and our children grow

On a personal level it has been an eventful start to 2012 and most of the events have been difficult. A lot has also been happening in the real world too - here are some of my thoughts...


I've talked about TAG Oil before on this blog and at that time I highlighted their enthusiasm for exploitation of the East Coast, which they recently described as "the Texas of the south", "literally leaking oil and gas". Only the people can stop these exploiters - the government wants them to drill, but they will be stopped. It doesn't matter how many paid trips TAG Oil organise for the locals they will never win. The battlelines on this one are clear and everyone will have to make a decision about where they actually stand - I have faith that they will stand with us in opposition to their plans.


The Archdruid has put a great post up that really made me think about privilege and it relates to the paragraph above too because the decisions we make today ripple into our future.

... To understand the consequences of that awkward fact, it’s important to get past the rhetoric of victimization that fills so much space in discussions of social hierarchy these days. Of course the people at or near the upper end of the pyramid get a much larger share of the proceeds of the system than anybody else, and those at or near the bottom get crumbs; that’s not in question. The point that needs making is that a great many people in between those two extremes also benefit handsomely from the system. When those people criticize the system, their criticisms by and large focus on the barriers that keep them from having as large a share as the rich—not the ones that keep them from having as small a share as the poor, or to phrase things a little differently, that keep their privileged share from being distributed more fairly across the population as a whole.

We are community but we are also individuals and that is where change occurs. Reduction is the consequence of Peak Oil but we must begin to prepare and get used to less. To reduce. And for those of us bought up in western societies that is a difficult point to accept. Yet as JMG says everywhere else people do live with less. Always thought provoking and inspiring is JMG for me. Another writer and person that I hold in high esteem is Matt McCarten and he is writing very well in the NZH

The winners in our society have most of us convinced that they are financially successful because they are academically brighter, make the most of education opportunities and have superior personal qualities. Losers, on the other hand, are the opposite; with the added problems of criminal behaviour, addictions and family conflict.

But a major academic study that has tracked more than 1300 individuals was released this week. Children born to rich parents have a better chance in life to be happier, healthier and wealthier then those kids from poor backgrounds.

The mythology surrounding the poor is designed to perpetuate poorness.We must stand up for equality each and every time and I am pleased that the Mana Party are focusing on the poor. I see a real alignment with tino rangatiratanga in that approach. And great to see Hone and the Mana Party come out in support of the workers involved in the port dispute. The Standard has lots of posts on the dispute and well worth a read for the facts.


A brilliant article called 'The Exclusive Economic Zone: for sale' by Claire Browning

It says that if what you find out there in the EEZ is worth enough, it’s all for sale. What the Bill does is state its price. It does not set in place any bottom line – any fence, if you like, against risk of environmental destruction.

It is the Schedule 4 policy leftovers warmed up, in a more remote place, where the government hopes we will neither notice nor care.

Our environment is in serious danger and the government has opened the gate for the predators. They respect nothing except profit and they will try to eat us. That is what they do - they eat and shit money. But we can stop them, people can stop them and we will! Part of the way we can do it is communication and consultation - spreading the word, talking about it. Community is the answer but as I've noted earlier we, as individuals, must decide where we stand, what we believe in and what we love. It is not our place to exploit and desecrate Papatūānuku, Mother Earth - it has never been our place, yet here we are, today. And our children grow.

hey - what about us?

A lot has been said about the respective approaches that National and Labour have taken to their opening addresses and I agree with it. I listened to them both on the radio and they were a stark contrast indeed. What a bunch of overconfident gnats we have, resting everything on the key. He hasn't got it, he never had it and it is all starting to go crock for them. Good on labour for making a go of it with their historical approach - hell it may even snag some of those 'middle' voters both partys crave so much. It was glaring obvious from them both that tangata whenua were invisible. I have posted about the retirement age inequality and labour have shown their true colours over that - they don't care about the inequality. Well frankly i don't care about them, or the gnats. They are interchangable and the problem. The promises are coming thick and fast now and tangata whenua have heard it all before, as have many thinking people. The minor parties are where I am focused. The Mana Party is where my votes, support and energy are going. 

I agree with everything Andrew Geddis says in this post on Pundit.

That point is "John Key is National, and National is John Key". I can't recall him once mentioning anyone else in his Government in the entire 20 minutes. But I guess when you've got such a winner on your hands,

I also agree with QoT on this guestpost on The Standard

those of us clinging to a phantom hope of a Labour/Green/Mana-or-Maori coalition actually delivering good outcomes for women, non-whites, queers et al can surely, at this point, take it as read that your party gives not a shit for us if we’re in the way of taking power.

The whole goff 'we've got the balls' line is foul and deliberately contrived - you can bet Māori will be used too, if they think they can get votes from it. The election is on and heating up.

shutter shudder

Some powerful comments in the blogosphere about the governments plans to rush through retropective legislation to allow secret filming on private property. It is a scandal and against the principles of law, but these legal commentators can say it much better than me...

Morgan at Maui Street

If the Police were aware in the Urewera investigation, which occurred years ago, that they were employing illegal investigatory methods, yet continued to do so in the years following the completion of the Urewera investigation, then the Police must be held to account. The law should not be bent to accommodate law breakers (i.e. the Police), the law should be used against those who break it intentionally.

Andrew Geddis from Pundit

So what the Government really seems to want to do here is short-circuit the courts' role in deciding if the Police's unauthorised (and, according to the Supreme Court, unlawful) use of video and photo surveillance should be allowed to stand as evidence. Instead, it will require such evidence to be let in - irrespective of whether or not it was obtained unlawfully in breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (which it wasn't ... because Parliament will deem that it wasn't).

Dean Knight from Victoria Law School

Let’s recap now. As a consequence of the Supreme Court ruling, the police do not have any legal power to engage in covert video surveillance – but they knew that anyway. For investigations already undertaken, whether or not unlawfully obtained video evidence can be admitted in court depends on the context. For serious charges, it will probably still be admissible. For less serious charges, it will not be admissible. It might also turn on how significant or insignificant the degree of intrusion was and rogueness of police actions or attitudes.

Idiot/Savant from No Right Turn

In such circumstances, ramming through a bill under all-stages urgency to retrospectively validate deliberately unlawful behaviour by the Police is a gross assault on the rule of law. The police violated the law, and they should pay the price. If they didn't want to pay that price, then maybe they shouldn't have deliberately conducted unlawful surveillance in the first place. 

So there is an uproar - and the Green Party, Mana Party and The Māori Party have all said they will not support it, ACT are wavering - Labour will support it with conditions like a select committee hearing apparently but the gnats are under pressure. They have 6 sitting days of parliment before the election so it must be passed under urgency. It is obvious that we cannot trust this government - they cannot even follow the recognised process of the law that they are supposed to govern under and the evidence by the respected legal minds that blogged above is testamony to that. This issue is not going to go away and reveals a terrible truth about the gnats - they will just do what they want. The Mana Party is the best vehicle IMO to effect change and put a stick in their heinous agenda.

Hat tip Maui St