Responding to Paris: The Left must never abandon love for hate; justice for revenge.

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November 17, 2015

TERRORIST ATTACKS – like the one that left 129 Parisians dead on 13 November 2015 – leave many leftists in a quandary. Most of us are only too aware that one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom-fighter. We hesitate to join in the outpourings of outrage and sympathy because we are appalled by, and want no part of, the extraordinary hypocrisy in which these events are shrouded.

Scores of men, women and children are killed and maimed by terrorist attacks almost every day in the countries of the Middle East and Africa, and yet they merit only a few words in our news bulletins and newspapers. Certainly, nobody thinks them worthy of front-page treatment. Nor do we see significant public buildings lit up in the colours of their nation’s flag.

This is because there is an unacknowledged hierarchy of significance at work in the newsrooms of the West. People of colour; followers of non-Christian faiths; citizens of nations with which our governments are not on friendly terms: the violent deaths of such people are almost never accorded the same degree of significance as the deaths of Westerners.

If I belonged to one of these “less significant” groups, I would find it extremely difficult not to brand the actions of Western editors racist.

Because even the term “terrorist attack” carries blatantly racist overtones. In Western ears, it conjures up images of bloodthirsty organisations with outlandish names like Boko Haram, Janjaweed, Hezbollah and ISIS. It is much less common to hear the term linked to the actions of the armed forces of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the other Western powers. Terrorists wear turbans and carry Kalashnikovs – not smart uniforms and M-16s.

And yet, since the end of the Second World War, the armed forces of the United States, advised and assisted by its intelligence and security agencies, has been responsible for the deaths of millions. The unrelenting air assault on North Korea (over 700,000 sorties between 1950-53) is credited (conservatively) with at least a million civilian deaths. Twice that number of civilians are estimated to have been killed by the American armed forces in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia between 1965-75. US inflicted civilian deaths in Iraq 2003-2014 are put at well over 600,000.

In 1996, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Madelaine Albright, was questioned by Lesley Stahl, of CBS’s 60 Minutes, about the human consequences of the sanctions imposed by the US on the regime of the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.

“We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”

To which Albright responded,

“I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.”

Those who wonder how a group of young men can fire their automatic weapons into a crowded theatre should, perhaps, contemplate the effect of Ambassador Albright’s words on the parents and siblings of those 500,000 children.

The temptation which confronts so many on the Left is to advance these bleak statistics as some form of justification for the actions of non-state terrorists around the world. It is a temptation we must resist. That we learn the fundamental moral precept “two wrongs don’t make a right” at our parents’ knees, does not make it any the less true.

The appropriate moral response to the deliberate killing of innocent human-beings can never be the deliberate killing of innocent human-beings. If we are outraged by the callous indifference of Madelaine Albright, we must also be outraged by the pitiless brutality of the Islamic State’s jihadis in the Bataclan Theatre.

Nor is it appropriate to downplay the horror and heartache of Parisians who have lost loved ones simply because our news media has failed to highlight the horror and heartache of those who have suffered similar loss in other parts of the world.

We are leftists because, at the very core of our values, lies an unshakeable belief in the worth of every human-being, and in the right of every human-being to live his or her life free from exploitation and violence. That the world is so full of these evils must never daunt us, nor persuade us to abandon love for hate; justice for revenge.

Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

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The Daily Blog Open Mic Monday 16th November 2015

By

The Daily Blog

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November 16, 2015

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

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Citizens march against TPPA in Wellington, send message to National govt: “Yeah, nah!”

By

Frank Macskasy

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November 16, 2015

14

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NZ, Wellington, 14 November – Tertiary Education Union national president and veteran anti-TPPA campaigner, Dr Sandra Grey, addressed a gathering of citizens, in Midland Park, in Wellington’s CBD;

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Dr Grey told the crowd of nearly one thousand, that the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) had not yet been signed, and was not due for ratification until early next year.

She encouraged those listening to let other people know that this was by no means a done deal and they should let others know. Dr Grey encouraged people to “flood the internet” and spread the word to lobby National not to ratify the agreement.

As numbers in the park swelled, people brought their own, home-made signs to make their views known;

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These citizens not only expressed their dissatisfaction with the TPPA and the shady, secretive process surrounding it, but were working to engage young people in the electoral process. They wanted New Zealand’s youth to exercise their vote and thereby choose their own future;

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Some more imaginative signs;

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Banners from the Green Party, Nurses Organisation, and Wellington Social Workers;

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The marchers, setting off from Midland Park;

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By the time the protest march left Midland Park, numbers had increased to between 1,500 to 2,000 people. However, something very unusual became apparent even before the protesters made their way out onto Lambton Quay.

The view south, with March-Marshalls (in yellow vests) on the road;

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The view north, with TV1 reporter and cameraman standing on the center traffic-island;

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No police presence.

There was not one single policeman or woman, nor a patrol car, for crowd or traffic control. Traffic and crowd control were left up to the Marshals – all of whom did a magnificent job.

With traffic stopped, the marchers moved out onto Lambton Quay;

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With the head of the march behind him, TV1’s reporter was filmed by his cameraman for the 6PM News;

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As protesters made their way to Parliament, more people joined the march;

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Winding their way along Lambton Quay, numbers had ballooned to around 2,000;

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Ben held aloft New Zealand’s current flag – in many ways symbolic of the struggle to retain something of this country’s independence.

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The TPPA could rightly be seen as a radical change for New Zealand; the submerging of our heritage and culture by forces of globalisation.

Perhaps there is a kind of mad logic to our esteemed Dear Leader’s desperate need to spend $26 million on a flag-referendum when the public has shown little appetite for changing our flag.

If the TPPA is a new, corporatised road for this country, then John Key’s desire to have the silver fern (or some incarnation of it) as our new flag suddenly makes sense. A new flag is the ‘re-branding’ of New Zealand, as part and parcel of a TPPA world.

Having a young citizen – Ben – waving an old, traditional symbol of this country, is made more poignant because of his youth. It is not often that young people hold on to aspects of our Past and Present.

Perhaps, in times of rapid change and uncertainty, we try to hold on to elements of the Past, to anchor ourselves in the Present.

Amongst all the party and union banners and the anti-TPPA signs, Ben’s little Kiwi flag made more sense as a symbol for resistance.

Reaching the Bowen St/Lambton Quay/Whitmore St intersection, there was still a zero police presence. This left March Marshalls with the tricky task of managing traffic flow and permitting protesters pass through safely;

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I mentioned the lack of police presence to a msm journalist and he agreed; he had noticed the same curious thing. He said it made it him feel nervous.

I agreed, I said. But not because there might be trouble-makers amongst the protesters. I pointed out it would only take one lunatic driver to drive his or her car into the crowd, injuring or killing someone. I recalled a very similar tragic event happening sixteen years ago, during a picket at the Port of Lyttleton.

The march made it’s way past the Cenotaph;

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Usually, at this point, I make my way up onto Parliament’s grounds. This time, I remained at the intersection, my camera ready.

Sure enough, this dark-coloured SUV slowly nosed it’s way amongst the marchers;

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The driver moved through the procession, at one point only a metre from people in front of his bumper. I moved closer to the vehicle, continuing to take photographs, to let him know that I was watching and recording. If the driver became belligerent behind the wheel, I would be recording his behaviour before interceding;

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Heading toward the gates of Parliament, another young protester with her home-made sign;

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Granny expresses her appreciation!

Once the march had moved through the intersection, I noticed a white utility vehicle with its amber lights flashing, to hold back traffic. Whether this was a thoughtful citizen using his/her initiative to control traffic – or had been directed to do so by police or Wellington Council – is unknown;

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A minute later, a sole police vehicle drove past – their role in traffic management (if any), too late for any practical purpose. Protestors had moved off the road and traffic was already moving again;

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As protesters made their way onto Parliament’s grassy lawns, we discovered why there had been no attempt by Police at any form of traffic management. They were waiting for protesters on the forecourt, lined up in front of Parliament’s steps, protecting an empty building;

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The first speaker to address the crowd was environmentalist lawyer, working part-time at Victoria University, Tom Bennion;

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Tom voiced his concern that the TPPA could prevent necessary action being taken to address global warming. The TPPA fell short of environmental protections and gave greater prominence to protecting corporate rights. He said implementing the TPPA would harm our chances for meaningful action on climate change, and demanded that the issue be more fully debated in Parliament.

The second speaker was local Iwi representative and lawyer, Moana Sinclair;

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Moana told the crowd that with thirty thousand pages of TPPA text and other documents to analyse was a daunting task. She was scathing on the TPPA and it’s implications for Maori, saying that as Maori “we already know about this kind of bullshit”. She said that “we still don’t know what’s in the Treaty-related clauses.

Moana rejected reassurances from National ministers saying “we’re sick and tired of their lies”. Without legal analysis of the 30,000 pages of the TPPA and supporting documents, she was sceptical that there were no hidden ‘fish hooks’ waiting to be discovered.

The following speaker was Jimmy Green, from “Gen Zero”;

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Jimmy said he first became interested in climate change issues at the age of 14. The more he found out, he said, the more convinced he became that “it is an insult to our ancestors that we ruin the world for our children”.

Jimmy specifically condemned the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions of the TPPA, saying that if investments could be put at risk by governments legislating for social, health, environmental, or education issues, then investors should not have made those investments in the first place.

Jimmy described the TPPA as a castle built on sand and that no government can go against the will of the people and survive. He described the TPPA as “just an idea, and ideas can be undone”. He described New Zealanders as generally good people and that Kiwis had the necessary courage to stand up and walk away. He said people might not fully understand the implications of the TPPA and that it was our role to make them understand.

Jimmy was followed by Peace Action campaigner, Valerie Morse;

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Valerie explained that the TPPA was a vehicle to increase massive concentration of wealth to the already rich super-elite. It would benefit the elite ‘haves’ at the expense of the the rest of the world.

Valarie also condemned the TPPA as another means by which New Zealand is increasingly being tied to US and it’s insane war policies. She described the TPPA as part of gangster capitalism. Painting a stark picture of our recent history, Valerie pointed out that New Zealand had been at war for the last fourteen years.

Valerie pointed out there was a massive campaign under way to win the “hearts and minds” of the public to support the ongoing “War on Terror” in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. She described the Army games in Southland where “mock” protesters had been beaten up as part of the exercise. Was that what lay in store for ordinary people who chose to protest against their governments, she asked?

“War is not a by-product of US capitalism”, Valerie explained, “it is an integral part of it”. She warned that we should expect New Zealand to become more deeply involved in the US killing campaign;

“If we organise against the TPPA, expect to be labelled a terrorist.”

Valerie’s sobering warnings was followed by poet, Cory Brian;

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Corey read his thought-provoking poem to the crowd, who listened in silence;

My journey begins fresh, anew,
the rush of a city, no longer we west coast few,
day to day select few pray,
for those around them to share their stay

you enjoy that which ancestors build,
your over payed politicians form the Decisions Guild,
to guide a nation as they see fit,culture and heritage not cared for one bit
our farms, our river all sold to market,
and before you find out the hope you’ll kark it,

For if we were ever collectively aware,
then that fat old Decision Guild would have something to fear
But alas that is just not the case,
you all turn away, afraid to face
the fact that generations to come,
may have difficulty seeing the sun,
not only through our cause of pollution,
but also that we struggle for a simple solution
to stem the flow that society has made
its ever pushing tide for culture to fade.

Continue on mankind this path
so it shall read your epitaph:

Man was here but a few hundred years
molesting the earth without any cares
digging, polluting, No consequences,
mother natures only choice left?
to dismantle mans fences,

individually the choices, signs and roads we take
each day increases whats at stake
what would happen if we thought as one?
could we possibly redirect the gun?
away from our mouths that cause this harm,
towards our futures and fast track calm?

It will not be those that we follow,
but us, the new with minds as swift as the swallows,
we are that our past envisioned
the future to mend is our decision!

But how you ask your eyes to me?
Open your Eyes…. Not just those two,
and you shall see,
the page is blank our chapters to write
now take up your pen and create YOUR sight.

With a pen you say thinking im mad
now wait for it and IL point out whats sad

laws are made with but a pen
yet dictate the actions of nearly all men
your headphones occupy your ears,
so that mother culture can lullaby all your fears
your are bound, constricted, unconsciously gagged,
cameras posted everywhere ensure you remain tagged,
livestock bumbling through these concrete streets…

now compare that to the stupid animals you raise, feed, and eat.

Following Corey, Pala from ‘Real Choice NZ’, was given the microphone;

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Pala told the crowd that people think that democracy goes with capitalism. He shook his head and said, “No, capitalism has always tried to squash democracy“. He said this was especially true for indigenous peoples’ rights.

Pala said that the TPPA will benefit only a few and “is at the forefront of the wedge to sharpen inequality between people”. He warned that even if the TPPA fails, corporate power would remain in place, subverting public institutions for private gain, and needed to be constantly fought.

Echoing the sentiments of many other New Zealanders, Pala condemned this government for squandering $26 million on a flag referendum, while insisting there was insufficient money to spend on child poverty. He demanded to know why a referendum could be held to determine our flag, but not on the issue of the TPPA.

Pala ended by reminding us;

” We are in the middle of a serious assault on democracy. Democracy is a living thing, but also a fragile thing as well.”

Pala was followed by long-time anti-TPPA campaigner and Mana Party activist, Ariana;

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Ariana told the crowd that thousands of people across the country were standing up today “for what we believe in”. She condemned the current government as treasonous, saying,

“We need to get these neo-liberal bastards out of our country. It is a mockery of democracy when this important issue will be decided by only twenty people in Cabinet!”

She said there was only one way to get rid of this government, and that was to get everyone voting in 2017.

Ariana said that the TPPA was not good for New Zealand and certainly not good for small businesses. She wanted to see support for local businesses grow, and not the empowerment of multinational corporations.

Ariana encouraged everyone to put up “TPPA Free Zone” signs, as New Zealanders did in the 1980s, during the nuclear-free campaign. The signs could be downloaded from Facebook and other websites.

As many others have pointed out, Ariana stated that the TPPA was an investor-corporations “bill of rights” and not about free trade.

Citizens listened intently to the speakers;

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The last speakers were also the youngest, Tracy and Katie, who have played their part in the anti-TPPA campaign;

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Introducing Tracey and Katie, Ariana told the crowd how they forfeited “Trick or Treating” at the Robbie Williams Concert, and instead worked through the evening handing out TPPA leaflets to the concert-goers.

This elicited a mass-cheer and clapping from the crowd.

Tracey told the crowd that her annual school speech was on the topic of – the TPPA!

“Kia Ora My name is Tracey… I am 13 years old… Today I am here as I am worried about what will happen to mine and my friends’ future if the TPPA is signed!!!! I have on many times handed out fliers and chalked for people to google TPPA…Many people have seemed interested in what I have had to say whilst handing out leaflets… Though some people have not and have been quite nasty!! Ha ha Mum was always there to give them some facts! This year we had to write a speech for school the topic was “There is a problem in New Zealand and I can solve it by? well you can just guess what I talked about – Yes, the TPP… It was very one-sided as there was nothing from the government because it was a deal being done in secret, but there were plenty of articles about why we shouldn’t sign it from lessons learned overseas … This is my future this government is playing with and I say Don’t SIGN the TPPA.”

Katie spoke passionately on climate-change affecting her future;

“Kia Ora My name is Katie …. I am 12 years old. Today I am here like you because I am worried about what will happen to mine and my friends’ future if the TPPA is signed!!!! I have on numerous occasions handed out fliers and chalked for people to google TPPA… The reason I do this is because I have been to many very interesting discussions where people have passionately spoken about our Country and the TPP, And NO never any good news, if there was, the bad was way worse than the good! … I have been to many TPP rally meetings and rallies… Mum has made sure we are at most of them!… Her point of view is, We will not go to her in a few years time and say, but Mum you guys could have done something to stop it!!! Why didn’t you???? So here we are!! And look at all of you, so I am guessing you all agree with us as you are here too! Thank you for helping stand up for a better NZ for us all… TPPA NO WAY!”

Tracey and Katie are ambassadors for the generations that will inherit our country – indeed our planet. We cannot ignore their voices.

Finally, no protest rally is ever really completely done without at least one excellent artist to perform for the crowd. In this case, Matiu Te Huki belted out two great songs, to everyone’s joy;

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Matiu’s voice did real justice to the songs he sang.

On that ‘note’…

Whilst I won’t point out which policeman or woman it was, I spotted one in the police-line tapping his/her foot, in time to the music. Constables – you’re allowed to enjoy the music. We really, really don’t mind.

The last word, I leave to the maker of this simple – but insightful – message;

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Tomorrow: The TPPA March – Something concerning regarding the Police presence at Parliament on Saturday afternoon.

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References

NZ Herald: Sentence for Lyttleton picket line fatality too light – union

The Daily Blog: Keith Rankin – White Trite

Facebook: TPPA Free Zone and Action plans

Te Papa: Nuclear free sign

Previous related blogposts

Citizen A – 29 Nov 2012 – TPPA Special

TPPA: Business launches propaganda campaign

TPPA: Doomsday scenarios, Critics, and flights of fancy

Open message to the Middle Classes about the threat of the TPPA

Nationwide Rally Against the TPPA – Day of Action!

They marched against the TPPA and the threat to our sovereignty (part tahi)

They marched against the TPPA and the threat to our sovereignty (part rua)

The Mendacities of Mr Key #5: Has Tim Groser shown the P.M. to be a liar on the TPPA?

Nationwide Day of Protest Captures Public Attention on TPPA

Opposing the TPPA – the Heavens hold their deluge ’till the People speak

Citizens face Police armed with tasers at Wellington TPPA protest march

Support groups

Facebook: Oil Free Wellington

Facebook: It’s Our Future – Kiwis concerned about the TPPA

Website: It’s Our Future

Facebook: Aotearoa is Not for Sale

Action Stations: A Secret Trade Deal So Terrifying That Parliament Isn’t Even Allowed To Know What It Says

Facebook: TPPA Action Group – Wellington

OraTaiao New Zealand Climate and Health Council

Copyright (c) Notice

All images stamped ‘fmacskasy.wordpress.com’ are freely available to be used, with following provisos,

» Use must be for non-commercial purposes.
» Where purpose of use is commercial, a donation to Child Poverty Action Group is requested.
» At all times, images must be used only in context, and not to denigrate individuals or groups.
» Acknowledgement of source is requested.

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= fs =

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Middle East peace: one state – the two-state ‘solution’ is dead

By

Leslie Bravery

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November 16, 2015

1

“The only liveable future is one in which the ‘us vs. them’ mentality dissolves into the shameful recesses of history . . . soon – maybe in thirty years – Israel as we know it will be gone . . .” – Audrey Farber: Am I allowed to be a Palestinian Jew?

In 2014 the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities held a conference called “From hating the stranger to accepting the other.” The President of Israel and the Minister of Education were guests at the conference but, although the list of speakers included both Jews and Arabs, Mizrahi Jews (Arab, lit. Eastern) were not invited. In Israel, the Mizrahim, the region’s native Arabic-speaking Jews, face discrimination from the dominant European (Ashkenazi) Zionist elite. Mizrahi artists, religious leaders and intellectuals hastily reacted to their exclusion by holding an alternative conference in a religious centre across the street from that promoted by the Israeli Academy. Called “The Voices of the Others”, and despite the short notice and miserable weather, the auditorium was filled with Jewish musicians singing in Arabic and scholars speaking about their vision of an end to discrimination. Professor Haviva Pedaya, an expert in Judaism, pointed out that Israeli history textbooks “describe us as backward and none of us have encountered a fair textbook.” In her book, Zionism from the standpoint of its Jewish victims, Ella Shohat explains how “. . . Zionism does not only undertake to speak for Palestine and the Palestinians, thus ‘blocking’ all Palestinian self-representation, it also presumes to speak for Oriental Jews.”

An Israeli of Iraqi Jewish ancestry, Rachel Shabi records the personal stories and history of Mizrahi Jews in her book, Not the Enemy. Through personal narratives and historical research, Shabi reveals the harm done by Zionism to Middle Eastern Jews. In her article Am I allowed to be a Palestinian Jew? Audrey Farber tells the story of two brothers, Palestinian Jews of East European descent. Their grandparents immigrated to Israel from Europe and raised them as Palestinians, “yeah, we’re Ashkenazi but we’re Palestinian”, they told her. “We went to Arab schools, we speak Arabic.” The pair did not serve in the Israeli Army; a lawyer friend of their parents had informed them of a little-known law which states that anyone – even an Israeli Jew – who identifies with Arab culture more strongly than with Israeli Jewish culture is exempt, like most non-Jewish Arabs, from Army service.

The Zionist perspective is promoted by Western politicians and the mainstream news media through terminology that creates certain, simplistic and seemingly self-evident, impressions. For centuries Palestinians of various religions lived together in peace and, as history records, for nearly 800 years Arab and Jew lived together harmoniously in Andalucia. It was the European reconquest of Spain in 1492 that saw Jews once again persecuted, exiled or forcibly converted to Christianity. As Rachel Shabi reminds us, “a Jew can also be Arab. So why cannot a Jew be Palestinian, or a Palestinian a Jew?” She makes the essential point also that, “The Palestinian-Jew dichotomy is not only imposed, brainwashed into us, but it is completely fabricated. To be Jewish is to be a part of a religion, heritage, culture, and tradition. It is not a nationality.” Shabi reminds the Israeli leader, Netanyahu, (our own political leaders should note also) that, “to be Palestinian means to be a part of the community whose members can trace their lineage back to this land, the families who have historically owned homes and property in this corner of the world. For many, it is living here that makes them Palestinian. It is a national identity, a shared history, and a shared place. Palestinians are a diverse group: Muslims, Christians, atheists, Bedouin, Druze, Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Americans, Communists, Marxists, capitalists, anarchists… even Jews.”

Zionist regime
The colonialist assumptions and prejudices that the European-mentored Zionist regime’s ideology has inherited manifest themselves daily. In Israel they are found in the discrimination experienced by Palestinians as well as Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. The Zionist obsession with demography is recognised and condemned in United Nations Security Council Resolution 476) which deplores “the persistence of Israel, in changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and the status of the Holy City of Jerusalem”. Outside of Israel, there is the appalling suffering inflicted upon Palestinians by Israeli military oppression. As Israel refuses to define its borders so, alongside discrimination, goes expansionism and settlement. On 14 December 1981, for instance, the Israeli Parliament voted to annex the Golan Heights in Syria and impose Israeli civilian law and administration on the territory while, all the time, illegal Israeli settlements continue to grow in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank.

The Kairos Palestine Document
In Palestine, the birthplace of Christianity, Israel’s persecution of Occupied Christians has led to the publication of what is known as The Kairos Palestine Document. The authors call it “the Christian Palestinians’ word to the world about what is happening in Palestine”. The Christians quite rightly call on “the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades”. The document details how Israel makes “family life impossible for thousands of Palestinians, especially where one of the spouses does not have an Israeli identity card”; with restricting religious liberty for Christians and Muslims; with lack of consideration for refugees and prisoners; with turning “Jerusalem, city of reconciliation”, into “a city of discrimination and exclusion, a source of struggle rather than peace”; and with holding “international law and international resolutions” in “contempt”. The document declares that: “Love is the commandment of Christ our Lord to us” and that it means “seeing the face of God in every human being”. Yet this “does not mean accepting evil or aggression on their part”. Love, rather, “seeks to correct the evil and stop the aggression”. Therefore, Christian love compels that the Israeli Occupation of Palestine be resisted. The document calls for “civil disobedience” and “respect of life”, endorses the BDS movement and rejects the idea of “a religious state” in the Holy Land. [A moment of Truth]

“ . . . forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Regardless of one’s personal religious belief – or non-belief – Christianity has given the world an insight that, if thought upon, should appeal and offer hope to all humanity. The Gospel of St Luke (23:24) quotes what it holds to be the words of Jesus as he was being crucified: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” This deeply insightful appeal is no meak surrender to injustice and terror, rather it is recognition and a warning that from time to time, there arise ideologies and political propaganda that suffocate reason. The voices of powerful interests become so dominant that few in a given society dare, or even think, to question them. Ideologies arise, then fall from fashion – but the harm they do lasts for generations, watering the seeds of future conflict. The words from the Cross tell us to remember our humanity and not allow our consciences to be overruled by assumptions and propaganda. Zionism and the Fourth Geneva Convention are demonstrably incompatible so we must ask the question: which of the two offers the best hope for peace and stability?

A single state
The Zionist regime rules the whole of Israel/Palestine (the Israeli blockade of Gaza, with its concomitant and pervasive ceasefire violations, makes it plain who is in charge, who controls the economy and who can come and go) and the result is a de facto single state. Israel has changed the demography of Palestine forever. In the process of achieving its objective, the Zionist project has depended upon the creation of refugees, the largest and longest-lasting such crisis in modern history. Whatever happens in the process of removing the Zionist regime, there must be no possibility of a recurrence of such a terrible injustice. Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return because there should be no refugees and a state with equal rights for all is the only civilised and just answer.

The UN – making amends
In the middle of the last century the world community ignored the objections of the Palestinian people, denied them their right to self-determination, partitioned their land and imposed Zionism upon them. We have a humanitarian duty to right that wrong and make some amends to all who have suffered so grievously as a result. With the best will in the world it might seem to many people that it would now be impossible to undo the Zionist regime that describes itself as “The Jewish State”. But in today’s world, Zionism’s fundamentally discriminatory nature is not just morally unacceptable, it is in contravention of international law. Audrey Farber expressed it very reasonably: “Palestinian identity must be secular, national, tied to a place and a geo-political history and all that that entails. In these terms, with these identities, there is no reason that a Jew cannot be Palestinian, or that a Palestinian cannot be a Jew.”

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Beirut and Paris: Two terror attacks with different tales

By

Dr David Robie

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November 15, 2015

32

Auckland With Paris 560wide — *In solidarity … a vigil for Paris in Auckland’s Aotea Square at the weekend. Photo: David Robie*

Open Letter to Michelle Boag

By

Rachael Goldsmith

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November 15, 2015

12

Dear Michelle,
I am so disappointed with your public comments on the brave efforts of opposition MP’s this week, and the cheap shots you are taking at their sincerity. It may not be true in your circles that politicians can be genuine, sincere and there for the right reasons – our people – our survivors – but it is true of those who spoke out this week.

You are being wilfully blind. I say that because the encyclopaedia of work the Greens and some in Labour have done on sexual violence before Tuesday is quite immense.
You’ve forgotten the Everyone needs the right help campaign where many of us stood up as survivors to show it affects everyone. We fronted for a campaign where our photos and stories were shared around the world – that’s not easy, but we did it.
You’ve forgotten how hard and loud we fought for changes to our justice system that would deliver real justice instead of the unworkable system we have now that victimises everyone.
You’ve forgotten that many of our female MP’s openly came to Parliament with a background working with survivors of sexual & family violence.
Search for sexual & family violence terms in our press releases and you’ll get more than 834 results. Who has stood up to Nationals cuts to survivor services every single time over the last 7 years? We have.
And as for being someone special – unfortunately they know all too well how common our experiences are – which is exactly why these wonderful SURVIVORS – not victims thank you – how dare you tell us we are still victims – stood up to John Key to show every single survivor of sexual & family violence in NZ – and around the world – that they are not alone, that successful women are survivors too, that rape is not a joke, or an insult to be thrown around – but is a devastating event that all too many have to recover from.
That is an incredibly powerful thing to do – and wisely, most powerful women in this country have congratulated them, or at least kept a dignified silence out of respect for their experiences.

Except you.
Perhaps you are a survivor. I don’t say that to take a cheap pot-shot, but because it’s sadly very possible. Perhaps you have lived in a world where surviving sexual violence is a shameful thing. You certainly do live in that world where we ‘do not speak of it’ and internalise it forever, and consider women who do speak out ‘attention seekers’ who better produce a police report, or they are deemed liars.
Well, I’m sorry, but a lot of us don’t live in that world – won’t live in that world – won’t be ashamed – won’t be silenced – won’t be told we’re victims. Some of us realise that the only good thing that comes out of sexual and family violence is the ability to ensure those without a voice know they are not alone, that people do care about what happened to them, that they have access to help, and that they can survive and thrive.
With true sincerity, which can co-exist with politics,

Rachael.

(Rachael Goldsmith is a 2x Green Party candidate, office holder & Policy Committee member who co-authored their Women’s Policy. She is also a sexual & family violence survivor, and an advocate for survivors of violence.)

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TheDailyBlog.nz Top 5 News Headlines Sunday 15th November 2015

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The Daily Blog

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November 15, 2015

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5:

Hollande: Paris attacks an act of ‘war’

Latest developments

Islamic State claims responsibility for attacks in official statement
Police make a number of arrests in Brussels after attacks
A Frenchman has been identified as one of the Bataclan concert hall attackers – AFP
Holder of Syrian passport found at scene crossed into EU through the Greek island of Leros in October.
Egyptian passport and Syrian passport found on two attackers at the Stade de France, according to French newspaper La Liberation.

The worst attack was carried out at the Bataclan concert hall, where officials say four gunmen systematically killed at least 87 people at a rock concert before anti-terrorist commandos launched an assault on the building.

Some 40 more people were killed in five other attacks in the Paris region, the official said, including an apparent double suicide bombing outside the Stade de France national stadium, where Mr Hollande and the German foreign minister were watching a friendly soccer international.

In total eight attackers are reported to have been killed around Paris, including seven by their suicide belts.

The police believe all of the gunmen are now dead but it is not clear if any accomplices are still on the run .

It is was the worst such attack in Europe since the Madrid train bombings of 2004, in which 191 died.

RNZ

4:

ISIL Claims Responsibility for Beirut Suicide Blasts That Killed 43

3:

Paris terror attacks ‘carried out by three coordinated teams of gunmen’

Three coordinated teams of jihadi gunmen struck at six different sites across Paris in a bloody wave of suicide bombings and shootings that left nearly 130 people dead, the Paris public prosecutor has said.
François Molins told a news conference on Saturday that at least 129 people were killed and 352 more injured – including 90 critically – in the attacks on Friday night on the Stade de France, a city-centre concert hall and a series of packed cafes and bars.

Molins said three French nationals had been arrested in Belgium, where they all lived, in connection with the attacks, France’s deadliest since the second world war and the worst witnessed in Europe since the 2004 Madrid railway bombings.
Islamic State on Saturday claimed responsibility for the atrocities, which the French president, François Hollande, denounced as an “act of war” that must be countered “mercilessly”.

As police worked to identify the militants, all of whom died in the attacks, Molins also confirmed that at least one of the fighters, identified by his fingerprints, was a French national from the Paris suburb of Courcouronnes. The man, born in 1985, had a criminal record and had been flagged as an extremist as early as 2010, the prosecutor said.

He also said a Syrian passport, belonging to a man born in 1990 who was not known to the French authorities, had been found lying close by the bodies of two other jihadis, who both blew themselves up in the course of their attacks.

The Guardian

2:

French officials warned austerity increased insecurity

Following the carnage in and around Paris Friday night when eight assailants used explosives and automatic weapons to kill at least 129 people, recent warnings by security officials over the spiking threat of attack amid budgetary austerity have assumed a particularly grim prescience.

Those warnings noted the rapidly increasing number of recruits to the ranks of groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL) – many of whom who have travelled to and gained battle experience in Syria or Iraq. But the French security officials also stressed that sharp cuts in public spending have restricted the means available to security services those recruits under surveillance.

In private conversations during the 11 months between January’s Charlie Hebdo strikes and Friday’s attacks – for which ISIL has claimed responsibility – some members of France’s overloaded security services saw a new wave of attacks as inevitable.

“More and more cases [of identified radicals] arrive every day, and we’re already unable to maintain surveillance of people flagged as potentially dangerous,” a visibly exhausted and enervated senior French security official confided earlier this autumn. “Meanwhile, politicians of all stripes are imposing austerity that cuts into our resources the same as it does hospitals and schools. You can’t constantly try to do more with less without something eventually breaking down.”

Aljazeera

1:

The Terror Attacks in Paris: A Timeline of Events

Gunmen killed 129 people in multiple attacks and an explosion at a soccer game in Paris, France, on Friday night, in what is being widely described as the worst attack the city has seen since World War II. Around 350 other victims are reportedly hospitalized, with around 100 in critical condition.

Paris, shocked and grieving, remains on lockdown while authorities continue to seek for possible accomplices in the attacks. All of the eight attackers known so far died on Friday, seven by detonating suicide belts and another in a shootout with police at the Bataclan, a theater where at least 80 concertgoers were held hostage and then killed.

Here is how last night’s events unfolded, all times local in Paris:

Vice News

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The Daily Blog Open Mic Sunday 15th November 2015

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The Daily Blog

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November 15, 2015

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

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Evil French Terror Attacks a Western Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

By

Christine Rose

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November 15, 2015

79

When organised murderous aggression such as the French ‘terror’ attacks, occurs on Western soil, there’s an increased immediacy of perceived risk to established civil order. Indeed, President Obama has called this latest violence, “an attack on humanity and the values we all share”. Tragically however, similar violence is the reality on the streets of many of humanity’s cities every day, sometimes perpetrated by the US itself. All violent aggression is an attack on humanity itself, and Obama’s sympathy also contains hypocrisy and rhetoric.

Social media and ‘live-from-the-scene’ broadcasts make attacks on the streets of familiar cities such as Paris and Sydney, hyper-real. There’s drama, tragedy and fear. There are villains and victims. It’s real-life reality TV. We can read Facebook posts from inside the hostage zone. We quickly adopt a trending sympathy hashtag so we can show our solidarity with those affected. Today, Twitter accounts “linked to Jihadists” are reportedly celebrating the French attacks. Meanwhile we can see the crime scenes uncensored; pools of blood, bodies, traumatised victims; the casualties of modern conflict and technology combined.

The Prussian Military theorist Clausewitz said war is politics by other means. Yesterday’s multi-site French massacre is war and politics by other means too. It has been carried out in classic ‘terrorist’ fashion. It’s a political statement that shows strength and penetration into ‘enemy territory’ (“our territory”!!) in an asymmetrical conflict. It is indiscriminate in its victims, but strategically as precise as America’s drone strike on Jihadi John. Through its tactics, and the interconnectedness of the media, it will have successfully invoked maximum fear. It taunts the military superpowers with the cunning and ruthlessness of its execution. Even while France prepares for the Paris climate talks with increased security, the state’s armed forces were no match for groups of (men) intent on destabilising Western security as a whole.

The current death toll is estimated at about 120 innocent victims, a tragedy for all concerned. It’s absurd that young people attending an American ‘death metal’ concert were gunned down at the gig. There are reports that Islamic State (IS) are taking responsibility for the acts of violence, and that perpetrators called out ‘It’s for Syria”, and “Allahar Akbar” while gunning down victims in the theatre. While conveniently conforming to stereotypical assumptions, IS also claimed responsibility for shooting down a Russian airliner over Egypt last week, with the loss of all lives on board. Acts of violence threatening European holiday destinations and neighbourhoods! It’s one thing when violence occurs in far flung, distant countries, to others, ‘foreigners’, those of a different religion or culture, from another ‘civilisation’. It’s another matter when victims of that war turn up in your country seeking refuge. It’s a totally different thing altogether when enemies of the West bring the fight from their home to yours and they’re undiscerning about who they kill. Europe as a whole probably feels decidedly less secure now.

One sure consequence of these attacks will be a continuation of the ‘war on terror’ and of terror itself. France is already vowing to avenge the attack, and the “hunt for those responsible” has begun. Border controls will be tightened. Personal freedoms will possibly be reduced while state surveillance increases. Prejudice against Muslims and refugees will no doubt increase, overlooking the fact that it’s violence at home from these same perpetrators that refugees are fleeing from too. Expect military and domestic security spending to increase. Recent history shows us none of this will make us much safer from either organised and co-ordinated, or lone wolf acts of violence. Meanwhile however, statistically, workplace accidents, road crashes and suicide will continue to be greater real threats to those of us on the Western side of the border.

When the Cold War ended and there were prospects for a ‘global triumph of liberal democracy’, the White House National Security Advisor and Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington counterpoised with his theory of the ‘Clash of Civilisations’. He argued that with communism no longer a credible challenge to capitalism, future wars would be fought along cultural lines, by civilisations, not countries. Huntington argued that “Islamic extremism would become the biggest threat to Western domination”. His theory used a simplistic, homogenising and arbitrary system for grouping the ‘civilisations’ into blocs such as Islam, Chinese, Hindu, African etc, and failed to recognise the tensions between and within the groups. He also downplayed the material conditions and real causal factors driving conflict.
But in proposing the clash of civilisations, with anti-Islamic focus as the new world (war) order, Huntington set the scene for the American and Western foreign policy and intervention that we’re witnessing now. Perpetuated by George W Bush’s defining the enemy as those states in the “Axis of Evil” (Iran, Iraq and North Korea), and “Beyond the Axis of Evil” in Cuba, Libya and Syria, we see a self-fulfilling prophecy unfold. Destabilised by Western invasion and removal of heads of state, in four of those six countries a new type of bogeyman has been unleashed to attract Western response and military attention. It’s no coincidence that the West has found a new enemy (with oil) on which to focus its antagonism. And it’s no coincidence that those forces unleashed, fight back. While undeniably evil, you could say it’s a direct response to that political theory put into practice, that brings terror onto our streets and our media channels, more directly than for decades before.

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Massive Turnout of Kiwis say ‘TPPA: Don’t Sign’

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The Daily Blog

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November 14, 2015

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A massive turnout of kiwis at 17 actions around the country have sent a strong message to the Government saying ‘TPPA, Don’t Sign’, according to It’s Our Future.

“The Government has spent the last five weeks since TPPA negotiations concluded on a comprehensive PR mission to tell New Zealanders that this deal is supposedly in their best interests. Today, over ten thousand kiwis nationwide proved that PR mission has failed,” said It’s Our Future spokesperson Edward Miller.

“New Zealanders have learnt not to swallow the ‘Trust Me’ propaganda peddled by Minister Groser,” said Edward Miller.

“For the past six years we’ve been told about a gold-plated El Dorado trade bonanza. This has failed to materialise, yet the corporate wishlist has weaved its way through the completed text.”

“Now that we have the TPPA text it’s becoming clear that this deal as is bad as we’ve been expecting. Kiwis haven’t been fooled,” said Miller.

March organisers around the country read out a list of demands regarding the TPPA that were widely supported by attendees.

“If the Government thinks the people of this country will take this deal lying down they have another thing coming. Today thousands have proved they will not give up without a fight. It’s time for the Government to start acting democratically and listening to the concerns of the people.”

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BREAKING – Paris Terror Attacks

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The Daily Blog

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November 14, 2015

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Terrible breaking news, a multi-event attack in Paris

Eight terrorists dead after Paris attacks kill more than 120 people – live updates

Eight attackers killed, seven of them via suicide bombings
Police say ‘accomplices’ could still be on loose
Around 200 people injured, 80 seriously
Attack has hallmarks of Isis, says Australian PM
Read the latest summary

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Why you must march today against the TPPA

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The Daily Blog

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November 14, 2015

13

Brother, sisters, comrades, whanau.

We gotta kinda go marching today. We can’t let the government think that we will just lie down and let them pass the TPPA without fighting every step.

This deal is wrong, this deal needs to be stopped, this is not free trade deal, it’s a forced trade deal.

30 chapters, 6 of them about trade, the remaining 24 chapters are about corporations being able to over ride our ability to pass domestic law.

If you believe in democracy, if you believe in our economic and political sovereignty, you need to turn up.

This one matters as much as anything we’ve done before this. It’s time for all good people to come to the party.

Day of Action Events Saturday 14 November

Kerikeri – 2:30pm at Kerikeri Library

Auckland – 1:00pm at Myers Park

Hamilton – 1:00pm by Cock and Bull Te Rapa

Tauranga – 11:00am at Red Square

Rotorua – 1:00pm, at the Village Green – Corner of Whakaue St and Memorial Drive

Gisborne – 12.30pm, at Elgin Shops

Palmerston North – 1:00pm, The Square

Wellington – 1pm at Midland Park

Nelson – 11am at 1903 Square – near the church steps

Christchurch – 2pm, Cathedral Square

Little River – 1pm, Craft Station

Timaru – 1pm, Bay Hill Piazza

Dunedin – 11am at the Railway Station

Invercargill – 1.30pm – 3pm, Invercargill Library Meeting Room, TPPA Public Meeting

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Whyte Trite

By

Keith Rankin

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November 14, 2015

9

Every now and again we see former Act leader, Dr Jamie Whyte, popping up on current affairs panels, such as his appearance on The Nation three weeks ago. Whyte is always happy to discuss his ‘classical liberal’ laissez-faire philosophy, and apply it to any issue put to him, be it guns or the PM’s penis. (Whyte’s political philosophy is also called minarchism, and one of its intellectual leaders was Robert Nozick, author in 1974 of Anarchy, State and Utopia.)

His is such a simple philosophy, about the primacy of private property rights on all matters. People must be allowed to do whatever they want with whatever they own, so long as they don’t harm others. Thus it’s not really about economic outcomes, or economic ‘efficiency’, as neoclassical economics (or even neoliberalism) most concerns itself with. It’s a seductive, very simple, and easily communicable message of aspirant personal freedom.

What this philosophy lacks is any coherent sense of ‘publicness’. Filling this void is a very menacing entity called ‘the state’, which is allowed to interchange semantically with ‘the government’, making governments themselves agents of menace. As such, governments cannot be agencies of the people which facilitate the public expression of the good lives that most of us wish to lead. Ronald Reagan once declared that governments are the problem, not the solution.

To make matters worse, the school of political economy that defined modern classical liberalism in the 1980s called itself ‘public choice’; a complete misnomer for a philosophy that only validates private choice. In public choice theory, ‘the state’ is a kleptocratic ‘stationary bandit’ with its hands perpetually in our pockets, stealing from us and imposing deadweight costs on our lives. In the early 1980s, Treasury’s bible was Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations (1982).

In the twentieth century the most read publicist for the philosophy of selfishness was Ayn Rand – whose most famous titles were The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. She called her version of laissez faire ‘objectivism’; another mis‑moniker. There can be no philosophy more subjective than one which extols selfishness as its core value. For minarchist libertarians, there are two conflicting principles – that of self‑interested individualism and that of ‘altruism’.

In this philosophy of extreme liberalism, the world is populated by individuals who transact with each other in consensual fashion. There are three main forms of transaction – pure market, sexual, and venturing. The first two involve just two parties and are essentially casual meetings of buyers and sellers, or of potential sexual partners. The latter (‘venturing’) involves the formation of ‘companies’ – temporary collectives with the status of individuals. In all cases, individuals, mindful of their self-interest, are free to contract into longer term relationships. They will do things like marry if each contractee calculates such a contract to be individually advantageous. (Chicago economist Gary Becker – especially in the 1960s and 1970s – applied such concepts to pretty much all aspects of private life. It has been called New Home Economics.)

Altruism is perpetually scorned as a kind of race to the bottom, whereas self-interested individualism gives us the ‘invisible hand’ that allows libertarians to believe in selfishness as a virtue. Altruism is portrayed as self-sacrifice; a loss incurred by the altruist in favour of a gain for another individual. The idea that most altruism in practice is giving to the collective – not giving to other individuals – is lost because the whole concept of ‘public’ is so diminished in minarchist thinking. Uncalculated private-to-public giving – a core feature of actual economic life – simply does not compute in individualist terms.

The underlying ideas of classical liberalism go back to the years either side of 1700; specifically the writings of English philosopher John Locke (who helped bring about the English revolution of 1688) and the Anglo‑Dutch satirist Bernard Mandeville. Mandeville’s ‘Fable of the Bees’, subtitled “Private Vices, Publick Benefits”, is the real source of the selfishness mantra.

Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand’ was much more couched. Smith said that, “frequently”, self-interested motives yielded desirable collective outcomes. This famous passage was in Book 4 of The Wealth of Nations (1776); the section on international trade. It was out of self-interest, Smith argued, that people preferred to invest in local rather than foreign enterprises, and therefore trade policy towards protectionist ends was not required.

The key idea of Jamie Whyte’s individualism is that any subjective behaviour is OK so long as nobody is harmed. The secondary idea is that the discipline of competitive market forces eliminates bad choices. Thus the free market is actually quite punitive, and not nearly as free in practice as it is in legal statute.

The central weakness of this philosophy is the capacity for systemic (usually unintended) harm arising from individually selfish choices. One area of harm is the emergence of inequality that arises from the atomisation of wealth. In the end the ‘losers’ in these free competitive processes become forced to sell assets or incur debts in order to survive. When these losers eventually and inevitably become insolvent they must concede first their lands and then themselves to their creditors. The losers stand to become someone else’s property. Laissez-faire capitalism without a public context eventually slips into feudalism, whereby human beings become bonded to the minority who made the most fortunate or the most ruthless private choices.

Still one of the best social commentaries ever written was The Social Limits to Growth (1976) by Fred Hirsch. A book of two halves, the first half describes how increasingly our choices are motivated by our desires to gain status rather than comfort, and to soften discomfort (through defensive consumption) if we find ourselves becoming losers in capitalism’s corrosive calculus. The second half of the book goes deeper into the self‑undermining nature of capitalism as we know it; of capitalism with a one-dimensional private focus, of capitalism that inevitably loses the moral foundations that underpinned its early success.

I’ll finish here with one example from history. Today I read The Economist book review (Grey and dreichy, 7 November 2015) of London Fog: A Biography, by Christine Corton (Belknap Press). “Pea-souper” fogs recurred frequently in London from the 1830s to the 1950s. “Pea-soup fogs were quite different [from the ‘dreich’ that London had always suffered from]; they were so polluted with soot from domestic and industrial coal fires that people coughed up black mucus. As The Times put it in 1853, London’s fogs converted ‘the human larynx into an ill-swept chimney’.” The Economist goes on to note that:

“The difficulty for the clean-air reformers was that unlike, say, sewage or water, fog was never a candidate for grand public engineering works. The answer was regulation, which brought legislators up against the two great pillars of a capitalist society: the free market and private property. Industry’s right to buy the cheapest, smokiest coal, and the citizen’s right to his or her own fireside, meant that every attempt at properly enforceable anti-smoke legislation was doomed – until the Clean Air Acts of the 1950s and 1960s.”

Need I say more? Private self-interest may create harm not just to hapless individual victims, but to everyone, including the self-interested whose free choices about how to use their private property create these problems in the first place. The public is everyone, including the very rich.

Dr Whyte is not all trite. Economic freedom is a value to be cherished. It can be supported by capitalism, but not capitalism as we know it. Rather, capitalism with two faces, public and private; not the one‑dimensional nonsense that we were force-fed in the 1980s. The public is a silent equity partner in all capitalist enterprises. Too silent.

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TDB Political Caption Competition

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The Daily Blog

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November 14, 2015

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The role of SERCO: We should care about the criminals on Christmas Island because they are human beings and because they are our whanau

By

Martyn Bradbury

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November 14, 2015

1

There is a lot of noise that middle NZ don’t care about prisoners on Christmas Island and are siding with Key because the Oppositions concerns have been branded as ‘hug-a-crim’ and that Labour are ‘backing rapists, child molesters and murderers (despite no rapists and murderer NZers being on Christmas Island).

It’s time to call bullshit on that sentiment.

We should care about the criminals on Christmas Island because they are human beings and they are our whanau.

Being renditioned, being imprisoned past your jail sentence, having retrospective anti-terror legislation passed at a time of fear and anger that was designed for the most dangerous terrorists used on domestic targets, being beaten, being threatened, being kept as far away from their family and legal representatives as possible, being held in detention camps that breach their guaranteed UN Human Rights – ALL of these are reasons for every MP, not just the Opposition, to stand and demand questions of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister himself should be leading the demands for answers.

Michelle Boag argued this week that these types of issues need to be discussed privately because if you kick up a public stink, the Australians won’t take your phone call next time. Well, what’s the point of being able to call them on the phone when it results in our citizens having their human rights abused and breached so callously?

New Zealanders who have been so warped by the crime porn headline news media that they can’t see beyond the criminal to the human being, need to take a breath.

This is about compassion, this is about standing up for the damaged and the weak. Yes some of these New Zealand citizens are bad buggers. But that doesn’t justify their being beaten and renditioned and held beyond their actual jail sentence.

Some have lived in Australia since they were toddlers, so in actual fact, it’s been Australia who has shaped them, so are partly to blame for the negative social outcome. A cynic might ask, why are we simply allowing Australia to dump back to us the spoiled fruit of their society?

We should not ignore the use of anti-terrorism legislation passed when the country was frightened by acts of convenient ‘terrorism’ . The ability to throw out people for failing ‘character tests’ without any need for an explanation and a change of legal ability to challenge those decisions was all part of a raft of law changes that claimed to be for the worst of the worst. It’s been manipulated into being used to start dumping criminals and the net is so large because the military industrial surveillance complex needs clients.

You can’t access all this money and upgrade facilities without continually feeding it.

There are budgets to defend and use up, and no one involved in the military industrial surveillance complex has ever had to hold a bake sale for new satellites.

We are seeing the expansion of private military prisons. This prison on Christmas Island is being run by SERCO. SERCO has lost its right to run prisons in NZ (except for Wiri), yet we don’t question their role in beatings on an island as far away from civil society as possible?

If SERCO has failed so spectacularly in a first world country like NZ – what are they doing on an Island as far away from scrutiny as Christmas Island?

How is it that Serco can run these prisons yet we have so little information on what is actually happening?

The private prison empire we are allowing that makes profit from incarceration is warping the justice system in front of our eyes.

This private prison blindspot by the mainstream media is a desperate reminder of why Campbell Live was killed off and the electorate remain deaf.

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The Daily Blog

Responding to Paris: The Left must never abandon love for hate; justice for revenge.

The Daily Blog Open Mic Monday 16th November 2015

Citizens march against TPPA in Wellington, send message to National govt: “Yeah, nah!”

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.

Middle East peace: one state – the two-state ‘solution’ is dead

Beirut and Paris: Two terror attacks with different tales

Open Letter to Michelle Boag

TheDailyBlog.nz Top 5 News Headlines Sunday 15th November 2015

5:

Hollande: Paris attacks an act of ‘war’

Latest developments

4:

ISIL Claims Responsibility for Beirut Suicide Blasts That Killed 43

3:

Paris terror attacks ‘carried out by three coordinated teams of gunmen’

2:

French officials warned austerity increased insecurity

1:

The Terror Attacks in Paris: A Timeline of Events

The Daily Blog Open Mic Sunday 15th November 2015

Evil French Terror Attacks a Western Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Massive Turnout of Kiwis say ‘TPPA: Don’t Sign’

BREAKING – Paris Terror Attacks

Eight terrorists dead after Paris attacks kill more than 120 people – live updates

Why you must march today against the TPPA

Day of Action Events Saturday 14 November

Whyte Trite

TDB Political Caption Competition

The role of SERCO: We should care about the criminals on Christmas Island because they are human beings and because they are our whanau

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Eight terrorists dead after Paris attacks kill more than 120 people – live updates

Day of Action Events Saturday 14 November

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