Posts by Chris Waugh
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Hard News: This time it's Syria, in reply to Moz,
Hezbollah vs Fatah in Palestine,
Hamas vs Fatah, surely? Hezbollah is Lebanese and was founded in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in... umm... 82, was it? (too lazy to check right now), and being Shiite is allied to Assad (Alawi, a branch of Shia) and Iran. Hamas, I read recently, may well be a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt fame, and is therefore highly unlikely to ally itself with any Shiite group.
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Hard News: This time it's Syria, in reply to Euan Mason,
but when a member with veto power behaves badly then it goes off the rails.
One reason I think nobody should have veto power, and if there are to be permanent members of the Security Council, they should be tiny countries like Kiribati and Tuvalu. That'd change things drastically.
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Hard News: This time it's Syria, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
Like support for people to make their own decisions, support the over throw of despots etc
Who's making the decisions in this case? Over throw Assad and replace him with who? As I believe that Packer Q&A Russell linked to at least implied, there's a hell of a lot more going on here than good Syrian people fighting for their freedom. What is the House of Saud's involvement and who are they backing? Do we really want them to win? Iran is in the mix too, as is Hezbollah. One could see the Syrian situation as a proxy war between the House of Saud and Iran. And what Russell said.
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Capture: Spring Breaks, in reply to Hebe,
I've only seen them in the summer when they seem to spend as much time sleeping as possible. I would guess that high altitude forests in Sichuan and Gansu are a lot cooler than Beijing. So I've never seen them getting bad tempered. As for smelly, they're in fairly large enclosures and tend to stay well away from the crowds, so again, I don't know.
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Not especially spring-y, sorry, but it was nice to finally find an awake animal in Beijing Zoo this afternoon. My wife took the photos while I took charge of getting the wee one into positions where she could see over the railings and crowds.
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Selfie in a filthy car window.
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Hard News: Political Idol, or whatever…, in reply to Sacha,
Saw how that went down with the Thorndon keyboard warriors
I did note that in that Native Affairs interview Cunliffe said he'd learned. What were his words? Something like "there's nothing like being kicked to the backbenches for 18 months to teach you to listen. Also, the new set-up means they have to rally supporters.
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Hard News: Political Idol, or whatever…, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
I never watched this programme you speak of so I will go find it. Did RB link??
There was a link in the original post, and I think somebody embedded a vid upthread.
And it's odd, but I think John Armstrong does a better job of showing the differences between the three candidates here, if only in matters of style rather than substance:
Cunliffe's razzmatazz also stole a march on Robertson, who announced he was entering the race via press statement and Jones, who simply confirmed his intention to stand to a Herald reporter.
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Hard News: Political Idol, or whatever…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Fair point on the Sky City thing. But I would've liked to have seen a bit more of that on the other questions.
As for endorsing, I've got no problem with them acknowledging each others' strengths, but they're supposed to be campaigning for the leadership. I wanted to see more of "I'm the one for this job, and let me show you how". Having said that, I'll be very happy if they maintain the tone.
Oh, and I liked how both Robertson and Cunliffe handled the "will you have x as deputy?" questions.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
There’s zero regulatory protection for tenants.
I think this is the point where somebody explains the protections for tenants in many European countries. I don't know much about it, but I'm sure somebody hereabouts could enlighten us, because it does seem to make for an interesting comparison.
