Posts by Caleb D'Anvers
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Submissions on the Celtic pre-Polynesian settlement of NZ will be warmly welcomed
Surely the cutting-edge ethno-science of Edward Tregear and F. D. Fenton proves that Maori are none other than the Lost Tribes of Israel. That, combined with Te Tiriti o Waitiangi and the Balfour Declaration, means we must stake our claim to the Holy Land right this second! Someone, please pencil-in a new clause to one of the draft bills sitting in Gerry Brownlee's office.
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LOL. Looks like they've now fixed it up.
The Maori Party says it cannot support the Government's controversial employment bill as it will hurt workers ... The Maori Party's employment spokesman, Hone Harawira, said the bill was essentially the same as the bill put up by National MP Wayne Mapp in the last Parliament.
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That's very persuasive analysis, Caleb. Ta.
Thanks -- I wish it were mine! It's basically an observation I remember Hendrik Hertzberg making in the New Yorker about American journalists' peculiar relationship with George W. Bush. Whether Key, too, will eventually succumb to the media's build-them-up-just-to-tear-them-down celebrity narrative, I guess we'll see.
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Um... Caleb, the nice thing about being in Government is... well, you tend to get a wee bit more attention.
Although that didn't seem to apply much during the last parliamentary term, though, did it? :) I think that what's noticeable is that the Nats are not (so far) having the kind of scepticism and critique aimed at them that the news-media directed at every little thing the last Labour government did. The Tracey Watkins story is a case in point: it just parrots all of Key's talking points, spin and all, like a press-release or a nice glossy blue brochure.
Perhaps this is just the much-vaunted honeymoon period. But what it reminds me of more is the US political scene in about 2000-1. JK -- like GWB was -- is so much a media creation that I think journalists are a little mesmerised by him, and, by implication, their own power to anoint and un-anoint ....
Or that political parties stack these polls for their own advantage, in the same way they flood "letters to the editor" with proxy spam.
Yeah, good point.
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(Sigh) Journalists HAVE written about this. That's how you know about it.
Well, yes. But the headline starts with the word 'Labour', which, in the current media climate, is short-hand for 'please don't take me seriously'. The only people who won't like this bill, the story suggests, are Unions and the government's 'opponents', and we all know what a bunch of uncool sad-sacks they are.
The Stuff poll on the matter is currently running 66% in favour, which suggests either that two-thirds of the Stuff website's visitors are small-business owners, or a lot of people have absolutely no clue about what's in their economic best interests. Perhaps they're just excited at the prospect of other people losing their jobs.
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:(
Sorry, Craig. That was a bit obnoxious.
Caleb, now is exactly the time for a revision of all the things you lament were not done. I don't see anything about the 'political cycle' that makes it impossible, quite the opposite, it would receive bipartisan support.
I really hope so, for everyone's sakes. But a number of early indications about the new government don't suggest to me that there will be any movement away from the paralyzing orthodoxy of free trade and open borders. (Which is to say, of course, neocolonialism and the unilateral giving-away of New Zealand's economic sovereignty to whoever.) ACT's ministerial portfolios and disproportionate amount of policy influence, the scrapping of the R&D tax credit, and the 'reviewing' of the Buy NZ Made campaign in particular don't make me optimistic.
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nice to see the media finally getting their heads around the notion that not all of us have mortgages -- and for some (like my late grandmother) low interest rates are actually a damn bad thing.
Because it reduces the annual rate of return on her grave plot? I am confused. :)
Joking aside, though, all of this is making more and more obvious the elephant in the room that neither of the major political parties seems to want to talk about -- the amount of the New Zealand economy that's foreign-owned. How much of New Zealand's GDP gets repatriated each year as profit? To what extent is this the real underlying issue behind the current account deficit?
To my mind, New Zealand business has never matured and is still stuck in the colonial era. In 19th-century New Zealand novels, the stereotypical happy ending sees the main characters make their fortunes in the antipodes and return to the Mother Country. Now, it seems like anyone who grows a medium-size business looks to sell it -- often to an offshore buyer. There's no long-term vision -- just a grow-it-and-flog-it-off-overseas mentality. And the lack of a Monopolies Commission, currency controls, and sensible foreign ownership restrictions is just making it worse.
Now that we are where we are in the political cycle, there won't be any chance to fix this for a good number of years. Which simply makes me more angry that Labour chose to waste its 9 years in office on Clintonite triangulation and useless trophy legislation like the anti-smacking law.
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Speaking of Bond, I still can't get over the name of the latest incarnation. I mean, Quantum of Solace? Really? It sounds like a Norwegian post-rock band.
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The GoogleVan didn't even bother coming up my street, let alone bearing up the right-of-way and attempting the hairpin turn at the top. I have to say, I'm disappointed.
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Oh damn! And there I was talking about proper attribution and everything. How embarrassing. And weirdly appropriate.