Sorry to go on

Malcolm, I’m delighted that you mentioned the oldsters toiling at Mitre10 and Bunnings. Reality in front of our noses, how to make ends meet for the superannuated.

Agree, the collective blindness to the lies we are confronted with is all encompassing.

100% 🙂 What we need is progressive mixed economy socialism.

A very accurate summary of society & my explanation for a major reason for the way we are now is that we need to change within to reflect the values that would build a better society. Free will is the most important value & it seems that many people have believed the idea that life is what we see so they have no hope for a better society. ” “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” is how it is described in my favourite book along with numerous instructions to love, forgive & help others even to the point of denying yourself to help others. As you say what passes for Christianity today is not significantly different from society overall with just a few caring people scattered throughout the population who manage to keep us from the destruction our actions are leading to.
You could sum it up by saying that selfishness is a socially acceptable habit most of the time which probably would not cause too many problems if we all started with an equal amount but since society is so divided on material possessions now that selfishness just keeps increasing the divide. Regulated capitalism is what Martyn calls for but since we have the best democracy money can buy it ends up that those making the regulations are working for those with wealth so the regulations support those with wealth.

Brilliant stuff @ M.E. And my heart goes out to you.
For the many, it must be comfortable to be blissfully ignorant. In my own personal world of the few I deliberately sought out knowledge and got hammered by truths that now burden my reality.
There can be no progress at going backwards to what was once our promising future. That’s done and gone.
What we need to do is to stop, think and repair what was destroyed.
[We] need to go back to 1936 and re evaluate and dissect our politics. We first need to understand what, and by whom and for why we’re here, at this point and of course, it’s all about money and the mental illness that is the need for power over others that money affords. In the old days we could just shoot them. Today, we have to pay them massive severance’s then let them go to do the same thing somewhere else, as you will be well aware of.
I’ve suggested compulsory voting as a way of ramming reality up voters. I think MMP’s a disaster unless one’s a well paid MMP minister. I think making lobbying illegal would be a curative move too.
But perhaps most importantly, have a royal commission of inquiry in lock step with a team of independent forensic accountants go up, then a bit further, into our clearly corrupt politic and its dependents in Big Business. The ones who are the 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires each with $50 nett each and who and why four now foreign owned banks stealing $180.00 a second nett 24/7/365.
Be comforted that you’re not alone @ M.E. The problem is, that at this point, there are fuck of us.

All too sad but true Malcom.

When you wake up and realise life should be more than a shitty job, burgeoning debt and unaffordable costs of living increases, and no longer find solace by comparing yourself to the homeless and destitute…… well, we know what happens when folk feel like they have nothing to lose………

The fires of selfishness and hatred, so willingly stoked by the current far right idiots in charge to gain power, are now their problem to quell.
Their stupidity is reflected in these inane but incendiary family Xmas photos they’re publicising. Utterly blind to everything – including awful PR advice it appears.
How can this Cogovernment last? The tides of history are washing in…….

Thank you Malcolm. Your comments needed to be said and said again and again. The short quote above which opens this post is brilliant and so true.

What a disgraceful, greedy, uncaring, vile, shameful society we find ourselves in now! Even worse, it’s become acceptable!

In the 1960s egalitarian NZ had the highest standard of living in the world.

We have since become a mere source of cheap agrarian products and raw materials, abandoning any pretense or ability to be otherwise, our labour force is forced to compete in cost with transient labour sourced from nations with desperately poor populations.

This apparently, is an improvement and is good for us.

19 . It should not be forgotten that Jewish settlers lived in many different countries of Europe in the early 20th century.

The order of things.

Billionaires dictate and buy;

Politicians who instruct…

Administrators to…

Impose policy to…

Impoverish the population to…

Create serf(s)dom.

War, social injustice(s) environmental destruction and catastrophes are all tools to achieve profit, wealth and a happy ending, for some.

Merry New Year just like every fuckn year!

PS. 2024 doesn’t get any better. 2009-2023 all over again. Remember the GFC? This is the tail end of it. What happens next, who knows? The global credit cards are maxed out. What happens when no one is buying up debt? Treasury Bonds.

War? Well, we’ve already got two cooking. Poverty? Well, that’s a gimme. Environmental destruction, ditto. General societal upheaval, that’s the norm. Political corruption ditto for that too.

Where is that bloody Unicorn?

Superb writing.
Thank you Malcolm.

Thankyou Malcolm- what you say rings true. And after the excesses of Xmas, we had the embarrassing frenzy of boxing day sales– We are drowning in stuff just as the foodbanks are swamped by hunger in this fair land. Is there any hope for us at all?
You also wrote tellingly of why the churches are so quiet about the genocide taking place before our eyes every day.
” If we were shocked and horrified by the tragedy of the Holocaust, in which millions were cruelly dispossessed and systematically murdered and so, to preclude it ever being repeated we were sympathetic to them having a place to call their own, how can we not be at least equally shocked and horrified when, to provide that place, our system tells us we must sanction the dispossession and slaughter of those already living in that land? …
Where is our morality? Where are our elected leaders? Where are our clergy? Some might say “where is our Christianity”, both Catholic and Protestant, but that last just quietly since it’s at the root of European anti-Semitism, therefore, of Zionism, Israel’s apartheid system. ”

Where indeed is our morality- thanks Malcolm.

The British led and US enabled Zionist/sociopathic state of Israel, with support from complicit Western states like NZ, has helped to create this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vKuB1su43c.

The thing about liars, their lies cannot withstand scrutiny. Which is why they resort to censorship.

The same week that an award ceremony in Germany for Masha Gessen was cancelled for her opposition to Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza which Gessen likened to the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto by the German Nazis. That very same week that Gessen’s award ceremony in Germany was cancelled, the Russian Federation issued an arrest warrant for the Russian Jewish journalist for her opposition to her condemnation of Russian war against Ukraine.

In this clash between imperialist powers where intellectuals and opinion shapers are rushing to align with either one imperialist bloc or the other, it is rare for a powerful intellectual voice to earn the enmity of both the Western and Eastern bloc.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/14/award-ceremony-suspended-after-writer-masha-gessen-compares-gaza-to-nazi-era-jewish-ghettos

Kia ora Malcolm
Thanks for that plea from the heart that traverses many of the issues confronting New Zealand and the world today. Yes, there are serious failures to do with the economic, political system, religious and ideological systems of the world today. Yet there are solutions to these problems. Simple and straightforward though radical solutions which can be arrived at through an open public dialogue. Solutions for which good working models already exist or can be found in history.
So let’s give it a go, and what better place to start than TDB which is a microcosm of the current political system and an illustration of much that is wrong about the system as a whole, which is a system of two parts, with two classes of participant. We have the politicians, members of parliament and candidates: real people, with names and identities who can be held up to public scrutiny. These have real power and genuine democratic agency. They have a right to speak. It is they who collectively chose who shall govern, and they may change their choice on any sitting day of parliament through a motion of “No confidence”. But the public have no such rights, duties or obligations. They constitute an anonymous mass whose “power to choose” is negated in the instant that it is exercised, once every three years. They have no voice of their own. So we have a dysfunctional pseudo-democracy in which politicians and people regard each other with mutual contempt. That could easily be changed if there was a will.
TDB follows a similar pattern. It has columnists who are real people and commenters who are anonymous or pseudonymous and therefore can be irresponsible at best or malevolent at worst. That could change. When people have power (through the parliamentary style conventions of continuous election and constitutional right to speak) and accountability (through the parliamentary style convention of the open ballot) then we will be well on our way to resolving the current crisis of democracy. Better systems make for better people.
TDB could start by requiring commenters to use their true identity. That would send the message that democracy depends on the moral courage and accountability of the people, not just the politicians. TDB could carry on to allow free expression of opinion in all cases where it conflicts with the majority point of view.
Beyond that, the political constitution needs to change to be more in line with the way we conduct ourselves on the marae and in relationships between marae. That is, the principles of rangatiratanga, mana motuhake and kotahitanga must become universal if we are to have an effectively functioning democracy in the nation as a whole.

Malcolm sorry to go on, but as you mentioned Russia, what is you view on them sentencing poets to jail for having an opinion about the war – sorry “special military operation”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/29/russian-poets-given-long-jail-terms-for-reciting-verses-against-ukraine-war

Or welcoming in the new year with the biggest aerial attack yet on civilians. Dammit, I meant military targets.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/29/ukraine-seeks-increased-support-amid-huge-russian-air-assault

I mean I get it – all ukranians are nazis and the cia spawned a coup etc, etc. But come on? Poets? What would Rick think?

South Africa takes Israel to Court

(Israel accuses South Africa of blood libel)

Julian Borger THE GUARDIAN Fri 29 Dec 2023 21.08 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/29/south-africa-accuses-israel-of-committing-genocide-in-gaza#:~:text=South%20Africa%20has%20launched%20a,the%20ICJ%20to%20reject%20it.

South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza.
Israel responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it.

Any country in the world that is a member state of the United Nations can make an oral submission on their country’s legal opinion on the jurisdiction of the ICJ to hear South Africa’s case against Israel for being in breach of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

New Zealand along with 23 other countries sent a legal team to the ICJ and gave our country’s highest legal opinion to the ICJ on the jurisdiction of the ICJ to hear the allegations of genocide made by the Russian Federation against Ukraine

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/10/08/guest-blog-patrick-odea-ukraine-takes-itself-to-court/

The New Zealand government must again send a team of this country’s top lawyers, expert in international law, to the ICJ to give this country’s legal opinion on the jurisdiction of the ICJ to hear South Africa’s case against Israel for being in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Prosecution of the crime of genocide. (The Genocide Convention).
Let us see if New Zealand really believes in the international Rules Based Order, or not.

New Zealand’s oral submissions on jurisdiction in Ukraine’s International Court of Justice case against Russia

https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/media-and-resources/new-zealands-oral-submissions-on-jurisdiction-in-ukraines-international-court-of-justice-case-against-russia/

Delivered by Andrew Williams, Chief International Legal Adviser (acting), 20 September 2023

1. Madam President, members of the Court, it is an honour to appear before you today and to present New Zealand’s submissions in these critical proceedings.

2. New Zealand has chosen to intervene in these proceedings because we consider that the issues in this case go to the very heart of the international rule of law and the protection of this Court’s role in the peaceful settlement of disputes.

Support for the submissions of Ukraine and intervening States

3. Madam President, I do not intend to repeat every point put forward in New Zealand’s Written Observations. Nor will I rehearse the arguments made by Ukraine and the intervening States in their written and oral submissions. We broadly support the points they have made.

4. In particular:

a. New Zealand supports the United Kingdom’s analysis of the criteria for the establishment of a legal dispute;

b. We also endorse the points that Australia made this morning regarding the scope of the Court’s jurisdiction ratione materiae under Article IX; and

c. We agree with the arguments put forward by a number of States confirming that this Court clearly has the power to declare that an applicant State has complied with its obligations under the Convention.

5. On all three issues, the Russian Federation seeks to artificially restrict the jurisdiction of this Court – in a manner that is inconsistent with both the plain language of Article IX, and the Court’s previous decisions. In New Zealand’s view, there is nothing in the arguments put forward by the Russian Federation that warrants a departure from the jurisprudence of the Court.

Consequences of refusal to comply with provisional measures for the determination of jurisdiction

6. Madam President, I will focus the remainder of my submissions on one specific element of New Zealand’s Written Observations regarding the interpretation of Article IX.

7. That is: how a party’s outright refusal to comply with provisional measures may be relevant to the Court’s determination of jurisdiction under the Convention.

8. As Ukraine has already set out in its Written Observations, and as elaborated by Mr Gimblett yesterday, there is no question that this Court can find that a party has violated a provisional measures order, regardless of how it may ultimately rule on jurisdiction. Such a violation is both an insult to the judicial authority of the Court and a breach of the Statute itself.

9. In New Zealand’s submission however, a party’s refusal to comply with provisional measures also carries two further important legal consequences:

a. First, it can provide evidence of the existence of a legal dispute between the parties;

b. And second, it is a substantive breach of Article IX itself.

10. Madam President, as this Court recognised when applying Article IX in the Myanmar Genocide case, in order for a dispute to exist, there must be a “clear conflict of legal views” – “the claim of one party [must be] positively opposed by the other”.

11. Further, as the Court stated in the same case, the conduct of the parties after an application is filed can provide evidence of the existence of a dispute. In determining whether a dispute exists, the Court can look at what a party did – and did not do – after the application was filed.

12. A party’s refusal to comply with provisional measures is a clear example of such conduct. Where, in defiance of the Court’s direction to stop, a party:

persists with actions that form the basis of the claim against it; and
justifies those actions on the same basis as gave rise to the claim;
the Court may look to that as evidence. Evidence not just that the party denies the jurisdiction of this Court, but evidence also of the existence of a legal dispute.

13. It is hard to imagine any stronger indication that a party positively opposes the legal and factual claims that have been made against it – or conduct that more clearly demonstrates that there is a conflict of views between the parties on the legal issues and their consequences. Such non-compliance acts as a complete rejection of the applicant’s claims. It is conduct that speaks as loud as any words.

14. But the consequences of a party’s refusal to comply with provisional measures are more than evidential. In New Zealand’s submission, such a refusal also constitutes a substantive breach of Article IX itself – thus creating a basis for the jurisdiction of the Court.

15. Madam President, Article IX forms an integral part of the Convention. It serves the same high ideals as the rest of the Convention, which form the “foundation and measures of all its provisions”. Proper fulfilment of Article IX is essential to the fulfilment of the objects and purposes of the Convention itself.

16. Like all treaty obligations, Article IX must be performed in good faith. The centrality of that principle – codified in Articles 26 and 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties – is beyond doubt.

17. It is likewise established that the principle of good faith carries with it a duty to co-operate in the settlement of the dispute. That duty to co-operate – expressly confirmed by the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration – mirrors the duty to co-operate in the context of negotiation, which was affirmed by this Court in the North Sea Continental Shelf cases, and has been consistently re-affirmed in the 50 years since.

18. Article IX is thus more than a merely procedural obligation. It also has substantive character. Through Article IX, the Contracting Parties have agreed to a procedure for the settlement of their disputes – that is, submission to this Court. At the same time, they have assumed a substantive duty to co-operate and comply with all aspects of that procedure reasonably and in good faith. That duty applies equally to all States – whether large or small.

19. A party to a dispute may breach its obligations under Article IX in a number of ways. It may, for example, ignore the Court’s proceedings entirely. Or it may reject the Court’s authority and refuse to comply with the provisional measures it has indicated.

20. Such actions constitute a substantive breach of Article IX itself. By failing to comply with the Court’s procedure, the party has breached the duty implicit within Article IX. And that breach may in turn give rise to a dispute as to the “application or fulfilment” of the Convention – itself providing a basis for the jurisdiction of this Court.

Conclusion

21. Madam President, the impacts of a refusal to comply with the binding Orders of this Court extend well beyond the parties to an individual dispute.

22. As the Court has consistently found – most recently in the Myanmar Genocide case – the obligations contained in the Convention are obligations erga omnes. It follows that all States Parties to the Convention have an interest in securing compliance with those obligations – including the obligations in Article IX.

23. A party’s refusal to comply with provisional measures is a breach of Article IX, one with significant and far-reaching consequences. It undermines the high ideals of the Convention, it challenges the authority of the Court, it aggravates the underlying dispute, and it threatens the maintenance of international peace and security. As this case demonstrates, those consequences are not merely theoretical – they are real – with political, economic, and humanitarian impacts that have been felt across the globe.

24. Thank you Madam President, members of the Court, that concludes the submissions of New Zealand.

Just as New Zealand sent a legal team to the Hague to back Ukraine’s case against Russia, New Zealand must send a legal team to the Hague to back South Africa’s case against Israel.

To not do so, risks bringing the New Zealand legal system into contempt on the international stage. Making a nonsense of New Zealand’s commitment to the post World War II International rules based order.

AMSTERDAM/CAPE TOWN, Dec 29 (Reuters) – South Africa asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its crackdown against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
The ICJ, sometimes known as the World Court, is the United Nations venue for resolving disputes between states. Israel’s foreign ministry said in a reaction that the suit was “baseless.”…

https://www.reuters.com/world/south-africa-seeks-international-court-justice-genocide-order-against-israel-2023-12-29/#

When Ukraine took Russia to the ICJ to answer Russia’s accusations that Ukraine had committed genocide against ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in the Donbas. Lawyers for the Russian Federation also argued that Ukraine’s suit was “baseless”

It is true that Ukraine’s suit against the Russian Federation was novel in that it did not seek to charge the Russian Federation with committing genocide in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.

Lawyers for the Kremlin argued before the judges of the ICJ that because Ukraine was not charging the Russian Federation with committing a breach of the Genocide Convention, Russia had no case to answer.

Ukraine’s suit against the Russian Federation was novel in that lawyers for the Ukraine government, argued that the Russian Federation was in breach of the Genocide Convention for making false accusations of Genocide against Ukraine, which was an abuse of the spirit of the Convention.

New Zealand sent a legal team to the Hague to speak in support of Ukraine’s claim that the Russian Federation did have a case to answer.

In my opinion South Africa’s suit against Israel is on much stronger grounds.

For New Zealand not to send a team of the this country’s top lawyers expert on international law to the Hague, in support of South Africa’s right to take their suit to the ICJ would be a travesty of justice.

Ukraine takes itself to court

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/10/08/guest-blog-patrick-odea-ukraine-takes-itself-to-court/

“Moral consistency, with out it, you don’t have moral authority” Owen Jones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZATExzU-5ec

DW TV News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0KNs1mWBfs&t=404s

@6:44 minutes

….South Africa has filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice accusing it of genocide……
……South Africa has made a very detailed submission to the International Court of Justice in which it goes through the various elements of the crime of genocide. This is a highly significant development in the context of Gaza…..
…..they are alleging that Israel is engaging in the crime of genocide, what has been refered to as ‘the crime of crimes’. They are saying that Israel is violating, is engaged in ongoing violation of its obligations under the 1948 genocide convention. Both South Africa and Israel are parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention, so this allows interested states to take proceedings to the International Court of Justice,….

New Zealand is also a party to the 1948 Genocide Convention. As an ‘interested state’ party to the convention we sent a legal team to give testimony in the case of Ukraine vs the Russian Federation.

The question is this;
Will New Zealand disgrace itself by giving in to US pressure to not exercise our right as an ‘interested state’, party to the Genocide Convention and to not give our country’s legal opinion to the ICj in this case?

International Court of Justice Press release:

https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231229-pre-01-00-en.pdf

For taking Israel to the ICJ, Israel’s Foreign Ministry issues an official statement accusing South Africa of “cooperating with a terrorist group”.

In the same statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry threatens to pursue “military measures” against those that cooperate with Hamas.

This official threatening statement by Israel, which stops short of declaring war against South Africa, but not by much, shows how worried Israel is about being tried and condemned and going down in history for committing the crime of genocide.

https://nournews.ir/En/News/160183/Dimensions-of-South-Africa's-lawsuit-against-Israel's-genocide-in-Gaza,-at-the-International-Court-of-Ju
https://nournews.ir/En/News/160183/Dimensions-of-South-Africa's-lawsuit-against-Israel's-genocide-in-Gaza,-at-the-International-Court-of-Justice

…Israel’s foreign ministry statement goes on to accuse South Africa of cooperating with a terrorist group…..
…..military measures would be pursued only against Hamas and other terrorist organizations that cooperate with Hamas.

For taking Israel to the ICJ, Israel’s Foreign Ministry issues an official statement accusing South Africa of “cooperating with a terrorist group”.

In the same statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry threatens to pursue “military measures” against those that cooperate with Hamas.

This official threatening statement by Israel, which stops short of declaring war against South Africa, but not by much, shows how worried Israel is about being tried and condemned and going down in history for committing the crime of genocide.

https://nournews.ir/En/News/160183/Dimensions-of-South-Africa's-lawsuit-against-Israel's-genocide-in-Gaza,-at-the-International-Court-of-Ju
https://nournews.ir/En/News/160183/Dimensions-of-South-Africa's-lawsuit-against-Israel's-genocide-in-Gaza,-at-the-International-Court-of-Justice

…Israel’s foreign ministry statement goes on to accuse South Africa of cooperating with a terrorist group…..
…..military measures would be pursued only against Hamas and other terrorist organizations that cooperate with Hamas.

What military measures could South Africa expect “would be pursued” against them by Israel?

Should this threat against peace be added to the indictment?

There’s children under that rubble
where apartments used to stand
but to say so causes trouble
because we’re holding zion’s hand

there’s children under that rubble
and the dust is grey in their eyes
yet a day of dirty stubble is
more worth the newsman’s lies

there’s children under that rubble
where the bombs have hit their school
‘education is a muddle’ says our minister-
the fool

there’s children pulled from ashes
yet our conscience is in flames
just another christmas trashes
all our do good christian games

there’s children under that rubble
as the medics flee the scene
‘cos what good are twenty sutures
when a thousand bombs get mean?

there’s children line those coffins
now a pile of linen rags
while we lick the new year cauldrons
and we shag our new year flags

there’s children, bright eyed children,
who will never know their dad
just the hand of shriner evil
who is financed by this land

there’s also women, they’re our sisters https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/4/for-feminists-silence-on-gaza-is-no-longer-an-option
who now bleed and cry in vain
while we just hear pop tart grifters
cutely drowning out their pain
R.I.P John Pilger and all the journalists and photo-journalists killed by this inhuman scum
to quote Bob Nesta M:
“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned –
Everywhere is war -“