On Paula Bennett

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The Herald on Sunday reported today Viliami Halaholo, the partner of Ms Bennett’s daughter Ana, and father of her child, was bailed to Ms Bennett’s west Auckland address for 10 months, up to July 2007, while awaiting trial on charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Halaholo, whom the newspaper said was a member of the Thugs of Canal street gang, was sentenced four months later to 4½ years jail.

Ms Bennett was an opposition MP at the time.

The newspaper suggested the relationship with Halaholo presented a security risk as Ms Bennett could be subjected to undue influence by Halaholo or his fellow gang members.

…

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4829004a6160.html

Rough and tumble minister of Social Development Paula Bennett is in the news again with the Herald on Sunday revealing that she had a gang member bailed to her house several years ago. The individual was awaiting trial of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Many on the left are trying to make excuses for this woman pushing the “we’re not like the right” angle however I believe in this instance Bennett deserves criticism for an obvious lapse of judgment that runs contrary to National’s much trumpeted tough on crime stance.

Tony Ryall – Ideology Before Common Sense

Conferences where health professionals meet to discuss ways of improving the health of our nation are a good thing however Tony Ryall’s decision to cancel an upcoming meeting of 300 health professionals smacks of right wing ideology, not common sense. The three day conference would’ve bought 300 health professionals from around the country together at a cost of $123,000, or a mere $410 dollars per delegate. The benefits of having such a conference would far exceed the cost which is less than a third of John Key’s salary. Once again National has demonstrated it cares not about common sense and is willing to blindly follow it’s own ideology no matter what.

Eight Years of Bush in Eight Minutes

Playmobil Security Check Point – Fun For The Kids!

I say, what a wonderful way to teach our kids how to be conformist do this, do that citizens.

From the manufacturer:

The woman traveler stops by the security checkpoint. After placing her luggage on the screening machine, the airport employee checks her baggage. The traveler hands her spare change and watch to the security guard and proceeds through the metal detector. With no time to spare, she picks up her luggage and hurries to board her flight!

But why stop there? What we need next are the bomb sniffing dogs, devices for testing the meth content of my cellphone and just for the Arabs – a white CIA aircraft fueled up for a trip to Cuba!

http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-3172-Security-Check-Point/dp/B0002CYTL2

The Bush Years

He’s already had his last press conference, awarded his mates a couple of medals and in a matter of days will be gone. Meanwhile President Obama will be taking a train ride from the old capital of Philidelphia to his inauguration in Washington – following in the footsteps of his idol, President Abraham Lincoln. I’m looking forward to seeing what Obama does in office, not only is he an intellectual but I also believe he will help rebuild some of the credibility the United States lost on the world stage over the past eight years.

While it is true that history will have the final verdict on the presidency of George W. Bush it is an undeniable fact that he has been one of the most polarising political figures in recent memory. For the first time in years we had large street protests in cities all over the world decrying the invasion of Iraq, we’ve seen a dramatic rise in anti-Americanism around the world, particularly in the Middle East. According to the international Pew Poll the view of the United States in the eyes of the international community has taken a hit falling from 58.3 per cent favourable to 39.2 per cent favorable. While I don’t expect Obama to change much in terms of American foreign policy I believe he will be a bit more pragmatic when it comes to diplmacy. Obama has stated that he is in favour of a new approach towards diplomacy with countries such as Iran saying that there will be a “new emphasis on respect and a new willingness on being willing to talk”.

As the new President Obama will not only inherit two wars in the Middle East but also some major problems at home. Domestically Bush’s presidency could be considered disasterous. Since he took office US foreign debt has increased by three and a half trillion dollars, health insurance premiums have more than doubled, the number of Americans living in poverty has increased by five million and GDP growth has almost halved. How far Obama will go to fix this is still not certain but with one of Obama’s first laws expected to be more health funding for impoverished children it does look promising.

Return to Sender?

While The New York Times and some other news organizations have local or Gaza-based Palestinian correspondents, any Israeli citizen or Israeli with dual citizenship has been banned for more than two years from entering Gaza, and any foreign correspondent who did not enter the territory before a six-month cease-fire with Hamas ended last month has not been allowed in.

Israel has also managed to block cellphone bandwidth, so very few amateur cellphone photographs are getting out of Gaza.

But Israeli tactics have caused civilian casualties that have created an international uproar, both in the Arab world and the West. In one widely reported episode, 43 people died when the Israelis shelled a street next to a United Nations school in northern Jabaliya where refugees were taking shelter. The United Nations says no militants were in the school.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/world/middleeast/11hamas.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em

That’s interesting. The other night on BBC World a spokesman from the Israeli Army claimed that the Israeli Army was the “only army in the world to SMS the occupants of a target before launching an airstrike”. Since SMS text messages are sent using the same bandwidth used for phonecalls and MMS messages it would be a bit difficult for such text messages to get to their destination. If they were even sent at all.

Late Night Talk Lounge

Back in the early 2000s I tuned in every Sunday to Bomber Bradbury’s “Late Night Talk Lounge” on the now defunct Channel Z. Every show he and a couple of other regulars (including sexual health and youth workers) spent three hours actually listening and talking to young people – something our society rarely does. Bomber also spent much of the time talking about politics (which he is still doing over at Tumeke) and also exposed his audience to music which would otherwise never be heard on commercial radio – much of it political.

One of my favourites was a song by Propagandhi called “Haille Sellasse, Up Your Ass” although I’ve always thought a title like “Fuck Religion” would be more suitable. Released in 1993 it’s still as relevant today as it was then, particularly in regards to the current violence in Gaza.

New School Religious Guidelines

Schools are set to receive guidelines on how to run religious education and ceremonies, paving the way for pupils to get out of any religious activity.

The Human Rights Commission, in conjunction with Victoria University, decided to draft the guidelines in light of the country’s increasing religious and cultural diversity.

A draft will be released in March for discussion, but a working copy reveals schools could be told that forcing children to take part in religious ceremonies or classes may breach their rights.

Private schools will not be covered by any guidelines because, unlike state schools, they have no obligation to provide a secular education.

“Schools need to be sensitive about how their actions are likely to impact on students holding different beliefs,” the paper said.

“Everyone’s beliefs should be treated with respect and all views equally valued.”

The proposal has caused some bemusement among religions that run schools integrated into the state system. Secondary schools and integrated schools have slightly more flexibility, but would still have to allow students to “opt out”.

Palmerston North Bishop Peter Cullinane said he had not seen the guidelines and was not aware of the Catholic Church making a submission to the commission.

He was not aware of any real issues with parents or students asking to be exempt from religious instruction at Catholic schools.

“The whole point of a Catholic school is to teach the Catholic faith,” Bishop Cullinane said.

Wellington’s Jewish Moriah School begins every day with half an hour of prayer.

Non-Jewish students are not required to attend the prayer sessions but if they choose not to go, they have to be at school doing other work.

“The point about integrated schools is that they have a special character,” Wellington regional Jewish Council president David Zwartz said. “When people who are not Jewish send their children [to Moriah] they are happy to have their children take part,” he said.

The guidelines arose out of a 2007 diversity action forum in Auckland, which highlighted a lack of clarity among both parents and schools toward the place of religion in education, Victoria University religious studies professor Paul Morris said.

“The idea of guidelines seems pretty simple … because there aren’t any.

“The Human Rights Commission wanted to ensure the right to religion and instruction doesn’t contradict the Bill of Rights Act.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4814218a11.html

This is good news. I remember several occasions throughout my schooling that I was subjected to unwanted religious bullshit. The worst was when we were all pulled out of class to attend a school assembly organised by some religious nutcase. After giving his “sermon” he gave everyone a Bible on the way out. Disgusting.

Excerpt from SST – Finlay MacDonald

One of the reasons the rich economies have fallen so deep into the credit hole is that real wages have stagnated for decades – quite deliberately, as big business and its academic and political apologists have lobbied successfully to keep a lid on ordinary workers’ expectations, for the greater good of course. But, as Henry Ford understood, you’ve got to pay people enough that they can afford the products they themselves make. In lieu of adequate incomes, easy credit has kept the pot boiling.
I guess the question that needs to be asked of proponents of the current set-up is this: how much longer can it be sustained with ballooning credit?
All the trillion-dollar bailouts and cash injections we’ve seen so far seem predicated on re-inflating a burst balloon so we can carry on as usual. But isn’t that merely forestalling the inevitable? If something is deeply, fundamentally wrong with the system, surely the remedy must address the fundamentals.
Times of crisis are also times of opportunity. It may sound counterintuitive, but this may be precisely the right time to reward workers, not with measly tax cuts but with decent pay rises. At the same time, deal to speculators and other parasites on the body corporate.

Yup, couldn’t agree more, Findlay. The problem is, whilst the business community generally proclaims it desire for higher wages, in a very many cases, they regard higher wages or even expectations of higher wages in their own instance as a threat to their bottom lines. The overall effect across the economy to is suppress earner’s income and therefore hamstring consumer spending potential. Its a crying shame that many New Zealand businesses can’t sell more of their own product locally, because of the neoliberal mentality, which conveniently omits that employees are also consumers of products. Lower wages means less consumption, thereby placing a greater focus on export-led growth, and has a very high opportunity cost.

Employers that aim to “meet the market” in terms of wages and wage growth are often forgetting that they themselves are part of that market, and that a higher wage generally attracts more competent, loyal, and hardworking employees. A long-term wages policy, negotiated in good faith with employees and their chosen representatives, would remove the excessive reliance on credit as a facilitator of consumer growth locally, and get people spending again. I call for a 15% across the board wage increase within the 2009 year as a “bail-out” for employees, to help them get their debt down, and ultimately spending again. If employers do not this call, I submit that a range of temporary measures be adopted to force higher wages, including:

1. Mandatory wage freeze and then a 15% increase;
2. Fixing the dollar to the Euro; in a similar manner to that adopted by China’s reminibi.
3. Repeal the Reserve Bank Act, reestablish government control over the Official Interest Rate.

On removal of the temporary measures, set a threshold of New Zealand ultimate business distributions, i.e. wages vs profits, at which at minimum of 45% be wages, otherwise such measures again would be readopted.

Guilt Upon Accusation Law Upon Us

It was bound to happen, news of section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act found its way onto Slashdot – arguably the busiest technology focused site on the internet.

An anonymous reader writes “Next month, New Zealand is scheduled to implement Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act. The controversial act provides ‘Guilt Upon Accusation,’ which means that if a file-sharer is simply accused of copyright infringement he/she will be punished with summary Internet disconnection. Unlike most laws, this one has no appeal process and no punishment for false accusation, because they were removed after public consultation. The ISPs are up in arms and now artists are taking a stand for fair copyright.”

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/0351202

Yep, section 92 has gone international and even people in the US (the same country that allows solo mothers to be sued for hundreds of thousands over uploading 20 songs) are shouting foul. This piece of legislation is pure bullshit, no ifs or buts and does virtually nothing to protect copyrights. While school kids get their daddies internet cut off more savvy individuals will continue downloading movies, music and software just as they had before.

A thought…

The punishment for getting accused of copyright infringement under this law will be your ISP terminating your internet service, you will not face prosecution. Indeed neither will anyone making a false accusation. This gives rise to a whole new avenue for protest and it could prove incredibly effective. Imagine for a moment if a hundred individuals got together and accused their friends, families, eachother and themselves of copyright infringement. The ISPs would quickly become bogged down and your (to borrow a term from C&T) “mainstream” New Zealander would fast become infuriated when he is unable to contact his ISP’s helpdesk. Now while no one on NewZBlog would condone such action it just goes to show how little thought went into this legislation to begin with.