After blowing $12million in bribes to a Saudi businessman who was told by Key that NZ would lift its ban on live sheep exports, NZ is now going to blow another $2.5million to build him an abattoir?
Govt to build Saudi businessman abattoir
The government is about to spend more than $2.5 million of taxpayers’ money building an abattoir for a disaffected Saudi businessman.The kit-set abattoir is part of the Government’s $12m attempt to appease him.
It has already given the influential businessman, Hamood Al-Ali Al-Khalaf, $4m and has flown 900 pregnant sheep to his farm – nearly all the lambs subsequently died.
Mr Al-Khalaf has opposed New Zealand getting a free trade deal in the region.
The Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said $2.6m will now be spent building Mr Al-Khalaf an abattoir.
The abattoir will be gifted to the Saudi government then installed on the businessman’s farm in the Saudi desert, which the Government said doubles as a New Zealand agri-hub.
Saudi Arabia of course is deeply involved in funding ISIS and have one of the worst human rights records in the world.
Saudi Arabia recently held a women rights conference, where no women participated…
Saudi Arabia’s laughably prestigious University of Qassim played host to one of the biggest women’s rights conferences in the Arab world in 2012. Ironically, the institution managed to hold the event without the advice or attendance of a single woman.
Themed around the topic of “Women in Society” the conference, originally intended to be held annually at the University, is supposed to set a benchmark for tolerance and progress in the region. Delegates and speakers from more than fifteen countries showed up.
As is to be expected from Saudi Arabia, a country with a twisted interpretation of Sharia Law, zero women attended the event. At least not in the same building as the men. Perhaps more hypocritically a woman is yet to lecture to men at a University of Qassim summit.
Saudi Arabia is still ranked 127th out of 136 countries for gender parity.
…Saudi Arabia treat our sheep with more rights than they treat women. Trying to bribe a Saudi Businessman National lied to in the hope to gain free trade deal is beneath contempt.
It could have been an F-16 deployment instead of sheep, if Clark hadn’t axed ACF. Kinda lucky in some respects
And you know why we’re reduced to selling our most excellent agricultural products to a pack of base, jabbering, hating , arrogant, sneering, misogynistic, tribal thugs and bullies right ?
Go back in history.
And by the way, you all know what ‘History’ is right ? ‘History’ is words an’ pictures an’ shit of what done happened fuckin’ yonks ago. Way before CD’s even man. History is where our old people did stuff and it was kind of recorded ? A bit like down – loading Taylor Swift’s latest assault on the ear holes then keeping it on your stick to plug and play directly into your head via your many selections of iShit devices ?
Years and years ago when the earth was cooling and chickens were still big ass dinosaurs what could peck a whole cow to pieces there were these old fellas what were in da know ? And while these old fella’s what were in da know ? There were other old fellas what weren’t. Ya know ? In da’ know an’ shit and they lived in caves. Big caves above the ground and all they knew how to do was grow shit and animals ta’ eat? So, dat’s what most of them cave living fellas did ? They just worked hard and grew shit. Trouble was? They were too good at what they did and then them other old fella’s came in and stole the other old fella’s stuff what they grew aye ? Then once they had stole allllllll the stuff ? They sold that off for them selves man.
Then ? Then the old fellas what made and grew the stuff were pushed up against the other fellas what lifted and carried the stuff to da sea by the other old fellas what stole the other old fellas stuff an’ shit? That caused wars man. Wars between the old fellas what grew da’ shit an’ the fellas what moved da’ shit and that pissed off dem other fellas over the sea who normally bought the old fellas stuff who grew the stuff an’ shit aye?
So, dem’ fellas over da’ sea what normally bought our shit said ” Aw, fuck you man ! ” We can’t relay upon your agreements to supply us with your agricultural products so we’ll create an Economic Union to ensure a supply of foods and while we’re at it? We’ll subsidise our farmers to make absolutely certain that recent events, particularly of ww 2 don’t repeat them selves and we have to eat our budgies, cats, kittens, dogs, puppies and most chillingly of all? Each other. Ever heard of Leningrad man? Dat shit was only 72 years ago man. People got so hungry they ate them dead other old fellas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad
While you’re hand wringing about us having to shell out yet more money to cover up a swindle of global proportions you blithely ignore the lessons of history. You have still not swallowed the dead rat that is The Great New Zealand Institutionalised Lie. Man.
( I think I broke my spell checker ! )
What makes this even more ludicrous is that the Saudis haven’t farmed in 100 years, stopped right about the time they started drilling for oil.
They have no vets of there own, no Agri scientists, they don’t even have any farmers of there own bar the Ethiopian slaves they own???
Far koff man. This is a money pit
The National governments Saudi bribery is despicable.
Where do you start, bribery, corruption, human rights, animal welfare, terrorism…..
By far the biggest danger to NZ for terrorism is a free trade agreement with Saudi Arabia!! Security risk anyone? Lets work out what these trade deals really mean, free movement of nationals, free working visas of nationals, reduction of border controls on imports, selling off our country to foreign nationals….. Being able to be sued under ISDS by businessman who have more money than the government….
These are people who are crucifying bodies! What an amazing business country to partner with.
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/middle-east/an-execution-and-crucifixion-in-saudi-arabia/
I guess Key can’t wait to bankrupt Fonterra and the farmers so he can sell off their land to his mates at investment vulture firms and foreign buyers.
Instead of our 100% pure NZ we could have
Crucifixion NO barrier to trade in NZ!
9/11 Saudi Nationals… not problem moved on to Syria….
As fanatical neoliberal and climate change denier John Key can attest
We will PAY YOU to trade with us! Corporate Welfare for Oil or Agriculture!
Meanwhile NZ is swimming in a pool of debt. I hope this Saudi sheep deal is thoroughly investigated and not brushed under the carpet. If it smells like a rat it probably is a rat. However it maybe economic development by MFAT?
What happens when the live stock start dying from heat stroke, starvation, disease, the animals that use to inhabit the Middle East where quite small and lean, and there use to be a heck of a lot more drinkable water in the Middle East now.
With Turkey and ISIS controlling all Middle East water, it’s fool hearty to attempt agriculture
In the context of our fanatical governments drive to sell our country off via free trade agreements…
Very interesting video about how TTIP (and likewise TPP) will destroy small and medium farmers (i.e. like NZ farmers), introduce Genetically modified foods, introduce chlorinated meat washing techniques and USA agricultural intensive farming practises around the world with these ‘free trade’ agreements.
It is not only NZ farms being bought up by agribusiness and foreign investors it is also happening in Europe. Soon as well as being tenants in our own country we will also be able to afford the ‘raw food’ materials of our country as they will be exported using mega supply chains to other countries to be processed.
The video also has a lot of useful statistics like how 70% of the worlds fresh water is used in agribusiness and 52% of emissions are from agribusiness as to get that massive scale petrol is used to ship around the world.
While we like to think NZ is an exporter so TPP will ‘help’ farmers it appears that most mega agribusiness like Montanso and investment companies buying up land for food are most likely to use NZ as a banana republic, and use their own migrant labour, offshore productions and supply chains to export the food cutting out the middle men (Kiwis) and using sophisticated tax laws to pay the minimum of taxes while getting the maximum of corporate welfare.
It is already happening, TPP just means governments will not be able to stop it as they can be sued.
http://amara.org/en/videos/RB5o7MJ0YZgr/info/ttip-the-countryside-gone-into-liquidation/
Interestingly, small holding farming is more productive per hectre than corporate farming. Not necessarily more economical, but more productive in terms of yield.
Considering that we face a future involving global food shortages and tighter job “markets” i.e. ever increasing unemployment and/or lower wages, surely small holdings are beneficial on both accounts.
@ RICHARD CHRISTIE .
You’re totally correct.
Not partially correct , slightly correct, sort of correct , mainly correct, vaguely correct, correct now and then, or correct depending upon certain view points. You’re absolutely and irrefutably correct to an infinite point of precise exactness.
The reason NZ / Aotearoa isn’t a flourishing country of busy and wondrous towns supporting an equally wondrous and holistic network of family farms feeding the world on the very best agricultural products THE WORLD HAS IN FACT SEEN FROM US BEFORE is because a cadre of cunning swine fucked everything for everyone.
And of course, as if often the way with treachery, it was the NZ farmers’ own kind that did ( And continue to do ) those dirty deeds. Is that not so roger douglas, jim bolger, bill english et al ? You dirty, greedy, little men, with your cruel, soulless, classless, graceless, piggy little eyes darting about, looking for an opportunity at someone else’s expense?
The day will come, my nasty little fellows, once the penny’s traveled its long and arduous journey, and when that day comes? I’ll be in the back of the court loudly wishing you a long and miserable stay in one of your SERCO prisons. ( Should have stuck with HRH Prisons. She may have had a lot more sympathy for you fuckers )
( I wonder if those scum bags actually peek into TDB from time to time? I do hope so and that I cause a pinching sensation in their collective anal sphincters. )
I know! We could send all our poor children there to look after the sheep and clean the abbatoir. It would teach them the value of work, because lord knows their dole bludging parents won’t. It would serve as both a kindly gift to the Saudi businessman, fostering healthy trade relationships, and also remove the burden not only from their struggling families, but also from an overburdened public system. Two birds, one stone. Now THAT’S efficient government.
@ Richarquis
Have a look at the Coke post on TDB.
Replace Kiwis with the Mexicans and that is us, Kiwis are becoming the low wage Mexicans under these ‘free trade’ agreements, looking on in wonder as the ‘fun’ guys and girls from overseas come and tell us how to do things and what we should be consuming. (and how lucky we are, because in some countries they only earn 65 cents an hour).
This whole Saudi sheep story gets more confusing by the month. Ok, so we fly him some pregnant ewes for a ‘breeding programme’, breaking or bending our rules about live sheep exports. We build him a farm in desert. The lambs die. We build him an abbatoir for his ‘breeding programme’. We might fly more sheep out to him.
Meanwhile in other news, Saudi Arabia has drained their aquifers of water after using it all to irrigate wheat crops in the desert, and as such will now go from being the world’s largest exporter of wheat to having to import their entire food supply (this is an example of the global problem of food security).
Maybe, just maybe, NZ will get something out of this deal. Perhaps the Saudi businessman will sell us back some sheep bred to survive extreme heat, in desert environs, that can also survive on zero water. We may well need them in the future with Paula Bennett in charge of the climate change portfolio.
Maybe after the abatoir we can build him some flash-freezing facilities to help solve the problem of all the excess meat the country can’t eat after the mass animal sacrifices?
@compass rose
+100
None of it makes sense…..
Horrible to hear about the deserts, don’t worry foreigners can bottle water in NZ for a mere $2000 council fee, while the farmers go into drought.
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/who-owns-new-zealands-water-2015041518
Love how polluters can just pollute their own land and then just come and take from poor locals in NZ while the government glad hands them. Then sells back the water to locals…. in fees…
By the way Chinese water is undrinkable…
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/water.htm
So we are giving away/selling cheap our water and land to business people who have polluted their own water supply in their own countries – makes sense???
Seems to, to the Natz!! And Labour are pretty quiet…
I heard on RNZ that the estimate will be exceeded here and reach over double that $2.5M.
Shoddy budgeting national!!!
Everyone points to Israel/Iran (depending on your political leaning) as the cancer of the Middle East, but factually Saudi Arabia really is the absolute worst. There just about isn’t a terrorist organisation on this planet the Saudis don’t have a finger in.
Bugger John Key and his sneaky evil games ,he wants Saudis onside FOR WHAT !!!!!!!!!sending money to them but not enough money to feed our kids ,not enough money to look after poorer people ,made poorer by Key,what the point writing all these comments when nothing comes of it, Key just laughs and screws us all the time.
I think it’s best to leave aside the anti-Saudi rants, it’s a complicated society, and making progress will not follow our logic, having started from different places. Having spent some time there, I imagine that any women’s rights conference there represents progress, as does the recent extension of the franchise enabling women to vote.
But the abattoir is a cause for concern as the National government persists in its pursuit of a corrupt model of international relations. They want a free trade deal – which is infinitely more sensible than the pursuit of the TPPA – but throwing money at a problematic businessman is neither appropriate nor effective. Free trade deals reflect relations between states, not persons, and there is no reason whatsoever that the KSA should respect this tawdry series of bribes.
This is not to say that NZ might not appropriately pursue a trade deal, or that some constructive aid is out of place. The KSA has a shortfall of 1-2 million sheep per annum, which are required for the Haj pilgrimage. NZ might very properly undertake to help resolve this problem – sheep being something NZ has a modicum of expertise in. But they should be dealing with the state (or if they are smart, the Royal Commission) not a private individual.
It’s a McCully deal though – nothing clean or sensible can be expected.
Maybe that Saudi business man has something on John Key and the money is a pay off.John Key is building a house of animal death,that just about sums him up.
Why arnt we being told why he is spending our money,of course he will blame Labour because Labour never fights back.
Britain helped Saudi Arabia get onto the UN Human Rights Council in exchange for the Saudis making a large purchase of British weapons . The US sells weapons on a large scale to the Saudis as well.
Saudi is bombing Yemen to total destruction, something that is NEVER mentioned in mainstream media. The Saudis have bombed a MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) hospital recently. The Saudis spread the doctrine of Wahabism, extreme fundamentalism. Saudi Arabia has beheaded more people than ISIS.
The West’s friendly relationship with Saudi Arabia is symptomatic of moral bankruptcy. New Zealand should not be engaged with any dealings with such a brutal barbaric regime.
NZ is engaged with Obamas war games,not much difference.Key is giving money to a Saudi person hes giving NZ to corporations, hes very free with our money and our future sovereignty.
“Saudi Arabia recently held a women rights conference, where no women participated”
Who needs women, when you get so cuddly sheep flown in from Niu Zilliland? They do not argue and do not ask silly questions, they just let things done to themselves, at the end at the abattoir.
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