IRONICALLY, THE CONCERN over Chinese influence in New Zealand is being raised against a backdrop of unchallenged American hegemony. Extending across the whole width of the nation’s political stage, this American backdrop has become so much a part of the play’s scenery that most Kiwis no longer notice it. The inclusion of a few Chinese props, however, is enough to induce something close to panic among New Zealand’s political class.
With global economic recessions looming and the existential threat of climate change – we need a town square on public broadcasting platforms that includes rather than splinter and divides in social media echo chambers.
I get the Troll Farm at the NZ Herald need to churn out hate against the Left every day, but deciphering scribbles and criticising a Minister for not participating in a process he’s not allowed to participate in is pretty desperate even for the Troll Farm.
When his wife isn’t complaining about prisoners not being beaten with rubber hoses and waterboarded, Trump defender and NZs answer to what would you get if Piers Morgan and a meth smoking scorpion had a baby, Mike Hosking, is at the NZ Herald Troll Farm today complaining about a holiday he had in Hawaii.
We are not a people who will tolerate big swinging dick cops coming into our personal spaces armed. The guns will become an immediate source of tension, and that tension will get played out time and time and time again.
We should show her views and those who champion vengeance over mercy the contempt they deserve, they have no enlightenment, just the boorish bruise of the very barbarism they claim to recoil from.
THE NEW ZEALAND LEFT is not alone in being torn apart by what should and should not be tolerated. Only yesterday, the British Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was publicly upbraided for being “an antisemitic racist” by Margaret Hodge, a senior British Labour MP. Hodge was furious that Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) has refused to accept, in full, the definition of antisemitism issued by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
The media is alive this week with the fall-out from Donald Trump’s visit to Europe. The snubs, the diplomatic faux-pas, the treatment of Theresa May, and NATO, and everyone (except Vlad-the-Lad). So much news to report, so many issues. Oh yes, and then the Great Reversal, where Trump said he said ‘would’ but meant ‘wouldn’t’. His performance at that press conference was odd; while he lies all the time, this time you could hear the lie in his voice.
Another home goal by a Government who seem to think their problem is a lack of ‘gender intelligence’ in selling their ideas, and not basic strategic competence. Isn’t it time someone called back in Matt McCarten? Hasn’t he been punished enough and isn’t this incompetence starting to hurt?
Why let the war mongers dictate the narrative? Why not have a leader who can articulate a vision of co-operation in the Pacific challenge that narrative by being direct in our criticism while inclusive in our solutions?