Posts by Don Christie
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to giovanni tiso,
A period when the Team Red certainly seemed in the ascendency in Italy :-) 1/3rd of the vote, that must be a record for any one party in Italian politics.
-
I think the extent in which the US wasn’t hegemonic in the second half of the Seventies may be somewhat overstated.
Blimey, that's a somewhat optimistic re-writing of the period.
-
An encouraging report about the quality of New Zealand aid spending.
That was the one, thanks. Donating tractors when what was required was the ability to locally manufacture spare parts for water pumps...
-
supposedly scandalous International Visitor programme.
You know, the only person I have seen using the word "scandalous" with the International Visitor programme is you Russell.
-
PS: So far as I can tell, two wealthy countries with per-capita aid spending below that of the US are New Zealand and Italy. Shame, bro.
Agreed. Especially considering the commitments made to 0.7% GDP by rich countries.
I did see an article recently suggesting that by one measure NZ was a much more generous country but I am buggered if I can find that story so consider it hearsay for now.
-
Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to Russell Brown,
A cynic might comment that they need to continue subsidising their farmers...
I was going to make a similar point. During one recent food shortage in Africa one country had a surplus harvest. The request to the WFO was to fund one to buy maize from the other. The USA opposed as it wanted to dump US surpluses. Given the US & EU *already* stop imports from the rest of the world this behaviour really is a double kick in the teeth.
Apologies for this aside...
and, congratulations Giovanni.
-
and for the record, I don't buy the "US does nothing good in this world" line. Does lots wrong, but so do we all, at individual and state level.
What we have these days is far more opportunity to identify and push back against wrongness, WikiLeaks is part of that opportunity. We need to make use of these times before they disappear.
-
Again, no other states approach this level of commitment.
Say what? In terms of %tage of GDP other states make far bigger contributions. You should know that Russell.
-
Swedish TV doco on wikileaks. Sorry only watched a bit of it so far, to early to judge how good / bad it is:
-
Ask Ali Ikram how he’s feeling about the Star Times story. Stitched up is the answer.
Isn't that the fault of, you know, journalists?
So it is the SST that "fosters a culture of conspiracy", no? Actually, more like a conspiracy of shit reporting.
On topic a little more, it is worth understanding that NZ is a relatively open society. Our governments tend reflect this in their official dealings with overseas governments and also in the way they engage with their citizens. This is a good thing and nice to have it sort of confirmed in the 9 released cables.
But it doesn't mean we should suspend our oversight, otherwise the US will come in a start killing us...trade agreement by trade agreement.