freedom for the market seems to require the least freedom for workers and the strongest state apparatus.
A good example was the military dictatorship in Chile, the students of Milton Friedman economics.
Apparently you can’t tell the market what to do, but the state required by the ‘free’ market can not only tell you what to do but lock you up, torture you and kill you if you don’t obey.
Phil
How exactly is the right wing doing this? They seem terribly effective if they are as well. the economy is close to collapse. Perhaps it is best not to start a fight with them.
Actually, I figure it’s best to finish the fight with them by the simple expedient of enforcing the law.
+1
La grand pared para ellos!
You mean like illicit drugs aren’t prevalent in society because of law enforcement?
Of course you could try prosecuting the corrupt public servants. We could set an example by prosecuting those who handed out SFC assets to Key’s neighbour, for cents in the dollar.
But yeah Gooseman, you are right on one point. Capitalist scum like yourself cannot be trusted not to enrich themselves at the cost of the rest of us. You lot are criminals and should be treated as such. Funny that you are all willing to trot out the traitor label for someone who makes some mild criticisms.
I was told by a good source that Waiariki Institute of Technology is charging Indian Students $20k to do its Agricultural course, which is fine (nothing like exploiting people who are desperate to get out of their country)
BUT
Farmers can employ these students between May and November (busy calving time) for $200 per week. This needs to be investigated because these students are being exploited, its displacing local people and there is no way that this falls within minimum pay rates legislation.
Right up Winston’s alley.
what are they charge other overseas students?
and is that per annum or whole course?
Re the $200/wk, is that true for students who are residents too? Indian students only? i.e is this via immigration or via tertiary practice of making these deals.
cos i know that full time students from overseas at unis and polys pay about 15k per year
Wouldn’t it depend on teh course?
edit,
http://www.waiariki.ac.nz/international-students/international-student-tuition-fees
Yes, I was referring to full time courses such as Diploma or bachelor courses, being 8 papers a year
Yes, but I was meaning across the same degree, that cost would depend on the subject of the course.
How many hours are they expected to do for the $200.
and are they getting accommodation etc as part of that?
Need to do some more work on this…but understood that they would be full time. Most farm jobs include accommodation.
One of the union people from round here should get on to this .
There has always been a good amount of farm owners treating there workers like dirt but they seem to get away with it Out sight out of mind I guess.
Dirty politics, yet again.
Look who is on the team at the Taxpayer’s Union…
If you want to know who was behind Jordan Williams’s attack on Eleanor Catton yesterday, look no further than David Farrar: http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/who_we_are
The Taxpayers Union is just a thinly disguised recruiting tool for National Party members.
Danyl at Dimpost pointing out the two tracks is up and running again,
There are lots of good pieces on the Eleanor Catton contretemps – Morgan Godfrey, Brian Easton, Gordon Campbell, Andrew Geddis, Simon Wilson – all focusing on issues around intellectuals and criticism and New Zealand attitudes towards same, which are all valid points. But what’s also meaningful, I think, is that this is a reprise of National’s two-track communications strategy we spent so much time talking about last year. Sean Plunket isn’t just a talk-radio dofus: he’s very close to the National government and, just like his mate Cameron Slater, Plunket is there to smear and bully and intimidate anyone who speaks out against John Key or National, so that National themselves don’t have to.
If – like most of the country – you haven’t heard anything from Plunket since he left Morning Report a few years back then his attack on Catton probably seemed very strange. But if you listened to him during the 2014 election campaign, most of which he spent in a state of flat-out hysteria ranting about terrorists and traitors, culminating in Plunket phoning Paddy Gower live on air and accusing him of being involved in a conspiracy against the government because he was reporting on Dirty Politics, it’s easier to see that abusing critics of the National Party – real or imaginary – is pretty much just his day to day role.
https://dimpost.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/back-to-two-track/
is it a fact that Plunkett is a friend of Slater (junior)?
Much as I dislike mocking people for there last names, one guy there has the last name Craven. Pretty fitting really.
The past year has seen a massive upsurge of working class communities in the south of Ireland against the attempt of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to impose a household water tax. This follows on the household tax itself, cuts in social welfare payments, the raising of the retirement age and other anti-working class measures.
In a rake of working class communities people are physically preventing the installation of meters and sabotaging them where the state-capitalist water company, Irish Water, does manage to install them.
This is all very different from New Zealand, where workers remain almost obdurately passive in the face of the whittling away of rights and conditions and living standards by the bosses and by successive National and Labour governments.
Why is the NZ working class so passive compared to workers in Ireland?
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/dublin-working-class-communities-show-how-resistance-is-done/
Phil
“..Why is the NZ working class so passive..”
this has long puzzled me..
..and the example of this passivity (amongst working class leadership esp.) that could not be more potent..
..was the rightwing revolution in the 80’s..
..in australia the union movement stood up and said: ‘no yer fucken not..!..’
..here they pulled down their pants..bent over..and then went and waited to get their rewards..knighthood/seats on company boards..etc..
..and today..?..we have a low-wage economy..australia doesn’t..
..the union-leadership from that time are/were traitors..
..both to those they purported to represent..
..and to the country as a whole..
We’ve tentatively explored the question a few times on Redline, but we need to do a lot more work on it.
I agree with you about the 1980s (and early 1990s).
But even at its most militant, the labour movement in NZ wasn’t really all that militant.
Take, for instance, 1913. In NZ workers fought for a few weeks. (And, in terms of workers involved, this was the most significant labour dispute in NZ history). At the same time the most significant industrial dispute in Irish history was taking place. Impoverished Dublin workers fought for *six months*.
When Massey’s Cossacks clubbed workers here, they complained about it. When the police in Dublin clubbed workers, the workers formed a workers militia, got armed, and paraded around Dublin streets tooled up; the cops kept their distance.
Those workers, the Irish Citizen Army, went on to be the driving force of the 1916 Rebellion. A number of their officers and a section of the ranks were women.
One reason I’ve become sympathetic to the idea of Australia and NZ merging is that the Aussies are much more Bolshie in defending their rights and we need some damn thing to harden up the working class here.
I think if I was young and had kids, I’d emigrate. I just couldn’t bear my kids growing up in a society where workers are so supine; I wouldn’t want my kids thinking that eating shit sandwiches is normal. I’d go to Oz or to Ireland.
Phil
“..I think if I was young and had kids, I’d emigrate…”
..+ 1..
..and i hafta say..littles’ speech i found quite depressing..
..as there is little/no sign of any changes from the neo-lib paradigm..
..just more of the same old fucken same old..
..i am just holding out hope that the sight of a leftwing with some balls..in greece..and spain/scotland etc..
..a leftwing really/actually doing the job they are meant to do..
..i am hoping there will be some contagion down here..
..but i’m not holding my breath..
..the right is fully in control..in both national and labour..
..and i think little will get quite a soft-ride from the media..
..as their bosses don’t see him as anyway a ‘threat’ to their sweet-rides/the current paradigm…
..and at a time when we are screaming out for ‘threats to the current paradigm’…
maybe cos we have tended to lead the world, our work force swallow the oft fed line “you are not as badly off as xxx,”, with its implication to not seem ungrateful… we tend to be a polite and deferential lot
8 hour day
40 hour week
women voting
labour govts
ACC
health and safety
maybe then..but not now…
..rightwingers in labour/national have ensured that..
every day someone tells the poor or the workers of New Zealand how grateful they should be, they just use different and more nasty words. Kiwis apparently dont like to stick out from the crowd to be seen to be making a fuss, not risk-takers our fellow average kiwis.
For some reason, this country is infested with the idea of “I’ve got mine, screw you.” Everyone thinks they’re on their way up, through their own hard work, but nobody else is.
Anecdotes:
My brother overheard some (highly paid) managers at the last election time, saying that they were going to vote National because Labour were just going to give money to poor people, and why should they get something for nothing?
(Funny. I recall working long days and getting bitchy emails from my manager, telling me that I wasn’t working enough unpaid hours. He got a lot of something for nothing.)
I hear that kind of thing a lot. Before he retired, one of my father’s co-workers said that he worked 40 years to get whatever his wage was, he doesn’t see why he should help anybody else.
Many of us pride ourselves on our charity and thoughtfulness toward others, most especially Christians, but so very many of us seem to act contrary to that.
Then there’s the whole ideal that if a manager gets a pay increase, they deserve it for working hard, but if I want more than minimum wage I’m just being greedy.
Three or four years ago, one of the guys who worked with me was getting $15/hour. He was senior staff, and asked for a pay increase. I heard our boss tell him that if he wants a pay increase then he’d better upskill and become more valuable to the company.
I can do everything that other guy did with a single exception, and a whole lot more than he ever learned. I get minimum wage and there are no pay increases. According to my boss the only guy who gets a pay increase (and a Christmas bonus) is the CEO. The rest of us munters are just out of luck.
I’ve tried organising. Supporting my initial statements, one guy doesn’t care, he’s just funding his studies while another feels that he’ll be recognised as a true talent any day now, either promoted or hired somewhere else, and this is just his investment in his career.
These are only symptoms of the issue, though. I don’t know what’s causing it, or why we think we’re special and everyone else is lazy. I do know that it makes us easy prey for reducing our rights, and creating a low-wage economy.
Definitely worth a discussion.
Kiwis grow up in a culture that says you should have your own business and your own house to be a success. We really are Napoleon’s nation of shopkeepers and never developed a deeply entrenched sense of class. Even Bomber, a supposed left wing mouthpiece, carries on about rubbish like generational differences and almost never gives an analysis in terms of class. I wish it was different.
With regard to Oz, there is also the important factor that the ostensibly Labour government of Lange was the one that achieved a tko on its supporters. The union bureaucrats were busy agreeing with Douglas rather than building resistance. In Oz it was a Liberal government that tried most of it on, and the unions instinctively fought back, even if only to protect their relationship with the Labor Party.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s much better over here. You might find militant class warriors marching in support of “Stop the Boats” or complaining about Kiwis taking their jobs. It’s no proletarian paradise, comrade.
“The union bureaucrats were busy agreeing with Douglas rather than building resistance. ”
They got big fat redundancy payouts for themselves and their members. Then they could set their own businesses, contract back to the SOE’s, and pole vault themselves into the middle bourgeois class.
30 odd years later, National has a new layer of voters.
I’ve been bouncing back in time, thse past few days, when I click on comments and even the “feeds”.
Oddly, usually to the same two places, one a blog from 2014. I’m starting to feel like my computer, or ths site has some misguided Hal* which is trying to bring something to my attention.
* as in ‘2001 a space odyssey’.
Wikipedia tell us: “The Imitation Game was both a critical and commercial success. The film was included in both the National Board of Review’s and American Film Institute’s “Top 10 Films of 2014″. At the 87th Academy Awards, it has been nominated in eight categories including Best Picture, Best Director for Tyldum, Best Actor for Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley. It also garnered five nominations in the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and was nominated in three categories at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In addition, it received nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations including Best Film and Outstanding British Film.”
Alan Turing, the person the film is mainly about, was the guy mainly responsible for cracking the Nazis’ ‘enigma code’ during WW2. In 1952, however, Turing was convicted of ‘gross indecency’, the usual name for male homosexual acts.
Last August the British queen announced a royal pardon of Turing.
An interesting indication of the changes in capitalism and in bourgeois ideology in recent decades:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/alan-turing-capitalism-and-the-changes-in-bourgeois-ideology/
and he possibly committed suicide when a nation turned on him because of who he loved…
“Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behaviour was still criminalised in the UK. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death a suicide; his mother and some others believed it was accidental.[9] In 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated”. Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.[10][11][12]”
The Brits did a pretty good job of taking hate on the road too when they colonised…
I’m not sure Turing was the guy mainly responsible. The effort began with the Polish military and mathematicians even before WW2. Commandos and Royal Marines also played an important role, as well as spies and French intelligence. Turing played a crucial role and it would have taken longer without him, but others were important as well. There is an interesting book:
Conspicuously missing: the Labour party.
I keep waiting for someone (anyone?) to lay into these dogs who think they are running our country.
Housing: The governments action is a lie. Bald faced. In your face: yeah we said we wouldn’t. We are. Waddaya gunna do?
Where is the damn opposition?
Sabin: Yeah he can have power over the people who are investigating him. So what.
Opposition?
Stupid greeny hippy know nothing writer; sure, gut the RMA: more cows; less welfare…
Has anyone said anything about the Greek election.
Opposition where?
“..Where is the damn opposition?..”
parliament re-opens soon..
..then we will see if they intend to sleepwalk for the next few yrs..
..or if they will get off their arses..(literally)..
..and do what they are paid/voted in to do..
..them and the greens..
‘Controlled Opposition’ is the phrase you are seeking
Little had some good digs at the current government in his speech and all we get is bull shit from the press about lack of policy when Little said he wasn’t doing policy .
Reporters are either thick as pigshit or owned.
Ross, the NZLP was in the news all day yesterday and again today. The party (mainly Andrew Little) got some decent coverage on their own initiatives, National’s housing fail and Sabin’s case. It’s not compulsory to watch the TV news or read the papers, but it’s a good idea before you make comments like that to do some prep, lest you look like a bridge dweller.
TRP. Unfortunately, I no longer live in my own country. I wish I could. I subscribe to feeds and get my thrills through TS. What you say is, no doubt, correct. But I do the research I can. That research, for now, reveals almost zero penetration of the fog by Labour or any opposition. I often get more news about NZ from the Guardian than I do through Stuff. That’s a comment about the media. An opposition’s job is to find a way around that. Why doesn’t a Labour MP get a shovel and dig a spud patch on the front lawn at parliament? Why? To feed our starving kids! Why doesn’t one of the useless fools order a truck load of concrete sewerage pipes to be dumped alongside the potato patch? Why? To house our homeless!
My question remains, where?
Here one for you and for everyone that opposes these Key’s State house sell off:
Take a look, make a stand and sign the petition now.
This is the email message I received from Phil Twyford.
“Key finally admitted his plans to sell off thousands of our state houses over the next two and a bit years.
Now he’s fronted the policy, it raises the stakes. He’ll want to push the sell-off through as soon as possible as he’ll be scared of losing face if his plans fall through.
It means if we’re going to have a chance to stop the sell-off, we need to move quickly. In our tens of thousands. But it also means John Key is vulnerable.
The first step of this campaign is proving the levels of public opposition to the sell-off. Already, nearly 22,000 of us have signed a petition against it.
We need thousands more. If you’ve not yet added your name, time is running out to act – so please add your name today”
http://action.labour.org.nz/save-our-state-houses
You may also donate to fund the campaign
https://contribute-nzlabour.nationbuilder.com/housing_campaign_thanks?utm_campaign=150128_sotn_k&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nzlabour
Once your name’s on the petition, please forward this email to your friends and family – every name on the petition will make our campaign stronger.
Next week, we’ll be in touch with an exciting plan to use our huge petition to make sure the Government can’t just force this issue through without the rest of New Zealand being made aware of their plans. But first, we need to work together to get as many people to sign the petition as possible.
Please take a minute to sign the petition and forward it on to other people you know who will be concerned about John Key’s state house sell-off.
Thanks,
Phil Twyford
Labour Housing Spokesperson
Done and done. Thanks.
(one for labour and greens to read..learn..and inwardly digest..)
“..‘Hope begins today was their mantra’: the inside story of Syriza’s rise to power..
..Ten years ago – Syriza scraped just 4% of the vote in Greek elections.
This week – the leftwing party took control under the charismatic leadership of Alexis Tsipras.
How did it do it?
For 22 days Paul Mason followed the party’s campaign trail –
– and saw an anti-austerity message delivered with youthful plausibility –
– win over a nation..”
(cont..)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/28/greek-people-wrote-history-how-syriza-rose-to-power
(maybe northshoredoc..or anyone else..can tell us if this goes on in nz..)
“..Doctors in the dock: Scandal of GPs who get cash from healthcare firms for patient referrals..
..Investigation shows healthcare companies offer inducements to send patients to their hospitals –
– leading to calls for financial interests of all UK practitioners to be made public..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/doctors-in-the-dock-scandal-of-gps-who-get-cash-from-healthcare-firms-for-patient-referrals-10009380.html
@Phil not that I know of and i would think it is very very unlikely that this occurs in NZ.
The larger issue in NZ is the continuing limiting of registration of certain medical specialties to ensure a large enough practice and waiting lists – although to some extent for example in orthopaedics this is a function of limited theatre space.
That implies the limitations are more demographic than political?
Or do you find evidence of the crime that the National Party is often accused of: deliberately running public health down for money.
“Or do you find evidence of the crime that the National Party is often accused of: deliberately running public health down for money.”
No evidence of that whatsoever.
Health services in NZ are generally speaking of a very high quality and from memory the money going into vote health has been rising year on year for quite some time – as i’m sure you understand we could put our entire GDP into health and there’d still be unmet demand for services.
at first glance i thought we wd not have the critical mass of private hospitals etc..
..for there to be such competition/opportunity for corruption….
..but if looking..you wd throw the rock in the water in epsom..
..and see if there are any surprising patterns in gp’s referrals there….
which specialties is that prevalent in..?
The Urologists and ophthalmologists used to limit the numbers admitted into their particular specialties to make sure there were enough population per surgeon to ensure a good patient stream in public and private.
There are other surgical specialties which tend to do the same.
(how could u not want one of these..?..video..)
“..Tesla’s ‘Insane’ Button – Totally Freaks People Out..
..What kind of car would come with an ‘insane mode?
A Tesla – specifically a Tesla Model S P85D- the $120,000 electric speedster with a 221-horsepower front motor and a 470-horsepower rear motor.
Hitting the ‘insane’ button engages both at the same time –
– allowing you to reach 60 mph in just over 3 seconds –
– and scare the pants off friends and family members –
– if you use it without warning..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/tesla-insane-button-video_n_6560170.html
A rocket!
Definitely better than a 91 subaru legacy wagon for sure!
By the way, any update on the theft? How are you managing?
the cops have been told..not much else to do..
Oh, this is going to hurt:
Why does the minister even have access to that money?
Uber’s Business Model Could Change Your Work
Contrary to many Leftists I’m actually cautiously optimistic about this but it does, IMO, show that these types of services need to be run through government servers. Running it through government servers will get rid of the capitalist bludgers that are making millions from other people being paid minimum wage or less. The government will just be getting the taxes and so the dead-weight loss of profit will be removed from the equation.
Also shows the needs for a UBI for two reasons. Firstly if you don’t get enough work you’ll still have enough to get by on with out dropping into poverty or having the risk of losing everything. Secondly it would remove the need to ‘have a job’. Essentially you could tell your employer to fuck off and still have work. Again, it helps remove the dead-weight loss of profit.
It’ll be the one thing that National and employers really hate – an actual free and flexible labour market. How do I know that they hate it? Because that’s what an unemployment benefit allows and National always undermines that.
Yeah, ain’t it great how capital can use apps and smartphones to wring profits from the desperation of the unemployed/underemployed.
/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-gets-uber-valuation-of-18-2-billion-1402073876
That’s what capitalism is designed to do. Now how do we change it and get rid of the bludgers?
who are the ‘bludgers’..?
..the disrupters..or..(as in the case with taxis in ak..some of the most expensive in the world..) the current exploiters..?
..and lots of professionals should be very nervous..
..low-hanging fruit wd have to be those lawyers who make a nice income from clipping the ticket on property-transactions…
..either an uber-model..or a decent app..will render them redundant..
If Russia killed a UN peacekeeper,
it would be headline news for days on the BBC
And of course, Israel can strike Syria without the UN batting an eyelid. Says it all about the state of of international law in at the present time. One law for official enemies, and quite another for us.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1422491513.html
Draw cartoons mocking Muslims = freedom of speech.
Draw cartoons mocking Jews = fired, fined, court appearance.
Colonial Rawshark, why did you make that comment? It has nothing to do with the item I posted.
Also, I do not believe it is legitimate to “mock Jews”. Of course it’s perfectly legitimate to mock war criminals and sanctimonious, murderous hypocrites—including Israeli ones. But it’s their criminality, sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy that should be attacked, not their Jewishness.
Leave the crude race-baiting to the likes of David Rankin, Leighton Smith, Larry “Lackwit” Williams and Nevil “Breivik” Gibson.
Seems to be an identical message to me Morrisey. A law for them, a law for us. How do you get CR mocking Jews out of that post?
I don’t think CR was mocking Jews. I don’t think he’s either that depraved or that foolish. I just think he needs to be careful how he expresses his ideas.
In other words, abusing or mocking Jews as Jews is as unacceptable as the Charlie Hebdo speciality of mocking and antagonizing Algerians.
My comment paralleled the point you made about how Israel can act and attack with absolute impunity and immunity from criticism.
Don’t get weak kneed about it now.
BTW Jews are not a “race” therefore you cannot “race bait” by commenting on cartoons depicting Jews.
Careful, Rawshark, you are treading a very dodgy line.
The fact is: if you poke fun at Jews for being Jews you are in Paul Holmes territory. I advise you to think carefully before you go down that path.
you’re the one who stated that Israel’s ability to act with impunity and with immunity to criticism was a sign of international degradation.
Yes, that is correct. I’m interested in serious analysis, not in crude ethnic or religious stereotyping. If you want to indulge in that dismal nonsense, ring Kerre McIvor on NewstalkZB.
Or Sean Plunket.
And exactly which of my replies above do you see as constituting “crude ethnic or religious stereotyping”???
Fuck you, you self aggrandising “Serious Analysis R Us” dick.
“… Charlie Hebdo speciality of mocking and antagonizing Algerians.”
Yeah, I’m totally sure you’ve got a cite for that, Moz. And CV, splitting hairs is pretty sad. Bigotry is bigotry. Anti-semitism is pathetic, whatever the specific religion turns out to be.
Those cartoons were aimed at insulting, humiliating and antagonizing French Muslims—most of whom are Algerian. It’s an old tactic of the extreme right, made no more acceptable by the fact it has been taken up by people who like to think of themselves as liberals.
Marine Le Pen knew perfectly well what the Charlie Hebdo folk were up to, and endorsed them completely. As did such liberal heroes as Binyamin Netanyahu and David Cameron.
So not aimed at Algerians, but at Muslims in general. Glad we cleared that up.
It’s a French magazine. It attacked Muslims. It sells in France. Most Muslims in France are Algerians. French people would tend to identify Muslims in France as Algerians.
You haven’t cleared anything up.
Really? You think that French people can’t recognise different ethnicities? Perhaps zay all look ze same to zem, non?
Algerians are not the majority in the Muslim religious demographic. Some folk might think that only a racist would think they were, but I’m sure that’s not the case with you, Murray.
CH attacks Muslims does not equal CH attacks Algerians. Moz was wrong.
You’re trying to suggest I am racist, even though you’re sure that’s not the case. Fairly typical of your debating style.
There are more than 5 million Algerians in France. The majority of these are Sunni Muslim. There are estimated to be something like 6 million Muslims in France. Who are the majority?
I think Morrisey is correct on this one.
Nice try saying the French can recognise different ethnicities, followed by some stupid imitation of Franglais. Who said they couldn’t?
Your numbers are wrong, Murray. Algerians make up around a third of the ‘immigrant’ Muslim population of France. That is, about 1.5 million people. In fact, they are about half of the population that hails from the Maghreb.
So, if you want to avoid looking dodgy, check your facts before opining and don’t conflate one ethnic group with others.
I did check my numbers and I am not conflating one ethnic group with another. Any further accusations, font of all that is true and righteous? Where does your figure of 1.5 million come from?
By the way, I couldn’t give a fuck if you think I look dodgy. Your life would have no meaning without the opportunity to try and look superior on a blog. You make a habit of it.
So now, stating facts = splitting hairs?
I stated what had actually happened at Charlie Hebdo. A cartoonist got fired in 2009 and threatened with charges for something which was interpreted as being anti-Jewish. So much for the freedom of speech argument that Charlie Hebdo would later frequently use whenever they published things interpreted as being anti-Muslim.
Again I stated that fact plain and simple, and contrasted to bring the hypocrisy in to distinct relief. Not my problem if you don’t like the illustration I used.
“So now, stating facts = splitting hairs?”
Yes, that’s one way of looking at it. Taking a semantic approach to an issue instead of recognising the wider truth. Yep, a good definition of splitting hairs.
The cartoonist that got fired all those years ago appealed the sacking and won. I’m sure the folk at CH learned a valuable lesson. Your bigotry is not based on anything substantial, CV, just word wankery.
Ps: “So much for the freedom of speech argument that Charlie Hebdo would later frequently use whenever they published things interpreted as being anti-Muslim.”
They never actually used that defence, because they didn’t need a defence. They were defiantly proud of being anti-religion.
Q. Are you an actor ?
Q. Do you believe in your own hype ?
Q. Are interactions ‘challenging’ for those who have to engage with you ?
Watch a daring monKEY.
Kind of how Key is teasing the people of this country with his harmful callous policies.
The Petulant Entitlement Syndrome of Journalists
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, 29 January 2015
As intended, Jonathan Chait’s denunciation of the “PC language police” – a trite note of self-victimization he’s been sounding for decades – provoked intense reaction: much criticism from liberals and praise from conservatives (with plenty of exceptions both ways). I have all sorts of points I could make about his argument – beginning with how he tellingly focuses on the pseudo-oppression of still-influential people like himself and his journalist-friends while steadfastly ignoring the much more serious ways that people with views Chait dislikes are penalized and repressed – but I’ll instead point to commentary from Alex Pareene, Amanda Marcotte and Jessica Valenti as worthwhile responses. In sum, I fundamentally agree with Jill Filipovic’s reaction: “There is a good and thoughtful piece to be written about language policing & ‘PC’ culture online and in academia. That was not it.” I instead want to focus on one specific point about the depressingly abundant genre of journalists writing grievances about how they’re victimized by online hordes, of which Chait’s article is a very representative sample….
Read more…..
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/28/petulant-entitlement-syndrome-journalists/
I’ll have to remember to put my robe on next time I victimise paddy gower.
You might like to ask Garth “The Knife” McVicar to lend you his.
I wish you hadn’t said that I’ve got a very visual mind ,Mcvicar in a robe ,not a sight I needed just before my bed time. 🙂
Records about to be broken for driest January on record in Auckland and Wellington.
Yet Fairfax media fails to mention climate change once in this article.
You do wonder who is in control of the conversation at these organisations.
A mining magnate by the name of Julia Reinhard?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/65544122/areas-on-track-for-driest-january-on-record
Pu is on the mark. I detest his prescription but he is correct labour is little more than national lite, tweaking at the boundaries, why change, barring if your of that persuasion the greens get their hands on the lever of powers. Labours dilemma at every election, no matter who their leader is
Syriza! Wet your pants.
The sky won’t fall in Greece, and then, Chicken Little, you get to choke on it.
If Syriza is the answer it must have been a pretty stupid question
Castro Cuba. Chavez Venezuela all hard left lefties that led their county to nirvana why is Syria different little red riding hood ( to stay on the fairy tail theme been your realm of reality)
Sure Greece is exactly like Cubazuela. Your first instinct is to run your mouth before your brain. Slow down, get an amygdalectomy, whatever it takes.
Or choke on it. No-one will notice or even care.
settle OAB. We just have difference of opinion, nothing more, like I said gotta go sleep well
Just think, while you’re asleep, you might even have an evidence based thought process.
Re delusional The govenor of the Bank of England disagrees with you to redelusion.
Syrizia has gone into coalition with ACT type party of the far right.
So re delusional your argument is!