Time To Be Counted

New Zealand likes to feel it stands up for fair play, likes to be a world leader from a small country. Well now is the time to let the world know how we feel about Russia and their invaion of Ukraine. We should declare that we will send troops to the Ukraine to assist them in their fight for freedom. Who knows some of the other much larger, more powerful countries will follow. We could shame them into action. Come on Jacinda, really make a name for yourself and be remembered as a leader who stood up against repression and agression of a large foreign power. The west has enough nuclear weapons to be a huge threat to Russian so that Putin the coward, will not push the button to guaranteed anihilation. Jacinda this is your moment. Or it could be.

Putin - Greatest Threat Since Hitler

The war on the Ukranian people is pushing the whole world into turmoil. His actions in the Black Sea has basically cut the world off from food security. The Ukraine is a world leader in agricultural supplies to many nations. We have seen record prices for grains, vegetable oils and other commodities. Some leading charities depend on food supply from the Ukraine. In essence Putin has declared war on the nations who depend on good food security and the organisations who try to make the lives of those less fortunate a little more bearable. The Western countries have basically ceded to Putins whims since he raised the possibility of nuclear actions. It is time to call him out. We should create a no fly zone over the Ukraine. We should send in our troops and use our own capabilty to assist the Ukranian people. We allowed Hitler to invade a number of nations and sat back thinking he will soon be satisfied and we can get back to living a normal life. If we do not stop Putin we will be back to WW2. Now is the time to intervene.

Dirty Politics NZ

Jami-Lee Ross. This move to section him under the mental health act is a warning to everyone. Jami-Lee Ross decided to stab his party leader in the back, ok, not the best thing to do, but he did have concerns about the leaders integrity. Once that had been done how quickly some others from within the system came out of the woodwork denouncing him as a sexual predator and person of bad moral character, all national party members I should think. Anonymous accusers, front up and state who you are and admit to your part of the scandal if in fact there is one. That didn't work so how can the National Party bring more public scrutiny into this. Couldn't really do it. Jami-Lee Ross admitted to affairs and two specific occurrences, he should have named the MP concerned at that time, and he decided to stay on as an MP until the next election. What a thorn in the side for the opposition leader. Yes, the National Party had to close ranks further, a smear campaign hadn't worked as hoped. Lets look for something else, the seed had already been set by putting out on "leave" due to concerns over his welfare. The Mental Health Act give National the tools, get him sectioned and assessed then force him out of Parliament. Great! Appropriate authorities are contacted and voila, job done. Now ask anyone who has actually needed help from the Mental Health sector for a whole lot of real problems just how difficult it is to get anyone to listen. Almost impossible they will say. So how come this guy is sectioned for his own safety in a matter of days. I suspect it is because he threatened the leader of the opposition and they have the contacts and power to make it happen. What is does say very loudly is that there is more dirt to come out about the National Party and its ineffectual leader and that it must be stopped at all costs. Even the mental health of a fellow MP. The National leadership has thrown out the gauntlet, cast doubt on this persons mental capability and ability to be rational, he can't be trusted to behave rationally, lock him up, then when he gets out its ok, no one will ever believe a word he says.

Greece - Way To Go

This could be the perfect opportunity for China to get a foothold into the European Community. Greece should approach China to finance the country and provide support. China wants to create a world banking order of its own and this could provide them with the perfect start. Bail Greece out, give very favourable terms and hey presto a big wedge into the established order. What has Greece to lose? There is always a price to pay but it could be interesting for the rest of us to see what that is!

Ebola - The next Spanish Flu

In 1918 the world experienced a flu pandemic that infected rougly 500 million people and killed 50 to 100 million of them. A huge disaster in human terms. Ebola could be the equivalent of the flu pandemic this century. This is especially true if the spreads beyond its current borders It is estimated that in West Africa alone that the virus is under reported by 2.5 times as a minimum, that makes the 8000 confirmed cases more like 20,000 and with a death rate of 50% the problem is much wider than that officially reported. In West Africa we are dealing with the difficulty of access to areas, the problems with having diagnostic facilities to confirm the actual incidence of the disease and also the mistrust of local people who are unwilling to accept that this is actually happening. This disease needs a concerted effort to contain it in the areas that it already has a strong grip on and then wait it out until the disease disappears naturally. ie no one left to infect. In the mean time we need to find a cure or better ways to treat it that results in far fewer deaths. If you have been planning a trip to West Africa, cancel it. Many of the health care workers have themselves become infected and died. This is not a situation to be triffled with. The disease spreads easily and is obviously very contagious. It has an unpredictable incubation period and the dead are apparently contagious for up to 3 days. We must not be hysterical about the situation but we do need to isolate the disease where it currently is if we want to avoid another catastrophic event.

Islamic State Group

I have read recently about twitter posts by people of the Muslim religion comparing the western civilisations of not apologising for Adolf Hitler while decrying the actions of the Islamic State movement. One glaringly obvious difference is that the western civilised states opposed to Adolf Hitler actually did something about it. They went to war and eradicated the perpetrator of the actions carried out under the name of Adolf Hitler. Then put other senior members of that regime on trial. I don't see much of the Islamic nations doing anything to eradicate the Islamic State leadership and their extremist followers. A little less bleating and more action is required. These people should not be fleeing ther homes and cities, they should be fighting back with everything under their power and in any way they can. If the Islamic State manage to take control of an area the people there should start a well organised campaign to slowly kill off any of the Islamic State members they can, plant bombs, poison their food

3 Mor Years

Well the National Party of New Zealand has secured another 3 years running the country. The worst part is that they can be a government without the help of any other party. Heaven knows what they might chose to do! How did it happen? Firstly the .com fiasco only helped John Key, mass surveillance wasn't an issue for the majority of Kiwis who implicitly believe that the government knows best, it's a Kiwi trait. They also do it with the justice system, hence some of the great miscarriages if justice we have seen. Also, for those sitting on the fence regarding surveillance were pushed in the National Party direction by the ever so convenient raids and arrests by the Australian Authorities just a few days before polling day. A happy coincidence? Perhaps. What we need is for a few disaffected National MP,s to quit! not likely to happen. However we do know that not a great deal will change over the next three years. We have another government that has no clear vision beyond New Zealand being a primary agricultural producer and not much else. As a nation we had better hope that prices remain at high levels for what we do produce, but that is unlikely as more countries having seen the high returns for agricultural produce begin to catch up and flood the market with produce, bringing the high price market to an end. Result, increasing government deficits, higher interest rates and higher unemployment. I hope I'm wrong.

Pro Russian Rebels Shoot Down Passenger Jet?

From recent news reports, it appears that the Pro Russian separatists in the Ukraine have shot down a Malaysian Airways commercial flight. Each side is blaming the other, but since the rebels do not have any aircraft and only a missile system provide by the kremlin, it makes more sense that this is a rebel activity. Putin should rein in his pet monkey, probably assassinate him to remove the problem, and let the Ukraine get on with running the Ukraine. Putins' annexation of the Crimea demonstrated how insecure Putin is. He has constantly paraded himself as some sort of macho man and his support of the anti gay Russian legislation really goes to demonstrate that he is probably a 'closet homosexual' or has been guilty of homosexual activities in the past. I do think he doth protest too much! One can only hope that Putin puts the brakes on the Ukrainian Pro Russian seperatists, but it is unlikely, since every historical look at his reactions show he is more likely to throw his toys out of the cot, of make some similar gesture of immaturity. Alexander Borodai, pet monkey of Putin, along with other Putin cheer leaders, has gone too far and needs to be eliminated.

Cyclist Killed

Here in New Zealand we have yet another cyclist killed on the road in the early hours of the morning. There is probably fault on the part of both parties but my recent experience in the Hamilton area has been that there are far too many cyclists who do not seem to understand that they need to be seen. I have recently witnessed several cyclists out in the early morning with no lights on their person or bicycle and to boot wearing black or very dark clothing. Even in the city the street lighting is not that great as to make such cyclists easily visible. I am not aware of the details of this mornings accident but obviously the driver has not seen the cyclist and just ploughed straight into her. She may have been wearing all the right gear and had lights but the accident occurred anyway. It is more important for cyclist to be extra vigilant for their own safety. The same goes for pedestrians and motorists need to be more vigilant. As a cyclist you must be aware that you are sharing the road with vehicles of much greater substance than a cycle and that in any encounter you are going to come off second best. Please cyclists, for your own safety make sure you are easily visible, you need to stand out like a lighthouse to be sure you can be seen from at least 50-100 metres away.

Shame On You

We had something of a tragedy when the three young Israelis were kidnapped and murdered. Rightly Israel was determined to bring the culprits to justice. Other Israelis have brought shame on themselves and their country by going out a killing another innocent Palestinian teenager. You do not right a wrong by killing the innocent. The perpetrators of this act are no better than those who killed the Israeli boys. Both are equally bad. The Bible old testament that the Jewish faith seems so keen on my well say "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" but it means that of the individual responsible not anybody who happens to be passing by. Israel is just as bad as the Palestinian Hamas. Both groups go for indiscriminate killing. Both are wrong.

Don,t Let The Minority Destroy Your Religion

As at 2010, according to Wikipedia, there was over 1.6 billion Muslims in the world.The number of radicals is said to be anywhere from 7% to 30%. I find it hard to believe there is anywhere near 30% since every Muslim I know is not in the least radical. They observe Muslim traditions and prayers, etc. but do not try and convert you or go around destroying the local Christian or even Jewish places of worship. Please, clean up your own house. The 93% or even 70% of you need to take back the good name of your religion and get rid of the radicals who bring all 1.6 billion of you a bad name. Let's face it only bad news makes the headlines. While every religion thinks it is the only one and true religion most people are happy for individuals to follow there own path. Religion and belief is a personal thing. No one is right or wrong. Provided their beliefs do not infringe on the rights of other people it is okay, when other peoples freedom to choose their own way is interfered with is the time that any religion if overstepping the mark. Come on all you good Muslims, put your house in order, start in Syria, Africa, Indonesia, Pakistan, and anywhere else that these extremists have got a following.

Been Away A Long Time

My last post was in 2012, too long away, I think. It isn't that there has not been anything to comment on, just that I have been too lazy. What is annoying me at the moment is the situation in Syria. Here we have another bunch of ragheads destroying religious shrines and buildings all because they belong to another religion or, even more stupid, they belong to a different sect of the same religion. I can understand that nutters exist and the current leader of ISIS, the biggest idiot for a long time, Abu Bakr al-Baghadadi, is indeed a nutter. What I can't understand is that he has any followers! Do they really have no minds of their own. They obviously don't study the Koran or are not familiar with any other religious ideals. All religions basically say turn a blind eye, live and let live, they only get stroppy when they are being persecuted. Muslims certainly aren't being persecuted but are becoming the persecutors. It is time the UN created a "Protect the world from religious nutters" division. These would be deployed when any nutcase created a Fatwa or promoted any violence against any person or group of persons, they would go in and kill the loud mouth and let the rest of mankind get on with simply living their lives in a peaceful manner. As I have said in previous observations. The Muslim religion is 600 years behind Christianity and cannot seem to live and let live even amongst themselves. It is time for the men and women of Syria and any other place these self proclaimed madmen live to stand up and be counted and bring the perpetrator of these crimes to justice. You never seem to see women behaving is such a disgraceful manner.

NZ Mine Safety

"Peter Whittall opens mine safety consulting business" headline on Yahoo.co.nz Are we or is Peter Whittall crazy? This is putting the lunatic in charge of the asylum! Here is the former chief executive of Pike River Coal where 29 men lost their lives in November 2010. This is the person ultimately responsible for the running of Pike River and under whose oversight the safety concerns raised by workers was ignored. Okay, there is no law against him setting up a company but for heaven's sake let us hope that all the people he tries to consult with and for are made aware of his past disaster rate. I seriously hope he makes his involvement in the Pike River disaster clear in his company prospectus. But let us not leave the NZ Government without blame. Their own labour department, who are in charge of safety in the workplace did zero to ensure the Pike River mine was operated in a safe manner.

NZ Totalitarian Regime

The heading is perhaps a bit strong but the refusal of visas to the MV Rena crew being kept in NZ awaiting further charges and trial is very reminiscent of states like Iran, Saudi Arabia and the like. Here we have two crew members who in all honesty did a stupid thing and grounded their ship. That caused some inconvenience to locals who had to clean up the beaches and it killed some wild life. In the greater scheme of things, big deal! The captain and the navigation officer were arrested the grounding, charged under the Maritime Transport Act for "operating a vessel in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk". Charges carry a maximum penalty of up to 12 months in prison or a fine up to $10,000. They were also charged under the Resources Management Act for the "discharge of harmful substances from ships or offshore installations", carrying a maximum penalty of a $300,000, or two years' imprisonment, and $10,000 for every day the offending continues. Last month, the captain faced four fresh charges, and the navigation officer faced three more after it emerged that they had allegedly altered the ship's documents in the wake of the grounding. While all that seems very clear and not disputable, why stop their spouses from visiting them? NZ immigration said as a general rule a visitor's visa would not automatically be granted to the spouse of a person facing court action, simply for the purpose of visiting that person. When other countries do this NZers in general think this is disgraceful and I for one think the NZ Government is acting in a disgraceful manner in this instance. In comparison we have the owner operators of Pike River, operating a mine in a dangerous manner killing 29 men, no one is being detained, all those responsible are free to come and go as they please. The NZ Government official responsible for overseeing safety standards goes scot-free, he should at least face civil proceeding for not carrying out his official responsibility in a proper manner and the government should be held liable for not ensuring that their departments are working to a world class level. The head of the government department responsible for work place safety should most definitely lose his job for negligence. The management of the mine should be facing manslaughter charges for ignoring warnings from staff regarding safety in the mine and the worker who claimed he was intimidated by management should also be charges with actions or in his case none action likely to cause death or serious injury for being too lily livered to stand up to management and not calling the miners out of the mine until the safety process, procedures and equipment etc was in place. When you compare these two cases it becomes evident that the Government through its agencies places greater importance on a bit of sand and a few sea birds than it does on the loss of life through its own inaction. If that isn't the case then perhaps it is because the crew members from the MV Rena are from the Philippines and are foreign nationals, somewhat racist I think! Perhaps the heading should be 'NZ Racist Regime'.

Another Blog

Two posts in one day! This is not a real post as such, just to inform anyone who reads this blog that I have a second blog about life on a lifestyle section, not many posts and really just getting into developing that into what I hope will be of interest to those who have purchased a lifestyle block or are perhaps considering it. It may help people decide if that is what they want to do or some ideas of what to do with the one you currently live on. I know I am always looking for new ideas and ways to make lifestyle block management easier and also to make it add to the cost of running it. So here is the link to the lifestyle block blog. Please take a look and offer me some ideas on how to make it better.

Christmas Closedown

We are into December, half way through and everything is focused on Christmas and the New Year and of course, here in New Zealand it is the holiday season. I don't know about other Southern Hemisphere countries but in New Zealand the main focus is the summer holiday. On National Radio the other day there was a member of the afternoon show guest panel who mentioned one of his pet hates and I must say I can agree with him. In November we celebrate Guy Fawkes night with fireworks and such like. Why on earth New Zealand celebrates Guy Fawkes I have no idea, there isn't a revolutionary or anarchistic tendency to be found anywhere, but still it is an excuse to let off a few fireworks. In years past fireworks were on sale for quite a period of time before and after Guy Fawkes night but due to pressure groups this got restricted to 4 days before and including Guy Fawkes night. Now back to the Christmas pet hate. The guest speaker mentioned how the New Zealand public have taken to that quite well so we should ban the use of the word Christmas until the 1st of December. That way we wouldn't be assaulted by a barrage of advertising for Christmas from all those money grabbing people who have turned a Christian festival into the largest retail festival of the year. I'm inclined to agree with this speaker. We even have supposed intelligent people saying that the real meaning of Christmas is giving. What? I thought it was all about the birth of Jesus, nothing more, nothing less. Having said that only Christians should be interested in the event, not every Tom, Dick or Harry from every religion there is. If we look back further then the Christmas story is one invented by the church to replace the Mid Winter festivals of old and the Northern and Southern hemispheres would have celebrated that at the appropriate time. That is what we need to get back to. Let the Christians celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Do not make that an excuse for excessive spending that has nothing at all to do with the religious festival. That would make more sense for all of mankind. With Christmas being mid summer in the southern hemisphere everything occurs together. The Christmas event flows on into the annual holiday season and that in effect means that after late January the working people must work for 11 months before the next long break from work. In New Zealand we also have anniversary days. These are public holidays that belong to a region, for example Wellington Anniversary, Auckland Anniversary etc and these are Mondayized days to create a long weekend and celebrate the anniversary of that particular location. There are 12 of these in total, so if you worked around the country you could find on an extra 12 days of the year that the region you were in was in effect closed! My thought is to do away with the anniversary day, combine them all together by legislation and create a two week break in July for all workers as an entitlement. In the Northern Hemisphere, take Britain for example, you get 25 days annual leave and most large places of work, factories, government departments etc generally either close or run a skeleton staff over the two weeks surrounding Christmas and New Year. Then in the summer months workers take their annual leave. This means that the working public get two good breaks per year with the intervening months broken up with Easter and some sort of solstice public holiday at the opposite end of the year. This is a much more sensible arrangement. So back to Christmas. Turn it back into the religious festival it is supposed to be. Ban all retail outlets and other money grabbing organizations pushing Christmas as a time for wasting large amounts of money and food and bring in a defined break in July for the New Zealand worker. Let's get back to the original celebrations that we have renamed to fit in with "Christian" festivals. Mid Winter, Spring Equinox, Mid Summer, Autumnal Equinox and these would be appropriate to the hemisphere in which you live. Not all the world is Christian, in fact most of it isn't, so why on earth turn the birth of Jesus into such a huge world wide event. The answer to that is corporate greed from all those operating in the retail sector and suppliers to it.

The Voters Have Chosen

Thankfully the New Zealand voters voted wisely with their party vote in last Saturdays general election and basically voted to keep Don Brash out of parliament. The man who said "I'm leader for the next three years not matter what!" was in fact lying again, he resigned immediately. Good thing too. With Don Brash it is a bit like to old country and western song lyric, "Why did you believe me when I told you that I love you when you know I've been a liar all my life". So it is back with a National government for the next 3 years with a slim 2 seat majority. Good old Winston Peters made it back into parliament and got a respectable 6.8 percent of the total vote. At least we should get some colorful debate and no doubt the slow leak of some scandal or other he has managed to uncover. As for the rest it is Act with one seat, that result shows that any vote for Act was a wasted vote. Let us hope he gets kicked out next time around unless Act can do something to justify its continued existence as a political party. Peter Dunne and United Future will surely disappear when he steps down in the not too distant future. I'm sure he will do another 3 years but who knows after that. The Maori vote went down, that's the usual price for supporting another party to form a government. The perception from a lot of your voters tends to reflect the strong feelings people have against your larger coalition partner rather than what you may have achieved by supporting that coalition. Along with that was the split that the stupid Hone Harawira. He managed to get himself voted into parliament but that is all. Now we can look forward to seeing how the mix in parliament manage to conduct the affairs of the country for three years. One thing I think we can safely say is that for the majority of people we will all be poorer with the ever increasing burden that government puts onto the resident population. I'd love to be wrong on that!

Too FAT to Fly

A US Airways passenger claims he was forced to stand for seven hours during a flight because the obese man next to him was overflowing into his seat. Arthur Berkowitz told consumer website elliott.org he had to stand for most of the US Airways seven-hour flight from Alaska to Philadelphia, and could not buckle his seat belt during take-off and landing. The snippet above comes from Yahoo Travel. The airline says that the man did not have to stand, very unreasonable since his own seat was partially taken over by the passenger next to him. With the epidemic of obesity around it is about time that airlines and other passenger services that have limited size seats started charging passengers by size and weight. That would be an incentive for fat folk to slim down, particularly if they travel a lot. Let's face it, if you want to send a parcel it is usually costed on a size / weight formula. Why should smaller people pay as much as large ones? A plane full of small people would use less fuel, could fit more people on, it's a win all round. Airlines could have flight categories, fat flights, normal flights and small flights, each plane fitted out to suit the target group and priced accordingly. Fat people have a larger carbon footprint and should be made to pay for it in these carbon credit times! It would have been nice if the flight staff had given up one of their small seats to the passenger affected by his fat fellow flyer, after all it was their mistake in not assessing that this passenger would need two seat. They could have put the fat man in the cargo hold, after all it was only a seven hour flight and his fat would have kept him warm, plus he would have had a seven hour fasting diet. Perhaps it is about time that airlines had fewer, bigger seats in some areas to accommodate larger people so that we could all fly in comfort. We all pay enough for a comfortable passage!

Tea Cup Cop Out

Justice Helen Winkelmann,the ultimate fence sitter. Today she declined to rule on whether a conversation between John Banks and John Key in a Newmarket cafe was public or private. She claimed that a ruling might prejudice a police investigation and therefore has almost ensured that the contents of the conversation will not be made public. What a lily livered decision! Judges are supposed to set precedents by their rulings and in this case could have saved further tax payer dollars being spent by police on a pathetic case. On top of that we have a weak set of media editors unwilling to 'publish and be damned'. What are we paying these weak kneed judges to do? Here we have a highly payed professional, justice Helen Winkelmann, supposedly one of the best from the legal profession, unable to make a simple ruling that if you are in a public place be very careful if you want to have a private conversation. It's a bit like the fools you see around the place shouting down their cell phones saying 'don't listen, this is a private conversation'. If that was the case then take it somewhere private. The whole decision is really a none decision. You cannot expect privacy in a cafe dining area. If John Key and John Banks think you can then they are much too misguided to run the country and represent thousands of voters in their electorates. Let's be frank, our supposedly best leaders and minds are woefully inadequate.

John Key, NZ Police and the System

Yes Prime Minister, a comedy series of years ago being replayed today by John Key, John Banks and the NZ Police. Let's set the scene. Stupid Prime Minister decides to have a drink and chat in a cafe, public place, with a member of another political party to help stitch up the Epsom electorate for Act. Conversation gets taped, poor John and John complain. Prime Minister complains to NZ Police, like fools they take him seriously and start an investigation. It makes the NZ Police look stupid and gives John and John more media coverage and lets face it John Key is the media pony, every opportunity over the last 3 years and more he has been there with his face in the camera even if he has nothing of any use to add to whatever situation is being reported. So here is the Prime Minister in essence endorsing another candidate against his own. Paul Goldsmith is in fact doing an excellent job in Epsom and leading the polls. The system needs to be changed so that it would be illegal for political parties to adopt this type of action before and election. It is in essence denying the voters of Epsom with a proper choice. If they are National supporters they now must decide if they should vote for their National Party candidate or go along with the National Party Prime Minister and stitch up Parliament to suit the cosy relationship between National and Act. Every political party should by law be made to stand a candidate in every electorate and failure to do that should mean that they cannot claim to be a political party but just a group of independent candidates. Endorsing a candidate of a political party other than your own should also be illegal. The coalition of like minded parties should only be done after the election. In fact MMP does not reflect the will of the voting public. If it did not only parliament but cabinet also would be made up proportionally to reflect the result of the election. That would force parliamentarians to work together across the political spectrum. In addition candidates should have to decide if they want to run in an electorate or be on the list, not both. The way MP's rig the current system ensures that those at the top of the list end up back in Parliament even if their electorate voted them out. Finally only electorate MP's should be allowed to be in cabinet, no list MP should be allowed to have a cabinet position since they are only in Parliament as a result of the party vote and have not been selected to represent an electorate by the voters. Let's do it right, give both Johns, Key and Banks a Dear John!