Like the Americans, maybe we should re-name our Ministry of Defence as the Ministry of War. The frigates New Zealand wants to buy can carry long-range Tomahawk Cruise missiles, with lethality so beloved by Judith Collins.
New Zealand’s decision to stay away from the event in Nagasaki paying tribute to victims of the city’s 1945 nuclear bombing called outrageous.
Belief in capricious gods would explain the perplexing habit of governments with intelligent and informed people to embrace policies which are manifestly an example of self-destructive stupidity. Clever people doing stupid things.
New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.
With the last flights coming out of Kabul, it’s time to review whether this US attitude to the world is a good idea.
The Olympics is an opera that runs on one orchestrated symbol after another, and this Tokyo Olympics is a superabundant tragedy.
June 8 is the anniversary of Aotearoa’s 1987 nuclear-free legislation. NZOnScreen is running a retrospective of our proud history, the Nuclear-free Collection. It is well worth a watch. I particularly liked the movie “Nuclear Reaction,” with Big Norm seeing off the French, Big Dave seeing off the Americans, and Kiwi Keith also clear about where we stood. The nuclear risk is worse now than it has ever been.
Newly appointed Republican and Trump supported Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is not convinced that humans are changing the world’s climate. Meanwhile China and Japan are convinced and have announced dates by which time they intend to be carbon neutral.
With China’s New Year arriving, and a terrible flu virus struggling to be contained within it at the same time, it’s time to reflect again on China’s future and impact for New Zealand.
Winston Peters went to Washington last December to see US VP Mike Pence and invited the US to engage more in the South-West Pacific without informing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Patrick Smellie described this apparent oversight as “deeply worrying.” Even more worrying is what Peters said when he was there.
Japan have withdrawn from the International Whaling Commission and will resume commercial whaling.
Not all the current government’s fault, but the arrival of the fuel tax this weekend heralds a number of very sharp rises in what we have to pay in order to run a car.
Does being incoherent work sometimes? With the President of North Korea visiting China for the first time, meeting with the South Korean President for the first time, and preparing to meet with the Japanese President and with the President of the United States, was Trump’s approach actually right for the circumstances?
Malcolm Turnbull is proposing law changes in Australia to try and minimise the effect that China is having on Australia’s democratic system. He may not be wrong in doing so.
With former adversaries USA and Russia now the best of friends and with China now emerging again as the preeminent economy in the world the question is will the transition of power be handled smoothly?
Ad reviews Eurasia’s appraisal of global risks the world faces in 2016.
Time worn patterns and predictable decisions.
Seventy years on…
Thousands of people protested and marched around the country against the secret and anti-democratic TPPA negotiations. Reports & pics. Updated
New Zealand has almost no leverage in 21st century trade talks because we have gave it away in the 80s and 90s. The 12 country TPP is better thought of now as a bilateral US/Japan deal with as many hangers on as would like to hang on. The trapping are still of a 12 country deal, of course. The TPP club is Barack, Shinzo, and nobody else. That’s realpolitik.
The International Court of Justice has ruled that the Japanese yearly slaughter of whales is not for the purposes of scientific research and is illegal.
Three years ago John Key promised sort of that he could by diplomatic means stop the Japanese hunting of whales in the Southern Ocean. Given recent events it appears that his confidence was misplaced. Because the Japanese are slaughtering whales again in our back yard.
While some hold that the Labour Party conference being held this weekend could mark a watershed in NZ politics, something else that might constitute a somewhat more marked watershed is happening across the Pacific.
