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EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
Japan brings in the military to help with rescue efforts after Typhoon Hagibis:
BBC Coverage
The bullet trains are surrounded by floodwaters; people are rescued off rooftops.
“Some areas of Japan saw up to 40% of their average rainfall in just a few days.
“In the town of Hakone near Mount Fuji more than 1m (3ft) of rain fell on Friday and Saturday, the highest total ever recorded in Japan over 48 hours.”
“We have never had a flood like this before…”
More than 7,000,000 were advised to leave their homes as Hagibis approached.
Seven million. That’s everyone in NZ, almost twice over. That is everyone in Auckland, more than three times over.
The Guardian covers the recovery / rescue here.
“Media reports said thousands of troops, firefighters and other emergency workers had been dispatched to rescue people trapped by floodwater in the worst-hit areas, as utilities raced to restore power to hundreds of thousands of homes.
“Typhoon Hagibis, which has been described by meteorologists as the strongest storm to hit Japan for more than six decades..”
Japan Times covers it here, with photos.
Labours real problems are their failure to get their own “free to air” (TV7) style “Public affairs” media platform TV channel operating as they promised.
Without their own social/environmental/climate change public affairs views clearly stated on a commercial free unbiased platform they can hardly expect the public to truly believe in their Governence can they?
Clare Curren destroyed labours credibility here and Labour now need to fix this ‘lack of a strong balanced media’ from the current National Party corporate controlled media that we have now.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/357780/government-s-38m-public-broadcasting-boost-still-on-the-table
“Labours real problems are their failure to get their own “free to air” (TV7) style “Public affairs” media platform TV channel operating as they promised.”
TOTALLY agree!!
For the future of Labour AND the Greens, this is frigging essential!
Yes RNZ seems to be going down hill as a pro migrant visa lobby rag / natz loving / woke paradise read.
It would be good if there was a mandate for real investigative journalism in publicly owned broadcasting or at least debate and complexity on real subjects not a one sided or trivial view on every topic…
You know like health care needs of the country where local people are now losing their lives while waiting for care, instead of MSM advocating for more people to get residency in NZ and access health care that locals increasingly seem to not be able to get themselves..
This poor women suffocates to death… because she couldn’t get access to surgery fast enough over months, in spite of her GP being extremely concerned at the delay.
Wairoa woman’s death during long surgery wait ‘could have been avoided’
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/400913/wairoa-woman-s-death-during-long-surgery-wait-could-have-been-avoided
Don’t hold your breath @ Cleangreen. It looks like Chris f-f-f-Faaf-f-f-foi has developed a bit of a stutter as well. Even if something is planned in the year of delivery, it looks like it’ll be some half-arsed solution.
I’ve often thought we surely have one of the most over managed systems in the world in terms of trying to translate publicly owned assets and what is in the public interest into a public sphere:
NZoA …… CEO, Board and a band of overseers
TVNZ……. CEO, Board and a band of ‘for profit’ overseers and wannabe stars and ‘personalities’
RNZ…….. CEO, Board and quite a few decent folk pushing shit uphill against a band of managerialists
KORDIA…. CEO, Board and a band of ‘for profit’ overseers
MTS …… CEO, Board and quite a few good folk pushing shit uphill against the cargo cult managerialists.
Just think of all the salaries with benefits alone that could be put to more creative endeavour in the public interest – both in actually providing PSB AND keeping independent producers’ content – local, national and international.
And we’ve heard for eons that we can’t afford a couple of commercial-free, PSB radio and TV channels because the lil ‘ole NuZull audience is too small.
My fear is that Mr f-f-f-Faafoi has bought into it all, having had a history of being a part of it all
Agreed OnceWasTim
I spend several years in Florida with Cable TV 1993-1998 and PBS was a very good channel full of solid documentaries about chemical poisoning of agricultural workers and consumers in our society in general.
We need the investigative journalism here in NZ as it is happening all over here now.
Oh fook! I forgot to put Freeview and its enterage in the list, as well as Te Mangai Paho.
So that’s 1, no 2, no 3, no 4, no 5, no 6, no 7 players in the mix jumbled together with each of their bean-counter generic managerialists set to disperse the public ether’s capabilities.
Rilly rilly efficient and effective eh?
There is ekshully no reason why a nayshun knocking 5 mill population (claiming to live in the 1st Whurl, and cost-wise), shouldn’t have FTA Radio and Television that caters for its 1st people, children, local and national interests and their needs. (and by FTA, I mean by whatever means of delivery – terrestrial, satellite or copper/aluminium/fibre. (Aluminium because we’re headed for an infrastructural 3rd whurl)
2 things are certain (and I wish to fuck I hadn’t mentioned Kordia because the gNats will be waiting in the wings to flog it off the next time round – there’s fuck all else left to flog off),
The first is that there’s an entire enterage of ticket clipper, ego-centric managerialists paying off their expensive mortgages,
and the Second is that that there is a load of dedicated neo-lib/3rd-wayers standing in the wings to sabotage any genuine attempt to put the public’s interest above the opportunity for a commercial gain.
Oh, there’s a 3rd……and that’s that there’ll be a dither dither dither so that it gets harder and harder to make any sort of meaningful and progressive change.
Rome wasn’t built in a day though eh?
“How many more extreme weather events like this should happen til all governments & corporations act seriously on the #climatebreakdown?” – 350 East Asia question on twitter.
Immense Damage.
“Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihideu Suga, told journalists Sunday that “the major typhoon has caused immense damage far and wide in eastern Japan.”
“People’s lives continue to be affected by disruptions to power, water, and transportation services,” said Suga, who added that 376,000 homes lack electricity and 14,000 homes lack running water. “Relevant government organizations are doing their best to restore those services as soon as possible.”
“The government dispatched personnel ahead of the disaster to local governments. They are now cooperating with Self-Defense Force personnel in collecting information on the damage,” he said, noting that 27,000 military troops and other crews are involved in rescue efforts.”
Climate change is now making its mark in Dunedin?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12274440
Nauseating flight for Air New Zealand passengers in Dunedin turbulence
8 Oct, 2019 6:00am
2 minutes to read
Air New Zealand flight NZ675 Auckland to Dunedin took four attempts to land.
NZ Herald
By: Kim Moodie
Passengers were reaching for their sick bags as their flight failed to land three times in Dunedin.
Air New Zealand flight NZ675 left Auckland after midday yesterday and passengers had no issues until the plane prepared to land.
A passenger said the aircraft began to shake back and forth as if it were being “shunted around” on descent.
The plane failed to land twice, sharply accelerating upwards again.
Passengers burst into applause as the plane momentarily landed on its third descent, before it immediately took to the skies again.
The passenger said a flight attendant remarked, “well that was a tease,” before the pilot announced a mixture of head and tail winds was causing the problems.
Another passenger sitting in the back of the plane said there were unaccompanied minors “throwing up all around him”.
By the fourth descent, one passenger was sweating with her head in her hands, as kids vomited into sick bags.
Despite the passengers’ reactions, the pilot remained calm, the Herald was told.
The plane finally landed on its fourth attempt – but passengers waited until the landing music was playing before applauding again.
So, while the planet is being torn apart by increasingly frequent mega-storms, out of control fires, extreme flooding, devastating droughts and record breaking temperatures, … 700 Billion dollars, ($$$,$$$,$$$,$$$) has been provided to expand the fossil fuel sector since the Paris Climate Pact.
Guardian report here.
“The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement, figures show.
“The financing has been led by the Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase, which has provided $75bn (£61bn) to companies expanding in sectors such as fracking and Arctic oil and gas exploration, according to the analysis.
“The New York bank is one of 33 powerful financial institutions to have provided an estimated total of $1.9tn [one trillion dollars] to the fossil fuel sector between 2016 and 2018.
“The data shows the most aggressively expanding coal-mining operations, oil and gas companies, fracking firms and pipeline companies have received $713.3bn in loans, equity issuances and debt underwriting services from 2016 to mid-2019.” [more at the link]
I wrote: “an estimated total of $1.9tn [one trillion dollars] to the fossil fuel sector”
Correction – $1.9 trillion (US) = nearly $2trillion USD
(not sure if it’s even relevant to correct it though, these are mind numbing numbers which are beyond our normal comprehension.)
As for using ‘toxic Chlorine’ in our municipal water supply what about these clever non- toxic easy on the environment options instead?
• Ultraviolet Sterilisation. – https://www.purewater.co.nz/Online-Store/Ultraviolet-Sterilisation
• Hydrogen peroxide. (H2O2) – http://www.h2o2.com/files/DrinkingWater-Municipal-Tech-Bulletin-15-HR.pdf
Note the H2O2 is well researched and accepted system as shown in their scientific research technical bulletin attachment
http://www.h2o2.com/files/DrinkingWater-Municipal-Tech-Bulletin-15-HR.pdf
I don’t know whether that puts us (lil ‘ole Nuzull in the 3rd whurl) @Cleangreen, but I’ve seen initiatives like that in a bloody remote place on the planet where the population survives on far, far less than the cost of a cup of a BP or Z barrister’s (with a certificate of course!) coffee per day. They also manage to process cow shit in a way that’s far more environmentally friendly than we (lil ‘ole NuZull) do, and without impact to the water table.
Get out your Crystal Set and put on “The Archers”, “Porshe Faces Life” or “Dr Paul” @ Cleangreen. There’s probably better advice on sustainable living in any or each of them. Oh that’s right – ya can’t….. it’s now multiple channels of FM pumping out advertising interspersed with the occasional kiwi artist and some shock jock pumping up its already over-inflated idea of the size of his or her penis, telling us what’s best for us.
Giselle Hall is an Australian documentary maker, formerly an aid worker. Recently she travelled to Syria to make a doco about the children of foreign fighters. Instead, following the withdrawal of US troops, she is documenting experiences of Kurds, about 20 km from the Turkish border. During the night she can hear shelling of villages nearby.
She spoke to a mother whose children are begging her to leave. The mother was struggling to keep her children calm. She did not know how to tell them, there was nowhere to run to.
“More than 100,000 people have fled since Turkey launched its attack on Wednesday, and many towns are already overstretched from previous displacements.
“People are going to one town that they think is safe, and then it’s not, so they’re going to the next place and then they find there’s bombing at the next place.” Full SBS article here.
CEAC accuses NZTA management of extravagance and calls Gov’t to reset NZTA.
Monday, 14th October 2019, 12.5pm.
Press Release: Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre
National’s claim that things only went south when Phil Twyford took charge of transport is not supported by us at CEAC and we see that this begun in 2008 as we witnessed the change then while working as a partnership group with NZTA then.
CEAC is again not really astonished at the Government’s release on 12th of an investigation of NZTA – under “NZTA’s high cost of regulatory failure and a bumpy road to reform” https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/400811/nzta-s-high-cost-of-regulatory-failure-and-a-bumpy-road-to-reform
• We say this is clearly showing a continued internal ‘culture of extravagance’ among the management of NZTA’.
• We have long been feeling abused by this agency – due to our residential community’s long fight against this NZTA Agency for mitigation protection against increased their road actives in our Napier residential zone, – of their truck noise – vibration – air pollution emissions threatening public community health and wellbeing.
• NZTA management have since 2008 been saying they have no funding available for community mitigation against their noisy road actives.
• Now we witness NZTA are paying quote; “NZTA is paying some very fancy headline rates to contractors – up to almost half a million dollars a year, and some have been kept on for years on high hourly or daily rates. The agency also doubled the size of its PR department last year, from 30 to 60 people, at significant public expense.”
• Our community ‘dignity and respect’ was abused by this NZTA who as a SOE have a lawful ‘duty of care for our health and wellbeing’ in a dignified and respectful manner but instead NZTA have used offensive terms like they plan “to enforce” their will in roading reports.
• Off the back of scathing reviews into mass regulatory failings this week, the Labour-led government promised to pull the agency up by its bootlaces – but at a cost and we contend that the whole NZTA management must be reduced and Management that have in the past shown a lack of community support be shown the door, and others made more of a caring inclusive operaters to work for all the tax/ratepayers to protect those communities it operates its transport in residential areas.
• media today regarding their concerns about ‘NZTA’ activities.
This is our goal to reform NZTA to become partners with the community it operates in not be aggressive combatants as they are now.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/400811/nzta-s-high-cost-of-regulatory-failure-and-a-bumpy-road-to-reform
‘NZTA’s high cost of regulatory failure and a bumpy road to reform’
We three days ago released a report showing NZTA was using ‘obstructive tactics” here is the details.
Minister of Transport Phil Twyford is now clearly using appropriate measures to examine Management of this out of control public funded agency.
the heat on NZTA quote; ‘obstructive tactics” “CEAC supports Minister Twyford reset of NZTA”
Our community organisation NGO rocky past history with NZTA 2008 to 2019.
• CEAC and NHTCF has never been fairly treated by NZTA through all our attempted efforts to have NZTA give fair urban mitigation from truck freight traffic since 2008 to 2019.
• CEAC/NHTCF had worked well as a community “partner” with NZTA‘s former agency “Transit NZ” from 1999 to 2007.
• NZTA has now used ‘obstructive tactics against CEAC after we requested detailed operational procedures under OIA requested documents from NZTA in July 2019 – two months ago.
• After weeks of no feedback ‘inclusion discussions’ with the agency we received a brief letter of refusal to our request for OIA documents for NZTA activities regarding their operations from 1995 to 2019 in Hawkes Bay.
• We say this was a reasonable request; – as we were beginning a study of NZTA activities inside our ‘Napier urban zones to Napier port’ on behalf of the whole community being affected by truck gridlock noise/vibration/air pollution, causing ‘sleep disruption,’ and threats to residential health and wellbeing, loss of property values and enjoyment of life.
• We requested the information with an explanation; “that we were reviewing the operation of NZTA with regard to the new rules set out by the new “community wellbeing act 2019”.
• Fact; NZTA had never committed in their policies to begin inclusion of the Government policy of a new rule enshrined in law under the ‘Community wellbeing act’ 2019.
This new law was designed to make NZTA and other agencies responsible for planning for Community health and wellbeing” which was the principal reason for us reviewing NZTA operations today and without receiving any response we regard the NZTA as acting with ‘obstructive tactics” to the detriment of our community’s health and wellbeing.
Also today we heard a positive statement on ‘Magic – drive at 4.40pm with news hubs Ryan Bridge interview with Phil Twyford.
Mr Twyford stated that he is directing NZTA policy to begin a slowing down of all transport speeds for road safety, – to lowered settings in cities and rural areas and this will be positive for us all as slowing trucks brings lower noise/vibrations/air pollution and accidents/deaths. We will be following this policy as it unfolds.
The ‘Road Transport Forum, (RTF) does not want lower speeds.
Response from the trucking lobbyist Nick Leggett quote;
Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett said those proposals, which included recovering a fairer proportion of costs from a wider group of road users, could see the a pendulum swing into over-regulation and more expense put on road users
“We’re concerned that throwing more money into regulation will see investment in road maintenance suffer.”
Perhaps Mr Leggett needs to agree to meet with us finally to finally discuss our community issues?
Fact; in May 2019 We called Nick Leggett and asked for a meeting with him and after discussion with him he never set up a requested meeting with him.
So now we have those ‘heavier trucks’ already everywhere on our roads; – and driving folks out of their homes and harming their public health so what do we do about our roads that are falling apart in front of our eyes daily now and make communities safe to live in?
Our only viable option is to use rail.
Now we see NZTA filling pockets of contractors/managers with our public funds while residential communities needing mitigation for NZTA activities are not being addressed; – so Government now must act to clean up NZTA.
end
CEAC.
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