Posts by giovanni tiso
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Rhys Lewis,
It may be true that Arie received the injuries described from a police officer, but looking for evidence to substantiate the claim after it has been made is as good as an admission of guilt.
I beg your pardon? Having an investigation is the same of an admission of guilt now?
My experience of people with autistic spectrum disorders is that if they are in a unusual situation, particularly where stress triggers are involved, it would not be at all surprising if the person or someone nearby who was unaccustomed to the behaviour received some injuries.
So you're saying that he attacked the police and the police was unable to restrain him? Who's wildly speculating now?
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to DCBCauchi,
A couple of people have mentioned that things like police beatings and prison rape are not meant to happen in civilised countries. They are dead wrong. Whether it is consciously acknowledged or not, civilised society (i.e. the rule of law) absolutely requires such threats as police beatings and prison rape to function.
What is this, the fascist comedy hour? Jesus Christ. Get a grip, will you?
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Russell Brown,
I confess. I ... enjoyed it.
So long as you did so ironically, we're okay.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to richard,
I must admit I am uncomfortable seeing people minimize theft from a damaged house, whether it is light fittings or anything else
¿Que?
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Harsh Gio, very harsh. Our primary producers are really very good at what they do.
Whereas Italian farmers are idiots? Nah, sorry. Some of them are driven by subsidies into wasteful and nonsensical behaviours, but by and large they do good work, and the majority looks after their animals well, and cares about their waterways and ecosystems. Same as everywhere else. So I don't really buy the "great ingenuity of our wonderful farmers who must be resourceful because they're not subsidised" argument.
But a much bigger reason is that we spent a lot of time and effort developing farming practices from scratch rather than simply doing what great^10 grandaddy did.
Italian farming, at least in the north, was completely revolutionised after the war. To the extent that we do what great^10 grandaddy did, it's in order to produce things that the world still envies us (I don't see many Italians copying Kapiti cheeses - odd that), or to farm in areas that require traditional methods, such as the Tuscan hillsides.
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Rich Lock,
Do you know something we don't, Gio?
My subconscious switches to blasphemy automatically whenever I think of the guy.
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Russell Brown,
How much of that should we have spent money propping up?
I don't know. I know it was never really up for debate. Whereas certain Warner executives flew into the country and hey presto, here's a massive handout on top of a pile of existing massive handouts. But yes, at least Peter Jackson isn't poisoning the Manawatu river, I'll give you that.
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Russell Brown,
I am strongly in favour of Fonterra being held to account for its environmental impact. Our products would still be cheaper if it was.
Because our land is cheap and plentiful. There is still no inherent relationship between low prices and sustainability.
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(Although in fact there is at least one other industry that we heavily subsidise: film. God forbid we should have done that with, I don't know, Feltex. Obviously Feltex workers weren't knowledge workers and therefore they were utterly worthless.)
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Russell Brown,
It just didn't do what it said on the label.
Neither has the opposite. Spectacularly so, in fact.
Another way of looking at it is: is it a good idea for industrialised countries to shun our (relatively) sustainable primary products in favour of producing their own via subsidies and grossly inefficient and unsustainable practices?
They don't buy our produce because it's sustainable, they buy it because it's cheaper. One of the reasons why it's cheaper, is that we are so desperate to produce it and export it (since we killed pretty much all our other industries), that we are quite happy to let farmers pollute at will just so they ship said produce out.
Am I in principle against governments recognising that their own primary producers represent a value to their economies (in terms of diversification, sustainability, protection of ecosystems and local economies, etc.), and enacting limited protections to defend them from the vagaries of the commodity markets or help them compete with overseas producers, including ours? No. Just like I think there is a place in tariffs in the industrial sector. It doesn't mean that we therefore must start producing our own circuit boards, that would be an unlikely limit case. On the other hand, if you're looking for extremes, we are in fact it: a country with no tariffs whatsoever. There aren't very many around I think you'll find. It's almost churlish to think we should subsidise our local TV programming and nothing else.