The last 10 days has seen the entire media focus (aside from the ubiquitous concern for the All Black prospects in a rugby test and then the fate of coach Ian Foster) has been on allegations of bullying by new National MP Sam Uffindell and bullying of first term Labour MP Gaurav Sharma.
Sam Uffindell’s future is still up in the air while Gaurav Sharma’s political career has resembled a meteorite – a brief, bright burn.
Meanwhile over this time we were visited by the US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, who was on a whirlwind visit through the Pacific which the US has just rediscovered after finding China has been courting our Pacific neighbours.
Sherman was here to remind us the US fought in the Pacific 75 years ago, that it is ready to fight here again (on the side of democracy and freedom of course!) and probably assessing when best for the US to launch a destabilising campaign against Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare who has had the audacity, from the US point of view, to sign a development agreement with China.
There is a host of good, hard questions that should have been put to Sherman by our journalists but alas there is nothing of substance anywhere.
Here for example is Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report interview with Sherman.
Calling it a “soft” interview doesn’t describe it well – “cringing embarrassment” would be better.
Sherman was full of US talking points such as the importance of the “(US) rules-based international order developed after World War II” and “no country should decide the political future of another country or bend that country to their political will”.
Just read that last Sherman quote again. She is aiming at China but probably three quarters of humanity have experienced precisely that interference at the hands, guns, banks and bombs of the US since WWII – democracies included.
RNZ let it all go unchallenged. The US is already on the record as saying they will “not sit by” and allow China to get a foothold in the Solomon Islands or the Pacific. Why wasn’t Sherman interrogated on this? Why weren’t hard questions asked? The danger signs for our corner of the world are everywhere – but invisible to RNZ.
Instead the hard questions were saved for the hapless thug Uffindell and those responsible for Sharma’s meteoric career.
Aotearoa New Zealand got closest to an independent foreign policy in the mid-1980s but there seems no journalistic memory. Instead of asking about US intentions in the Pacific and suggesting that New Zealanders don’t want to see superpower rivalry on our doorstep, RNZ simply asks what are the prospects of New Zealand joining the AUKUS alliance (Australia, the UK and the US who are joining forces to arm Australia with nuclear submarines to counter China)
Meanwhile Aotearoa New Zealand moves insidiously closer to the US military.
Here in Christchurch protests will accompany the Rocket Lab presence at the 2022 Aerospace Summit. In case anyone hasn’t caught up with developments, Rocket Lab is now majority owned by the US military and has launched numerous rockets for direct military purposes.
The protest will have some hard questions for Peter Beck – don’t expect them from the media.
LOL
One of the nice things about New Zealand is our total irrelevance in geopolitics. Ditto Rocket Lab.
Meanwhile the USA and NATO hold all the cards. Russia and China are both fucked and our biggest threat is the impact of China’s forthcoming financial collapse on our exports to that country.
I think most independent thinkers would disagree with your remark that, USA/NATO hold all the cards.
At best they are 50/50, but most likely they’re 25/75, BUT with the suicide option and probable mindset to use nuclear weapons when they start to lose in an ‘all out war’; which historically is what the ‘failing empire’ country does.
Let’s hope the USA/NATO have more commonsense than they’ve been showing for the last 20-50 years.
Well put John.
It is shameful for our country which has Nuclear Free Legislation to be cuddling up to US Imperialism and their “charm offensive” in the Pacific, which is rather obviously a bullying mission to get small Pacific states in line. How long before NZ actually joins nuclear pact AUKUS with the other 5 Eyes buddies?
Exactly, John. When Americans bomb houses full of civilians in brown countries for laughs, they base their claims that the four year old girls are wicked terrorists on the same ‘intelligence’ that American terrorist satellites being launched by Rocket Lab provide.
If you support the continued existence of Rocket Lab, you support Americans raping and murdering little kids.
You are a breath of fresh air, John.
What can we do?
If questions go unasked there can be no semblance of democracy.
To a corrupt political class, the extreme media hegemony might seem like a solution as it actually tears peoples apart. And of course it is the same non-journalism that misrepresents the resulting dissent. Increasingly aggressive social control is required to coerce more and more people into mental as well as behavioural conformity.
I know this is not a new problem, but the degree to which it is being ramped-up, before our very eyes, is horrifying. Journalism – the gathering and reporting of information – was always called the fourth estate of democracy for good reason. We are so powerless without it.
Oh yes John – we should just stop creating technology in New Zealand and go back to living in grass huts. Also we should just leave space to the Chinese, that will end well – just look at Hong Kong, look at the threats over a simple visit to Taiwan. What could possibly go wrong if China is the dominant party in space?
Those who want peace must prepare for war. Time for you to step out of the smoke from your joint and look hard at the real world.
Being a launchpad for yankee terror rockets isn’t ‘creating technology’, Sean.
Sean
Eat your own words! And digest them. That should take you a good long month of facing hard reality.
Good to see one blog that is common sense and gives a real story of China influence.. It is funny how China is accepted as a friend by some Paific nations while they make a fuss about global warming which is created by China with their dirty coal .
USA is dragging the chain on global warming but at least their citizens can do something about it once they wakeup .
The fact is China wants to weaponize everything, most importantly space. It is the new high ground. If you control it with high technology and military weaponry, then the CCP Chinese Criminal Party will achieve it’s China Dream – World Domination.
This from the post:
Instead the hard questions were saved for the hapless thug Uffindell and those responsible for Sharma’s meteoric career.
Does anyone else cringe when Lisa Owen’s grating high pitched voice demands again and again that someone she is interviewing say exactly what she wants to know – Yes or No etc.
She sounds like a tell-tale sneak who is extracting the latest goss. They got her off tv didn’t they, so as they seem to worship tv1 etc on Radionz I guess that was a real plum in their pie.
It might be wise to keep a record of where all these USA nabobs and fellow travellers are buying property, and try to get near them. With perfected precision target bombing the rest of the country may be razed in retaliation for having say, made a woke statement about a transgender president of the good ‘ole uknows, and though we NZ is dealt with severely certain areas will emerge nearly pristine. Possibly. Perhaps.
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