Police Assault Protesters in New Zealand.

Kia Ora

Recent protests, against Government policy, by Students in Auckland were greeted by an overwhelming and aggressive police presence.

New Zealand Police have just made it clear they consider there is no right to protest, if it “inconveniences” anyone.
In fact the students were going about their lawful business. PROTESTING IS STILL LEGAL IN NZ.
The police obstructed members of the public and assaulted them. WHILE THEY WERE GOING ABOUT LAWFUL BUSINESS.

Just like police in the UK.

Of course knowing you are likely to be violently assaulted by police, if you protest, has rather a dampening effect on free speech.

No doubt that is what is intended by the police overreaction.

Practicing for when the population finally realises, like the Greeks,  how much they have been lied to and exploited.

How long before we see the other repressive actions of an authoritarian dictatorship, to legitimate dissent,  here. Like the "kettling" in the UK.

Ports of Auckland and Union Busting.

Kia-ora

For non-New Zealand readers.
 Ports of Auckland have just engaged in an episode of managerial self indulgence to try and remove Union members from the port and replace them with casual contracted labour. FYI. The port manager is paid more than 750k. Board members are paid 100 to 200k for one days work a week.
 There has been a big push from the usual suspects to take the port out of public ownership. Most of the prospective buyers are anti Union.
Unions and workers are being attacked on all sides, and public assets given away to the private sector as fast as possible, as our current right wing Government is unlikely to get another term.
 

On Incompetent Management.

Once upon a time, decades ago now, ports were run by a person called the Harbourmaster.

He used to be a highly qualified and experienced Master Mariner, who had extensive knowledge of shipping and decades of experience, at sea and within the port.

All this competence and experience came at a wage  at most five times the average wage. 

Then, along came the cult of management, and the Neo-liberals. The idea that a jumped up accountant could run anything. 

They can, into the ground. http://kjt-kt.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/kia-ora-corporatism-and-neo-liberalism.html

"The corporations with the largest income gap between Directors/Managers  and employees have proven to be the least  functional.

Corporate income gaps.

The star managers paid in millions have proven to be much less effective than, lesser paid,  experienced promotions from within the organisation.

Twenty year research into Management effectiveness study

"companies that exclusively promote CEOs from within outperform companies that recruit CEOs from outside the company."

Best to Promote from within."

Now.

We have a board and managers who have lost the port's public owners 21 million dollars and counting, lost more customers in a few months than have been lost to Tauranga in years, cost the ports customers millions, and demoralised and lost the co-operation of their trained labour force, all to make savings that have been shown to be available anyway by talking to the Union.

(There was  a 25 to 30% increase in the box rate last year in the brief period when the Wharfies thought management were not going to continue the adversarial politicking of the past).

An honourable management and board would all be tendering their resignations after a debacle like this.

The amount of spin and outright lies about the workforce from POAL management shows they are incapable of working co-operatively with their labour force.

For example Labour utilisation rates, costs of Labour and pay rates are not out of line with similar jobs.

Still looking for the wharfie who gets 91k a year.  (A foremen doing double shifts all year maybe).

The relationship is broken. It is much easier and less costly to replace the managers with ones capable of working with people than retrain a whole ports labour.

It has become apparent that the whole exercise was an ideological attempt to break one of the last vestiges of Union power, most likely with the covert backing of the NACT Government. The  huge costs for the ports public owners and customers does not matter to an ideologically driven board put in place for that purpose by ACT hacks..

Good and bad Dictators.

Kia-ora

This Dictator of an oil rich country.

Overthrew a democratically elected Government.
Murdered between 700 thousand and a million of his own citizens to get into power.
Brutally squashed two independence movements. Now engaged in squashing a third.
Keeps about 2/3 of his country in poverty.
Allows foreign companies to repatriate almost 100% of their profits. Especially Western oil companies.
Has the worst environmental record in the Pacific..
Allows abuse of workers in virtual slave labour.
Sends troops in to kill unionists.
Country has unsustainable debt.
Streets of beggars and homeless.


This Dictator of an oil rich country.

Left his country with no external debt.
Gave interest free loans to citizens.
Had Western standards of living.
Increased literacy from 25% to 83%.
Had the Highest Standard of living in Africa.
A proportion of all oil sales was credited to every citizens bank account.
No beggars in the streets and no homeless.


Guess which one was helped into place by the US Government and is supported by other Western Governments, including ours.

Guess which one is considered so bad that we should support his overthrow.

Occupy Wall Street.

Kia-ora

The response from the Neo-Liberal establishment to OWS, shows they know how effective  bottom up changes can be.

Why we should protest.

Management 101. Effective change management.
1. Establish a consensus that there is a need for change.
2. Figure out what needs to be changed. Again by consensus.
3. Invite ideas and positive changes from the shop floor.
4. Managers should act as facilitators and supporters of change agents.

Lasting and effective changes, need to have the active support of the majority of the workforce, at all levels.
Authoritarian managers are rarely effective at making lasting changes. People always find a way to derail changes they do not support.

Despite some of the best research on Management and Leadership coming from the USA. Places like the USA, NZ and UK ignore it. Leaving effective implementation to Germany, Japan and Scandinavia.

It is strange that despite all the research that says they are less effective, the cult of the Authoritarian Manager/National Leader still remains. Maybe the answer lies in the research about Authoritarian followers. Those who like certainty, even if it is leading them into a country like Somalia.

OWS is at stage 1 at present.

The first stage.

What is frightening politicians, who dream of absolute power, is they know OWS will grow.

We will soon see the solution is democracy. Very scary for those who have been ripping us of while accepting a Parliamentary salary from us.

Why should we leave our future up to a power hungry, greedy minority.

We are the 99%.

In the meantime. We can do our part in supporting stage one. Worldwide. 
Occupy Wall Street.

On Riots.

Kia-ora

Right wing politicians are quick to distance themselves from rioting, and public revolt, in many countries around the world.

"The responsibility lies with criminal elements".

Well! It does, but mostly with the unpunished criminals who have destroyed cohesive society for their own gain.

Is it surprising that after decades of selfishness, meanness, unpunished theft and blatant tax dodging from the top, that those at the bottom follow the example.

You ruin, destroy and steal everything from people, including any hope for a better future. Then you are surprised they turn as mean and self centred as you.

Campaign for MMP in New Zealand.

Kia-ora

Campaign for MMP

MMP has shown its worth as an electoral system, in keeping some rein on extremist politicians.

Just recently by slowing or stopping the path of a Government bill, to take away some of an individuals rights when before the courts.

MMP saves right to trial by jury

The Politics of Envy.

Kia-ora


Thanks to Art Uncut for this one.

""If an individual realises that those in the socio-economic group they were born into die a decade younger on average, or that their children's life chances are significantly less than the children of those who can afford private education, or that the wages of those in 'higher' socio-economic groups have risen many, many times faster in the last thirty years than the wages of those in their own, and as a result of this realisation gets a bit angry, I think that we should call this 'legitimate grievance' rather than 'petty jealousy'. The phrase 'politics of envy' is very ugly indeed. I hope in the future this phrase is deemed unacceptable in the way that racist or homophobic terms are now deemed unacceptable"". 

Why torture does not work.

Kia-ora

While the discussion is going on about our SAS handing over suspects in Afghanistan to the US or Afghani forces, when they are likely to be tortured, we should remind ourselves why  torture should never be allowed under any circumstances. Why torture does not work. 

 It is a disgrace that National has refused an enquiry into this.

All credit to the solders who were concerned about what they were being ordered to do, and blew the whistle.

The trouble with facts.

Kia-ora

It puzzles many of us why people so often vote against their own interests. For most New Zealander's voting for more Neo-liberal government is like "Turkeys voting for Christmas" but they still do.


An article in the Standard about the reasons why the facts do not always influence people.

Monbiot-on-the-left

And one about the psychology of denial. Psychology of crankery.  Or it could be titled. Do you have a Don Brash in your life.

Nothing is worth killing for?

Kia-ora


Are we really civilised?

"I'm an extremist in this debate, I will freely confess. I hold an absolute view that no killing is ever justified, that individuals have the necessity to defend themselves against assailants, but that even that does not grant moral approval to snuffing out the life of another. Don't even try to pull out a scale and toss a copy of the Koran on one side and the life of a single human being on the other — the comparison is obscene. Do not try to tell me that some people are 'moderates' when they tolerate or even support and applaud war and death and murder for any cause, whether it is oil, or getting even, or defending the honor of wood pulp and ink."

We have to think about the effects of the things we do.

Are oil, religion, status really worth so much to use we have to kill others for it?

Is retaining wealth so important that we can starve children to death, even in wealthy countries, rather than give up a small portion of that wealth?

Once upon a time conservatives also believed in prosperity for everyone. Now the Neo-Liberal version  will happily kill, maim and starve to add to their individual wealth.

Those who believe their religion, wealth or power is worth killing for.

Are evil.

On Global warming and our children's future.

Kia-ora

While we spend our time nit picking, we should never lose sight of the real problems.

1. Anthropogenic global warming. (Climate change).
2. The political and economic system which supports short term gain for a few people at the expense of our children's future.
3. The widening gap in income and power between most of the worlds people, and a few who have stolen most of the resources.

4. How we can ethically adjust resource use and human population to allow a sustainable and just society.





James Hansen on Climate change.

“Human-made climate change is a moral issue. It pits the rich and the powerful against the young and the unborn, against the defenseless and against nature.
“Climate change is a political issue. But politics fails when there is a revolving door between government and the fossil fuel-industrial complex.
“Climate change is a legal issue. The judiciary provides the possibility of holding our governments accountable for their duty to protect the public interest.”

The end gme in Britain.

Kia-ora

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26743.htm

"This is not to say Parliamentary politics is meaningless. They have one meaning now: the replacement of democracy by a business plan for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope, every child born".

"Where Britain goes, We will follow".

mars 2 earth: living well - a Bolivian view

mars 2 earth: living well - a Bolivian view

Kia-ora

"Living Well means living within a community, a brotherhood, and particularly completing each other, without exploiters or exploited, without people being excluded or people who exclude, without people being segregated or people who segregate.

Lying, stealing, destroying nature possibly will allow us to live better, but that is not Living Well. On the contrary, Living Well rather means complementing one another and not competing against each other, sharing, not taking advantage of one’s neighbor, living in harmony among people and with nature. It is the basis of the defense of nature, of life itself and of all humanity, it’s the basis to save humanity from the dangers of an individualistic and highly aggressive, racist and warmongering minority."

Energy and the Economy.

Kia-ora

Copy of my comment on Frogblog on energy.
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2010/09/23/dams-sustainable-and-permanent/#comment-159237


“We have so many good options in NZ or renewable power that compared to most countries we are spoiled for choice.


Unless we are invaded for energy, food and living space which would be a strong possibility. I do not see the people who happily murder just to become richer sitting put and starving while countries like NZ and Australia are available.


I agree with Kevin. Apart from bigger schemes that work on already degraded areas like Stockton. Reducing demand with green buildings, energy efficient transport and lower energy technology is one strand.
Renewable energy. Distributive generation, bio-mass solar water heating, wind, geothermal, solar tidal and run of the river hydro are the other.

I gave an example above of how the timber industry. (To build Green houses) can produce all its own renewable energy from the waste stream.


These are only very approximate numbers to get the idea. I have some, but do not have the time to wade through all my papers at the moment. Orders of magnitude are close enough to show the theory. Changes in technology may mean more or less contribution. Bio fuels from sewerage are now looking more promising than first thought. Especially for farming which produces lots of it. . Those tractors will be run on bio-methane produced on site.


Electric urban transport. (Trains and cars). Reduce transport fossil fuel demand by 50%. 100 PJ saved. Green buildings in California reduce demand by 15% 20 PJ saved.
All houses with solar heating. 40 PJ saved.
Ships and trains for long distance transport another 50 PJ saved.
Distributed generation by households on a smart grid. 50 PJ.
Council woody waste 4PJ. Bio-mass (Sewage plants) 10 PJ.
Forestry waste stream. 9 PJ short term. Up to 20 medium term.


It will require a lot of work and commitment, but I do not see why we cannot be 100% renewable in electricity and 50% in transport fuels by 2020 if we started now. Good for employment too.
Get the idea. New Zealanders are well placed to have a good life style with our current resources and technology.


There will likely even be some surplus for exports to pay for things which it is not sensible to produce locally. The French and Russians will sell us all the weapons we may need.



The caveats are. We need to start NOW.
WE NEED TO CHANGE TO AN ECONOMY WHICH SUPPORTS A DECREASING USE OF RESOURCES”.



We cannot afford to wait until politicians, who have too much invested in the current system, do something.


Carrying on as we are is not an option. Niether is a reversal to some agrarian horse drawn utopia.
This requires a change from the bottom up. Real democracy.

Values.

Kia-ora

“People with strong intrinsic values must cease to be embarrassed by them. We should argue for the policies we want not on the grounds of expediency but on the grounds that they are empathetic and kind; and against others on the grounds that they are selfish and cruel. In asserting our values we become the change we want to see.”
George Monbiot

We should fight those who  are destroying our society with self interest and greed..

Direct Democracy.

Kia-ora

Direct democracy may have prevented Muldoons spending for election bribes. The 1984 Labour Governments throwing the baby out with the bathwater, Ruthenasia etc.

We would have also had women’s suffrage and Gay rights sooner as it was the politicians that held them up.
One unpublished study here showed that most people, given a choice of policies only, preferred green Policies. The same people when given a choice of parties chose John Key. Go figure.

 Research shows that decisions arrived at by BCIR are often better and better supported by research than those made by Politicians. If people have to make a decision themselves they tend to look into it more deeply.,

The political parties in the States are also reducing taxes to the extent they cannot pay back debt or support disadvantaged people. California  is a reflection of their society, not the type of Government.

People did make an informed and rational choice here given the available options. The only way in NZ to get rid of a parties policies you do not like is to vote in the lot you did not like last time. We only have the choice of Neo-lib heavy or Neo-lib slightly lighter.


Lastly as “No right turn” says. “Even if we make the wrong decisions at the end of the day it is our decision to make”.

Democracy. and capitalism.

Kia-ora

Unlike some though I do not believe capitalism and a decent socialist society are mutually exclusive.
The problem with badly regulated or un-regulated capitalism is the cheats prosper. Capitalism is fine as a means of resource allocation if it is DEMOCRATICALLY regulated to take externalities into account and so people cannot cheat the system.
New Zealander’s as a group have proven to have a pretty good sense of fairness and justice. I think we can be trusted to get it right more often than a self selected group of marginally competent politicians.
Often when some one says the public’s choices are un -informed it is simply because it is not “their choices”.

ITV - John Pilger - Globalisation Articles

ITV - John Pilger - Globalisation Articles

Kia-ora

'In Indonesia 35 years ago, a military dictator took over, a million people were killed and a red carpet was rolled out for western capital. It was the start of globalisation in Asia, a model for the rest of the world, leaving a legacy of sweatshops and corruption'.

Prescription for New Zealand

Kia-ora

A few ideas.

My answer would be to use Government finance within NZ to build up Kiwi bank until we have a banking system controlled by and for New Zealand. It is a good opportunity at the moment. The private finance sector has cocked it up so badly that there is a huge worldwide demand for Government bonds. They are perceived as one of the few safe-ish investments left.


See the Green new deal for some ideas on sustainable development. http://www.greens.org.nz/gnd


Follow Singapore’s example and do not be afraid to pick winners. Invest public and private money in innovative sustainable technology.


Follow the example of successful countries, like the Scandinavian ones, instead of slavishly following States like the US and UK which are essentially failed States.
Accept that businesses that cannot pay the true costs of externalities. Like the real cost of labour, their use of the environment and their true costs to society are not sustainable and should be allowed to fail.
Adam Smith.


Regulate capital outflows and shift taxation to things like capital gains to encourage people who do useful things. Allow land prices to drop to where land use incomes cover the cost of capital. Making sustainable and ongoing income from land use more profitable than farming it for short term capital gain.


Follow Switzerland and make New Zealand’s Government arrangements
a democracy instead of a pretend one.
We should control our country, not, 122 self appointed incompetents, the OECD or IMF, or a bunch of failed idealisations from a few true believers in neo-liberalism.


Every country believes they are going to pay back debt by out exporting the others. Not possible.

Accept that taxes are the price of having an educated, housed and healthy labour force, adequate infrastructure, a local market, social cohesion and protection, protection from unprincipled competition and from crime and invasion.


Those who object to taxes are really just saying they want to free load off the rest of us as I doubt they would like having to provide all of the above privately.


People (usually claiming to be right wing) keep saying they want ideas from us on how we would do things differently. I suggest there has been plenty of ideas from the Greens and others. Many on these blogs. Some people just have not been listening.

Democracy in Action.

ISIL -- The Swiss Cantonal System

Kia-ora


"Good government is achieved when rulers are made accountable – and accountability is assured when ordinary citizens can participate in decisions, remove elected representatives who abuse their mandate, and repeal unpopular laws.
The Swiss system has served the ethnically diverse people of that country well for over 700 years. The rest of the world could learn from the example set in this mountain country and adopt similar systems of citizen-based government.""