Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Friday Music: Sound and Light, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
As for Bono, pay yer feckin taxes, then I’ll listen.
Fair enough. But that show did actually earn my respect. It wasn't just big and flashy, it was creatively cohesive.
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Hard News: The long road to Hit and Run, in reply to Alfie,
When the true facts were widely known, it beggars belief that various defense ministers and even the PM were kept in the dark. Which suggests that they may have been complicit in covering up a serious war crime.
It's particularly stark in the printed paper this morning. Fish's story is on pp 1-2, facing the page 3 lead, English poo-pooing Mapp.
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Hard News: The long road to Hit and Run, in reply to Matthew Poole,
that raises legitimate concerns about institutional adoption of a culture of cleaning up messes in secret rather than the exposure-to-sunlight appropriate to the military of a democracy.
Nicely phrased, thanks.
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Hard News: The long road to Hit and Run, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Within the military, nationally and internationally, they are absolutely respected.
They are. For what the SAS does.
The book seems to make a pretty clear case that having a top command dominated by SAS veterans may not be the best thing.
I don't have a lot of contact with military culture, but the Army officers I know (a relative and a family friend) have impressed me with their restraint and discipline. If other soldiers worry that that restraint is missing from SAS culture in command, it seems worth paying attention to.
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Hard News: A tale of two festivals, in reply to David Pentecost,
Kia ora
Interesting how Stuff have just posted an article on George in the Park.
Indeed. From that story
He said the “chaos” from 6.15pm to about 9pm in the surrounding area was “unbelievable”.
“One guy fell off a cliff, face first into the oyster beds. The muddy guy almost drowned and was dragged to the shore – they almost didn’t see him as he was camouflaged in the mud,” he said.
“People were running right over the top of cars parked on Pt Chevalier Rd, vomiting and urinating in people’s gardens and on footpaths – broken glass everywhere.”
The man said violence unravelled after the event.
Sue Devitt had a young man enter her house on Dingan St.
“Having a young psychotic man in your house uninvited is frightening for sure.”
This was the second year George in the Park has run, with last year’s event held at Western Park in Ponsonby.
He said this year’s post-event behaviour appeared worse than last year.
It’s interesting that George FM is blaming the council (according to the post by the woman who was sexually assaulted). Things could clearly have been handled better in a range of ways, but this doesn’t happen at any other Music in Parks events. It’s tempting to suppose that the George FM audience has a pretty high douchebag ratio.
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A woman has written about being sexually assaulted in the crowd at George in the Park. Her husband was king-hit as he dragged her to safety.
https://www.facebook.com/bassjunkie84/posts/10212207357396311
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Hard News: A tale of two festivals, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
There is a certain irony in this that anyone who has tried to organise an event in an Auckland Council Park will testify. The waste management plan (along with Traffic, Risk management plans etc.) you have to submit for an event consent is really quite onerous.
They clearly don't apply the same rigour to their own events as they do to a school fundraiser.
You make an excellent point.
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Hard News: A tale of two festivals, in reply to Logan O'Callahan,
The George FM event is different, and it has been every year. It's a good day to be away from Pt Chev.
Well, happily, it looks like there won't be another one with George.
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One other thing that bears noting: the lack of a proper plan to deal with waste at George in the Park (and ideally, get people to take theirs home). I gather it was a mess in more than one way.
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The Spinoff has a really interesting review of Hit and Run by speed-reading Danyl Mclauchlan. For example:
The last chapter of the book raises a deeper issue. It’s obviously based on interviews with disenchanted defence staff, who think that the ultimate cause of the raid is a change in the culture of their department. The high command of the New Zealand military, they argue, is increasingly dominated by former SAS officers: a tiny but highly influential component of the overall organisation. They worry that the culture of the SAS is one of secrecy, elitism and unaccountability, and it is transforming our military into an organisation that privileges the operations carried out by special forces, like raids and targeted assassinations. It also acts as its own lobby group, petitioning Australian and US officials to request SAS involvement in their military adventures.
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