Hard News: Back when I worked in the arms industry ...
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Sue,
Sue: Are you trying to destroy my "everybody loves Joanna" buzz?
no
however i do plan to drink at least 4 fruity cocktails, those and being 55% sober do not mix. -
I'm sure Helen Clark and Russell Norman will be pleased to know tobacco companies are verboten
That really depends on how long a bow you wish to draw.
Superfund owns GPG. GPG completed a reverse merger with Brunel (to acquire large wodge of tax write-offs). Brunel once made tobacco processing machinery.
http://www.advfn.com/news_Recommended-Merger_3531311.html
Although, maybe that the tobacco processing machinery downturn was the cause of their tax losses.
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As for Bertie, bless him, being German, technically Germany wasn't German until...history nerds, help here please.
1871, blame Bismark (although arguably the German Confederation predated it by some 60 years but that was more like a prototypical EU) ....and Bertie's wife was Teutonic anyway, of French extraction. The English haven't held their own crown since 1066.
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simon is correct AFAIK. although, according to some terribly important scholarly book i once read, german identity did predate the formation of the german state.
not that this should impeded joanna's impending state.
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Early adopters wrote journals, not blogs.
This is true. The online journal scene of the late '90s had nary a blogger in sight.
While technically this was because the word blog hadn't been invented yet, there was still a different feeling to those ye olde websites. There was less of "X said Y and I feel angry. Here is a link!!!!" and more sentences and paragraphs of substance.
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My anscestor was from Hannover, we own ALL the English.
i) Are you prepared to take responsibility for them ?
ii) Not all of those who reside within the British Isles recognise the Saesneg crown.
Meibion Glyndŵr... Cymru Cymraeg....Da Da Da
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although, according to some terribly important scholarly book i once read, german identity did predate the formation of the german state.
The German state as such is probably better defined as dating from the Holy Roman Empire, around (and this is from memory) about 900 AD when Charlemagne bought together all those Germanic tribes that messed so badly with the Romans over the previous thousand years
ii) Not all of those who reside within the British Isles recognise the Saesneg crown
. I was talking the other day with an Indonesian friend about how the Dutch could control this country for three centuries, inter-marry in this country, breed in this country, have a population of hundreds of thousand who were here for generations (most of whom had no family or ties in Holland), and yet be tossed out as if they had arrived on the last boat, almost in toto, in 1949. My friend said "half a millennium is not such a long time here". And so it seems, right now, in the not so United Kingdom.
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Briefly, the principles require that financing where the activity is socially and environmentally sustainable
So Westpac are stopping investing in Australia then?
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German state as such is probably better defined as dating from the Holy Roman Empire
I remember once having to write an essay based on the following statement:
"The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an empire...discuss".
David Haywood as the resident PA German anthropologist might like to have a bash at that one. The only other bit I remember so clearly about that stage in my life is failing my 'A' level history exams, dismally.
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Gee ,thanks Russell, you *do* know I am in my 40's, don't you, even though I do look about 25 :-)
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"The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman nor an empire...".
My history teacher used to say that, from time to time. The unification of Germany was a major part of the 6th form history syllabus - there was definitely a German people before there was a German nation, back when countries' borders had more to do with who their king married than who lived there and what they had in common. For those of us who didn't do or don't remember 6th form history, there's always wiki.
In short, Bismarck (who may have either been an opportunist or had a Grand Plan, discuss) unified most German-speaking peoples apart from Austrians under one country. After some arguing over Alsace-Lorraine and WW1, Hitler finished the job by annexing Austria and the Sudetenland - the end result of that move being that Germany was forcibly dis-unified.
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Leaving Teutonia aside and going back to Russell's post and Matt Nippert's very good story, it reminded me of this LA Times one about the Gates Foundation.
I guess it's very had indeed to Do No Evil...
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Thursday was the hottest day I have ever experienced in Wellington
Its always like that, but its supposed to be a secret
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merc,
Caesar wrote a little book on Teh Cherman's (as we call it at home), so did Tacitus. Had Caesar (Julius) not dealt to the Germanic tribes (crossing the Rubicon anyone?), he would not have come home all triumphant and got the top job. Though The Germans (Goths, Visigoths, Vandals and other cool names) did sack Rome 3 times, eventually at the last sacking, there wasn't much left to sack, so they went home, but they took some Christian with them and later Martin Luther... However, not without leaving some Cherman behind (ladies, I am a Goth), my Italian NZ friend is quite horrified at that mixed blood prospect (he should have worried, the mix produces exquisite uniforms and timely trains).
My Great grandfather came here due in part to the conscriptions for the Franco-Prussian war (15 years old and cannon fodder), his father was booted out of Virginia because being from Hannover he was suspected of being a King's man (George 3, who lost America). America the free!
Our pasts make NZ so very interesting, and they are not hard to trace. Did you know that NZ declared war on Germany first in WW1 (?) in Samoa. Our record in Samoa has been attrocious, my first real serious girlfriend was German Samoan, hmmmmm. -
our cherman friend might have just set the record for the craziest stream of consciousness on PA system, ever.
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merc,
Thanks Che, I am honoured. I'm not just of German anscestory though. I may have failed but I tried to make a vaque point in there about identity and the futility in NZ of attempting to define it.
I knew it would draw you out, my academe friend. -
heh. worked a treat. i was about to launch into a diatribe on the theories of anthony smith and the transformation of those ideas by benedict anderson. it would include a line like, "how can you not understand these things merc! we are your people now!"
then i thought... "don't be such a wanker".
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Had Caesar (Julius) not dealt to the Germanic tribes (crossing the Rubicon anyone?), he would not have come home all triumphant and got the top job.
Sorry, history geek here. Casar subjugated Gaul to build his political capital back in Rome. He did make forays into Germany & Britain at the time as well. He would have crossed the Rhine to get into the German lands.
He crossed the Rubicon when he decided to march on Rome ("the die is cast") to ensure he wasn't prosecuted on his return by jealous rivals, thus precipitating the Civil War.
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merc,
Praise be! I might be crazy but I love like any other.
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merc,
Thanks Paul, I put the question mark in there for one such as you, afterward I realized it looked like I made a point. You are absolutely right and I must discipline myself, but as Che pointed out, I was on a rant.
To justify myself to the ways of men (Blake)...I really think German history has greatly shaped OUR history (I would).
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