Friday 30 March 2018

Wheelers Corner 13 31st March 2018


Wheeler’s Corner
“Connecting Citizens Who Care“. Every Monday at 4 pm on Access Manawatu 999AM” Join Peter’s blog http://wheelerscornernz.blogspot.com/  


 13 31st March 2018

1.
Do you know who these two co-leaders are? Well they are a couple of weird birds, they are British, and I don’t doubt they may have relations here in New Zealand and especially in Australia, but I hope not because I wouldn’t recommend these two. In fact all five in the picture look like the types you wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night on a back Street in London. They do look a little bit spooky don’t you think.

They lead a Party named “Britain First”, it’s a sort of an alt-right wing version of a modern day Nazi / fascist party and they are much beloved by sociopathic Donald [fingers] Trump, so much so that he tweets about them being heroes. This report from the Guardian:

Facebook has banned Britain First from its platform, saying the far-right group has “repeatedly posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups”.

Britain First’s Facebook page, which had more than 2m likes, and the pages of the two leaders, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen [pictured], has been banned from the social network.

“We are an open platform for all ideas and political speech goes to the heart of free expression,” Facebook said in a statement. “But political views can and should be expressed without hate. People can express robust and controversial opinions without needing to denigrate others on the basis of who they are.”



 “We have community standards that clearly state this sort of speech is not acceptable on Facebook and, when we become aware of it, we remove it as quickly as we can,” the company added. “Political parties, like individuals and all other organisations on Facebook, must abide by these standards and where a page or person repeatedly breaks our community standards we remove them.” The group will also not be allowed to set up any further pages in future.

Facebook did not confirm which specific posts were responsible for the pages being removed, but the Guardian understands that they included one comparing Muslim immigrants to animals, another labelling the group’s leaders “Islamophobic and proud”, and videos created to incite hateful comments against Muslims.



Last week, Fransen and Golding were jailed for a series of hate crimes against Muslims. The pair, who received 36 weeks’ and 18 weeks’ imprisonment respectively, were arrested in May 2017 as part of an investigation into the distribution of leaflets and online videos posted during a trial at Canterbury crown court in the same month. Britain First was deregistered as a political party in November 2017.



Its sizeable social media presence, particularly on Facebook, has been a key driver in the group’s growth. It achieved international notoriety in November 2017, when Donald Trump retweeted a handful of videos posted on Twitter by Fransen, then Britain First’s deputy leader. The president shared them without further comment, but his perceived support was received warmly by Fransen, who posted a video of herself celebrating his retweets shortly after.



The group has employed novel tactics to drum up support on social media, frequently enjoying viral success with simple memes designed to encourage people to like or follow their page through appeals to patriotism and nationalism.



A report released earlier this month by the anti-fascist organisation Hope Not Hate, suggested the far-right organisation had the “second most liked Facebook page in the politics and society category in the UK – after the royal family”.



The report said Britain First had nearly twice as many as Facebook likes as Labour, which it said was the mainstream party with the most likes. Despite that, in 2014, when Fransen stood for parliament in a by-election, she lost her deposit, receiving just 56 votes.

“More than any other group, Britain First overstepped the mark, even going as far as to show Isis-style beheadings,” Matthew Collins, the head of research at the charity Hope Not Hate, told the Guardian: “The group became the real ‘Facebook fascists’ and there may be reason to believe the group could even fold if Facebook stays strong and follows up on the mirror and back-up sites Britain First has.



“With Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen jailed, there are already significant problems behind the scenes over access to the group’s social media, website and bank accounts. It could very well be all the way downhill for them from here.”



The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Britain First is a vile and hate-fueled group whose sole purpose is to sow division. Their sick intentions to incite hatred within our society via social media are reprehensible, and Facebook’s decision to remove their content is welcome.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/14/facebook-bans-britain-first-and-its-leaders

Fighting for people over profits…The World wide activists organisation ‘Sum of Us; are calling for further action by Face-book to prevent money being transferred to racist-fascist and hate organisations. Read the following it is very revealing:


I don’t think we have any organisations like the Britain First racist-fascist party but we have the possibility of so-called anti-separatist operating and teaching a bunch of lies to restrict our democratic right to follow our agreed procedures that ensure political representation of our indigenous [Maori] and Settler population [The rest of us]. It’s taken us a hundred years to develop it and it’s still a work in progress. Now a group of English First type followers have grown up out of failed National Party types and those who would rewrite NZ history. 
 People like Don Brash failed leader of firstly National and then the Act Party and failed National candidate David Round, failed anti MMP funder Peter Shirtcliffe. I don’t believe that this newly developed pressure group in any way would condone or support the behaviour of the Britain First crowd that absolutely condones violence. They are far too rich to need to get their hands dirty via criminal behaviour. No they simply use their wealth to recreate history in a manner that maintains their overall belief of white supremacy. Are they racist? Are they bigoted?    
These are of course just a few of the leading lights and I will leave you to seek out information regarding each one of them if you feel so inclined. You can go on line and read for yourself and make your own mind up.

Here is a group of mainly elderly white males who feel that here in New Zealand there are no indigenous people, why because there are no full blooded Maori left, therefor Maori don’t exist…but that is so obviously stupid.

Here in NZ we’ve developed over many years’ two electoral rolls, one is called the Maori Roll and the second is called the General Roll. You can be on one or the other BUT NOT BOTH. If you opt for the Maori roll because you have Maori links you cannot appear on the general roll at the same time. This means that each New Zealander only gets one electorate vote. Since the introduction of MMP all voters can vote for the party of their choice, this decides the number of list seat available to each party.  

Conveniently organisations such as the Don Brash led ‘Hobson’s Pledge’ crowd ignore the electoral law by pretending that Maori get special privileges, which they don’t.  This very same group use an embedded racist law in our local government act to keep Maori from participating in the local government arena. http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2018/03/time-to-repeal-this-discriminatory-law.html   

To show you how they twist the truth I refer you a blog I wrote sometime back. You’ll see how they used false images to pretend that they have followers from various ethnic backgrounds. They don’t… they have hired expensive overseas owned public relations companies that pump out bullsh** read this…5000 people read the blog in 2016.  

Since they preach one thing but practice another, for example they preach we are all one people! But at the same time ignore the treaty that saw the birth of our nation.     

Just as in many other countries money here in NZ rules the roost, money buys media time, money buys news. Money plus lies led directly to the War in Iraq, remember their weapons of mass destruction line, which was later proven to be a complete fabrication and now a decade or two later and after the deaths and displacement of millions of innocent lives we learn that it was simply done to control the oil supply to the West.

We need to stop creating falsehoods to justify despicable behaviour such as that shown by groups like the KKK or Britain First. Good heavens even the National Party have given up the dream of removing the Maori Electoral seats; we as a nation have embraced the MMP system of Government. We are light years ahead of the US and Russia in the manner in which we elect our representatives. Britain expels Russians so the US follows them, even after Donald Trump says how much he admires their leader, Trump of course admires dictators who murder their populations and Britain helps to supply the arms for them to carry out this mass murder programme of death by drones.

We should as New Zealanders be proud of our peaceful political development as we move toward a non-violent future, and a national and local governance system based on power sharing via the ballot box.

Peter J Wheeler



Saturday 24 March 2018

Wheelers Corner 12 25th March 2018


Wheeler’s Corner
“Connecting Citizens Who Care“. Every Monday at 4 pm on Access Manawatu 999AM” Join Peter’s blog http://wheelerscornernz.blogspot.com/  


 12 25th March 2018

1.
2018’s Festival of Cultures was greeted by an overcast morning but regardless the numbers turned out to test the taste buds with exotic tasting food, or simply to chat with friends not seen for some time.Both applied in my case.

I moved amongst the hundreds if not thousands listening to or chatting with as they moved slowly around the circuit of tents. Each tent was named for a country, Malaysia, Burma, China and almost any country you can think off. 

The music was wonderful to my ears and the crowd showed their pleasure with heaps of applause.

This annual event really does prove that Palmerston is an international city its efforts in making new cultures settle in and find peace is a model other cities could copy should they feel inclined.

We don’t need Obama on our golf course paid for by Air Zealand as it continues to cut our air services, Funny that, this only came about after ex PM John Key became an director on Air New Zealand.

Palmerston North is in many respects ahead of other locations. We are forward thinkers, we learn from our errors. We also have Councillor’s who are far more socially advanced, after all the great majority of them, along with the Mayor voted for Maori Wards. Naturally we have a few who live in the long distant past opposed to the concept, we even have one that says one thing but does the opposite. Even the new National Party local party chairperson supports Maori Wards and that is a huge step forward for the party once led by Don Brash.

Based on my brief chats with dozens of individuals at the Festival of Cultures it would seem that many people don’t know the facts about Maori Wards. I found no one opposed but I did note that many had questions and I might add those questions were worthy of honest answers. I was reminded of a quote:

“Silence is the real crime against humanity”. Nadezhda Mandelstam, Hope against hope.

Below are some honest and constructive answers to the many questions that arise when discussing the subject of local government and Maori Wards. I found that once the persons question were answered they seemed much more relaxed about the issue. 

I had to laugh when one or two elderly persons said that they were against Maori having their own wards at the hospital...once I assured them that the issue had nothing to do with hospital wards...one actually said that if the young Indian women who asked her to sign the petition had told her that bit of info she would not have signed. It was nice to meet someone so honest, oh and by the way she now supports Maori Wards and she assured me that she would let her friends know. That really made my day worth while.

2. Councils and Māori wards: your questions answered
What is a Māori ward?
Māori wards establish areas where those on the Māori electoral roll vote for their representatives on Council. They sit alongside the general wards.

Why do we need them?
Councils have legal and other obligations to ensure Māori are involved in local government decision-making.
For example, under the Local Government Act (2002) councils must:
·        Establish, maintain and improve opportunities for Māori to contribute to local government decision-making processes.
·        Ensure processes are in place for consulting with Māori.
·        Consider ways to foster Māori contribution to local government decision-making processes.
Māori wards are a way of achieving this by ensuring that Māori are represented in council decision-making.

Why can’t Māori just stand in general seats?
They can, however if they are elected they represent general not Māori interests, this means that councils’ obligations are not fulfilled.

Doesn’t democracy mean one person, one vote?
Māori voters still only get one vote, just like everyone else — they either vote in the Māori ward or general ward depending on where they are enrolled. The establishment of Māori wards doesn’t impair anyone else’s right to participate.
Democracy means government by the people or their elected representatives. Maori currently have a disproportionately low representation in local government. Māori wards allow for better democracy as people who are currently poorly represented can become more fairly represented.

Shouldn’t it be about merit?
Yes, it is. People who stand for Māori wards get elected on merit just like any other councillor.  

Why do Māori get separate wards and not any other group?
Including Māori in council decision-making is about sticking to agreements that have been made for the good of all New Zealanders.
Māori have a unique position as the first inhabitants of New Zealand, a position the New Zealand government recognised by supporting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The agreement that allowed for all subsequent people to come and settle peacefully here (the Treaty of Waitangi also outlines requirements for power-sharing]. The issues that are dealt with by local government are issues of deep importance and concern to Māori, like water, urban planning, and cultural heritage.

What are the benefits?
Māori wards mean that the people who need to be involved in council decision making are at the table from the start. The experience of councils with Māori wards show they support more effective decision-making.
Māori bring significant networks and knowledge to the table — their involvement in local decision-making benefits the whole community. This will bring a more meaningful and diverse viewpoint to decisions that relate to our community, environment and our future.

What will it cost?
Māori Wards will not mean additional cost to ratepayers. The number of Councillors will remain the same but one or two of those elected members would come from the Māori Ward.

I support Māori wards what should I do?
Vote Yes, in the upcoming postal referendum and encourage others to! Remind people that Māori wards allow for more effective council decision-making. Māori wards benefit the whole community — they are good for all New Zealanders.

Find us on Facebook at:
www.facebook.com/TogetherKiaKotahiMai

Peter J Wheeler






Sunday 18 March 2018

Horowhenua boss seeks new contract


Wheeler’s Corner
“Connecting Citizens Who Care“. Every Monday at 4 pm on Access Manawatu 999AM” Join Peter’s blog http://wheelerscornernz.blogspot.com/  


 Wheelers Corner special edition March 2018



1. Ever heard of David Clapperton, no? Well he is the CEO of Horowhenua District Council [yes Horowhenua is a Maori word].
CEO David Clapperton.
The township of Levin is where he is based. It is a nice little spot, it has roads and shops and sports fields but it has one of the most polluted lakes in Aotearoa [NZ]. 

It also continues to pour waste matter into this mistreated little bit of our fair land.

It [HDC] also appears to have real democracy problems, it bans individuals from Council meetings, and believe it or not it even bans elected Councillor’s and it even once banned it’s elected Mayor from chatting with the unelected CEO or his staff.

It would appear that maybe a home made local junta runs the place, a combination of soundless and meek councilors, a police force that is inclined to only hear one side of the story, and an all controlling and uncontrollable god like CEO.   

PRESS RELEASE
 Former Horowhenua District Councillor Anne Hunt tells Chief Executive it is time to go.
David Clapperton, who is currently the chief executive of the dysfunctional Horowhenua District Council, has announced that he intends to reapply for the vacancy when the term of his contract expires during July 2018.

But Mrs Hunt who served on this council from 2004 until 2013 has sent Mr Clapperton a letter telling him that he should reconsider his future, because he has placed the Levin community at extreme risk.

Her main bone of contention was the decision to disconnect Phil Taueki’s water supply during November 2016 and refuse to connect it despite Mr Taueki’s hospitalisation. Mr Clapperton claims he disconnected Mr Taueki’s water at the request of the Lake confirms that the Judge who appointed these Lake Horowhenua trustees had failed to declare a conflict of interests with Matt Sword, a former lawyer who chairs this lake trust.

The Council is currently applying to renew Levin’s wastewater discharge consent that lapses this year, and also plans to apply for resource consent to discharge Levin’s stormwater into the privately-owned and culturally-sensitive Lake Horowhenua.

Bruce Gordon as Chair of Horizons Regional Council had warned the Council seven years ago that it would need resource consent to continue discharging Levin’s stormwater into this lake. Lake Horowhenua is rated one of this country’s most polluted lakes.

Mr Taueki is not only a direct descendent of Treaty signatory, but also a beneficial owner of Lake Horowhenua and the chair of Hokio Trusts that owns land adjoining Levin’s wastewater disposal site.

At a recent meeting to discuss resource consents, Mr Taueki warned council officers that he was not prepared to work with council while Mr Clapperton remains chief executive.
Mr Taueki’s health has suffered as a result of the unsanitary conditions at his home on ancestral land at Lake Horowhenua, but refuses to be forced out by tactics such as this prolonged water disconnection. Mrs Hunt says that even in India, a High Court has ruled that a municipal authority cannot disconnect water, simply because water is an essential of life. Press release ends:

Read this from last year,


This shows clearly that Mr Clapperton has very little understanding of what democracy in local government means. In my view he should not be reemployed by the council this is their chance to bring Horowhenua back from the brink of legalised dictatorship. Present Councillor’s need to find the courage to stand tall and reinstate the back bone needed to bring Horowhenua into the 21st century. 

You may feel inclined to let Mr Clapperton know that you feel that he should stand down and let a new and open minded person bring some fresh air into the Horowhenua District Councils much needed reforms.Just contact the HDC via any of these means:

Email: enquiries@horowhenua.govt.nz
Post: Private Bag 4002, Levin 5540
Levin Office: 126 Oxford Street, Levin 5510


Peter J Wheeler




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