A View from Afar (@ midday, Thursdays NZST): This week Selwyn Manning and Paul Buchanan debate:
Recently New Zealand Government confirmed its intention to be defined as an independent Pacific Island state, where its foreign policy should be considered against the collective values that its peoples share, and its diplomacy (if you consider human rights issues) will now be expressed multilaterally with likeminded countries.
But how does this work in practice?
Many see multilateral bodies like the United Nations being controlled by large global powers such as China and the United States of America. That this reality renders the UN’s security council as toothless, cumbersome, and slow to act in times of crisis.
Basically, this form of multilateralism seems designed to create a stalemate between great powers that assert their respective competing agendas. The affect; small countries lose their voice and influence.
- So how do small powers like New Zealand express themselves on the world stage?
- How do small countries shape reform of global bodies, so that they can work as forces of good in a world where geopolitics is divided between polarised blocs?
- Is microlateralism (a global collective of likeminded states) the answer?
- Is New Zealand about to stride out on the world-stage to assert this new form of multilateral collective bargaining?
WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE WHILE WE ARE LIVE WITH COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS IN THE RECORDING OF THIS PODCAST:
You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:
If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.
We don’t do micro-sorting. Figure it out amongst yourselves, in the bedroom.
Naw we tell them both to fuck off and do deals with the Russians instead and pit the ‘Muricans against the Sino’s.
Little bit of Sukarno and Suharto diplomacy and think of ourselves first for a change. They want our favour?,… then let them both come crawling cap in hand if they want our produce and trade and strategically placed positions.
WE don’t come cheap.
And we aint no prostitutes either.
“Recently New Zealand Government confirmed its intention to be defined as an independent Pacific Island state, where its foreign policy should be considered against the collective values that its peoples share’ – BUT what are those values?
Increasingly NZ is turning a blind eye, and encouraging exploitation. Not just overseas exploitation of natural resources like water, sand and so forth for peanuts, but also ignoring international human rights abuses while turning a blind eye to more and more labour, drugs, counterfeit or blackmarket goods and money laundering fraudsters operating in NZ.
Strange times. Some unions seem to be going after the ‘bums on seats’ approach to union membership rather than stopping labour frauds. Others seem to be making up new unions to destroy old ones (doctors union).
NZ visas are out of NZ border control and contracted out to other countries, as we don’t like to pay NZ wages. weird to spend billions on NZ security organisations and then get the basics wrong. In addition what sort of society are we creating in NZ going forward for the kids?
I’d say the destruction of our social services by demand is every bit a security concern as is NZ’s seemingly pro effort to encourage all the crims, exploiters and fruit loops into NZ. With Tarrant our largest non corporate mass murderer, OZ returnees in MIQ refusing to be tested for Covid in MIQ. Yesterday on social media, they are warning that some animal abuser has now moved to Northland from OZ… not to mention all the criminals and exploiters that seem to find NZ a great place to call their new home in the past 15 years. This is the society we are creating. Once you get into NZ, the idea seems to be, refuse to leave and if you are a criminal, have problems or mentally ill, then it helps you get NZ residency as you might be worse off going back home.
Neoliberals have been successful in arguing the nuances of everything rather than the values. AKA is Uygurs and organ harvesting really genocide? Apparently nope not technically, so all is ok then, phew! A greenie is ex legal council for a genocide leader in the UN so all is well! Box ticked.
Sadly brainwashing is alive and well, and surprisingly successful in NZ, combined with a dilution strategy, to encourage people to do nothing, say nothing and just avoid politics and our politicians to do random policy based on marketing and group think (health reforms) that somehow always seems to be disruption now, but the fruits come next election.
I don’t know about making the pacific Islands live by New Zealand’s Labours it will probably bankrupt them almost immediately. I don’t even want to think about what would happen if we made a third world economy pay a $20 per hour 40 hour week with there technology and society it’s just to great of a jump from a $3 M/W or what ever to $20. Itz just to great a jump with out the supporting industrial base.
We’d either have to subsidies them probably something like the Israel’s do ti subsidies illegal settlements or we trade with them so that for every $NZ dollar a pacific island receives in export earnings they recieve $2 in there own currency, we could use that to give them development loans to double there economies and maybe they could catch up to NZs mjnium wage of $20 or what ever in about 20 years but not over night no way.
That’s what basically undid the European Union as an example. They had everything that connected them, law, order, money, what ever. Everything but a fiscal union so that forced them to borrow from each other at above market rates. So the head of the European Bank says to Greece they’ll call in their loans if Greece (yanis varoufakis) tries to source cheaper loans.
So NZ has to facilitate the cheapest possible loan rates and we have to be tough enough to tell China and America that there check book diplomacy sucks dick and fuck off.
Sam, we are worse off than China because people are not only working for nothing in NZ, they are paying to work for nothing. NZ has managed to have lower wages than China by lowering our wage rates lower than a wage, aka people are now paying to work!
Comments are closed.