Posts by Katharine Moody
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Behind Baltimore, in reply to Russell Brown,
That's one of the most compelling parts of the film, I think.
Compelling? Not the word I'd use .. abhorrent is more appropriate. I was very taken aback by the stats regards rates of imprisonment which compared Russia, China and the US. How could the land of liberty have come to this? And I think the documentary answered that: crony capitalism begets corruption begets violence against ones own citizenry and wrongful imprisonment. There are so many historical examples of the rise and rise of despotic regimes - what is really telling is the fact that the judiciary has been co-opted against their will/moral judgement. That signals the complete breakdown of democracy/democratic principles.
There is no reason to my mind why a black person/family living in the inner city/projects should not be able to claim refugee status under UN Convention.
-
Hard News: Behind Baltimore, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Compliance vs. community policing, I guess.
More to do with incentives, I’d say.
As pointed out in the documentary, the structure of pay in the US Police Force is such that officers receive performance pay based on the number of arrests they make. So they persecute poor neighbourhoods to boost their own take home pay. In other words, it PAYS to be doing drug enforcement as you can make multiple arrests in a day – whereas investigative/detective type work (i.e., solving crime) doesn’t pay.
Watch the doco – they lead the world in respect of state sanctioned persecution based on race.
We as a nation should be placing economic sanctions on them - not negotiating an FTA.
-
Envirologue: Too Big to Fail – Why…, in reply to BenWilson,
Which is why I ask: Is there a better hill nearby? Where? What does it look like?
Try Costa Rica;
-
Hard News: This Anzac Day, in reply to Danielle,
I was given great pause by the “Flanders Fields Commemorative” chocolates I saw today, asking if they were made with mud, terror and amputated limbs. Gah.
I find the day similarly conflicting. My granddad was toe-tagged as dead during the Passchendaele campaign, serving with the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Only reason he made it out to become my granddad (or anyone’s granddad for that matter) is because his brother, also serving, asked a medic if he could take his brother’s body out of the trenches once the wounded were all taken care of – so that he could have a proper burial. Turns out he was breathing when unloaded from the ambulance and the rest is history.
That’s the only bit we were ever told about – how his brother saved him. And beyond that – he took no questions either.
My husband’s father served from 1939-1945 in the New Zealand Army – two deployments to Europe, then in the Pacific. He’s passed now too and out of respect, we never asked for details because he never offered them, even though he was highly ranked and decorated. When he passed, although he never participated in one ANZAC commemoration (that we know of) and was not active in the RSA – NZ’s most famous RSA piper at the time turned up and played at his funeral.
We are sad everyday of the year for all those touched by war. Even more sad this year, given NZ has just announced that we have joined yet another war on foreign soil – a war for which our PM doesn’t even know the name of the opposition leader.
Lest we forget .. rings very hollow to us. And that makes us even sadder.
-
Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Angela Hart,
My thought too.
-
Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Russell Brown,
Disgusting, Surely the employer has some answering to do as well.
-
Envirologue: What has Neoliberalism Done…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
it could make the 1981 Tour look like a playground fight.
Having been a primary school kid in the 60s in the US and then moving to NZ a couple of years before the Springbok tour - all I could think in 1981 was how this country really didn't know what civil unrest really looks like.
-
Envirologue: What has Neoliberalism Done…, in reply to Rich Lock,
Left-ish governments may occasionally tap the brakes (with conservative ones smashing the accelerator pedal through the floor), but no-one's actually attempting to put the car in reverse.
I smiled at the analogy :-).
Thing is - from a political ideology point of view, I'm with an academic named Steger, who suggest the dominant (Western) ideology is no longer neoliberalism, but globalism. This ideology is explained as having six core claims:
1. Globalization Is about the Liberalization and Global Integration of Markets
2. Globalization Is Inevitable and Irreversible
3. Nobody Is in Charge of Globalization
4. Globalization Benefits Everyone
5. Globalization Furthers the Spread of Democracy in the World
6. Globalization Requires a War on TerrorThe full article (well the first time it was proposed - and much more has been written since);
http://mams.rmit.edu.au/es4cefpg6ifj1.pdf
So, although I too long for that NZ I once knew - it's not an option to just put the car in reverse, as I think we're up against an even more insidious political/ideological premise than neoliberalism ever was. What makes things even more interesting in Steger's article is his concluding remarks, where he imagines what new forms of political/ideological positioning we might now see emerging to contest this dominant globalist agenda. In other words, Left (socialism), Right (conservativism) really no longer apply, as you have pretty much pointed out in your car analogy - Labour and National in NZ are both following the ideology of globalisation.
-
Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Cecelia,
He’s not exactly an inspiring leader, is he?
I don't think he's ever tried to be - he'd rather play the clown;
-
Somewhat off topic, but worth re-reading this Chalkie article in light of the Govt's pre-budget announcement today about boosting R&D funding to the private sector;