Posts by George Darroch
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
swan off to Geneva
Considering that Geneva is where the WHO is headquartered, I’m not sure where else one would go, unless you were heading to a Working Group conference rotated through other cities.
I have always wanted to ‘swan off to’ somewhere though – I assume it the art of flying gracefully? Or does it relate to paddling gently through a pond?
ETA:
-
But wait, lets not stop there. Lets use our contracted providers to swan off to Geneva and support a WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco, specifically Article 5.3 and stop those nasty tobacco company representatives from even being allowed to talk to policy makers
I want to thank Carrick Graham for raising this point. In recent international trade negotiations, the tobacco industry has sought to be involved in 'consultation'. Rather than being given the same rights to submit as any other citizen or interest, they have inserted themselves into the middle of things. They frequently use this technique in national level legislation, sidelining the public interest with promises, threats, and spurious arguments. Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control addresses exactly this point, and it is one that the tobacco industry is very upset about.
His words remind us of just how his industry operates.
-
Do we really think that a tobacco company’s right to profit off their brand should trump a democratic mandate saying otherwise? Because that’s exactly what enshrining property rights in the pseudoconstitution means.
To make things more clear:
Do we really think that a tobacco company's right to kill ten percent of the population and twenty five percent of Maori should trump a democratic mandate saying otherwise?
Tobacco related illness still kills around half of all tobacco users, and tobacco users still constitute around 20% of the population and about half of Maori.
The harm to property of course comes with decreased consumption among the population, congruent with the Government's eventual goal of reducing smoking to a near-zero figure.
This goes way beyond almost any document in existence. Even the most restrictive, corporate written US-led international trade agreements, such as the TPPA, have provisions that allow exceptions for public health. You might win, you might lose in this very example, but even that's a step ahead of what is being proposed here.
ACT are the kind of people who would literally kill ten percent of the population to make an ideological point.
-
Actually, just looking at those figures; that’s about 2% arriving annually, and 2% leaving. There certainly is some overlap between the two figures – I met a guy in Melbourne who’d been an immigrant, lived on my street in Mangere, and then shifted. But assuming little, for simplicity’s sake, then in a decade or so 20% of the population will be entirely new. Now, that probably won’t happen, but I don’t think New Zealanders realise just how dynamic their country is, right now. (It’s probably for the best, actually. The screaming hordes of Yourview Heights should accept their fate, rather than contest it.)
it’s clear we are replacing a portion of people born in New Zealand with immigrants. The language will mutate further. I have a soft spot for the English spoken by ethnic Chinese in places like Singapore and Hong Kong where it is a first language (along with whichever version of the myriad of languages we like to call Chinese their family speak) and I’m hearing that more and more in New Zealand.
Nu Zihlindlish, lah? Except it will have a slight Indian lilt, I’m sure.
-
nearby Marrickville there’s many Greeks and Vietnamese… around the corner in Leichhardt where you can easily find yourself one of the few English language speakers in many cafes.
I remember the first time a Lebanese friend described me as 'Anglo'. I was a little taken aback, unsure what it meant in context. Pakeha made sense to me, I identified with it. It took a while to feel comfortable with it, and see that it marked me out from other groups who to varying degrees had not yet been assimilated into the idea of whiteness. It takes on a different meaning in New Zealand. Also, for quite a while I had an El Salvadorian girlfriend who loved to take the piss out of me - to be fair, the mores of my immediate and extended family are more class and culture bound than most, and I'm a ripe target.
The strong embrace of biculturalism here,* driven in part by a document between the Crown and the Tangata Whenua but going beyond that, has greatly enriched New Zealand. But it has also obscured the possibilities of multiculturalism - celebrating all cultures and identities. It seems hard to think beyond a simple duality, for fear of losing what has been built up in the face of sustained attacks. We'll get there, someday.
*To the extent that this embrace actually happens. In some places genuine, in other places token, and in others not at all.
-
Wow that is a terrifying low level of immigration
There's actually quite a high level of immigration. It's just matched on the other side by emigration.
There were 84,600 PLT arrivals in the July 2011 year, up 3 percent from the July 2010 year.
There were 81,800 PLT departures, up 23 percent.
The resulting net gain of migrants was 2,900 in the July 2011 year, compared with 15,200
in the July 2010 year. The latest figure is the lowest annual net gain since the October 2001 year
(1,700). The change between 2010 and 2011 was mainly due to more departures to Australia.Source, Stats NZ.
-
“It was a big thing realising I wasn’t from there, I was of the Pacific.”
But good, huh?!
Yeah, really good. Driving round Mangere this morning made my heart sing. A sea of red flags flutter from cars and buildings (Samoan and Tongan) in anticipation of the rugby, and being a Sunday morning, there are plenty of crisp whites. I’m thinking of emailing the Herald photo-editor – this colourful outpouring deserves documentation.
And then I logged on to Facebook and saw photos from my beautiful Samoan (and Scottish) Cousin’s 21st. It brought things home even further.
There’s also the Pacific Island Forum in Auckland this week, something that should (G)arner attention, but won’t. We live profoundly disconnected from the geopolitical context of our region, and to greater and lesser extents from our cultural neighbours too.
I also disagree with Joe’s comments about Australia. That’s the simple version, but the reality is (in my mind) far more complex. Australia’s often reduced to simple caricatures, which have some basis in fact, but which strip away the tensions and the richness that lies in Australia’s culture. It’s by no means black and white (except, of course, when it is).
-
We are quite different in that way. I think it’s accepted that it’s when rather than if Australia becomes a republic – partially because of it’s history which was never as subservient as ours (witness the withdrawal of forces from Europe in WW2).
The reintroduction of honours in NZ was perhaps an indicator of how distant that conversation is in NZ
It's often a shock to read things from Malaysia, where titles proliferate. It bristles against my sensibilities, and seems wrong compared to (by no means egalitarian) neighbours where their use is more sparing. Then I realise that New Zealand engages in the same game - it dances around class, and the implications that the titles had and still have, especially in relation to the country that bore them, pretending as if there is none.
-
But when journalists asked Key to comment he refused, saying simply “I just don’t comment on issues of national security”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10749096But Mr Key, that is all I just want you to comment on.
It's becoming the catch-all for politicians who rather wouldn't. I don't remember it being the case, it seems like a relatively recent thing. While I don't expect to know what street New Zealand troops are walking down this afternoon, OUR representatives have the obligation to tell us what damned country they're in, and why they're there.
Willie gets a solo
Willie is the lead. Mateparae has a starring role, as does Helen Clark - the woman who just doesn't understand (the NZDF) until it's too late.
-
Except Hager doesn’t challenge the government, he’s apparently written a book (I haven’t read it) blaming the Defence Force.
I'm challenging the Government, for waving it away, and Phil Goff, for soft-pedaling everything. Neither wants an incident, neither wants the heat to come on this particular area of civil-military relations, and we can only speculate as to why.