Nats reintroduce their draconian self yet again. Wheelers Corner 84 Friday 8th November 2019

It would seem that the Nats don't understand what the word empathy means, or racism, or honesty for that matter.

National's new draconian Oranga Tamariki welfare reforms are anti-Māori, anti-women and anti-human
Martyn  'Bomber' Bradbury.

"It's difficult to know where to begin in attempting to sift the outright spite and maliciousness of National's new welfare reforms. Firstly, let's just acknowledge that while National say beneficiary and gangs, their angry voters hear Māori.
Let's also acknowledge that these reforms are anti-Māori, anti-women and anti-human because they won't in any way shape or form help those requiring welfare, they will only exacerbate poverty and cause a myriad of counter productive outcomes.

Punishing anyone in a gang (and their affiliates) with cutting off welfare simply pushes those people deeper into gang life.
Punishing mothers who don't provide the name of the father simply hurts the children of those families.
Punishing mothers for not vaccinating their children avoids the obligations the health system has for reaching out to those communities.
But most egregious of all is the idea that National wants every beneficiary house with children in them that tests positive for meth to have their details passed along to Oranga Tamariki for investigation for possible uplift.
The audacity of National suggesting this after the state house meth testing hysteria that saw $120million needlessly spent for decontamination that was never scientifically harmful and saw hundreds of beneficiaries kicked out onto the street in the middle of a homelessness crisis is enough to make you gasp.
Not content to ignore their past failure on this issue, National now want to give Oranga Tamariki, an organisation already detested for their racist profiling uplift techniques, to now have the power to remove children on nothing more than a flawed meth testing regime?
Remember, the tests can't tell when the meth was smoked or who smoked it.
You want Oranga Tamariki to have that level of unchecked power on top of their already unchecked powers?
National should be shamed for these cruel policy ideas. How dare they attempt to implement this spite as social policy.

So where to from here, for the thousands of decent folk who have supported National, through thick and thin times...through Muldonism, through Keyism and so on. Alas right at this minute they must feel directionless and lost in their search for the high moral ground that the present leadership has whipped out from under their feet. Just because Paula Bennett has lost a bit of weight and spends hours under a sun lamp, doesn't mean that she has changed from being a law breaker when she revealed personal private information about beneficiaries private data...sadly unlike Winston Peters they never had the money to sue her like Peters is doing in the high court right now!.

In the UK the tories and their public servants have been shown to by massive fraud: check this out:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/06/government-universal-credit-deception-asa-taxpayer-funded-features

` The person who sent me the above stated and I quote: "Not just elected officials but the bureaucracy is rotten". And he is correct and I'm sure you will agree after reading about the Tory Governments lies over welfare in the UK.

In many respects the same is happening here in NZ, the bureaucracy here too is wedded to the Roger Douglas mode...slowly but surely the Labour Party is divesting itself of the corrupt days of Douglas and Prebble. But after all these years it would seem that the present PM is making it a task to remove the ingrained neoliberal behaviour that still remains in both the financial arena and the general political scene. There is still a longway to go...but the neolibs are slowly but surely departing the scene. ANZ banking values have dropped to low levels since their appointment of Key as a key player in the banking sector. Quitting ANZ may be a wise step in the right direction.

Palmerston North readers may have noticed the effort of local texter 'PAM' who loves all things National, text about the make up of the PNCC Councillors, Red and green she calls them, and she fears that they may effect 'Farmers'. Gee whiz that surely is a strange statement. She Pam that is, calls farmers hard working! and attempts to create the impression that other workers are not hard working. Nurses, Teachers, Bus drivers, Shop assistants are all bloody hard working and they don't get bailed out whenever their incomes are effected by market changes. She never texts about Nationals promise not to increase taxes then they raised GST. She has a very limited memory of history.

And with Trump on the verge of impeachment the collasp of some super-right dictatorships around the world may indicate a sign of things to come. It is now being reported that 49% of US voters support impeachment of Trump...and in recent local and state election prove that Americans are starting to see the light and dumping Republicans at a rapid rate, if the US election rules can be made fair, all votes may get to be counted.  
https://truthout.org/articles/donald-trump-lost-tuesdays-elections/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=289408d3-13a7-41fb-8a4c-c89fddc336bb
here is what Trump said before the elections on the 5th of November: "
   “If you lose,” Trump implored the crowd with hands lifted in supplication, “it sends a really bad message, just sends a bad, and they will build it up. Here’s the story: If you win, they’re gonna make it like ‘ho-hum,’ and if you lose, they’re going to say ‘Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. This was the greatest.’ You can’t let that happen to me!”

Finally let me present you with ACTION Stations effort to effect local government elections:

Tēnā koe Peter, 
So far more than 900 members of the ActionStation community have told us how to fix local elections and enhance local democracy. 
Will you join them?
So far people have told us: 

“We need more easily accessible and engaging information about candidates and issues.” - Corinne

“One person in every whānau should take responsibility for encouraging whānau to vote.” - Wikitoria

“We need a public holiday on voting days.” - Jake

 
But what do you think? The survey will close on Monday 11 November at 5pm. 
I look forward to reading what you have to say!
Ngā mihi,
Laura for the ActionStation team
The email I sent on Sunday is below:

---

Kia ora Peter,
To vote in the local elections, I cast a special vote at a very packed Porirua City Council on Saturday 12 October at 11.50am, just 10 minutes before the cut-off time. I had to do this after I didn’t receive my voting papers in the post, among a myriad of life and work admin.
I had arrived at 11:15am and was number 34 in line. Most of the people waiting to special vote were Māori, young or Pasifika. There were only two or three staff collecting special votes.⁣⁣
Some people saw the line and gave up because they’re people with busy lives, families to look after, kids to take to sports, groceries to buy. I managed to vote with ten minutes to spare, but I’m not sure about the folks behind me.
I left feeling like the user experience of local democracy is broken.
Right now, our staff team are in the thick of evaluating our local election campaign and brainstorming new approaches to local politics. In two weeks time, we’ll be making big strategic decisions about how we approach local organising and local government. 

Will you tell us what you think about local democracy?

For the past five years, I have had the pleasure of working with hundreds of young people passionate about getting other young people to vote through my work at RockEnrol. We work hard to make voting a social event, and to engage young people in civic conversations.
In 2014, we organised parties where the only way a person could get a ticket was if they enrolled and made a promise to vote. The promise consisted of them giving us their name, email, phone number and ticking a box that said, ‘I promise to vote’. We weren’t trying to get people to vote for any particular party, just get the voting habit started. Research shows if you start voting young, you’ll keep doing it and if you don’t, you won’t, which is why our work is important. Democracy works best when everyone participates.
Thousands of people attended those parties. Volunteers called every person afterwards to help get them the information they needed to vote. Often we’d be asked questions like, ‘How do I enrol?’ ‘What is the difference between an electorate and party vote?’ At other times we’d have conversations where people would say things like, ‘I’m passionate about ending child poverty but I don’t know which policies work best for solving the problem’. 
We’d point people to non-partisan and credible sources like On The Fence, or organisations who work on the kaupapa they care about. We’d do this because one of the reasons young people don’t vote is because they don’t have enough information, or they have so much that they don’t know what or who to trust.
In 2017, we partnered with the cosmetics company Lush to encourage their young customers to vote. Staff would initiate conversations about the importance of voting and we had an in-store poll on an iPad where people were encouraged (again) to give us their name, email, and phone number but also to vote on what issue they cared about most, and who should be the prime minister. Beyond beat ups on Gareth Morgan, Winston Peters and David Seymour as preferred PM. We then organised volunteers to individually text everyone who engaged with our poll to help them make a plan to vote.
RockEnrol’s work has always been about combining sizzle (parties, influencers, popular culture) with steak (grassroots community organising) to unleash the political power of young people. We believe in igniting and facilitating political conversations to give young people time and space to consider and inform their voting decisions.
In 2019, RockEnrol ran our first ever local election campaign focussed on getting more young Aucklanders to vote. We co-hosted two pop-up one-stop-shops where people could enrol and vote at the same time. Hordes of young people turned up. Watching those events, I couldn’t help but think that the future of voting is social, not postal.

I’d love to hear what you think the future of local democracy is. Take our quick survey here.
Postal voting leaves young and marginalised people out because they move house more often than older Pākehā homeowners. ⁣Most young people can’t afford their own homes so they are beholden to the whims of (older) landlords, meaning they have to move around more and do a disproportionate amount of work just to stay enrolled.

People often jump to online voting as a silver bullet solution, but I’m not convinced. Tech experts say it isn’t safe and it doesn’t address the inequities that lead to lower voter participation rates in the first place. Of the young people who don’t vote, it is those who are also Māori, Pasifika, recent migrants, disabled, or from low education, low income or rural backgrounds who are the least likely to vote. Online voting won’t fix the discrimination and exclusion so many of these folks face. Making voting social, multi-lingual, easy and accessible will.

The future of local democracy needs to be resourced properly by central government so that people can have their say in real-life in the community. The final day for voting needs to run all day, not just until noon and one-stop-shops or voting booths have to become the norm. Assisted voting should also be resourced so folks with disabilities can vote more easily.

Equality researcher Max Rashbrooke wrote a paper called Bridges Both Ways which presented the idea of a ‘Kōrero Politics Day’.¹ His pitch is that six or so weeks out from every general election, we should have a national public holiday with well-funded community events that combine music, art, politics, and other gatherings designed to foster civic discussion. This would underline the importance of politics, give people time and space to think about issues, and encourage a more reflective citizenship.

I love this idea (and I love a public holiday) and I think it would work well for local elections too. It would give organisations and communities a rallying point to come together around and it would strengthen relationships in the community. But what do you think?
Tell us what ActionStation should prioritise in local politics.

A friend told me that back in the day her Nana and their whānau would purchase one copy of the newspaper for the whole marae to discuss and debate, and when it came to elections they would get dressed up and travel to the polls to vote as a hapori (community).
We should be inspired by this, smashing all of the barriers to participation to make voting as community-oriented as possible. We have the potential, what we need now is people in power with the political will to make it happen.
Click here to take our survey on local democracy.
Ngā mihi nui,
Laura, for the ActionStation team

Non Violent protest. is it the way to go wheelers Corner 83 11th November 2019

This new but yet an old form of protest is returning, there is no yelling of insults or fighting and it is a more effective way of making a point.

The evidence from around the world proves that mass demonstrations gets the message across. Well to some anyway.

Conflict arises as resources become scarcer and societies are put under increased environmental stress and the likelihood of war and conflict [even nuclear] will increase*.
Already we have seen countries like Chile, Turkey and  [Palestine / Israel] revolt against the stupidity of their governments behaviour toward the masses of their populations.

The ignorance of those in power, of the state of our earth and instability over climate changes is a burning issue for all of us: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the 18th of September said "We have no time to lose. "We are losing the race against climate change"*.
And he is correct.

Water shortages, Extreme weather, Disease, forced mass migration and armed conflict are confronting US right now.*

Two factors are clear, violence will not solve this self made problem. Violence simply begets violence hence the rapid growth of converting police forces into a military style population control factors. Germany fell into that trap under Hitler.

One of the first things we can do is to control creed and design better ways of meeting peoples needs. This resolution of conflict between greed and need is vital in this day and age.

There is an old saying "That you have to act locally if you want change internationally", we can't all pack up and head to the US to stop Trumps mad desire to convert [US] police forces into a military units that he can control.Once that happens you have a dictatorship

We have to act locally to get the message across. We had a clear example of this when our younger generation took to the streets during the Schools Strike for climate change, it was stated that 5.2% of our population shared in that activity. Here in Palmerston North they marched around the Square. At an earlier event the even did a DIE IN on Broadway in their hundreds. I'm so bloody old that I simply remained upright and took photos...  Just today Saturday the 2nd of November the young people again presented a series of one act plays at the Art Gallery complex on the subject of Climate change.
Members of XR Manawatu assisted them by handing out copies of their booklet "Wake up Act now". If you feel that you can help contact XR Manawatu and get a booklet for yourself and your family, maybe it will inspire you.

picture 1.XR Manawatu outside Art Gallery

people. the picture [2] shows local people displaying their feelings to the Palmerston North Council in regard to climate changes and the lack of a publicly and honest statement regarding this vital Poverty brought on by massive miss management and out-right greed and stupidity has led to various movements combining to give control back to citizens in their attempts to restore an equality to the subject.

XR members [top to rows] at PNCC chamber.

References:
* Wake Up Act Now [booklet]
https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/117020164/new-faces-but-same-vision-for-palmerston-north
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/02/fracking-banned-in-uk-as-government-makes-major-u-turn?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This from School strike 4 climate: We would just like to let everyone know that School Strike 4 Climate New Zealand have made a decision that we won't be organising a strike for the 29th of November alongside the set global date. 💚 Our reasoning for this is that throughout November, students across the country will be participating in NZQA exams, including many of our organisers. We acknowledge this doesn't effect everyone but we don't want to put any extra pressure on our organisers or exclude students sitting the exams on this day, such as Sāmoan, Te Reo Māori, Education for Sustainability and Health - all of which are crucial within our movement. We want to acknowledge that the government remains to not do enough systemically, which cannot be ignored. For this reason we will still participate in the global movement but in alternate ways. Keep an eye out on our social media for local events that may pop up around this time or if you would like to organise a movement in your local area, don't hesitate to get in contact with us. We must keep this pressure up, the job is far from done yet

War solves nothing: A medical profession view. Wheelers Corner 82 25th Oct 2019

War has never been a conflict resolver, it has always been a conflict creator, this has been obvious over hundreds of years.
Both the first and second World wars, used  conflict not to solve problems but to take control over others for various and normally secret reasons based on the views of the powerful and controlling interests of the day.

Fear for ones individual / community / and nationalistic reasons quickly took over society. The suffering and long term harm was covered up by forcing the masses [working people] to take the leading role in the actual physical fighting. [except for Donald Trump, he grew an extra bone in his foot to avoid being conscripted which later simply disappeared]

Each state regardless of which side of the conflict, then claimed what their side, were the heroes and the other side the villains. Today because of education we know that there are heroes and villains on both sides of any conflict.

The US went to war with North Vietnam after a false so-called attack on a US Warship, Iraq was attacked after a false story of Weapons of mass destruction. Who were the villains?

Afghanistan was attacked by Russia and later by the Americans solely for political reasons, Russia or the US cared bugger all for the people. The Russian state or the American state were not under any physical threat therefor their occupation was illegal according to international law.
An up to date version of this criminal behaviour: is what the Israeli dictatorship is doing to the people of Palestine, the UN has condemned their behaviour but has done nothing to punish the Zionist Government, it seems that if your friend is the USA then your country is protected while you break international law and murder civilians men women and children.

Today in this so-called enlightened world these villain-like behaviours are still in use. So the question remains 'What do we do about it?. My view is that we make our elected leaders BAN WAR.

Now I'm not a feminist, I'm male 79 year old ex-service man, who has come to recognise that wars are no solution to human conflict, but simply a short term political appeasement to man's aggressive nature. But the clear fact is that war should be banned.

So I looked around the society in which I live. I asked myself the question 'Who are the real peace makers? And one word stood out for me! WOMEN, this doesn't mean that all women are peace makers or that all men are war makers just the majority are.

So it seem to me that the sooner we elect to parliament a hundred plus more women the quicker we can get banning war high on the agenda. Women care about saving life and the enviroment for their children, I don't doubt many men do too. Its just that women speak out and actually do something.

So I accept that the statement below from the Association  of Schools of public health in Europe Because it relates completely to New Zealand. So I ask sincerely that you read it carefully, as I'm sure you will.   

Wheeler Corner file picture.

"This from the 'The Association of Schools of Public Health in Europe' who issued this clear statement that:
"Wars and armed conflicts have devastating consequences for the physical and mental health of all people involved, for the social life within and surrounding the war-affected regions, and for the health of the environment. 
Wars destroy health infrastructure, undoing years of health advancement, and severely compromise health systems' capacity to respond to the direct and indirect health consequences of fighting". They went on to state and I quote:

"Millions of people have been internally displaced or forced to flee their countries because of armed conflict. Forced migration creates further physical and mental health problems during transit, in enforced encampment, and because of restricted ntitlement to health care in countries hosting refugees.
The disastrous effects might last for generations to come. In short, war is a man-made public health problem.
In January, 2018, following the Turkish Government's announcement of a military operation in Afrin, Syria, the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) issued a public statement, declaring that “war is a man-made public health problem”.
[The ruling Turkish dictatorship reacted and:]
Eleven TMA members (five of them from TMA's central council) were subsequently put on trial and sentenced to 20 months in prison with the charge of inciting hatred and hostility.

The Association of Schools of Public Health in Europe (ASPHER) represents 119 schools of public health in 43 countries. ASPHER recognises the unequivocal evidence that war is a man-made public health problem. ASPHER is committed to direct the attention of the public and of policy makers to the irrevocable damage armed conflicts inflict on population health. Consequently, ASPHER stands in solidarity with the convicted TMA members". Quote ends.

A small but active group here in Palmerston North known as Peace Action Manawatu, I believe supports, the ASPHER statement.
Now PAM is made up of individuals who believe strongly that war is an activity that should be outlawed.
I have sought the views of a few of the members of PAM [Dr Fred Hirst, Rev Andy Hickman] on this issue and I share them with you for your consideration, in an earlier issue of a Wheeler's Corner blog: https://wheelerscornernz.blogspot.com/2019/10/local-body-elections-good-bad-and-ugly.html [Item 2] I reported on the successful effort in achieving the cancellation of the Weapons EXO planned for 2019. Which proved that collective action [non violent] can achieve important goals.

What happened in Turkey to those eleven members of their TMA proves without doubt that dictators listen to no one other their dictator friends like Donald Trump and care little for human life and the practice of medical practitioners.

Others have a view of war: Here are a couple" The first from PAM activist Rev Andy Hickman:

Rev Andy Hickman.

Let's just name the reality! That although most of the world's leaders spout that they do not want to engage in war, they in fact indulge in ways that profit from war.
Here are some facts:
$1.7 TRILLION was the Global Military Expenditure in 2017
 68 MILLION refugees, asylum-seekers, displaced persons at present
 53% of refugees are unaccompanied children
 14,465 nuclear warheads currently active
 40% of corruption in international trade relates to arms trade
 43,000 people killed or injured by explosives in 2017. 74% were civilians.
 Yemen death toll for August 2018 was 981 civilians, 300 of those children.
 Lockheed Martin ($US 5.3 billion profit last year) sells to whoever pays including the US-backed Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on Yemen citizens.
MAS Zengrange (Lower Hutt NZ company who made $2.7 million profit in 2014) manufactures trigger devices for cluster bombs sold to Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, half of NZ-ers live in cold houses and avoid going to the doctors. One-third of NZ-ers skip meals.
[Primary data source SIPRI arms industry database. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute]
Ka whakatikatika e ia i õ tãtou waewae ki te huarahi o te rangimãrie. - Ruka 1:79
May God guide our feet into the way of peace.
Rev Andy Hickman,  Thanks Andy:

 

Dr Fred Hirst.

Dr Fred Hirst [PAM activist] added this further information:

• environmental impact of war is accelerating anthropogenic climate change due to the strong correlation between military expenditure and GHG emissions:
• Scorched earth'
• Deforestation including use of defoliants and herbicides
• Air, soil and water pollution
• Environmental and ecosystem degradation with loss of agricultural and forested land (fauna/flora)
• Chemicals, toxins, nuclear and other environmental hazards including undetonated armaments (cluster bombs and land mines)
• Fossil fuel use and fires (US military forces have highest fossil fuel consumption of any 'defence force' and are high generators of toxin and solvent pollution)
• Displacement of over 65m people, including refugees, currently (equivalent to population of UK)
• due to conflict often to gain access to scarce or valuable resources (land, fossil fuels, minerals, water, etc) and from increasingly severe and frequent destructive climate change consequences causing flood, drought, cyclones, fires and sea level rise.
• Those most at risk and disproportionately represented as casualties of conflict and climate change are women, children, elderly and indigenous people, and those living in poverty and socio-economic deprivation.

Thank you Fred, your words prove the magnitude of harm that clearly relates to war like behaviour, before, during and after war like conflict.

Well this has been a long Wheelers Corner this week, but the subject matter is vital to the continuation of human life both now and in the future.

This is why I am so concerned, and it has led to me to use social media via my blog site to get the message out to as many human beings as I can. So its vital that you understand the reasons why I feel the way I do: Here is a pen picture of what drove me in the direction of peace rather than war: This word picture was compiled by Valerie Morse an Auckland peace activist in 2018: 

The Unlikely Peacenik

"When most of us imagine what a peace activist looks like, we usually conjure up some version of a hippie stereotype: tie-dyed clothes, long dreadlocks, peace signs and a penchant for smoking the green stuff. It is not often that we think of ex-soldiers as those at the forefront of the peace movement, but Palmerston North resident Peter Wheeler is exactly that.

Peter said his dad had served in World War II, and he joined the NZ Infantry Regiment in 1960 because he says the military was familiar to him, and he “wanted to leave home, but not leave people.”

He was deployed to Malaya, a journey he said was “fascinating for a young man,” and ended up going to Jungle Training school, which turned out to be as he describes it, “sniper school”. Members of the 1^st NZIR were deployed to Vietnam in 1969, and Peter remembers that there was dissent within the military about New Zealand participating in that war.

“They asked me would I volunteer to go. I had by that time decided I wouldn’t, because I was opposed to it – particularly our role in it.”

But the Army didn’t take his refusal well, he said, “What that cost me in real terms was an immediate exile, in my case to Dunedin, and my promotions suddenly came to a halt.”

After 19 years in the Army, Peter ended up working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Papua New Guinea, an experience, he says that taught him a number of things about himself and the world. “It made me see what many people in the world think about having white, European people come into their country, get all the key jobs and tell everyone what to do. It really opened my eyes about how other people were forced to live.”

The strength of these experiences taught him that, “war today is not about helping people. That’s just garbage. What we’re doing it for – like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – is for what we get out of them. The people we call our ‘enemies’ today, were once, not so long ago, allies of the US. The US armed and equipped many of those people. They didn’t do it to help those people, but to fight someone else.”

Peter says that you can’t have a “war on terrorism”, instead he says, what you need is “peace plan for terrorism.” He notes that, “terrorism is the outcome of failings in the political and economic sphere.”

Peter is one of the few ex-soldiers in New Zealand speaking up against war. In the US, there are a large number of soldiers, many of them still on active duty, who have joined up with anti-war organisations like Veterans for Peace and the Iraq Veterans Against the War.

The strategy of these groups is to mobilise the military community to withdraw its support for the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and oppose other US wars.

These soldiers speak in communities, to the media and also speak with young people in classrooms about the realities of military service. They support all those resisting the war, including Conscientious Objectors and others facing military prosecution for their refusal to fight. They also advocate for full funding for the Veterans Administration.

“We could learn a lot from these kinds of organisations as we have a lot of the same kind of issues in New Zealand albeit on a smaller scale” says Peter.

In his view, fighting wars is really about protecting those with money and power. He is also highly critical of military spending on new weapons like the 9000 new firearms for the Army and the weapons upgrade of the frigates, saying that much of what the NZ military doing is really about following Donald Trump’s demands for more weapons spending by America’s friends and allies.

“The United States under Trump is pushing weapon sales big time across the world and it clearly has New Zealand in its sights...our very own Minister of Defence appears to be a great fan of present US behavior.”

Peter’s view is backed up by some facts on the ground: since taking office last year, the government has committed $2.3 billion to new P8 aircraft from US weapons dealer Boeing, another $103 million for a new Navy boat, and $23 million for a new US-centric military ‘command and control’ system.

The aircraft purchase has been criticised by some as a clear case of buying for the “Five Eyes” rather than for NZ’s own needs, a reference to the five nation intelligence alliance comprised of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and NZ.

Now Peter has turned his peace activism on the annual Defence Industry Association expo that has moved to Palmerston North.

“What concerns me most is the propaganda of it all. This is an organisation that is set up to sell weapons. They do this by saying that they are protecting our ‘security.’ They are not. They are endangering it.”

He says that the equation is pretty simple: if you sell weapons to the military, they will want to use them. That incentivises waging war, and these companies then profit from war and killing.

Peter has now joined up with local group Peace Action Manawatū who are organising actions against the Weapons Expo including a Peace March on the first day, which falls on Halloween this year. “Weapons dealers and war are about the scariest things in the world,” says Peter.

“I will be doing everything a 77-year-old can do to stop this thing from going ahead. I hope that this year there will be more veterans on the front lines with me against these war profiteers. We are some of the ones who have seen and felt up close what war is really about, and its horror, pure and simple.” Thank you Valerie.

I'd like to thank you for reaching the end of this long blog, and never forget you are among the most important people in the world...I would value you sharing this with your friends.

The Youngster who shook the world. Wheeler's Corner 81 19th Oct 2019

Greta [courage comes in all sizes] Thunburg.

This young person stirred up millions of supporters around the world to protest world government failure to act in regard to the obvious concerns raised by the almost 100% of the world's climate scientists.

It is said that over 95% of those scientists support this world view and especially those who are involved in climate change.

The real question is how can this desire be converted into political change that will pick up the challenge.

The New Zealand scene:

The National Party is clearly has not yet accepting the urgency or behind any change to support the ways and means of any REAL change, they keep using the theme that climate change is simply 'nature at work'...their comments about Greta have been really negative. But the Nats have come out in opposing almost anything and punishing behaviour of Kiwis and their families and offspring:

Simon suggest we all move to Mars cows and all

"A short list of people who’d be fined under National’s school leaver policy. Speaking of university students, leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges announced that the National Party would be looking into fining parents of children who leave school early and don't go into further education or training.  The announcement was met with widespread condemnation and ridicule, with even senior National MP Judith Collins saying "it's not for me". Reed Fleming compiled an incomplete list of noted New Zealanders who would've been fined under this policy. They include Lorde, Sonny Bill Williams, Parris Goebel, and National's deputy leader and spokesperson for social services, Paula Bennett".

I can picture the Nats banning all kids from protesting about the lack of climate action, and fining their parents or care givers three thousand dollars if they do...  

The Labour Party too, often says the right words, but realistic economic action from Labour these days is still not far off the neoliberal stance they have followed since the hugely damaging days of Roger Douglas and his right wing crew of wreckers. I wonder how many of them support the backward looking New Zealand First Party climate so-called policy.

Greta Thunburg has without doubt shaken up the world with her words "how dare you" to the International Climate Conference just before the students struck in support of a more active approach to the subject of action around climate change.

If we take a little time to reflect back, two events stand out: One was when the world sat up and took note of the power of woman on the political scene, now we all know that New Zealand was the first country in the world to give woman the right to vote...that was a huge and enlightened step forward...but history shows that it was in fact an accident, and only came about because a ship load of South Island MP's failed to arrive at Parliament in time for the vote and the majority of them were anti women so the vote passed by a very small majority. Today naturally male MP's praise themselves for ALLOWING women the vote...

and brighter and smarter.

The numbers of women in Parliament has taken years and years decades in fact, to reach part equality with males, in fact the present green party with a high number of women mp's, labour comes a distant second, and National and NZ First barely rate a mention, Labour has an elected a female Prime Minister, where as national has never had an elected female PM, and New Zealand First has yet still to admit that women actually exist.

So its not hard to understand just how backward are some of our NZ political players who have suggested that young women should stay out of politics and just wash and wipe the dishes when ordered! and that supporting their political behavior is just not on! Even if the kids are showing us the way toward saving the planet.

When you compare the behaviour of our and the worlds youngsters it not hard to believe that most of them have better and more intelligent brains than the Donald Trump, Mike Hosking, and other over paid and over rated talking heads. Seriously folks, Tramp says he wants peace but then via the back door murders hundreds of thousands, and jails kids in US privately run prisons.

So what does this mean for New Zealand...Well in my view it means we should get behind our youth by supporting the Green party politically and encouraging our children to do the same, it would achieve two things.

It would give the Labour party some much needed backbone, it would shake the hell out of the National Party, scare the heck out of the one percent that really run our country and drive the NZ First party to its already dug grave site, somewhere in Northland,

I have not included the ACT party because unless they Nats buy them a seat they won't exist after the 2020 election [heres hoping] 

Below is a reference to a story in  [Noted News Letter] its well worth a read.

https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/currently-politics/will-the-greta-thunberg-effect-influence-nz-election day-2020?ref_email=d2hlZWxlckBpbnNwaXJlLm5ldC5ueg%3D%3D&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NOTED_newsletter_17-10-2019&utm_term=list_notednz_newsletter


2. Below is an US media statement about governmemt in the USA, the question for us New Zealander's is, does this apply to NZ as well?...you decide.

"There’s a lot of reasons people have lost trust in government, not the least of which is that oligarchs and corporatists have been running  a well-funded, strategic coup which featured a propaganda campaign designed to rebrand  government from what it had been up until the late 1970’s—the source of much innovation and prosperity, a champion of the people, and a defender of the middle class—to the source of our problems, while simultaneously selling the free market and corporations as the source of all good things.  

But their propaganda campaign succeeded only because over the years, the ultra-rich and corporations were ceded more and more power, until by the early 21^st century, government no longer represented the people’s interests and they knew it. By 2014, Gilens and Paige concluded, after studying money and power in politics: ‘The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

Meanwhile, since 1980 half of all Americans saw almost no gains in wealth, while the oligarchs walked away with the vast majority of wealth generated in that time.  Today, the three richest Americans have as much wealth as the bottom half of all Americans.

In short, the U.S. has a government of the rich and corporations, by the rich and corporations, and for the rich and corporations.  No wonder people don’t trust government and no wonder the people elected a renegade like Trump.

Have a short think about it, could not all of the above comments equally apply to us here in NZ 

 

Local Body elections the good the bad and the ugly Wheeler's Corner 80 13th Oct 2019

This From: Robert McLachian:
1.
"Great to see the top four climate candidates elected in Palmerston North (with 95% of votes counted): Brent Barrett, Renee Dingwall, Lorna Johnson, and Aleisha Rutherford. Karen Naylor, Pat Handcock, and Zulfiqar Butt also did well on the Climate Voter scorecard and were elected. Zulfiqar has a PhD in measuring greenhouse gas emissions & I expect him to be strong in this area.

In the Horizons Regional Council, Green Party candidates Rachel Keedwell and Fiona Gordon were elected in Palmerston North, and Sam Ferguson (Green) came first in Horowhenua.

With New Zealand's first Green Party mayor elected in Dunedin, so far this has been a good day for climate politics". Thanks Robert,

The final count is still to be announced but my gut feeling is that the results above won't change.
https://www.pncc.govt.nz/media/3132217/iteration-report-12-oct-2019.pdf

Radio NZ has just reported the bad part of our local election process:

"Andy Foster has been elected mayor of Wellington, ousting incumbent Justin Lester.
The candidates had had a nailbiting wait for results after a large number of last-minute ballots were still to be counted today.
Last night, with the count of 90 percent of the votes completed, Andy Foster was leading incumbent Justin Lester by 715 votes, and 5600 special votes were being counted today.
Mr Foster told RNZ's Insight election special that if he was elected mayor, his prominent backer Sir Peter Jackson would not be influencing what happened within the new council".

If you believe that Peter Jackson won't influence Andy Fosters behaviour, you must be a tooth fairy believer ... Money talks and always has a pay-back...

2.
Peace action Manawatu is no doubt over joyed at the cancellation of the latest offer by the re-elected Mayor Grant Smith [Tin Soldier] to host the Defence Force Industry Forum's Arms Expo here in Palmerston has been rejected by the Defence Industry Association, who turned down his offer. It would seem that the anti war organisations throughout NZ have forced this ugly behaviour off shore, because the DIAF has been forced to relocated its salesmanship team to operate in Australia...rather than in NZ, a wise move, we in NZ have always been light years ahead of Australia in creating peace rather than war!

Now if the American population can somehow bring their crazy Donald [Duck] Trump under control and stop him from declaring yet another long lasting war outside of his own borders, the world could become a safer place for human beings. Since the 2nd WW the USA has never been successful using its armed forces as a weapon of social change, in fact everything they touch ends up rotten and corrupt.It would seem that dictators are Trumps best friends...

With the continuing efforts by all those who love our environment, and those whom opt for peace over war, who love more than hate, people like the young Greta from Sweden and the millions world wide to follow her, we could and will end up with a more human world, we may even save the planet and the human race from extinction. Courage comes in various shapes and forms. We have a chance to revitalise democracy and freedom by marching together on a path toward peace rather than war.
3.

Wheeler's Corner has been broadcast on Manawatu People Radio for over 12 or 13 years, but alas it ends this week, I have really enjoyed presenting the programme and I want to thank all the staff for the work they put into making the station fuction along with all the community interaction the create and support. I've had some exciting moments, such as the time the PNCC CEO tried to shut down my programme, which failed but increased my listenership greatly.

The present management team of Fraser Greig, Hugh Dingwall and Samuel Gordon are doing a wonderful job of keeping the station up and running. I thank them and all the present and past volunteers over the past decade plus.

While I am still remaining as a trustee on the board so I will be a part of the team of MPR. It has been and still is an exciting role. Wheeler's Corner blog site will contine, as typing is easier than speaking on the radio, and while it true that some have said, I was never short of words, in fact they wish I would shut up and listen more! And they were correct. In so many respects listening is more important and educational than talking.

Well that's it for this week, and please never forget that you are amongst the most important people in the world.


 

 
   

Act dishes out its awards, Palmerston North wins. Wheelers Corner 48 5th Oct 2019

 

 

 

New Zealand's most Right Wing Party 'ACT' dishes out its 2019 awards. Better known as Government wast awards: 

Lifetime Achievement Award

2019 Jonesie Awards: Named after that great adult movie watcher Shane Jones NZF list MP:

"I'm not a great fan of the ACT party, their past and present leaders and supporters have left a trail of destruction thoughout our wonderful nation, with leaders like Douglas, Prebble, Don Brash to name but three, we must never forget it was this bunch that sold-off with the willing and eager assistance of National and Labour, whole branches of government activities, like banks, educational activities, council operations and power supply to private companies, under their slimy neoliberal hand. Regardless here is the Lifetime awards they issued [with a great deal of tongue in cheek]

1,
Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt took home the most heinous ham: the Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in government wast
His feats are new and old.

Sir Tim was arrested 33 times as a protestor in the 1960s and ‘70s, before running for Mayor of Waitemata City in 1983, where he unexpectedly won. After famously losing his mayoral chains (literally) twice, he was voted out in 1989. He then failed to get elected as MP for West Auckland, as Auckland Mayor (twice), and as MP for Wellington Central, before in 1993 finally finding the one group of voters who would accept him: the forgiving folk of Invercargill.

He famously said, “I don’t care where, as long as I’m Mayor”.

But Sir Tim wanted more. The very next year he unsuccessfully ran for Parliament again, was voted out as Mayor, ran for Parliament once more for the Legalise Cannabis party, and finally was welcomed back to the Invercargill mayoralty in 1998, where he has remained ever since.

Sir Tim is now a household name, and has supplemented his ratepayer-funded mayoral salary with a range of celebrity gigs, and even receives public money through his positions as ambassador for the Southern Institute of Technology and director for Invercargill Airport.

Sir Tim’s career has recent highlights: in 2015, his Council flew four staff members to China to buy Christmas lights, only to bring them home and discover the lights failed to meet New Zealand standards and were scrapped. A replacement set of lights cost ratepayers $250,000.

Sir Tim also has the honour of owning the country’s most expensive mayoral vehicle, a Chrysler 300C.
2.

Tracy Martin NZF List MP

His Mayoral expenses this term alone include $3,100 maintaining his Chrysler, $19,500 on books (mostly books about himself to give to other people), $2,600 on donations to private charity, $8,000 on conference fees, $1,800 at local liquor stores, and $3,200 on custom made rubber wristbands that say, “I met the Mayor”.

Hon Tracey Martin: for thinking deaf people can’t read. Our Associate Education Minister decided it would be wise to spend $800 of your money on a video of a sign language interpreter. This would make sense for a speech, but it this case, it was to translate one of her written press statements. $800 is our smallest nominated spend, but Jonesie adjudicators were stunned that a Minister evidently thinks deaf people are illiterate too.




3.

Add caption

Palmerston North City Council: Corporate welfare for Toyota New Zealand. Ratepayers in Palmerston North forked out $391,000 to appease the world’s largest car manufacturer after it threatened to move its offices to another city. The decision was made in a closed council session and was only publicised after a Taxpayers’ Union information request.

2019 Jonesie Awards: we highlight the best of the worst in Government waste Yesterday, we hosted our second annual Oscars-style awards ceremony at Parliament. The "Jonesies" celebrate the best of the worst of government waste at both the local and central government level. So, who was lucky enough to take home a golden sow? Palmerston North City Council won in the Local Government category, for its $391,000 corporate welfare payment to Toyota New Zealand (the world's largest car manufacturer!).  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won in the Central Government category, for her hypocritical fuel price inquiry that ignored the Government's own petrol taxes.  Sir Tim Shadbolt won the Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in Government waste racked up over many years. He joins the Jonesies' namesake, Shane Jones, in the pantheon of great troughers. PM must strip Jones of forestry portfolio Remember who the Jonesie Awards are named after? Last week it was reported that Shane Jones, as Minister of Forestry, told attendees of an industry event that the sector needed to get behind and support NZ First or else it will miss out on Government support and Provincial Growth Fund (taxpayer) money. That's a disgraceful attempt to exploit his control of taxpayer funds for political ends, and the Prime Minister rightfully rebuked him. However, instead of apologising to the public, he’s now threatening ‘utu’ on the whistleblower from the event. This isn’t the first time that Shane Jones has bullied business, been rebuked by the Prime Minister, and then doubled down. We say the Prime Minister now has every reason to sack Mr Jones. Lashing out at a whistleblower for blowing the whistle on behaviour that borders on corrupt is the action of a wannabe despot, not a Minister in the Cabinet of a Western nation (let alone the “most open and transparent” government!). After reading the above list its no wonder our rates have gone through the bloody roof, I wonder the reaction of PN Mayor Grant Smith must be about his city winning the most wastful Council in the country: Especially now the Defence Force Industry Forum has cancelled its yearly sales drive for 2019...I suppose he never got a chance to offer them a grant to continue with his invitation that they had penciled in, but have now erased. I suppose thr rate payers will be greatful that have been spared the angony of another give away by out generous Mayor.  2.

Peter,
It's been a week since the global climate strike, and the team at SumOfUs are still taking in the awe-inspiring power of the 7 million people that took part in the 4000 events, across the globe, last week to demand that we end the age of fossil fuels.
SumOfUs exists to hold corporations accountable. And corporations are absolutely responsible for the current climate crisis -- just 100 companies produce 71% of global carbon emissions.

I was proud that SumOfUs worked with organizations such as 350.org to invite millions of our members that want to create a safer, cleaner world together during the climate strikes.

During the climate strikes, I made sure to gather all the stories from around the globe of SumOfUs joining in solidarity at the different strikes, so I could report them back to you, Peter. It was incredible to see the action in real time of SumOfUs in over 8 locations and in 3 different continents and be a part of a movement of millions hitting the streets to stop catastrophic climate change.
Watch this inspiring video of SumOfUs at climate strikes across the world last week like us on Facebook.
We were live at the climate strike on Instagram. Please watch and follow us on Instagram.

Young People show us the way...Grant Smith yet again stays away. Wheeler Corner 47 28th Sept 2019

They came in their hundreds, young, old and hundreds in between.

They were demanding that the Council and the government do more to combat climate change.
More than simply talk about money money..as there placards said, money does not buy protection from mans massive destruction of the environment...you can't simply cancel the pollution of our rivers you have to stop polluting them!  If school kids can get that message correct why the hell can't our world and local politicians not grasp that obvious fact.

 These young active men and women have more brain power than three Donald Trumps, two Brazillian Presidents, and one Indian PM combined...really they do. 

They, thats the young protesters put to shame the various numbers of PN and other sitting councillors or candidates, who stayed away from the SS march for the climate:

Some Councillors did turn up, all three Green Party candidates appeared on the scene. Mayoral Candidate, Teanau Tuiono and Renee Dingwall and Brent Barrett a sitting Councillor stepped up as well. Grant Smith the Mayor once again failed to show his face, like wise for Lew Findlay and Vaughan Dennison, Leonie Hapeta, Karen Naylor and a whole heap of others...but there were exceptions, Duncan McCann made it along with Zulfiqar Butt and there may have been one or two others that I did not spot...here are a few pictures:
 

I'm unsure how many people took part in the march but I'd guess it would be around six to eight hundred...I think the present Councillors especially the elderly male and long serving but all most inactive women business Councillors are lucky that 16 year old don't have the vote... but with a little luck in the not to distant future that may change... If the Americans can impeach their weird President and if the Brit's can sack their idiotic PM then anything is possible.
This from Radio New Zealand:

"We are now receiving credible reports that 170,000 are striking nationwide. That’s an entire 3.5% of New Zealand’s entire population. #ClimateStrike #FridaysForFuture @GretaThunberg

395

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/399721/live-school-strike-4-climate-kicks-off-around-the-country  

So you can see this Climate Strike has been a massive success...I say well done to our youngsters and their supporters... Bloody well done you deserve a medal... 

The world has to chose between a couble of idiots or a smart 16 year old school girl. Wheelers Corner 46.

Wheeler's Corner 46 22nd Sept 2019

This year has just flown by at a rapid rate...or maybe I’m just getting old...but it truly feels like time has sped up. But it sure has been a year of massive change and especially by our younger generation, young people have in there thousands here in New Zealand and in their millions around the world have and are shaking the very foundations of the past three hundred years of mans mismanagement of the worlds environment. The picture below is simply of a hundred thousand plus in Sydney Australia which must be scaring the pants off the Australian anti climate change and coal loving block heads who run that strange government these days.

The world youth are taking on their various governments across the world with massive support strikes across the world, the US and the UK have had hundreds of thousands take to the streets of the largest cities including Germany and many othe states.

They have taken on the world as a whole and have if one is to judge the latest world news outlets have stunned the nations with there coordinated and massively successful world School Strike for Climate movement.

New Zealands big day is Friday the 27^th [next Friday] and the SS for Climate are seeking support from all progressive schools and universities plus as many adults as possible to attend activities on Friday.

So if you now share the younger generations concern for our leaders stupidity toward their fellow man, and now realise fully that denial about climate change is simply stupid. Most of our deniers here in Palmerston North have disappeared into the woodwork and have accepted the obvious truth of mans massive destruction of our world environment for all living beings, be they human, animal or vegetable is at serious risk because of the greed factor that rules our political scene.

For more on the world scene go to: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/09/20/its-time-strike-climate?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

 https://www.facebook.com/ianbremmer/videos/2503182143102698/?hc_location=ufi 

So Friday is the big day when we get a chance to join our really bright young people in their huge world wide protest on FRIDAY the 27^th of September 2019 in the Square in Palmerston North at noon. Bring your whole family, and Gran-Mum and Dad, your cuzzies and anyone else you can...I would expect all our want-to-be Councillors to attend...after all the voting papers are now out…not all people are bright here are a couple of examples:

Here are two of the worlds dumbest leaders and climate deniers...a really bright pair are these two idiots at large, no wonder our young people are striking over their idiotic behaviour.

So if you too would like to assist our bright young people get the nessage out to the two dumb types in the blue dresses.



 We can only hope the message becomes available to the absolutely dumbest ever US Education leader. It would seem that money can buy anything in the US political scene...

These are the kind of leaders that have been leading the Worlds richest nation to fight 'never ending' wars, lock up kids on the Mexican border. Drone bomb civilians and assist other dictatorships to do the same,

OK the murder of jouralists by the Saudi / Israeli mass murderers, support mass mining of coal etc, and support the various mass killings of school children by supporting and taking money from their very own arms dealers.

The US can not even control its weapons sales. How the hell can we expect it to assist in reigning back the mad and out of control fracking industry now sweeping the country side in the US.

 

Betsy DeVos is a typical rich and uneducated person appointed by Republican Donald Trump...mind you none of them seem to last very long as he sacks them on a daily basis. Maybe she will be next? We can only hope so...but dont hold your breath...