Posts by Graham Dunster
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There is an increasing amount of idiocy coming out of Parliament, this bill, the protest at sea one, the GCSB, etc. Unfortunately I have no faith, and worse no hope, that Labour would be doing anything noticeably differently. Rather like the clusterfuck that the Auckland Council's Draft Unitary Plan is finally being recognised as being, it seems that the only way through all this is to start again with a better bunch of politicos. That means some people are going to have to give up their lives to be those politicians and a whole heap of the rest of us are going to have to fall in behind supporting, organising and keeping them on track. Rather like how all good causes originally started.
Is anyone up for this, or will wide screen tvs and iPhones rule the day?
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Hard News: A Golden Age for the Arts?, in reply to Simon Bennett,
+1
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Hard News: SpinCity, in reply to Peter Shaw,
Oh that's all right then, I guess climate change is cancelled.
See you on the ark.
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The Guardian noticed and George Monbiot's blog has some thoughts. "It is symbolic of our failure to put the long-term prospects of the natural world and the people it supports above immediate self-interest." That's what connects this to the SkyCity idiocy. IMHO.
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Yet another example of how the market rules only when assisted by the state. Ideology has its place but sticks in the craw when it is only ever used for private enrichment.
Anyone notice that the 400ppm reading happened the other day? Thought not.
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I can't speak for the rest of the supercity, but the thing that is confusing Grey Lynn residents is the way that the proposed new housing zoning is based on the seemingly arbitrary earlier Auckland City zoning, thus multistory new buildings can pop up without any reference to the actual streetscape or existing usages. It's all very well calling for consultation but until the Council creates easier inclusive ways of having this dialogue, rather than seemingly sitting in their offices issuing fiats, there will not be a real reflection of the living experiences and wishes of residents. The inner western suburbs were considered densely populated enough last century to have trams and that density still exists. It is hard, for me at least, to see how the density can be increased in a productive fashion without much, much better consultation. This whole situation has introduced a new acronym to my vocabulary - QUIMBY (quality in my back yard) which seems to encompass a reasonable end result.
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I read an article recently in which Kevin was quoted (or similar) as saying that TVNZ didn't need to worry about PBS material as that is NZOA's responsibility. If he does believe that can you please quiz him mercilessly on the fact that the 'networks', TVNZ & TV3, totally control anything that NZOA might like to fund - if the programme doesn't have a broadcaster it doesn't get made.
Thanks.
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Hard News: A good soldier dies, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
If you mean Jim Anderton, hasn't he also had a chilling effect on the drugs legislation?
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Rod Oram's recent SST column was rather interesting about the agricultural/dairy access to the USA. (No link as I can't unscramble Fairax's Stuff site.)
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Have you compared the way NZOA detail their spending and results with the NZFC, who have also just released their report?