Posts by Russell Brown
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Just in case we think we're the only ones in disarray, check this from a SA rugby mailing list a friend of mine is on:
"The Springboks Last Hoorah"
The game has left an empty aftertaste. The forward exchanges were ferocious enough but there is nothing much left to savour. It seems that many of us were disappointed that we sank back to the Poms level. The Boks were intrinsically a lot better than that. I say ''were'' advisedly because the team is no more. They are now just a memory of the last days of Springbok glory. A new era of second tier shame is about to begin. RIP Bokke"
Someone else:
I think in the back of everyone's minds they know this :-(
How restrained has this list been? My friends and I went mad on the night after the final whistle, but even the next day and now Monday, it doesn't feel like it did in 1995, and that's entirely because of what we all suspect is going to happen. If the rumblings from government have any substance behind them, you're right, this might be the last of the Springboks. I don't know who is going to take over as coach but Jake would be mad to stay. The players know it, and that's why so many are getting out. Perhaps we're all just being too gloomy and sense will prevail, but I have my doubts."
And my friend's comment:
There's more, but the essence for months has been the politicians there are going to insist on a minimum of 10 black players in every future 'bok team regardless of merit. The SARugby list has had a slightly bitter view that the 'boks would win an essentially empty victory this weekend as the fight to select on merit finally comes to an end. Perhaps they are unduly pessimistic, but with Jake White's position formally advertised several weeks ago, it doesn't look good.
Yikes.
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jesus... this thread is a marathon. i haven't time to read it all.
I was going for 500 posts and 15,000 views -- got the latter closing in on the former ...
but.
<not a terroist>if you wanted to assassinate a new zealand politician, why in the hell would you need a bunch of military weapons?
most pollies are so exposed you could probably take one out with a blunt object during a fundraiser dinner.</not a terrorist>Which rather lowers the bar for some nutter, doesn't it? It's one of the nice things about this country that the Prime Minister can actually pop around the corner to the supermarket on her own.
If, as leaks and gossip suggest, some of those involved have been discussing ways and means of killing political leaders, they've gone right past legitimate dissent.
And there is certainly a nutter factor at issue here. The Tuhoe woman the Herald spoke to described the "freedom fighters" as "mad and out there" and the Christchurch activist was "overwhelmed and freaked out" by his experience at one of the camps. Evidence provided to the Dom Post by a defence lawyer indicates the cops have evidence of Tame Iti trying to buy grenade launchers.
I think you were probably on the money when you suggested at the beginning of the thread that someone inside the bubble got scared and talked to the cops.
It might all be bullshit talk, but how far do the cops let it go? Even a bungled assassination attempt would change a lot of things in this country. And can you imagine the shit-storm if there was an attempt on Key and it emerged, as it surely would, that the cops knew something was going on but didn't take it seriously?
I've got no doubt that there's a legitimate police interest in what's been going on, and still no opinion on whether that warrants terrorism charges. Certainly, the police have raised the bar for themselves with their handling of it.
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I don't know how many registered voters there are in NZ, but Banks got 45,387 votes.
That's over 1% of the total population of NZ.
I think you might have forgotten to multiply by 100?It was a holiday ...
Fixed.
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It's called CreativeNZ. They provide ~$7million for project funding, although this is across all visual and performing arts. There are also a few other funds for more specific purposes.
In a way, the problem with music hasn't changed: it fits neither the creative or the industry boxes.
Creative NZ grants are essentially for artistic projects, and at various times they've bankrolled some very talented musical artists (Shayne Carter) and some fine records (Robert Scott's The Creeping Unknown). But they don't really suit music industry development. And neither does the Trade & Enterprise model.
The NZ On Air broadcast funding model worked really well for a long while, and still does in some cases, but the nature of broadcasting and of music discovery is changing. And a system in which commercial radio calls the shots doesn't fit the changed environment.
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Dear Graeme,
I think it would be very helpful to post your original piece and this followup on Scoop with links back to this thread for further discussion.I'm quite happy with that if Graeme is.
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Could everyone who has the inside word please dump it here? It seems as though there are an awful lot of you.
My knowledge didn't go far past the fact that there were discussions about assassinating Key amongst some of the people arrested in Auckland, but the SST aired that yesterday. The gossip seems to have been about that, so perhaps something was said that made the cops think it was time to wade in -- but that, I hasten to add, is pure speculation.
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Holding unpopular political opinions should not be a crime, says Craig as he ponders last week's arrests.
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No senior criminal lawyer I spoke to thought there was much in it - and the idea that arrest was appropriate to give those who sought the arrest enough time to gather evidence to present a case to the A-G does fly against some of the comment we've seen recently.
I think we'll have to dub you Graeme "Good Point" Edgeler ...
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Take the politics out, make the alleged perp an alleged paedophile ... and what's your response then?
Of course. And if it'd been a paedophile, we'd all be home in time for dinner.
Cullen quoted Crown Law advice that there wasn't enough evidence to proceed (Ya'alon had admitted to ordering the aerial bombing in an interview, I think). But this was, coming out of the chilling in relationships around the Israeli spies, yer actual can o' worms.
Especially given that -- correct me if I'm wrong here -- the previous dozen or so cases of this kind heard have been ones in which the suspect was extradited to a specific territory where s/he was wanted. We'd have been seriously on our own.
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Does it create a Feelersization; a welfare state for bands who wouldn't normally work hard enough or be good enough to survive without NZOA?
That's quite a nice way of putting it. And thanks for reading the whole thing.
I can't say what will happen to the ideas in the paper, but I think NZOA deserves credit for commissioning a discussion document it knew would be critical. My impression is that there will be some change on the music front.
But now that so many of us are happy to watch low-res music videos on YouTube ...
And it's worth reiterating that it was a major label boss who told me that he'd rather use his NZOA funding grant to make a bunch of low-res clips for every track on an album, rather than one clip for TV.
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