Posts by Euan Mason
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to James Littlewood*,
"What gets me is how any government in NZ, 2011 can get any support at all for the prospect of selling assets."
The answer lies in that which regularly destroys economic prosperity in the west; people want reduced taxes but enhanced services, and they don't see the oxymoronic connection. Selling state assets provides a short period during which a government can bask in the glow of fairyGodMotherhood.
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"Demands" buy into the idea that someone else has the power and that the occupiers are supplicants. In my view the main theme underlying the protests is a breakdown of the social contract. We hear very wealthy people moaning about and avoiding taxes while they drive on roads that we have paid for, hire people whose educations we have paid for, enjoy the protection of police whom we have paid for, use knowledge developed by universities and research institutes that we have paid for, and strip assets that we have paid for. Remember Alan Gibbs in the 80s saying that he shouldn't pay taxes because as a wealthy man he had contributed enormously to society? A change in attitude is required.
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Interesting to see how we have progressed since Pearson's time, not the least in that his focus on "man" appears quaint and old fashioned. No doubt our descendents will think some of our unspoken biases are equally quaint.
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The heart of the matter is not whether someone is right wing or left wing. Promotion of, and committing acts of violence is the black art that we should strive to suppress. Let's raise ourselves above finger-pointing rhetoric, feel for the victims and their loved ones, and condemn the violence of a homicidal maniac.
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So, can we end the "war on terror" now, and return to our more sane practice of employing policemen to catch criminals?
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Brownlee's math is all wrong anyway. Assume a 10 by 15 cm postcard, and 7000 ha represents roughly 80 cards if the rugby field at Eden Park is all 27 M ha of NZ. If, on the other hand we say Eden Park represents the 5 M ha of state owned native forest in NZ, then just under 500 cards looks like a pretty serious litter problem, and certainly sub-standard for a World Cup venue.
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An important principle is at stake here. Should the market and money solely determine our future, or are there other worthy considerations? Are we just concerned with a "brand" or do we really care about our indigenous biodiversity? Brownlee pathetically talks about, "a postcard on Eden Park", but how many other postcards would go under using the same reasoning if we accept this travesty? Those areas are in schedule 4 for good reasons, so tell us, Mr Brownlee, what in those areas has changed that would cause us to remove them from the schedule?
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Well said, Craig. For most of us words can only go so far.
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"But love is blind, isn't it?"
It may be blind, but it feels and smells, and I'm afraid I'm unrepentently heterosexual. I love several males, but they're not interesting as lovers.
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It would be interesting to read about correlations between responses. How many of those who believe in the death penalty think that suicide is morally wrong, for instance?