Open mike 29/03/2011

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1. Jenny 1

   29 March 2011 at 6:24 am

   .
   After effectively signing away all right for iwi to take a legal challenge against exploitation of the Seabed and Foreshore, Tariana Turia makes it clear;

   If iwi still continue to oppose deep sea oil drilling, or sand mining of the Seabed and Foreshore

   “That’s their business”

   Tariana Turia

   This is amazing stuff.

   [audio src="http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ckpt/ckpt-20110328-1750-Waatea_News_for_28_March_2011-048.mp3" /]

   On Sunday a ceremony was held on Auckland’s Princes Wharf to farewell the combined Greenpeace and Te Whanua a Apanui protest flotilla setting sail for the East Coast, site of proposed deep sea oil prospecting.
   The flotilla plans to do all it can to stop giant Brazilian oil company Petrobras from exploring for deep sea oil deposits off the East Coast of the North Island.

   Speakers for Greenpeace and Te Whanau a Apanui all mentioned that this desperate search for oil in deep sea waters is at the very limits of drilling technology and is not worth the risk. If anything goes wrong New Zealand doesn’t have the resources and vessels to do anything about it speakers claimed.

   Aboard this flotilla, Peter Williams QC also a veteran of the Moruroa anti-nuclear protest flotilla. Williams said the two issues are linked. He said as well as making New Zealand nuclear free, we need to make New Zealand deep sea oil drilling free. He pointed out that it took 60 ships and billions of dollars, and many months to stem flow of oil from the Gulf of Mexico deep water drill blow out. Which williams pointed out was an exploratory well, similar to what is likely for the East Coast.

   Where would New Zealand get 60 ships? We just couldn’t do it, Williams said.

   The only Member of Parliament at the ceremony to farewell the flotilla was independent MP for Tai Tokerau, Hone Harawira.

   Harawira said “The flotilla is a continuation of the Seabed and Foreshore protest”.

   This “Is the bit that the Maori Party has willingly signed off on.” he said. “The government can go and mine anywhere and drill anywhere and they don’t have to ask Maori for nothing.”

   Responding to Harawira’s reported comments, Maori Party Co-leader Tariana Turia went on National Radio the next day. On the subject of iwi who don’t want oil exploration or sand mining. “That’s their business” she said.

   “We’ve been very clear about that. We are not in parliament to speak for hapu and iwi. That’s what they have chosen to do and that’s their right.” Tariana Turia.

   Though she didn’t name them, Turia claimed, that she was aware of other iwi who support mining and oil drilling because they see potential to make money from it.
   • Draco T Bastard 1.1

     29 March 2011 at 12:59 pm

     “The government can go and mine anywhere and drill anywhere and they don’t have to ask Maori for nothing.”

     That seems reasonable. We shouldn’t have to ask a specific race what we can do with our resources.
     • prism 1.1.1

       29 March 2011 at 1:09 pm

       WTF Draco TB – We have only been working on for decades now, the recognition and recompense to Maori as tangata whenua. And giving recognition that they are active in trying to protect their land and seascape from harmful exploitation. Oh I get it you’re being ironic, even sarcastic.

       The idea that Tariana Turia is motivated more by deep anger at Labour than a cogent plan for Maori values and betterment may be right.
     • travellerev 1.1.2

       29 March 2011 at 2:59 pm

       Maori foreshore and seabed rights was another good safety barrier against the destruction of our underwater ecosystems you dimwit. One we all needed. Now it is just about money profit and big business and Maori and the rest of us have been effectively sidelined.

       In the Suriname language they call this craboe politics.
       Put a couple of crabs in a bucket and when one reaches the rim the others will pull him down and in the end they all die in the hotpot. That’s you and me and Maori. You take away their right to assert their indigenous rights you take it away from all of us. Well done New Zealand. Lets dig up those $ 2300 billion worth of black sands and fuck the fishery and the Hector dolphins who needs them anyway.

       Reasonable my ass.
       • Draco T Bastard 1.1.2.1

         29 March 2011 at 5:00 pm

         I didn’t say that the environment shouldn’t be protected.
         • Jenny 1.1.2.1.1

           29 March 2011 at 9:16 pm

           .
           Draco, a simple question,

           Do you support deep sea oil drilling?
           • Draco T Bastard 1.1.2.1.1.1

             29 March 2011 at 11:12 pm

             No.
       • Colonial Viper 1.1.2.2

         30 March 2011 at 8:20 pm

         Lets dig up those $ 2300 billion worth of black sands

         Hate to break up the party but pretty soon no one is going to be able to afford the energy to mine and transport the ironsand, let alone smelt it.
     • Vicky32 1.1.3

       29 March 2011 at 6:13 pm

       Exactly, DTB, I agree!
       Deb
2. millsy 2

   29 March 2011 at 6:28 am

   Iwi want all of Whakatane’s state housing

   …and at a quarter of their value too. But that doesnt really concern me.

   What conserns me is that once this iwi elite get a hold of these state houses, they will either a) start kicking current tenants (or non-Maori tenants) out of thier houses, or b) raising rent to unaffordable levels. and most probably selling them off at a profit.

   I notice that another group quoted in this article have more or less implied that rents will increase once state housing is delivered into their possession.

   I belive that that handing over state housing to a charity is just the same as handing them over to a private specualtive landlord.
   • chris73 2.1

     29 March 2011 at 6:49 am

     Second time in less then a week I’ve agreed with you (good to see you moving to the right)
     • Marty G 2.1.1

       29 March 2011 at 8:26 am

       isn’t it very leftwing to believe that it’s the state’s place to provide welfare and rightwing to want to hand that role over to private charity?

       indeed, privatisation of social assistance is a major theme of the UK Conservatives’ ‘Big Society’ and was a theme of the Howard government. Whanua Ora is a small step in that direction here.

       Maybe you’re moving to the Left, chris73 😉
3. rd 3

   29 March 2011 at 8:03 am

   >>PM tells schools to act against the bullies
   >>”I’m not going to sit back and let that happen without at least trying to improve the environment”

   A good place to set an example would be parliament.

   >>>Minister Anne Tolley to write to all boards to remind them of what their responsibilities were and to convene a meeting of experts to see if New Zealand schools had best practice in place to counter bullying.

   That really worked with National Standards,
   and does the statement mean that each board has to convene a panel of experts?
   • mickysavage 3.1

     29 March 2011 at 8:15 am

     Political correctness gone mad I tell you, political correctness gone mad … grumble grumble … we never had this sort of thing when I was young and look how I turned out …
     • ianmac 3.1.1

       29 March 2011 at 9:27 am

       Nanny State Nanny State!
   • Marty G 3.2

     29 March 2011 at 8:28 am

     I love the juxtaposition from Key:

     ‘i care about this issue and i’m going to do everything i can’

     ‘the minister is writing to schools reminding them of the status quo and assembling a talk fest’
     • Lanthanide 3.2.1

       29 March 2011 at 9:23 am

       ‘i care about this issue and i’m going to do everything i can’

       Yeah, they don’t need extra funding. It’s just about mind-set and the will to actually do something.

       A person wrote in to Morning Report this morning, saying that their son and other children at a decile 10 school were bullied, involving knives, stragulation and being stalked on the way home. The long protracted process set out by the ministry of education had to be completed (stand-downs, suspensions, extra teachers to personally monitor the bully) before he could finally be removed from the class. The ministry of education processes are reactive rather than proactive, and put the right to education of the bully ahead of the rights of their victims to education and a safe environment.

       From what went on at my school (very little bullying in general, but some troublesome students) I would have to say that this really does seem to be the heart of the issue. Teachers and schools are being stopped from taking appropriate responses by the ministry.
       • ianmac 3.2.1.1

         29 March 2011 at 11:06 am

         Perhaps Mr Key will create a fast track process so that if your kid gets hit or teased by a “bully”, then the school can throw the bully out that day, permanently. (Satisfies the Lynch mentality.) Wonder where all the bullies would end up?
         After all a teacher at an exclusive school in Christchurch described to me the screening for any troublemakers before enrollment, and at the first whiff of trouble the contract would be invoked and the child out. Compliance.
         Mind you there are many troubled kids who are being helped hence the rules in place in State Schools which are there to protect the bullies and the bullied and the teachers and the BOT.
         • Deadly_NZ 3.2.1.1.1

           29 March 2011 at 9:58 pm

           Well as a parent with a 15 year old who has been getting bullied over the last 2 weeks I have completely lost my sense of humour with that useless fucking witch who reckons she is in charge of education and the fuckwit that put her in that position. Yep Key and Tolley. Well I have an appointment at 8 10 am and if nothing is done at the school that my stepdaughter is in then I WILL pull her from the school and I will also call the newspapers( they hate the publicity) and I will call the police on the bullies ( that is if I can get one away from traffic duty) and if that dont work maybe i’ll start to make life hard for the board of trustees and if that dont work maybe i’ll try to sue the fuckin witch!!!!
     • Tigger 3.2.2

       29 March 2011 at 9:27 am

       National is adding to the bullying environment by legitimising inequality (financial and otherwise) not to mention racism, homophobia and sexism. Key, the best thing you can do for our children is fuck off.
       • M 3.2.2.1

         29 March 2011 at 1:01 pm

         Agreed Tigger, especially in smaller centres where to come out as being gay or having some other disability is social death in the secondary school arena. My son tries to hide his ADHD as well as he can but sometimes the impulsivity shows and he gets himself into some right scrapes. Only last week I had to attend a meeting for my son and to say I was excoriating was putting it mildly considering the teasing from fellow pupils and some staff my kid has endured – I also said I couldn’t imagine what treatment would be meted out to a pupil who was openly gay, they’d be lucky to survive the lunch hour.

         Parents have to be on their guard with schools with regards to bullying because for many of them it’s just too hard but I’ve never had any problem holding their feet to the fire. If I found either of my kids were being bullies they know bad karma would rain on them from a great height with loss of privileges they enjoy. As a society we have become a little better in many ways concerning racism, homphobia and sexism but there’s still a long way to go but the new kid on the block is “moneyism” as in if a family is poor they are viewed differently. It pisses me off that people can’t live and let live with the qualifier that you don’t try to hurt others.
4. Kaplan 4

   29 March 2011 at 8:27 am

   Rising prices chewing into discretionary spending

   New Zealand faces two-paced pressure on prices, with surging bills for fuel, utilities and food sucking further dollars away from discretionary spending.

   Discretionary spending?
   Why isn’t this story about those that have no discretionary spending?
   Nice try Hamish but I think your story looks at the wrong angle and Stuff have filed it in the wrong section.
5. kriswgtn 5

   29 March 2011 at 8:30 am

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pike-river-mine-disaster/4595942/Just-5000-for-young-miners-mum

   This has really pissed me off.
   Everyone (wgtn) seems to have forgotten re Pike River

   Absolutely fucking disgusted to be a kiwi this morning
   bah fuk this country

   OZ here I come, along with BF
   • PeteG 5.1

     29 March 2011 at 8:51 am

     Pike River was tragic for those families involved – but that doesn’t make any difference to how ACC should work. ACC is not life insurance, and the rules cannot be changed for every apparently deserving case.

     The fact is that there will be more financial support for families of Pike River than there is for most families who have a member who dies accidentally.
     • Lanthanide 5.1.1

       29 March 2011 at 9:27 am

       Agreed. There has also been a substantial fund raised for the families from private – $7m. This is going to be divvied up at $190,000 per family + $15,000 for each dependent.

       http://www.pikeriverdonations.org.nz/media-releases/
       • G* 5.1.1.1

         29 March 2011 at 4:42 pm

         Sorry what about the $7 million plus raised by Kiwis for the Pike River relief fund…where has this money gone? $250,000 per 29 passed away miners and they will have insurance.
   • vto 5.2

     29 March 2011 at 9:54 am

     Too true kriswgtn. Pike River and the mammoth negligence inflicted on the men, their families and the communities is drifting out of sight.

     Check this… Greymouth Star last Friday 25th reported

     “Rapahoe mining historian Peter Ewen, one of only 17 people to make a submission on the 2008 review of underground mining regulations, was stunned when the DOL refused his request for information to back his submission to the Pike River inquiry.

     The Dept advised that it would decide AFTER (emphasis mine) the release of the Royal Commission’s findings whether or not any further information woudl be released.
     …
     Mr Ewem requested a copy of the departments formal authorisation documents to the PRC company in relation to the underground ventilation shaft ladder, electrical authorisation for the placement of the fan, and copies of visits and logged telephone calls between DOL inspectors and mine management.
     He also asked for information on visits and phone calls by DOL inspectors from April 2005 up to and including November 20.”

     In response the department spokesman said release would compromise the integrity of the inquiry and cause prejudice. The spokesman also said other agencies, including the police, were taking the same approach.

     Well, fuck me I thought I had heard it all in this world.

     As always, happy to be proved wrong but it seems to me that the Inquiry is compromised WITHOUT this information. The department has it arse about. The Inquiry loses credibility when relevant government departments wait until after the findings before releasing information relevant tp the inquiry.

     Something stinks. Everybody is just clamming up. I claimed right from the start there would be trouble over this. It is human greed and shortcuts which have caused this – it seems now both public and private individual human shortcomings.

     Maybe someone out there knows how and when and what information can be released in these situations but from the perspective out here in labour country it fucking stinks. No wonder there is little respect for govt. Or maybe they figure that an old man from Rapahoe (tiny coastal setlement north of Greymouth) has no capacity to take on the DOL and every effort should be made to hide their wrongdoings and avoid embarassment or worse.

     This is the same place that the Cave Creek tragedy occurred of course and for which nobody in giovernment took resonsiblility, despite government built timber landings being fixed with just 4 inch nails instead of bolts. Fuck govt.

     At this point now, refer to that post below with the words fuck and cunt scattered throughout..
   • KJT 5.3

     29 March 2011 at 1:35 pm

     Pike river was bad, but there are many families who have close relatives who die or have seriously injuries at work. The effect on them is the same.

     As far as money goes the Pike River families and the unemployed due to the Christchurch earthquake are being treated better than people normally are in the same circumstances.
6. joe90 6

   29 March 2011 at 10:32 am

   More news from Fukushima Dai-Ichi.

   Radiation levels that can prove fatal were detected outside reactor buildings at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant for the first time, complicating efforts to contain the worst disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

   Water in an underground trench outside the No. 2 reactor had levels exceeding 1 sievert an hour, a spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. told reporters in the capital yesterday. Exposure to that dose for 30 minutes would trigger nausea and four hours might lead to death within two months, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
7. felix 7

   29 March 2011 at 11:30 am

   More retardedness from Darth McVicar, the author who hasn’t read his own book yet:

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/lifestyle/4710053/In-the-name-of-justice

   But McVicar says the trust is proudly “apolitical”, adding “I’ve been asked by all three major political parties to stand for them at one time or another”.

   Three major political parties, Darth? Well that’d be National, Labour, and the Greens, right? I don’t believe for a moment that the Greens asked you to stand.

   What’s that Darth? You didn’t mean them?

   Oh, I see – you were including a much, much smaller party in the “three major political parties” ahead of the Greens.

   But you’re proudly apolitical. Yeah.
   • Draco T Bastard 7.1

     29 March 2011 at 1:17 pm

     So proudly apolitical that they sponsored a criminal into a political party as well as helped that party then write some of their policies.
8. Tigger 8

   29 March 2011 at 12:11 pm

   National prepared to cut everything but the one utterly non-essential ‘service’ – namely tax cuts for the rich.

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4821122/Govt-to-axe-non-essential-services
   • Jim Nald 8.1

     29 March 2011 at 7:28 pm

     Oh, and Double Dipton said:

     “there are far too many Government departments and duplication. He’s signalled more cuts in back office staff and moves to merge departments and cut spending.”

     http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=128445&fm=psp,tst

     Double Dipton will first apply the cut to himself. He said he has too many ‘homes’ and duplication. He’s signalled more cuts in his home-cleaning staff, expenses and claims, and moves to merge Karori with Dipton and cut his salary.

     Amen.
     • Draco T Bastard 8.1.1

       29 March 2011 at 11:18 pm

       And isn’t Double Dipton one of the ones that freated that duplication in an effort to create “competition” within government services?
   • Deadly_NZ 8.2

     29 March 2011 at 10:03 pm

     And have you noticed the absence of any comments page ??? . maybe they know that they can’t be a good NAT suckup paper when most of the population is calling for Key and Englishes heads on a pike…
   • millsy 8.3

     29 March 2011 at 10:09 pm

     Two words: Oh and Fuck.

     This is not going to be a slash and burn.

     This is going to be napalm and white phosphorous.
9. Pascal's bookie 9

   29 March 2011 at 12:39 pm

   Found myself thinking about this classic tbogg post today:

   http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2008/02/25/your-mumia-sweatshirt-wont-get-you-into-heaven-anymore/

   Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.

   You don’t live there.

   Grow the fuck up.
10. logie97 10

    29 March 2011 at 6:10 pm

    Key’s directive on school bullying has about as much worth as Christine Rankin’s
    2 minutes silence for anti-child-violence-campaign.

    Every politician commenting on school issues speaks from their experience as a pupil/student at school. Never from a school management position (unless the politician is an ex educator) and the parents nod sagely at their every utterance. “In my day et cetera. (Makes you wonder why practitioners in the profession bother to get qualifications – the expert punters know best.)

    Never, in all these statements, is any responsibility for issues at school sheeted home to the 17.1/2 hours before the children enter the school gates. What say the elected boards insist that their charges are fit to enter the school and confront the families accordingly.

    Nah – the politicians wouldn’t get any mileage out of that,

    captcha – empty
    • Morrissey 10.1

      29 March 2011 at 11:45 pm

      “Rankin’s 2 minutes silence for anti-child-violence campaign“?!?!?!????!?

      I thought her organization was formed to advocate FOR the right to beat your children (if you’re Pākehā, that is.)
11. M 11

    29 March 2011 at 10:32 pm

    Japanese quake and tsunami got you spooked? Well for 200k to 20 million you can chill:

    http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/22/real_estate/doomsday_bunkers/index.htm?hpt=C2

    To have that much spare change rolling around, sigh.

    Anti-spam: saves
12. Morrissey 12

    29 March 2011 at 11:19 pm

    “Useful Idiot” Bryan Crump asleep at the wheel—again.
    National Radio, Tuesday 29 March 2011, 8.40 p.m.

    Three weeks ago, many National Radio listeners were shocked by host Bryan Crump’s credulity as a Fatah propagandist called Lana Shaheen cynically lied to him for twenty uninterrupted minutes about life in Gaza. In a virtuoso display of fatuousness, Crump swallowed everything, not even demurring when Shaheen recycled the U.S.-Israeli-Fatah black propaganda line that the Hamas government “seized power” by a “coup”. It seemed then that was as bad as it could possibly get. Surely?

    SURELY?

    If you hate seeing “wretchedness o’ercharged”, in the shape of a weak and ill-informed New Zealand journalist failing to do his job, you are advised to turn away now. The rest of you, who presumably give a damn about journalistic standards, should READ ON….

    Crump’s guest tonight from the Middle East is not Lana Shaheen. Alarmingly, however, it’s someone even worse—the extreme right-wing British-born Liat Collins, from the Jerusalem Post.

    Now, anyone who knows anything about Israel knows that there is only one respected, rigorous, liberal daily newspaper in Israel. That paper is Haaretz. But someone who knows little or nothing about Israel, or about Jerusalem, might be fooled into thinking that a newspaper called the Jerusalem Post was a reliable and authoritative source of information. In fact it’s not. The Jerusalem Post is about as respected as the Murdoch-owned Sun, or the Moonie-owned Washington Times. It’s about as authoritative as a Garth George Herald column or a 60-second Paul Holmes “daily comment” on NewstalkZB.

    Liat Collins is notorious as a True Believer, a fanatical defender and worshipper of the Israeli state. So we shouldn’t be surprised by her cynical distortion of the facts of life in Jerusalem, or her bilious tirade against the prospect of democracy in the neighboring Arab countries. What will have perplexed, even infuriated, many listeners was the inability of Bryan Crump to challenge even one of her statements, or to ask even one intelligent question.

    Crump, whose first statement in the interview was to announce that he knows “so little” about Jerusalem, was of course fair game for this doctrinal warrior…

    CRUMP: There can’t be many cities that I hear so much about, and yet I know so little. What’s it like?

    LIAT COLLINS: Ehhhhmmm, it’s, it’s, ehhhhhmmmm… it’s like, ehhhhmmmm, if New York is a state of mind, Jerusalem is a feeling.

    CRUMP: Jerusalem is famous for its hills. Are they bare? Or are they now covered in houses?

    LIAT COLLINS: Oh, they’re green. It’s very Mediterranean. There are olive trees everywhere.

    CRUMP: You left London and you came to Israel in 1982. Why?

    LIAT COLLINS: It’s the only place, really, that I feel comfortable as a Jew. It is the Jewish homeland. Ehhhhhmmm, that mightn’t be politically correct, but, ehhhhhmmmm, it’s the only place in the world where if someone calls you a Zionist, it’s a compliment!

    CRUMP: What’s it like in Jerusalem?

    LIAT COLLINS: Ohhhh, it’s, it’s, it’s, ohhhh, there’s noise, and commotion, and it’s a bit unruly. Israelis are very in-your-face. We don’t separate public from private!

    CRUMP: Is there a lot of segregation? I mean, with Jews, and Christians, and Arabs?

    LIAT COLLINS: Well, people do keep to themselves. Even amongst the Jews, there’s Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.

    CRUMP: What we hear a lot of in the news from Jerusalem is VIOLENCE. Bomb attacks. Is that something you grow used to?

    LIAT COLLINS: There was a bomb attack last Wednesday. I remember there were bombings around the year 2000. It was just horrendous. It was like Russian Roulette. Ehmmmmm. It’s like an instinct. It’s THERE. You become very fatalistic. But the spirit of Jerusalem carries on. We had the first international marathon in Jerusalem the other day. Thousands of people from abroad!

    CRUMP: Friday night in Jerusalem. What’s it LIKE there? I guess you can talk about the VIOLENCE. I, I, I guess the potential for violence is always there, just given human nature, without going into the politics. But Jerusalem stands for the IDEAL, doesn’t it! It stands for human potential, doesn’t it! Like the Blake poem—that sort of thing.

    LIAT COLLINS: There is a, a, a, a feeling you get nowhere else. I’m just so PRIVILEGED and so BLESSED to live here!

    CRUMP: Uuuummmmm. I wonder what people in Israel think about the recent protests and moves toward democracy in the Middle East?

    LIAT COLLINS: Ummmmmm, there’s a lot of concern. Ummmmmm, we have a major missile problem going on in the south at the moment, you know? Sponsored by Iranian terror, you know? Ummmm, there’s a phrase “global jihad”, ehhhhmmmmm, Israel is like a canary in the mine, ehhhhhmmmm, I mean, democracy is GREAT, but ehhhhhmmmm, it can be abused, you know? Ehmmmmmm.

    CRUMP: Liat Collins from the Jerusalem Post, nice to talk to you! She’ll be back in three weeks!
    • Deborah Kean 12.1

      30 March 2011 at 12:02 am

      My giddy aunt! I haven’t the words
      • Morrissey 12.1.1

        30 March 2011 at 12:21 am

        Nor, sadly, does Bryan Crump.
      • lprent 12.1.2

        30 March 2011 at 12:22 am

        I was just amazed that M (presumably) transcribed that
        • Morrissey 12.1.2.1

          30 March 2011 at 12:32 am

          I certainly did. In steadily mounting fury and disbelief.
          • D-D-D-Damn ! 12.1.2.1.1

            30 March 2011 at 3:38 am

            I generally like Crump. A very engaging broadcaster.

            But he needs to be kept THE FUCK AWAY from anything on the Israel/Palestine “conflict”.
            He clearly has no idea whatsoever. Absolute mana from heaven for the Israel lobby.

            Meanwhile, yet another bullshit Listener Editorial. This one (‘Whose Revolution ?’, April 2 2011) equates/conflates Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood with the Taleban and al Qaeda !!! They don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.

            Apparently, in the current Middle East vacuum, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood “become very real but alarming prospects.” Sorry, but how many Palestinian civilians have the Israeli military murdered over the last decade ? How many Palestinian detainees have been tortured over the last 40 years ? Which state has been illegally occupying and ethnically-cleansing Palestinan Territory for the last 44 fucking years ?
            Which state has been regularly commiting War Crimes according to leading Human Rights Organisations, the UN and even long-term Zionists like Richard Goldstone ?
            • Morrissey 12.1.2.1.1.1

              30 March 2011 at 8:02 pm

              I’m afraid I find Crump’s vacuity more than irritating. He has a prime spot on radio, and he has inherited a solid audience of generally thoughtful listeners. If he has no knowledge of the middle east, that’s no crime of course. But he should not go near the subject until he has done some homework. Clearly he is ignorant about Israeli and Palestinian politics, and people like Shaheen and Collins will of course take advantage of that.

              I, and I am sure lots of other people, wrote to Crump and politely remonstrated with him after the Shaheen debacle three weeks ago. He did not even give me the courtesy of a reply.
13. Draco T Bastard 13

    29 March 2011 at 11:31 pm

    The knowledge economy paradox

    Conclusion: jurisdictions that attempt to enforce a strong copyright protection regime will see reduced innovation, especially in the knowledge economy, compare to jurisdictions that adopt a weaker copyright protection model.

    This is something that, too me, is fairly obvious. Excessive IP protection leads to reduced innovation at the very least and more likely stagnation rather than innovation nirvana that the neo-lib economists and capitalists say will result. This shows, IMO, that the strong IP protection that is called for isn’t there to promote innovation but to protect the capitalists profits.
    • M 13.1

      30 March 2011 at 12:38 am

      Yes Draco, excessive. I heard a woman once was considering trying to copyright moves for a children’s movement to music class and nearly laughed. I said that it would be virtually impossible as many people could independently come up with the same idea.

      People’s lust to squeeze out the last dollar from everything is shocking.
14. ianmac 14

    29 March 2011 at 11:42 pm

    Bit late tonight, but on the subject of Bullying, tonight on Maori TV after 11pm, Kelvin Davis MP and ex Principal, gave a run-down on how he handled bullying. In short they surveyed the school with the help of a team of observers to get a base line. The 300 kids were asked to name on paper who had bullied them in the last month. This threw up 4-5 bullies out of 300 kids. They conferenced with the bully, family and teachers. Family was often the behaviour source. A survey a year later showed a drop of over 90% of violence. Very direct and workmanlike delivery from Kelvin. (Another great Labour MP.)
    • M 14.1

      30 March 2011 at 12:42 am

      ianmac, this is heartening to hear as I believe bullying in many cases starts with the parents’ prejudices being passed down to their offspring.

      Fantastic that someone saw a need and took action rather than reacting after a possibly tragic event.

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