Labour's Shearer:

The new leader of Labour had an opportunity to be something else besides a nice, moderate, centrist Mr. Nice Guy. Somebody should have reminded him that that gated community has been bought by the other fulla from Parnell. He studiously avoided talking about workers on the Auckland wharf and freezing workers at AFFCO works all over are on strike. It's in the news for God's sake. Also the words poverty, low waged, children going to school hungry etc which are issues that real Labour leaders like Norm Kirk would have shouted about are not part of this insipid leader's vocabulary. Does he mean that NZ has to put up with a decade more of market and rampart capitalist bull? Poverty for 20 percent of the population is the outcome of two decades of it and an increase in wealth at the top well beyond justice and fairness. Someone on Qand A thought that he should have given a Brash type Orewa speech. Well! What happened to Brash?

He should be given six months in the job. If he doesn't register with the bottom 50 percent of income earners to begin with by then, then the Labour Party should dump him for Cunnliffe. This David will at least have no compunctions about taboo subjects like poverty and I think he has more rapport with that end of income cohort. Just look at the real situation. Who can afford a home now? The supply of houses is determined by the real estate boys and girls. They sell existing homes. This is where the government of the day should intervene. Remember whole suburbs of state houses? That supply increase countered rent rises and rent racketeering. Right now rent rises are hitting those on low and fixed incomes and increasing the droves of homeless people in our cities. 

That's just a few issues of the day. So come on David (Shearer). If you don't start talking about these real issues affecting people they won't see a brighter future without a home, better incomes and jobs. If you are not brave enough to be a real social democrat then hand over to someone who is.

"Maori Terrorism"

The Urewera "terrorists" now down to four have reached the end of their trial for being part of a criminal group and arms charges. What I saw on TV were shadowy figures, carrying guns, aiming them, and going in single file through dense bush. No one's identity could be ascertained through the Police video lenses and of course there were more than four in the video; the rest having had their charges dropped. Which ones according to the video were criminals and which illegally carrying arms? Why were the four chosen? Tame Iti was an obvious one. After shooting our precious flag with a shot gun and having it shown on TV ad nauseum and his past doings, he was a marked Tuhoe. The others however were not known except apparently as activists. I'd never heard of them. 

The jury's verdict will be interesting. I can't believe that four make up a criminal gang. There's no evidence shown on TV that marks them out as such. Arms charges may have some point although unlicensed guns are quite common in NZ including the Urewera. Tuhoe have been hunting pigs and deer for many years. I doubt if all the guns I saw while camping with a Tuhoe whanau up the river from Ruatoki were licensed. If these arms are such a big deal then the Police should be watching the arms dealers and sellers not those playing with them in the bush.

Asset Sales Or Treaty Obligations?

I find it hard to believe that this has become an issue post election for the Maori Party. The Nats made no secret of its policy to sell assets before the election and despite the bad poll ratings of the policy they stuck with it. Why didn't the Maori Party object then? Weren't they aware of the implications for the Treaty requirement? Something tells me that they are not up with the play. As far as assets sales are concerned we don't seem to have learnt anything or memories are short lived. There's some in government who still think that the unbridled market and private enterprise always beats state enterprise every day when the abject failure of the former sale of Air NZ, and NZ Rail proves otherwise. Telecom only succeeded as a private monolopy. It lost its share value as soon as competition intervened but private enterprise cannot for some reason provide faster broad band without the help of the state. Why? Are they waiting for the tax payer? What happened to the invisible hand of Adam Smith? The sale of power companies will result in private monopolies and higher prices as these utilities make exorbitant profits. And when the time comes to increase power supply guess what. The tax payer will be made to pay for that infrastructure. Frankly the idea that in the provision of these public utilities like rail, power, and telecommunications, private enterprise is nothing but a sick joke. Now our jails will be privatized. Why not our police, army and navy? 

Writing Books

I have finished "Nga Tapuwae O Hinetewai" after at least 5 years of writing and research. I learnt a lot on the way to the finish; namely that it is harder to stop once one has started. Anyway its done (I think!) and will be launched soon at Waiari where it began. Double click the front cover to find out briefly what the book was about and the back cover for extracts.

The World's Biggest Raruraru?

In my view it has become the US of A and not for the first time. It's difficult to figure out their foreign policy since the end of WW 2 but surely it has been one total disaster after another beginning with the Vietnam War. Only the USA and its ideological allies thought it was to defeat or at least stop the Communist dominoes from falling all the way to the South Pacific. The Vietnamese Nationalists with AK 47s and rubber sandals managed eventually to send a world power packing and scrambling off the rooftops onto their helicopters. They united the two halves of their nation. In the process however millions were killed, towns and infrastructure destroyed, forests and people sprayed with agent orange and billions wasted in a stupid war. Saturation bombing from B52s was horrifying.

Most nations would have had enough after that but not the USA. Next comes Afghanistan to punish terrorists for 9/11 when 4000 were killed in New York. Motivated by utu they have yet again over killed by thousands more than 9/11 established a country riddled with corruption where truck loads of money and goods disappear, the drug trade flourishes, women's rights continue to be abused, the Taliban attack s at will, and US soldiers piss on dead bodies. The Pakistan nation's sovereignty is attacked by drones and innocent people killed for no apparent reason. Worse still, they are still there billions of dollars and many lives and atrocities later. There's enough war crimes to keep the Hague going for years. 

Iraq began with the biggest lie of all and this time involved Britain and Blair big time finding non-existent weapons of mass destruction. While getting rid of Saddam Hussein's regime was something, the invasion and its aftermath  killed thousands more that he did and has left the country in total disarray and fractured along religious and ethnic lines. It's a horrific mess but at least the US is leaving. So far that's the best decision they have made.The solution to that country's raruraru is in their hands not those of super powers from the west who have only made things worse. But in the meantime the war pot is boiling in the Middle East between Iran and the US. Is this the next target for their war machines?

Sadly, Obama the first black US President has broken some of his; "We will......." and  "Yes we can..." promises which turn out to be nothing but empty rhetoric. He has not only not closed down the torture chamber known as Guantanamo but signed into law more draconian measures to hold people without trial or legal recourse including US citizens. His Presidency is doomed if he keeps kowtowing to the war mongers and their military-industrial complex. It seems he has bought into the idea that the US must be a super power and dominate the world. It is fair to say that he didnot start the above ventures into genocide. He can be excused for being hog tied by the Congress in his attempts to reform the US health system for example but as the Commander In Chief of the armed forces he can do more than bend at the knees. We should view the new policy of focusing on Asia and the Pacific with skepticism. He's already using Australia and we are next and will be roped into another bamboo curtain cold war with China our prominent trading partner. The least he can is to contain rather than attack Iran and try diplomacy. "Yes he can.."The US and Britain have a long history of interfering in Iran and imposing that horrible Shah on their democracy and oil resources. By allowing Israel to develop nuclear weapons, did they expect that Iran would not?

So It's Over: Nats Win; Labor Thrashed

It's the lowest turnout since the 1880s which means the "hei aha" (why bother) won more votes than Labor. The Nats barely won enough to govern alone thanks to MMP. But the biggest winners were the Greens and NZ First. Winston's back. The biggest losers? The Maori Party. They paid the price for being "at the table." If that party wants to survive beyond 2014 they must not go back to that table however tempting. They have not been rewarded by the Maori electorate for doing so. Maori don't like it. However it's fair to say that they lost to the "hei aha" party as well and their future like that of Labor is to go back to their grass roots. 
So whose the new leaders for Labor? Looks like one of the three Rawiris (Davids) and Nanaia as Deputy Leader. I would like to see Cunnliffe as leader. But whoever it is the big job to be done is at the grass roots and the party apparatis..  Also tone down the change of the super age from 65 to 67 and the tax changes. Higher taxes for the rich? Fine. Leave the capital gains taxes for later. 
What about the Maori Party? Don't go back to the table. Save what they can of their programmes through mou. This avoids the stigma of collaboration. In opposition cooperate with the opposition in promoting common policies and forging their own policies for the next election.

Show Me The Money!!!

These are the immortal words of our show pony PM to Phil Goff. Now we know what elections and politics are all about. Money, money, money! As a former currency trader he would no doubt have urged this on his clients. He showed the rich the money by giving them a tax break. The idea of helping the rich is an old one in capitalism and is aptly described by a US economist. Its called "trickle down." He said that a horse eats the chaff at one end and the product is ejected at the other. The sparrow then grazes behind the horse pecking at the "trickle down." The trouble is that there's always millions more sparrows than horses. The poor are the sparrows. For the last three years unemployment has risen and so have beneficiary numbers. Housing problems in over crowding have arisen. The homeless wander the streets of all our major towns and cities. It's a sad and demeaning sight to see in a country that once was up in the top five of countries on per capita incomes. So Mr. Keys and Mr Goff; Show the money to those who need it; the sparrows not the horses. And Mr. Keys? Cut the horse shit!