US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is on her way to New Zealand this week, bringing the customary promises of good will and better relations between our two countries.
The big question is however: Will Clinton be bringing the overdue White House invite for our Prime Minister? John Key has claimed after all he and Obama are best pals… and he can pick up the phone anytime. Now’s the test.
There was in interesting snippet in The Herald on Thursday: “NZ scores fifth place in world prosperity stakes”. Not much detail, so it was good to see a follow up on Saturday with a lot more detail. Take home message – we don’t know how lucky we are!
It’s a strange world we live in when comedians step out of the box and become the best political interviewers that America has to offer. But so it goes! Here is Jon Stewart interviewing President Obama. It will be interesting to see how the Stewart / Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity goes this weekend.
Wellington’s Embassy theatre hosted the New Zealand premiere of the Ring movies a few years ago. There’s another good movie showing there now. […]
There was some expenditure that didn’t qualify under the old scheme…We’ve looked to broaden that out. John Key on Warner Brothers, 27 […]
It’s highly unusual for a new PM to meet a foreign leader of the opposition before she meets her fellow leader. But Julia Gillard’s direct snub of John Key is a fair payback for the leaks by the Key Government to try to help his mate Tony Abbott win the Australian election. Key didn’t set up the Gillard-Goff meeting. But his actions certainly cleared the way.
The release of 400,000 classified documents on the Iraq war today highlights a much broader issue for New Zealand. As the world moves into uncertainty, some commentators call it a ‘new new world order’, New Zealand must establish itself definitively, cementing the values we wish to hold true for the coming century.
Vernon Small had an atypically disappointing piece in the Dom yesterday concluding that everyone must be happy in NZ because the 20,000 protesters who turned out on October 20th did so peacefully and legally, whereas in France there is rioting in the streets. I/S explains why people have to take to the streets to get affect political change in France.
Does anyone have a spare Earth? Or two — or three? If so, could you please speak up, because humanity is going two need two Earth’s worth of resources by 2030.
Last year, Icelandic comedian Jon Gnarr set up the Best Party to parody the parties that brought Iceland to ruin. The party contested the Reykjavik local elections with Gnarr promising a drug-free Parliament by 2020, a polar bear for Reykjavik zoo, a Disneyland, an end to debt, and to break all his promises. They won and Gnarr is now mayor.
New Zealand is small country, far from anywhere, always on the edge of irrelevance. To continue our proud heritage of principled and effective international contributions, to hold our heads up high on the world stage, New Zealand needs a leader. But all we have is a PM.
When one of the first truly social democratic governments was elected in North America it was attacked viciously from all sides. Read further if you want to know the lengths business, private media, the police, landlords, and lobbyists went to undermine the Rae Government in Ontario, Canada. There are lessons for New Zealand.
Paul Henry’s racism on state funded television has now reached the level of a full fledged diplomatic incident. The New Zealand High Commission in India has issued a press release apologising and stating that Henry’s views do not represent “the New Zealand Government or people”. Fine words, but they need to be followed up with appropriate action. Henry has to go.
In case you were wondering why Breakfast Bigot Paul Henry has to go – here’s another great example of his work. Watch it […]
Here’s some of the international coverage of New Zealand that Paul Henry’s racist outburst against our Governor General Anand Satyanand has sparked. In […]
The tiny island nation of Kiribati puts the “developed” world to shame.
It’s been pretty painful watching the media coverage of the Delhi games buildup over the last few weeks. What a lot of xenophobic nonsense we’ve been served up.
While the Anglo – Saxon or English speaking left seems unable to shake a deep malaise that began afflicting it some thirty years ago, the left in the Spanish speaking world is making some remarkable strides forward.
Ed Miliband has narrowly beaten his brother David to become the new leader of Labour in the UK. They now get to move on from the Brown-Blair era and fightback against the Tories.
4 out of 7 of Switzerland’s cabinet are now women – a progressive surprise from a conservative country.
The idea of The Chinese Century has been around for a long time now. But a couple of articles that caught my eye recently make me think that the start of that century is well and truly upon us.
McCully doesn’t believe in the tender process. Or accountability. Cronyism? Well, that’s a different story…
Some people are passionate about local government finances. Really, really, really embarrassingly passionate. Love when he says “If nominated tonight, I can guarantee with 100% certainty that what you are seeing tonight will be what everyone outside those doors will see over the next 8 weeks”. That’d be the clincher for any undecideds.
Remember Glen Beck’s “Rally to restore honour”? Depressed about America apparently spiralling out of control into political insanity? Me too! But now, at last, someone speaks up for the 70 to 80% of Americans who aren’t crazy.
It seems Sarah Palin is stepping up her campaign to be the Republican’s candidate to run against President Obama in 2012. The world couldn’t ask for a better candidate to oppose Obama: She won’t have a show in hell.
To have power and independence, any country needs a solid economic base. That’s even more true of superpowers/empires. To secure their economic sovereignty they need the raw materials and markets of less powerful countries. They reinforce their economic sovereignty by taking others’. China does it by buying up whole supply chains.
If you have some time to spare this Saturday morning, check out the documentary “Overdose” – The story of the greatest financial crisis we will ever see… The one that is on the way.
The latest Guardian Weekly had two interesting and seemingly unconnected stories about major shifts in aid priorities on both sides of the world […]
As our msm persist with their increasingly banal fixation on Christchurch’s troubles, I’m reminded of a story that appeared in 2001 not long […]
Independent MP Tony Windsor has decided to support the Labor Party into government, with fellow independent Rob Oakeschott expected to follow suit. The country independents say the best bet for rural regions is to remain independent and stick up for themselves – lessons for NZ?
Barack Obama declared the U.S. combat mission in Iraq officially over on Tuesday but said he would not take a “victory lap”. No victory? That’s quite an understatement…
“The ground zero mosque” is the latest focus of and flash-point for deranged American right wing anger. The Guardian’s Charlie Brooker explains.
A week after Australia went to the polls the outcome is still unclear. However, with the last seat (Brisbane) pretty much decided, I’d put my money on Julia Gillard remaining Prime Minister and Labor retaining power. Take a look at the numbers…
Defence Minister Wayne Mapp must be desperate for publicity. He’s attacked the latest version of the Medal of Honour game set in Afghanistan. According to Mr Mapp, Medal of Honour “undermines the values of our nation, and the dedicated service of our men and women in uniformâ€. Okaaay…….
The recent death in Afghanistan of Lieutenant Timothy O’Donnell was a tragedy for his family and a blow to his army colleagues. It […]
Australia is about to enter a new era in politics. They appear to have a hung parliament this morning according to the Sydney Morning Herald. There are a number of marginal seats in the balance. The single Green MP in the lower house and a number of independents will determine which major party forms a government.
