Paul Henry & 'Racism'

This whole incident I have found shocking. Not from the statement, but from the reactions. For instance a TVNZ staff member resigning over DOING HER JOB?!?! Ludicras, that is what PR people are MEANT TO DO. They have to defend whatever stupid things might happen in their company to the press/public, even if they might have personal misgivings about the situation. Or rather they are meant to make their clients look good, which is generally by defending them. Ok perhaps you can say she failed in this case due to the public reaction, but is this a significant enough failing to resign over? No.

It gets worse to then read: "while an MP went as far as suggesting New Zealand could do with multi-cultural legislation". Oh great, what MP was this? I'm going to go out on a limb here and propose this legislation he imagines would be:
a) racist legislation.
b) infringing on our right to free speech.

TVNZ PR manager offers resignation - NZ Herald News

David Garrett and the ACT Party (comments)

In recent news it has come out that David has been a naughty boy in the past. How serious is this? Naturally the press have been having a field day in going in to every little detail.

There are thought were the most interesting/insightful/amusing comments made on the articles on the NZHerald.co.nz website:

RichMac said: "If it's good enough for the court to discharge him without conviction and permanent name suppression who are we to conduct the witch hunt? Leave him alone."

John said: "While I may not like Mr Garrett and I certainly don't favour the Act Party, I don't condone the media and public habit of "hunting and shooting down" public figures for minor transgressions.

"Be fair, look at the specific charge in this case and the resulting $10 fine. It arguably was self defence and even though he was convicted the magnitude of the fine indicates it was not serious. Why would anyone want to put themselves forward for public service in this petty environment?"

Davedog thought the conviction had been blown out of proportion. "We are not talking about some malicious criminal act here, we are talking about a confrontation that escalated, someone's work against someone else's, and a dubious conviction in a 3rd world country."

And Hugh wrote: "We have a Minister of Work & Income who was on benefits, so why not a spokesman for Law & Order who has an assault conviction? The best gamekeepers are reformed poachers as the saying goes.

Wayne reckoned "perhaps the mindless "three strikes and you're out" law Mr Garrett was pushing for offers some help to us in determining whether he should still be the ACT spokesperson for law and order. By my count that's two strikes against him in the last day. One strike to go, David."

Ray offered a slightly different view. "Maybe David Garrett, in proposing his "three strikes", has carefully planned so as to have one up his sleeve?"

korknutt said: "That's two strikes so far Mr Garrett. Hope your policy works and can keep you on the straight and narrow from now on."

PR said:

Is the NZ Herald guilty of breaching the permanent name suppression granted to Mr Garrett?

Even if Garrett had told Parliament what he had done the suppression order would have meant that no on could have reported that? Parliament TV could not have broadcast it etc.

So do we expect to see a mass of broadcasters prosecuted for breaching name suppression order. This has since been lifted at Mr Garretts request but the media were reporting it long before that.

Are the NZ media going to continue to breach the court order and publish the name of the dead child, and add further stress to the family?

William said: "Whats David Garrets REAL indentity ? (....if hes' done it once!)"

KC said: "A leader and deputy pairing of John Boascawen and Heather Roy (the order to be voted on) will go a long way to restoring the member and public faith in the Act party. Anything less is a Rodney Hide farce and we have already seen to much of that."

overdahz said (in reference to Rodney Hide would be beaten in Epsom if National put up a strong candidate): "The obvious candidate is the National MP who lives in the Epsom Electorate - John Key."

Milk And Cheese

These laws don’t go far enough. Dairies often sell milk and cheese and these are known to cause obesity and heart disease. The government must do something! This is what I propose:

1. Dairies be banned from selling milk and cheese, so that they can only be purchased in supermarkets. Except in tourist areas where foreigners have come to accept eating dairy products freely, where local councils we be allowed to permit dairies to sell milk, cheese, or both milk and cheese.
2. There should be special rules to allow dairies and Party Central to sell milk and cheese over the Rugby World Cup, because we don’t want the rest of the world to realise that we’re governed by miserable nanny-staters. But the cheese at Party Central must be sold in cubes with a toothpick through each in order to reduce the rate of cheese consumption.
3. Sale of cheese at Party Central be restricted to people 18 and over. Sale of cheese in supermarkets be restricted to people 22 and above. Sale of cheese in dairies (where permitted) be restricted to people 19 and over, unless the person is a tourist in which case they only need to be 17 or over. Sale of milk to be restricted to people over the age of 20 in all cases.
4. The government to tell milk manufacturers what percentage of fat they’re allowed to include in their milk.
5. Under no circumstances will supermarkets, dairies, or Party Central be allowed to sell alcohol and cheese together in case drunk people eat too much cheese.
6. Cheese flavoured potato chips will be banned. So will cheese and onion and other cheese derived flavours.
7. There will be a special tax on dairy products sufficient to cover the cost of heart disease and diabetes treatment, and to cover the cost of the milk and cheese licensing system.
8. Cheese will only be sold between the hours of 10am and 4pm, except on Fridays where it can be sold between 10am and 5:30pm. And Sunday when it can only be sold between 1pm and 4pm so that people will not be tempted to blow off church attendance in favour of cheese buying. Milk will only be sold on Tuesdays between 2:30pm and 3:30pm, because why do retailers need to be open any longer than that?
9. People will only be allowed to buy milk and cheese from one retailer each week. They’ll have their hand stamped after each purchase and council inspectors will conduct random checks outside supermarkets. Retailers will be fined up to $500,000 for selling dairy products to someone who already has a hand stamp, or outside the permitted hours.

These simple rules will certainly solve NZ’s diabetes and heart disease problem. Only child pornographers could possibly be opposed to them. Think of the children!

The cheesy sauce: http://www.actoncampus.org.nz/blog/milk-and-cheese

Musings on Global Warming

Had little chat about this online, and Mat said a very common defense used by supporters of global warming:

There is general consensus among the scientific community that human activity is at least partially responsible for climate change. However, assuming we don't know for sure, isn't it better to take action now? If we are to blame, our action will abate climate change. If it is just natural fluctuations, we're not really losing anything.

Yes we are losing something... billions and billions of dollars, pushing ourselves even faster into 3rd world status. Do you really want to risk that?

You can't just say "assuming we don't know for sure, isn't it better to take action now?"

I've heard grass could damage the environment... some people regard certain types of grass as a weed!

Now of course we are not quite sure which are causing damage, or even if damage is really being done but isn't it better to take action now?

From now on I declare that NZ shall be grass-free!

I understand some people will moan and complain about that, as apparently they think grass is needed for their business?!

So for them I've came up with the GTS (Grass Trading Scheme), it is all very complex involving grass credits and research funding for grass substitutes but a rough rule of thumb is you can expect to pay a yearly tax of NZ$1 per blade of grass.

Thanks folks, and think of the good for the planet Earth!

Maori "History" in NZ

I'm sick of this whole "we were first", pffftttt... NZ has virtually NO history. Compared to European History for instance (or Chinese History for that matter, etc... take your pick of many civilisations around the world) the Maori arrived in NZ a mere blink of the eye ago. And as has happened all over the world, other settlers followed after them... Read More. Here is an interesting titbit on Moriori on the Chatham Islands (which I'll point out is a territory of NZ, the same laws and general principles should apply): "Moriori have received recognition from the Crown and Government and some of their claims against those institutions for the generations of neglect and oppression have been listened to and acted on. Moriori are recognised as the original people of Rekohu. The Crown also recognised the invading Maori tribe: Ngati Mutunga as having "indigenous" status in the Chathams by right of 160-odd years of occupation. Both groups have been given settlement packages of fishing quota."

Fascinating, it only takes a hundred and sixty years for a Maori to go from invaders to "indigenous". As my ancestors arrived as peaceful settlers in NZ back in the mid 1800's I expect it should take them even less time before Norwegians get recognised as indigenous people of NZ, but even if we take the full 160 years then I still expect to be recognised as an indigenous NZer before I die.

When do I get my billions of dollars of lands and in particular fishing rights? As a soon to be indigenous NZ Norwegian this is very important to me, as Norwegians have a very long and proud history of fishing.

I also expect to see changes to NZ laws to recognise my indigenous NZ Norwegian right to freely rape, plunder, and sack any seaside NZ towns whenever we feel like it. (our Viking heritage has been constantly oppressed while we have been in NZ!)

I've only been touching on the forthcoming changes I expect to see for indigenous NZ Norwegians, I expect to see the same respect for all the other European races as has been shown to the Maori (that is of all European races which have been here about 160 years or longer, as shown by the precedent in the Chatham Islands). For instance the Dutch should be considered immediately, as they first came across NZ back in 1642. For those who struggle at maths, that is *more* than a hundred and sixty years ago. It is THREE hundred and sixty years ago, easily passes the "160 year rule".

Backbenchers in Auckland!

Went along to it last night (in Mt Albert, to cover the bye election due to Helen Clark's disappearing act), even though I arrived 5 minutes early (yes, early. A rarity for me!) I had to stand in a queue outside for ages because they were at maximum capacity. Ah well, got in eventually and got myself positioned close enough inside to see everything. There is times when being tall is very handy ;-)

Unfortunately I was also in the middle of a very noisy bunch of Labour supporters and I could hear even less there than I could when I was outside! So I hope to catch a repeat of Backbenchers on tv during the coming week and I'll give my full impression of it afterwards.

Richard Worth

I really have to feel sorry for Richard Worth, first of all he gets puts up as the token National canditate in Epsom where Rodney Hide wins to ensure the survival of the ACT party. You couldn't expect an MP to be able to go far under these circumstances could you? (a person who loses a blue electorate...)



Yet he was still a Minster in the Government, having sucess just like in his previous very sucessful career as a laywer.



Then there was the "scandal" of his visit to India, which I really feel is nit picking over details and in my opinion shouldn't be a huge deal anyway (not to mention his visit to the taxi driver which caused another "scandal" in the presses, but really now where is the fire? Even more of a non-story than the visit to India).



Unfortunately now everything has built up and got to the point where he has been "sacked" (techincally he resigned, but John Key said he would have been sacked if he hadn't resigned...) because of the latest allegations from Neelam Choudary. Whch we must keep in mind that is all they are, allegations. We don't know for sure the validity of the statements, we can only merely guess at the likelihood of their truth. And as it stands it doesn't stack up well against her, as you have to suspect this is highly politically motivated. As these are dark days for Labour, the only good news than can find is when they make bad news for National! And this is the best they have done so far in this department. Just take a look at the bias we have seen from Phil Goof (even though he has claimed many times on tv this is not politically motivated. Tui: Yeah rght!), quoted directly from The NZ Herald: Labour leader Phil Goff said last night he was concerned that the woman had been named and that her husband was being brought into the story. His status had "nothing to do with the accuracy or the credibility or the veracity of what she has said was her experience with Richard Worth", he said. "I don't think it is fair for her to be judged in any context other than on her own merit."



Yet if you check out the source itself (supplied by the NZ Herald itself! Don't they bother to check with what they write themselves to work out when the politicians are spinning bullshit?): An Indian national now living in the Auckland suburb of Avondale told the Herald he met Choudary and his wife Neelam in 2002 after hearing about the scheme from a friend back in India who read an advertisement in a newspaper. AND also: The Choudarys claimed it was an immigration mistake and the man was sent another letter offering him a job with Denis Hansen's company Mantech and he was asked for another $3000.



So it is clear she was involved, plus those who you associate with is a reflection upon your own character (and her own character is currently the only basis we the public have to judge the validity of her claims). And who else do you associate with more closer than your own husband/wife? Remember additionally she can't simply write this off as long gone in the past and she now is a changed person, because these laws were being broken very recently... to be specific at the very same time she claims these goings ons with Richard Worth was happening.





The Otago Daily Time provides a very handy overview for those who want more details:

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/59394/the-fall-dr-richard-worth-timeline