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From ODT, Bruce Munro asks the hard questions: Spying on Whom
The first entry in the spy agency file on Murray Horton is from when he was 16 years old.
During summer holidays in Christchurch, Horton and a school friend penned a piece on Communist China that found its way into the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly.
From that moment in the mid-1960s, Horton was on the radar of New Zealand’s intelligence agencies.
He did not see the file until about 2010.
By then, the New Zealand Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) had started releasing information. So, he sought the files held on himself and on the Coalition Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (Cafca), of which he is the organiser.
The five file boxes revealed Horton and others were followed for decades, organisations were infiltrated, and everything was noted down. Much more, and many others, at the link.
From Jon Queally: ‘Utterly Obscene’: Just 8 Pfizer and Moderna Investors Became $10 Billion Richer After Omicron Emerged
“Pharma execs and shareholders are making a killing from a crisis they helped to create,” said one justice campaigner.
In the first week that the Omicron variant sparked global fears of a new wave of infections, a small handful of investors and executives with Pfizer and Moderna—currently the world’s preeminent makers of Covid-19 vaccines—saw over $10 billion in new wealth, with the Moderna’s CEO alone adding over $800 million to his personal fortune.
Based on data compiled by Global Justice Now and released Saturday, “just 8 top Pfizer and Moderna shareholders” added a combined $10.31 billion to their fortunes last week after stock prices soared in response to the emergence of Omicron. According to a statement by the group… More at this link
From RNZ: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/457445/leftover-food-from-queenstown-cafes-to-be-saved-from-waste
We could be doing this nation-wide.
Bakery and cafe treats that would otherwise go to waste are being rescued and given to charities that help feed those in need in Queenstown.
KiwiHarvest is expanding its food rescue service from supermarkets to seven cafes in the town, saving between two and five kilograms of muffins, scones and wraps from landfill a week and delivering it to charities.
“It’s actually really high quality stuff, we’ve got some really awesome cafes in Queenstown. If you imagine when you walk into a cafe all of those yummy cabinet items,” said Kayleigh Simons-Smith, the organisation’s Queenstown branch manager.
“Each cafe will have a KiwiHarvest big plastic tub and they’ll fill it up with food from the day before and the next morning our rider will pick it up and it goes out to the recipient that day.”
She said more people needed help putting food on the table and in their kids lunchboxes since the nationwide lockdown. Full article at the link
Kheala Unfortunately it could be said that this proves that allowing the market in is a good thing. Those hound dogs with their noses down sniffing out profits, pushed on with the work and got things moving fast. No difficulties trying to get Treasuries or political leaders to agree, no wasting time, no grandstanding. profit galvanises. And there was urgency, and there were standards to keep to, and it seems to have got done. And money is just negotiable whatever is agreed as the currency. Just saying.
We need to be clear eyed about what sort of future we want, hopefully a simpler one. Perhaps we could adopt Jewish ideas of forgiveness of debts and jubilees. That would help to keep the predatory drive to accumulate like Grandpa Duck. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrooge_McDuck
once in seven years
In the law…once in seven years, debts would be forgiven so people who have gotten themselves in over their head in debt would be able to make a new start once every seven years. Rabbi SINCLAIR: So it serves – social justice and ecology were very much at the heart of it.10/10/2007
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/15143103
https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2019/04/26/why-the-bibles-subversive-teaching-on-debt-is-more-relevant-than-ever
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_jubilee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_Debt_Coalition
https://www.ft.com/content/fb2c1718-a193-11ea-94c2-0526869b56b0
https://www.npr.org/2014/12/11/370156273/iceland-experiments-with-a-jubilee-of-debt-forgiveness (from National Public Radio, USA)
Bernard Hickey Jul.22/20 Podcast https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-case-for-a-modern-debt-jubilee
Do we make money from adventure tourism on the back of willing rescue volunteers or taxpayer or public funded services when there are difficulties? A recent one, note the background tio the problem.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/457475/trampers-urged-to-stay-grouped-together-after-death-in-arthur-s-pass
His body was found at the bottom of a waterfall the next day, following an extensive search.
A coronial investigation found Tsygankov was a technically competent and keen tramper and mountaineer, but sometimes behaved recklessly on previous trips by walking off and doing his own thing.
The group had about nine hours to finish the trip before they lost daylight.
One of the men got ahead, leaving Tsygankov and the other man climbing the bluffs behind him.
The man with Tsygankov decided to return to the hut when he was hit by a rock.
Coroner Heather McKenzie has endorsed Mountain Safety Council advice for trampers, including sticking together.
Good advice. But who takes precautionary measures in NZ in the main?
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