Month: March 2010

Mining Protest Was Mining Protest

There were a lot of people there. The house monkey spotted me and my Cal in this crowd photo from Scoop’s coverage (and I found him in this one). Ran into china_shop, who pointed out how weird it was that the speakers kept citing The Economist (thanks to this article that rips into this nation’s environmental credentials).

The fellow moose was elsewhere in the crowd, and mentions it at the end of this post. Also there was Stephen Judd, who adds a mighty GRAR, too. Both the dancing moose and Mr Judd lead with another story I hadn’t even heard of until their posts: sacking the democratically elected Environment Canterbury council to make way for some National cronies. See also Brother Knife. The Nats have opened the ‘gates and it’s all rushing through now. Expect morer, and worser.

A few dates short in the scone department

The above title is from Claire Browning’s great response to Gerry Brownlee on the subject of mining. It’s a clean and precise rebuttal. Read it. (I found it via the Dim-Post.)

I was talking to Dale yesterday about this and we shared our confusion at this whole situation. As Dale said, how can they not see this as a big vote-loser? Where are the gains to balance that out? Claire expresses similar feelings down in the comments, with the post title above being one of her explanations for the behaviour on display. I am no wiser. I’ve heard some conspiracy theories that it’s about controlling the media while other changes get pushed through, or about putting this or that MP over, and the govt will pull back and say “sorry folks we listen love us!” but I don’t have any faith in the present govt’s ability to run that kind of disciplined strategy, and Brownlee has totally nailed his credibility to this endeavour so I don’t think an elegant backdown is possible any more.

Insanity. So I’m intending to get to the protest today at Parliament, 12.30 to 1.30.

Paula Bennett raaagh


Watched some of the “hard-hitting” “political news” show Q+A yesterday morning, in which Minister Paula Bennett defended the changes to the welfare system that were announced out of Cabinet last week. (Full transcription of interview on Scoop.)

Part of these changes were introducing work tests to those on a sickness benefit to get them into part-time work. Although this policy was opposed by that renowned left-wing champion of dole-bludgers, the Treasury [Er, is that right? – ed] , Bennett was keen to give it a spirited defense. The spin she was instructed to deploy was plain to see:

“Let’s also deal with the fact which says that people, with low level depression and low level illness are often better off in work, and it’s actually a road to recovery for them, it actually helps them get better. So it’s not actually all penalties, this is actually what I believe is helping people get well and actually work is a big part of that.”

“Look I think that actually those on the sickness benefit will be better off in work…”

“Yeah and many of them won’t be [on the minimum wage]. You’re actually I think underselling them, and I think they’ve got something to contribute, both for themselves and for the economy, and I’m going to back them to do it.”

“I believe there’s people that could be getting well faster and we could be helping them to get back into work quicker.”

I find it hard to imagine a more shameless and contrived policy defense: welfare cuts as therapeutic technique.

Related: Keith Ng’s advice on setting policy, with reference to the mining of conservation areas. “4) If the person gives you a report with NEW ZEALAND MINERAL INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION written on the front, BEWARE! Although they both have “New Zealand” in their names, the New Zealand Minerals Industry Association is not the same thing as the NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT.”

High Traffic Linky

So that Wikileaks post yesterday was picked up by Reddit and traffic on this blog went into the stratosphere yesterday. On Weds I had 283 unique visitors, pretty typical; on Thursday that number jumped to 92,487. Whoa. What’s especially odd is that the post in question contained nothing at all new – it just copied and pasted some tweets from the Wikileaks twitter feed. Purely a right place/right time kinda deal.

Anyway. It’s Friday so time for some linky.

A look at all the lies and front groups that are confusing the  public on climate change just like they did for tobacco health risks.

Here’s a great alternative to Wikipedia: Wookieepedia. Surprisingly extensive.

The Guardian takes note of the 20th anniversary of Twin Peaks.

This one has been everywhere this week, and it is far weirder than I expected: Alien vs Pooh. Also related to the incompatibility of the Alien films with childhood, this from io9:  Old Alien toy ads will ruin your childhood all over again. Check out the Predator who attacks with his dreadlocks!

Trace Hodgson’s legendary 80s political/social satire Shafts of Strife. I can remember being astonished that this weird comic strip was running in the staid old Listener! (via Stephen Judd; Shafts of Strife presented online by the lovely Roger Langridge, whose Muppets comics still aren’t available in NZ.)

Scott Pilgrim trailer!

Watch some B-movies on AMC’s site. Streamed without region-lock; I am afraid of how much of my time this could eat. Worth a look just to see the titles of all the movies.

Minuit’s Aotearoa, a great track with lots of images from NZ’s past, has become something of an expat classic. It was mentioned in the DomPost yesterday which reminded me I had it sitting in my Linky folder. Lovely, but beware if you are a NewZillinderAbroad, it may give you a case of the homesicks.

Also NZ-specific is this great post from Reading the Maps last September, looking at whether we NZers are right to feel so distant from the appalling acts of genocide that have occurred elsewhere in the world. Shoulda linky to this ages back but still a great read.

40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes

While my keytar gently weeps

“When the New Zealander comes“, some post-apocalyptic fiction from 1911, complete with illustrations. (Published in the Strand magazine, what published the Sherlock Holmes stories.)

And finally… the Muppet Wicker Man

Wikileaks: Something is up

Sounds like the people behind Wikileaks are under some pressure. Since this is unlikely to turn up in your newspapers, I post it here to spread awareness.

Wikileaks has a mission of bringing hidden information to light, when it’s in the public interest. Wikipedia outlines their greatest hits, including Gauntanamo Bay procedure documents, scientology secrets, and net censorship lists. They come under fire sometimes for hosting material that probably isn’t much in the public interest, but overall they have contributed some compelling information to some fractious global arguments.

In the last 24 hours, their Twitter feed has contained some worrying content.

  • WikiLeaks to reveal Pentagon murder-coverup at US National Press Club, Apr 5, 9am; contact press-club@sunshinepress.org
  • WikiLeaks is currently under an aggressive US and Icelandic surveillance operation. Following/photographing/filming/detaining
  • If anything happens to us, you know why: it is our Apr 5 film. And you know who is responsible.
  • Two under State Dep diplomatic cover followed our editor from Iceland to http://skup.no on Thursday.
  • One related person was detained for 22 hours. Computer’s seized.That’s http://www.skup.no
  • We know our possession of the decrypted airstrike video is now being discussed at the highest levels of US command.
  • We have been shown secret photos of our production meetings and been asked specific questions during detention related to the airstrike.
  • We have airline records of the State Dep/CIA tails. Don’t think you can get away with it. You cannot. This is WikiLeaks.

All those came out in a rush, then silence for hours. Might just be a timezone thing, with people sleeping, or maybe there’s been no news, or maybe everyone with access to the Twitter feed has been detained. I await more information.

UPDATE: “To those worrying about us–we’re fine, and will issue a suitable riposte shortly.” 8.22am NZ time.

UPDATE: Just noticed that the first tweet quoted, “WikiLeaks to reveal Pentagon murder-coverup” is gone from the feed. Now I wish I’d linked to all of them individually. Anyway, it was definitely there, and I think Linda is right that it is this previously-referred-to video

UPDATE: commenter eru found the missing tweet. It isn’t visible in the ordinary feed for some reason.

Pantheon of Plastic: #4

He was the son of TV actors, and a TV actor he became, but he achieved much more than his parents. He missed out on the role of Luke Skywalker, but he became a hero who is much better-loved than that whiny teenager – and the smiling face behind the most sing-alonga theme tune of all time. Ladeez and gennulmens, I give you the fourth inductee to the Pantheon of Plastic, also inducted in 1982, it is William Katt!

Sundance Kid, Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
(Movie, 1979; figure released 1979 by Kenner)


William Katt is Robert Redford is the Sundance Kid, back when he was kid. These figures were made by Kenner in support of the film, hoping to repeat the success of the Star Wars phenomenon. They tried some technical innovations: these were Kenner’s first figures with knee joints, because this was the Old West and the characters needed to be able to line dance ride horses.

And heck, that ol’ “Western Cafe” playset that was good enough for Butch and Sundance would do just fine when it was reissued as Mos Eisley Cantina for Star Wars.

Also, here’s the trailer for the film. And here’s a review from 1979 that gives the film credit for the word “prequel”. There’s another Star Wars connection – the first Star Wars film was only called Episode IV in 1981, after Empire Strikes Back had been released as Episode V. So the idea of a prequel may have only hatched in Lucas’ brain after he sat through Willaim Katt as the Sundance Kid. Thus, we have the true legacy of Katt in this role: Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Ralph, The Greatest American Hero
(TV show, 1982; figure released 1982 by Mego)

The first episode of G.A.H. is quite surprising. It’s almost gritty – there are villains murdering people, and William Katt’s lead character Ralph is going all Dangerous Minds inspirational on a classroom of troubled yoof. There is no hint that he’s going to end up being one of the great clown characters of American TV, complete with a hilariously cowardly FBI sidekick.

The figure was released with sidekick as part of a playset with a convertible “Bug”. The box art features a great caricature by legendary MAD-magazine artist Jack Davis.

Ralph Hinkley had a name-change soon after the Greatest American Hero debuted, on account of some other Hinkley trying to assassinate the U.S. President. The crew went through and overdubbed mentions of the name with “Mr H” or disguised it with sound effects, including on one occasion the sound of jet engines. They changed his name in unfilmed scripts to the less-offensive Hanley, and made a new nameplate for the character’s office door so when the camera lingered, everyone could see that his name was not at all like that of the would-be Reagan-killer. A great disaster was avoided and Americans could watch the bumbling curly-blond hero without being reminded of the assassin!

Until season 2, when they changed his name back to Hinkley.

The Walworth Farce (NZ International Fest)

Written by Enda Walsh, produced by Ireland’s Druid Theatre company, this intense, dense play held the Opera House audience in its thrall. It’s set in a tiny apartment in London where an Irish emigre and his two sons re-enact daily a traumatic experience from their past, using the form and structure of farce, complete with corny jokes, over-complicated plans, and mad dashing from room to room. There’s so much going on, in the play-within-a-play and its morass of characters, in the interplay between the family members, in their interactions with their apartment which tells its own tales about who and what they are, that it was genuinely hard to keep up. (Reviews had mentioned a lot of people wondering what the heck was going on; at our performance I didn’t hear any such murmurs during the intermission.) I’m sure there was a lot of Ireland-England subtext going on that went over my head too.

The farce is very funny all the way through, but as the reality under the farce unfolds it becomes impossible to keep laughing. This is a very bleak play indeed. It’s technically fascinating and hugely engaging and suspenseful, and I enjoyed it very much almost through to the conclusion. Unfortunately, I thought the end didn’t work at all; it felt like a retreat from the rest of the play, rather than a resolution of it, not to mention that it relied on melodramatic contrivance at the very moment when it cried out for something genuine. The conclusion didn’t spoil the experience, though, and most of the audience seemed very happy with it so perhaps it was just me.

I walked out of the theatre with much to think about, and very happy with what we’d seen. Worth watching, should the opportunity arise.

(Thanks to my parents for the tickets!)

Mining on conservation land

I can’t even bring myself to write anything coherent on this subject. The calculated gains are so petty and the symbolic cost so huge (let alone the real costs) it just infuriates me.

If you’re a Kiwi, write to the PM about it. I just did. He’s at j.key@ministers.govt.nz and you can write to him this very moment. Stephen Judd has a great exemplar.

(If you’re not a Kiwi, feel free to write as well – living up to the international branding of NZ as clean and green is important to our tourism industry.)

Edited to add: the estimable Keith Ng rips into the facts, rationally.

Hoose

So we’ve bought this hoose.

It’s in the lovely Hutt suburb of Waiwhetu. It’s pretty close to my old stomping ground, easy walking distance to my parents and my grandmother and an easy drive to Cal’s sisters.

Moving date still to be confirmed, mid-April sometime.

I am excited!