We can’t build state houses to home the homeless or affordable housing to home everyone else but we can build a $53m pavilion in bloody Dubai???
New Zealand to build $53 million pavilion at World Expo 2020 in Dubai
Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges has announced New Zealand’s participation during his visit to Dubai.
“Through Budget 2017, the Government is committing $53.3 million to construct a New Zealand Pavilion that will allow Kiwi businesses to highlight their innovative products and services and open doors to new export markets,” Mr Bridges said.
Showcasing New Zealand to the world is a crucial part of boosting economic growth, he said.
“Expo 2020 will provide a springboard to promote us as an innovative, solution-focused economy to the 25 million visitors expected to attend from across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
“It will also allow us to build on our strong economic and transport links to the UAE which acts as a global air and sea logistics hub, providing access for New Zealand exporters to a much wider region.
And what exporters would they be Simon?
You guessed it, bloody dairy, the industry that the National Party slavishly worship.
So let me see if I can just get this completely fucking straight.
While this Government won’t do a thing to fix our housing crisis, (other than paying for beneficiaries to live in short term motels), we are blowing $53m to build a pavilion in Dubai to try and help the dairy industry whose product is currently polluting our rivers to a country that has a human rights abuse record that makes Bashar al-Assad look reasonable…
Arbitrary Detentions, Enforced Disappearances, and Torture
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) continued in 2015 to arbitrarily detain and in some cases forcibly disappear individuals who criticized the authorities, and its security forces continued to face allegations that they torture detainees in pretrial detention. The UAE passed an anti-discrimination law that further jeopardizes free speech and is discriminatory in that it excludes references to gender and sexuality. Authorities denied access to the country to activists who criticized the UAE’s mistreatment of migrant workers.
…it really says something about how uncritical our corporate media have become that they would cover this story and at no point highlight the hypocrisy of spending obscene amounts of money to build a pavilion while our country is gripped by a housing crisis to help an industry with deep links to the Government that pollutes our water to a country that tortures and disappears their own people.
Unbelievable.
Not to mention how many people will die building the bloody place.
Yes absolutely ridiculous, it would be far cheaper to fly a mob of sheep out there,just as a good will gesture of course .
This a national disgrace building a show piece pavilion whilst we have homeless people and children suffering from poverty. This has been the national party strategy for the past 8 years.
Whatever happened to business paying its own way and not relying on government to provide taxpayer handouts? I thought we were past that when farming SMPs were abolished?
@ SAlly’s husband.
I’m sorry but what are you fucking talking about!? Just who’s tax money paid who for their own fucking SMP’s ! ? The biggest con-job was spinning supplementary minimum prices back to farmers. Farmers were being paid their own money back you idiot. It’s your kind of terminal stupidity that perpetuates the on-going head fuck that’s NZ’s agricultural PRIMARY industry burden. Let me ask you this Husband of Sally. Where do you think the money came from that built up our resources and amenities? Santa fucking Claus? You? Your fancy city colleagues? Sucking on the export currency earned tit then you try to pretend that it is you, the lauded tax payer that does the job. Fuck right off!
Re the Pavilion? Put simplistically, we need our crooks to snuggle up to the Arabs because we fucked off our traditional trading partners in the UK, the USA and Europe by inflaming NZ Unions to strike when the boats needed to be loaded with our export goods. Then, to add insult to a cluster fuck, we, NZ, started buying our stuff and things off Australia and Asia. Why ? Because there was/is vast amounts of money in it for the architects of such dodgy deals is why. Heard of Keith Holyoak? Old and dead right? But ever hear about how some things echo back through history to shape the modern world?
Honestly? Someone needs to dig into it. Hagar is a waste of talent, trying to tie up jonky via the military in one of his many, relatively minor fuck ups. Hagar should instead delve into our many missing Agri-billions.
I’d warn him however. Once he starts looking…. There’d be no going back.
You might have missed the UK joining the EEC (Now EU) in 1973). I think that had a bigger impact on our trading arrangements than any ‘inflamed’ Trade Unions.
I wonder, will Fisher and Paykel present a new Haier (Chinese made) refrigerator or washer there, and will Cadbury introduce a new recipe for chocolate bars there (after closing in Dunedin)?
What is left of NZ production, apart from dairy, and a bit of niche products, well, there is some IT, I hear?
Of course they will have some stuff to present, I am sure, but as we know, trickle down has not reached the homeless and low paid here.
They are still waiting from the last few “booms” we were supposed to have.
Meanwhile others have “done well”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Gibbs
“Alan Gibbs (born 1939) is a New Zealand-born businessman, entrepreneur and art collector. After a successful business career in New Zealand, which made him one of that country’s wealthiest individuals, he relocated to London in 1999.”
How “patriotic” he is. He sponsors ACT by the way.
“Gibbs was active in the establishment of ACT New Zealand, a libertarian political party that was formed in 1994. ACT won seven seats in the parliament after the first election under proportional representation in 1996, and has continued to be represented in Parliament since.”
All old Tories relocate to London. It’s the place to be when you’re a pretentious, money-grubbing elitist who secretly regards New Zealand as an embarrassing colonial backwater of little to no consequence. They yearn to be one of the posh folk, and would love nothing more than to swan about a country estate in a tweed jacket, lording it over the common rabble.
Wow, how wonderful, what a “great place”, I hear a fair few Kiwi expats live there, make nice money too. Others are not so lucky, I hear.
Here is the Dubai Expo as glorified on websites:
http://www.expo2020dubai.ae/
http://www.dubaiworldsfair.com/
The other side:
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/middle-east/dubai-migrant-workers-the-hidden-slaves-behind-glamour-city/news-story/b3997ed5b013870424e84d78a561946c
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7985361.stm
” 30p overtime
Instead on arriving in Dubai they are met with shanty town conditions hidden from public view. In a country that penalises journalists reporting stories which negatively reflect the economy or insult the government with massive fines and even imprisonment, it was important to maintain a low profile.”
https://bkpk.me/why-i-left-dubai-and-wont-come-back-part-12/
But as NZ Inc has been ‘FOR SALE’ for decades, our dear government has no scruples to join the rich and famous, and the business players, to go onto that market, and sell, sell, sell, no matter what, whether ordinary Kiwi workers actually will benefit much, that remains to be seen.
So whats this world all about, sorry i have been reading and not paying attention or bothered to notice as it all just seems liked stupid joke.. .
So how does our world work? What do we do?
So I am a human I think, I do what my parents tell me, then I went to University somehow I heard I had to do that. So then I got a job thing, was kind off fun in the sense that the people I worked with were really cool and really fun.
But then I found out about these things called girls which have a special power to change what I think and feel and learn. So now I am not really sure what to do?
The job ran out of this stuff called money which is kind off like a life energy it lets you do more and have more and seems to be like a time machine in paper form. But the company I worked for could not make it or could not get it quick enough and it seems these girls are made really like it -I am told its like evolution survival instink..
So really not sure what to do now as I cant seem to find this money stuff myself and have told people what I learnt at school and if they would like to exchange it for some of this money stuff.
But alas seems there is a secret I don’t know about cause i thought my learning meant I could get something for it.
So wonder if anyone can tell me where this money stuff comes from can I have some, would I need to email someone or a website or something. I don’t really need a lot I think, I like coffee, cars, planes, making things out of lasers and I Love these girls/woman kind they are like magic I think I need some to make them like me also.
But it seems we have a kind of human at the top I always see them in flash suites and they run big things and everyone says they are important is that true?
Are they happy? Do they feel emotions like me, or other normal humans? I hope so. But I dont understand the do seem to behave really weird .. I hear they have a police force which dress in blue as well and they are big strong men and they can hit people and smash them and they can do this and we cannot resist?
Why do people think these politicians are important if they hurt us? Are they not the bad people to be rejected?
I heard some make bombs and make other people make bombs and them literally throw these on little kids eating and stuff, why do we allow this to happen?
It should be patently obvious to anyone with half a brain and a conscience that this so-called government (whom does it serve, one wonders? Certainly not the people of the land) needs to be removed ASAP, by force, if necessary.
A hobbit-shaped mannequin, eyes half closed, with a sign underneath saying “Come and Get It!” will be enough to attract investors.
Will cost bugger all and is effectively a continuation of what we’ve been doing the last 30 years anyway.
Maybe the hobbit should be bent over also?
Increasingly these so called Kiwi exports are not even owned, run or have any benefits to local people. In fact they are probably not owned by people at all, but corporations who have complicated offshore structures and so who knows who actually benefits.
So now our taxes are being diverted away from social spending to actually help external export corporations profit more at the expense of the environment and the local people… It’s crazy!
Remember our 2nd biggest export is now ‘profits’.
Maybe it’s now our biggest….
The government tried to sell exports of milk and beef, but the offshore buyers bought the farm instead.
Natz still haven’t got their head around that one and what that will mean in 20 years. But the donations are decent so who gives a damn!
That’s what you get for mixing with sandflies.
A severe dose of the middle ages…
Martyn,I totally agree with your basic premise,until I got to the bit about the presumed suggestion that Bashar Al-Assad has a human rights record that you have to be extremely demonic to beat.This is so much U.S. Empire propaganda.This is the same successful formula that has been used on Serbia,Afghanistan, Libya , Somalia,Yemen,and of course Syria.First of all you get the C.I.A to arrange some false flag events. Then You invade the country to save its people from its cruel ruler.The western M.S.M.,owned and controlled by the one percent Oligarchy, marches in lock step and brainwashes a receptive Western audience.It works every time.Except there is a growing group of Westerners who are not fooled.If Assad is such an ogre,why do all the other sectarian groups in Syria ,apart from some Sunni, support Assad?Why do the Druze and the Christians support Assad? Surely they would support the “Moderate Rebels” instead ? Every time the population is free to relocate they flee towards the Syrian Govt. areas and away from the Rebels. Why are the majority of the Syrian army Sunni ,yet all of Isis are Sunni? I prefer to believe the reports of Eva Bartlett and Vanessa Bealley who are independent journalists on the ground in Syria, rather than M.S.M. Journalists reporting from Lebanon ,or the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , which is one man reporting from a grocer shop in Coventry U.K. And as for the West’s Record in Human rights, I am reminded of Mahatma Ghandis response to a Western journalist who asked him ” What do you think of Western Civilization? Ghandi replied” I think it would be a good idea!!
Really?
Perhaps check some facts:
https://www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/syria-refugee-crisis-war-facts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War
Nearly three million in Turkey, 2.2 million in Lebanon, over one and a half million in Jordan, 600 thousand in Germany, half a million in Saudi Arabia, nearly a quarter of a million each in UAE and Iraq, and the list goes on.
A fair few Christians have fled to Europe, by the way, also from Iraq, that is partly for the religious extremism there now, but also, because they no longer trust the government to protect them.
Maybe those stuck in Syria had a shit chance of getting out, for a start? I doubt they are fervent supporters of the Assad government.
Mike in Auckland; I am talking about the people fleeing the war zone directly and whether they were trying to join the rebel factions, or the Syrian Govt areas.Wikipedia and World Vision were not on the ground in Syria,my sources were. If you wish to have the wool pulled over your eyes by following the M.S.M. so you resemble Shreks big brother ,that is your privilege .
I did not quote the MSM, my friend, here are UN figures, UN figures, I stress:
http://www.unhcr.org/syria-emergency.html
“Millions of Syrians have escaped across borders, fleeing the bombs and bullets that have devastated home.
Turkey hosts over 2.9 million registered Syrians. The majority of them live in urban areas, with around 260,000 accommodated in the 21 government-run refugee camps.
In Lebanon, life is a daily struggle for many Syrian refugees, who have little or no financial resources. Around 70 per cent live below the poverty line on less than USD 3.84 per person per day. There are no formal refugee camps and, as a result, more than a million registered Syrians are scattered throughout more than 2,100 urban and rural communities and locations, often sharing small basic lodgings with other refugee families in overcrowded conditions.”
Like I said Mike,M.S.M. Is this the same United Nations that yesterday elected Saudi Arabia to the Women’s Rights Commission?[Comment deleted. What does a wool product at a shopping mall have to do with this issue, Pete? – Scarletmod]
It is to do with wool pulled over ones eyes in my previous post.Have you no sense of humour?
While the UN is by no means perfect, and is of course an assembly of representatives of close to two hundred member nations, that does not mean that official reports they prepare and release are all wrong!
You behave like dishing out collective punishment, trying to discredit the whole UN for trying to be correct in including their member states in official forums.
That simply does not work, my friend. Would you discredit your whole family for one member behaving inappropriately at some time in his or her life?
I concur, Mike. The UN may be far from perfect (what human endeavour is?) but it’s the only show in town.
In 1999, Indonesia made the fatal mistake of allowing a referendum to take place in it’s then-colony, occupied East Timor. The referendum was between self-determination and “semi-autonomy” as part of Indonesia.
The vast majority of East Timorese voted in favour of independepence, sending shock waves through the Indonsian regime. Pro-Indonesian militias rampaged through Dili, Suai, and elsewhere, destroying buildings, homes, and murdering East Timorese.
But in Dili, there was an act of inspiring heroism when 300 UN workers refused to evacuate the UNAMET compound in Dili unless local Timorese were evacuated as well;
Ref: https://etan.org/estafeta/99/autumn/untakes.htm
Ref: http://concit.org/the-shocking-occupation-of-east-timor-by-indonesia/
It was the heroism of UN workers who saved many East Timorese lives from the murderous thugs of Indonesian militias.
It was an event that has never been highlighted or recognised, but it was a shining example of how the UN might work.
Outrageous, considering the appalling conditions far too many Kiwis are expected to live and work in.
Now what manufacturers and producers would that be? Most production and industries have been moved off shore to ensure greater profits for Natz wealthy business cronies!
Unless of course the Natz want to promote NZ as an ongoing saleable commodity ….
Showcasing NZ …
step up step up all buyers …
great bargain to be had here …
cheap workforce …
substandard living conditions for workers …
huge profits to be made …
very little tax to pay …
play dirty … and best of all, no questions asked.
Roll up, roll up come and get it … NZ, the best little whorehouse in the Pacific … going for a song.
For the best deal contact Simon Bridges … corruption personified, smarmy representative of Natz NZ Inc!
of course,the argument about income from trade would not be so important if you had a choice of income streams; for example;huge tax income from capital gains(which would in one action solve a crucial problem-or at least,if its not too late,mitigate it)…I will never understand the reluctance to use Capital gains tax…and insisting on investment in NZers when a wealthy prospective resident wants in….oh and of course water…..we give that away,also….we dont need to go to the expo;we need to be smarter with what we have….
This sorry excuse for a prime minister is just a bloody joke.
He told the country in 2009 that we couldn’t afford ball the spending then, and later he claimed we cant afford a railway as well as a roadway!!!!!!!
Now he wants to use more Goldman Sachs money to hang us by paying for a corporate sponsored exhibition bloody criminal he is.
He is driving us broke as they did to Greece.
This doesn’t help:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11837914
nor this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/91742963/mbie-worried-ministers-wont-like-their-longoverdue-housing-affordability-measure
The National Govt just don’t give a fuck!
More than a year ago this government wasted over $26million on a flag referendum.More than a year on and we still have the same flag. And so the flag referendum was a confirmed vanity project instigated by the self-obsessed pm(of the day).
In recent weeks we have been told that $26million is required to help save the Maui dolphins. And all of a sudden this government claims there isn’t enough money to save endangered dolphins.
We have more than 60,000 children living in poverty. Now if those children were of voting age then this government would be quite literally moving heaven and earth to help them.
Today we have been told over $53million will be spent on some advertising venture in some city on the other side of the world. And that is all this ‘pavillion’ will be i.e yet another vanity project spent on something that will probably not even be to ordinary NZers advantages.
Instead we will be having Bill English telling us that in his feeble belief that he holds the monopoly on intelligence that $53million will be ‘money well spent’. We all know Bill English believes he is ‘bang on’ on some matters but uses ‘guesswork’ on other matters. But he expects NZers to take his words with absolutely Gospel.
But the what do we expect from a politician with a track record of double dipping who now just happens to be a temporary pm of NZ.
English is a lousy and weak pm of NZ.Like his predecessor before him he thinks he has all the answers and knows everything.
Everytime I look at Bill English in the news I cringe. He is so pathetic. He is totally unworthy to be a representative of the people of NZ. But my dislike of him is he probably had absolutely no remorse for Double Dipping from the NZ Taxpayers purse years ago and in fact he probably deemed himself as meriting the right to double dip.
And so for a pm to double dip whilst at the same time telling us ordinary NZers that we are living beyond our means shows a shallowness that ONLY a National MP can demean himself/herself to.
And so for a pm to double dip whilst at the same time telling us ordinary NZers that we are living beyond our means shows a shallowness that ONLY a National MP can demean himself/herself to.
“Hypofuckingcrite”
There are still probably thousands that don’t appreciate what a thief English is but English has forgiven himself because of his catholic faith.
The silence from the Opposition parties is deafening possibly due to censorship by omission imposed by the media to any debate on government policy.
… any word on how the Agricultural Hub in Saudi Arabia is going?
Noticed on the RNZ news that David Seymour was calling this out – reminding the government that it’s taxpayer money they’re spending to get in front of a minute number of 25m sets of eyeballs. That there are better options.
Every so often ACT’s Seymour offers some seriously good criticism or notions.
Perhaps that party is not so closely tied to the stodgy Blimps in National? Worryingly independent. Moving to fill the gap vacated by the Greens-Gone-Beige?
Meantime – do we still have the capacity in MFAT to help our exporters all the time? Is anyone actively working to maximise the possibilities opened up by Brexit? Or has it been left to ‘consultants’?
PS and totally off topic, sort of: why are we hating on North Korea? We’re friendly with China and the US and neither of them smells like fresh roses when it comes to human rights. Nor does our Very Good Friend Australia. Or that other ME trade source – Israel. Hypocrisy much?
It is called election year opportunism, realising, that as an MP David Seymour needs votes to get re-elected, and that his party may need a few more votes than those in his own electorate EPSOM.
This effort is part of ACT’s marketing strategy, to appear “fiscally responsible” and also “socially concerned”.
Whether he would apply the same principle and approach to Charter School funding is quite another matter and question.
What if National offer the homeless, free passage and work visas to leave NZ and live at the Pavilion in Dubai?
No surprises, this is the N.W.O. in full swing. Helping people in need is way down on the priority list.
Serving corporate and ( banking ! ! ) interests – that’s the name of the game. Bill English, allegedly, has a ton of shares invested in 1080 and we are dumping it all over and poisoning our country while he and others make big bucks. Profits before People has been the plan for a very long time.
If one thinks that National ( and most govts. ) cares two hoots about the homeless and poverty etc, think again.
Sucking up to corporations and China and being the U.S. and England’s little lap dog is practically a full time job for the NATZ.
The New World Order is nothing new and was planned way before most of us were born.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-24/real-new-world-order
We have just heard that $11billion could or will be spent on infrastructure over a period of time by a government desparate for votes.
To date more than $20billion has been spent on the NZ military.
And to date we have seen this government spend more money on vanity projects than on people. Here is just a short list of the various vanity projects:
Over $26million spent on a flag referendum because John Key wanted to leave a legacy.
Over $6million spent on a mansion in Hawaii.
About $12million(I could be wrong here)on bribing an already wealthy Saudi businessman into not ‘suing’ NZ.
About $10million ‘donated’ to the Clinton Foundation for WHAT EXACTLY IN RETURN???!!!!
$12million for an apartment in New York.
$7000 spent on booze???!!!!!
And now there is an ‘Instant” $53million about to be spent on a limited piece of space in a show on the other side of the planet???!!!!!
I now get the feeling this government views NZ taxpayers as being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff to maintain it for all its vanity projects.
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