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UPDATED: Former New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton Dies

January 7, 2018

UPDATED: Former New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton Dies [caption id="attachment_15742" align="alignleft" width="235"] Former Prime Minister, Jim Anderton, NZOM.[/caption] Former New Zealand deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Alliance, New Labour, and the Progressive Party, Jim Anderton died at around 8am on January 7 at Nazareth House, a rest home and hospice in Sydenham Christchurch. Jim Anderton had been ill for much of 2017 and was receiving palliative care. He was born on 21 January 1938 in Auckland. He began work as a teacher, then as a child welfare officer, a secretary for the Catholic diocese in Auckland, then moved into business as an export manager, and established his company Anderton Holdings Ltd. He was elected as a Manukau City councillor in 1965, was beaten by 7000 votes when he challenged Dove Meyer Robinson for the Auckland mayoralty in 1974. In 1977, Jim Anderton began his move toward enduring significance within the Labour Party. He became Labour Party president in 1979. In 1984, he campaigned, won, and became a Member of Parliament for Sydenham in Christchurch. He became Labour’s most outspoken critic of the economic agenda of former Labour finance minister Roger Douglas and those ardent engineers of New Zealand’s radical economic neoliberal dogma. In 1989 he was suspended from the Labour Party caucus after he refused to vote in favour of selling the Bank of New Zealand. He soon resigned from the party and formed New Labour, campaigned in the 1990 General Election and was reelected as the MP for Sydenham under the New Labour party’s policies of full employment, no state asset sales, and an interventionist economic platform. In 1991, the Alliance was formed around the New Labour party pulling together a cluster of small political parties that had no real show of parliamentary representation under the First Passed the Post electoral system. He became leader of the Alliance in 1993, stood down briefly in 1994, returned as its leader in 1995, and won 13 seats in the new Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) elected Parliament in 1996. In 1999, Labour and the Alliance agreed to form a coalition government led by the new Prime Minister Helen Clark. Jim Anderton became deputy Prime Minister. While in Government, Jim Anderton conceived and established Kiwibank. Perhaps it was his way of correcting the state sell off of the BNZ back in 1989 – a government decision that he did not support and one that had threatened political isolation and estrangement. In the New Zealand Herald, former Prime Minister Helen Clark said she was sceptical over Kiwibank, but admits she was wrong: “I was one of the sceptics. How do we know anyone will use this bank? But it was [a] very important part of Jim’s policy platform, and the truth was that the major banks had more or less exited so many smaller communities and suburbs. But there was still a post office, so putting Kiwibank into those facilities was a winner. “It did incredibly well. I was wrong and he was right on that one,” Helen Clark said. The coalition became unstable near the end of the three year term, largely due to New Zealand’s involvement in the US-led war on terrorism and the bombing of Afghanistan. The instability was driven by the Alliance’s party administrative element. Anderton, Matt Robson (the Alliance’s deputy leader, and Minister of Corrections and Associate Minister for Foreign Affairs in the 1999-2002 Clark Government) formed the Progressive Party, campaigned in the 2002 General Election and were reelected to Parliament. Anderton became Minister for Regional Development in the 2002-05 term. In 2005, Anderton was reelected as the sole Progressive MP and was sworn in as minister for a host of portfolios, including: Agriculture, Biosecurity, Fisheries, Forestry, Public Trust, Associate Minister of Health, and Associate Minister for Tertiary Education. He was reelected in 2008 and remained in coalition with Labour in opposition. In 2010 Jim Anderton campaigned for the Christchurch mayoralty but was unsuccessful in his bid. He retired from Parliament in 2011. https://youtu.be/ZXXG0jbuJCA https://youtu.be/_MbDxeFbQuM In the 2017 Queens Birthday Honours, Jim Anderton was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to Parliament.

******* [caption id="attachment_15760" align="alignleft" width="300"]

Matt Robson – image by Scoop.co.nz.[/caption]A close political ally and friend of Jim Anderton was Matt Robson. In the New Zealand Herald he reflected on their shared social justice ideals: “They will remember him as someone who recognised a gigantic wrong in the question of wealth distribution in New Zealand, and took action.” “The question of income inequality, and the lack of intention to remedy that, that was central to his politics and he went after that goal – and in many ways achieved, or at least remedied action by the Government,” Matt Robson said. To define Jim Anderton’s contribution, for EveningReport.nz, on reflection, Matt Robson quoted Col Rainsborough’s delivery at the 1647 Putney Debates: “‘I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the richest he.‘,” Matt Robson cited. “These sentiments guided the political work of Jim Anderton for over a half-century,” Matt Robson said. “And in formulating and fighting for policies for the ‘poorest he and she’ Jim would always pose the question when political choices had to be made: ‘Is it the right thing to do?’ If the answer was yes then Jim’s response was: ‘Well do it!'” He said this philosophy was clear when Jim Anderton opposed Rogernomics – the roll-out of New Zealand’s neoliberal economic reforms. “When Roger Douglas and his followers proposed implementing the agenda of the [business] Round Table – to significantly lower the taxes of the richest ‘he’ and load the burden onto the poorest ‘he’, and sell public assets at bargain basement prices – Jim had no hessitation in shouting ‘no!’.” By the time the 1980s decade was drawing to a close, Matt Robson said, the rightwing economic power-elites within the Parliamentary Labour Party “scrambled to leave what they saw as the sinking ship of socialism”. Jim Anderton stood against the inevitable tribalism and the economic orthodoxy: “Jim, expelled from Labour, found a warm reception from Labour voters looking for a leader of principle and commitment to the founding ideals of Labour,” Matt Robson said. He added: “Jim’s legacy lies not only in the recognition that he was right to defy the express train of Rogernomics but also that he showed resistance was possible and honourable and the ‘right thing to do’.” ******* [caption id="attachment_15325" align="alignleft" width="300"]

Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern.[/caption] On hearing of Jim Anderton’s death, Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wrote on Twitter: “So sad to hear of the passing of Jim Anderton today. He was a man of huge integrity, strong values and had a genuine passion for people. He dedicated so much of his life to public service and leaves a huge legacy. My thoughts are with his family and friends. RIP, Jim.” On Twitter, former Labour leader and current Minister for Justice, Andrew Little said: “Sorry to hear Jim Anderton has sadly passed away. In my dealings with him as student leader, union leader and newbie MP he was always deeply principled, thoughtful & determined to do the right thing. He happened to be right. Often. RIP Jim.” In a Government issued statement, Prime Minister Ardern said: “New Zealand has lost a man of integrity, compassion and dedication to public service”. “Jim Anderton devoted much of his adult life to public service and to the ideals of the Labour movement. He was first elected to public office in 1965 as a Manukau City Councillor and served local then central government for more than 40 years, including as Deputy Prime Minister between 1999 and 2002. Jim was a leader in his Ministerial work, particularly in the Regional Development and Primary Industries portfolios,” PM Ardern said. She said: “He was a towering figure in the Labour movement for several decades. He will be remembered as someone who stood up for his principles and for the people he represented. His integrity during difficult times marked him out as a true leader. “Jim’s influence as President of the New Zealand Labour Party has lasted for decades. He built a powerful campaigning organisation, selected candidates who became Ministers and Prime Minister and he was an innovative fundraiser. “His work to establish the Alliance and Progressive Parties was both difficult and trailblazing. He never gave up on the values of the Labour movement, and worked tirelessly to bring it back together through the years of the fifth Labour-led Government. “Jim was also a loyal servant of the people of Sydenham and Wigram, serving as an MP from 1984 to 2011. He loved the people of Christchurch and his commitment continued beyond central government politics, including in recent years as Chair of the Stadium Trust and working to save the ChristChurch Cathedral. “There are few figures in New Zealand politics like Jim Anderton. A man of deeply-held values and ideals, he was practical and compassionate. We mourn his loss, and extend our heartfelt sympathies to Jim’s wife Carole, his family and friends,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.]]>

The man I never knew – a tribute to a PNG crash pilot’s tragic end

By Pacific Media Centre -

January 6, 2018

By Malum Nalu in Port Moresby

As I look into the face in the photo
Into the eyes of the man I never knew
I see the pain
The hurt

He shows me the cloud-covered Saruwaged
The treetops
I hear the crunch
As the plane hits the branches

I see the hope in his eyes
As he makes an SOS
Hoping against hope
In the freezing cold as the pain sets in

I see the hurt
Of missing Christmas with loved ones
Help is not coming
Darkness is closing in

– To the memory of David Tong
who lost his life in the Saruwaged Range
serving the people of Kabwum, Morobe and Papua New Guinea

On the afternoon of Saturday, December 23, I received a text message from an Australian woman friend of mine asking if I was aware of a plane crash in the vicinity of Nadzab Airport in Papua New Guinea’s second city Lae.

-Partners-

Not being aware of anything, and thinking that this was fake news, I didn’t respond.

It was only overnight that sketchy reports started filtering in from Lae of a North Coast Aviation plane crash somewhere in Kabwum in the mountains of Morobe.

On the evening of Christmas Eve, I called up my good friend of many years in Lae, Simon Elap, who is the chief engineer of NCA.

He confirmed to me that the plane, a Britten Norman Islander owned by NCA, had crashed on the morning of the previous day in bad weather in the mountains of Kabwum when returning to Lae.

Pilot was alive
Elap told me that the pilot, an expatriate, was alive and had made contact.

However, rescue teams couldn’t make it in because of the weather.

Elap said Kabwum locals were walking in while a search and rescue team from Porgera mine would move in on the morning of Christmas Day.

I was concerned as just the previous month, on November 26, a good mate of mine, NCA chief pilot Thomas Keindip, had died in Lae after a short illness.

On Christmas Day, after a barbecue with my kids at home, I again called Elap and the news wasn’t too good: The search and rescue team from Porgera failed to make it into the crash site.

The crash site was 3000m above sea level on Mt Saruwaged in the rugged Saruwaged Range.

Rugged terrain
I have flown over the Saruwaged to Kabwum several times during my younger days as a reporter in Lae and know it as rugged terrain with thick, tropical rain forest.

On Tuesday, December 26, I called Elap in the evening and he told me the sad news: The search-and-rescue team reached the crash site 3000m above sea level on Mt Saruwaged that day but the pilot was dead.

I shed a quiet tear as I tried to imagine what the pilot had gone through.

Mt Saruwaged (Bangeta) in the Saruwaged Range of Morobe, where the fatal plane crash took place, is the fourth highest mountain in the country at 4121m.

The three taller peaks are Mt Wilhelm in Chimbu (4509m), Mt Giluwe in Southern Highlands (4367m), and Mt Boising in the neighbouring Finisterre Range of Madang (4150m).

The pilot was alive when the plane crashed on Mt Saruwaged on Saturday, December 23. However, rescuers did not get in until Tuesday, December 26, when he was already dead.

I can imagine the pain, misery, loneliness and freezing cold on the mountain.

The Saruwaged is not far from Nadzab, as the eagle flies, and I know this from travelling several times.

You fly from Nadzab, over the Erap River, into Nawaeb and across the rugged Saruwaged Range into Kabwum.

Could the pilot have been saved?
The weather had been very bad, however. Could the pilot have been saved if we had put in extra effort?

God only knows.

I then found out that pilot David Tong was not just an ordinary aviator.

He was one of the top pianists in Australia and the world.

He could have chosen to remain in the top music halls of the world but opted to fly in Papua New Guinea.

That fact about Tong’s life became known after his death.

His body, meantime, remains at the funeral home in Lae until arrangements are made this week.

His mother flew in from Australia to see the body of her son and was moved to tears after seeing the display of emotion shown by NCA staff and the people of Morobe.

Frequent guest pianist
According to the Greater Geraldton Regional Library website of Australia:

“Born in Macao in 1983, David Tong migrated to Australia in 1988 and soon began taking piano lessons.

“Following an extensive period of study, he went on to study at the prominent Juilliard School of Music in New York and was awarded the Vladimir Horowitz scholarship.

“In addition to having been a frequent guest artist with all Australian symphony orchestras, David was regularly invited to appear with many of today’s top orchestras, including the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, New York Philharmonic, as well as with the philharmonic orchestras of Rochester, Naples (Florida), and Hong Kong.

“Of significant importance in David’s career was a performance with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the 2002 Sydney Festival’s Gala Domain Concert, where he performed to an audience of more than 90,000 people.”

Since 2014, Tong had worked as a commercial pilot.

He was based in Geraldton and worked as a line pilot for Geraldton Air Charter before moving to PNG in 2016 to join North Coast Aviation.

Tong, 34, survived the crash and made calls on his mobile but bad weather prevented rescuers from reaching him for three days.

The pianist Zsolt Bognar writes: “It is with great sadness that I learn my old friend David Tong was found dead on Tuesday from injuries sustained in a plane crash.

“I remember first meeting him in Texas in 2001 and being struck by his sunshine-filled spirit, his strong Australian accent, and vivacious temperament.

“He was an incredible pianist with a breathtaking technique – I remember how he burst into my practice room and deployed Chopin Etudes with ease–and as a human being and friend he will be missed.

“What devastating news.”

David Tong, during the short time he spent serving the rural people of Kabwum, Morobe and Papua New Guinea, touched us all like an angel.

Thank you, David Tong, and Thomas Keindip before you, for lifting us all to greater heights.

Malum Nalu is a senior journalist with The National and a celebrated PNG blogger. His National Weekender article is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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‘Help us’ plea from Bougainville police to find 18 escaped prisoners

By Pacific Media Centre -

January 5, 2018

A New Dawn radio news team . .. local reporting on the Buka escapees. Image: Bougainville News

By Theresa Baranangko of New Dawn FM

Eighteen prisoners who have escaped from Bougainville’s Buka police station are still at large.

Police station Commander Kingsley Lua has called for the communities, chiefs, community leaders and church leaders in North Bougainville to take the lead in reporting the criminals who escaped from Buka police station three days ago.

According to Lua, most of the escapes are waiting court for serious cases such as murder, incest and drug consumption.

He said the 18 escapees managed to flee from the cell blocks by bending cell bars which had rusted over several years.

The escape happened in the early hours of Tuesday, January 2, between 3am to 4am.

Lua said this incident occurred under the watch of two or three police officers who were on duty that night. However, they were out in front of the police station when the escape took place at the back of the building.

-Partners-

Lua said that when questioned, the other detainees admitted they were also not aware of the escape as they had been sleeping.

The police are still investigating and have called for the support of the general public to report immediately if they manage to see any suspects in hiding.

Bougainville is an Autonomous Region in Papua New Guinea.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Prime Minister Pōhiva submits his cabinet lineup to the Tongan king

By Pacific Media Centre -

January 4, 2018

akilisi-pohiva-kaniva-news-680wide-jpg — ]]>

Reelected Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva … bringing “justice and good governance” to Tonga. Image: Kaniva News

By Kalino Lātū, editor of Kaniva News

A businessman, Dr Tu’i Uata, who was not elected by voters to Tonga’s Parliament has been named by Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva as his Minister of Labour and Commerce, according to a lineup list leaked to local news media.

The Prime Minister may appoint no more than four cabinet ministers from outside Parliament, according to the constitution.

Pōhiva has chosen Tongatapu 2 MP Sēmisi Lafu Sika as Deputy Prime Minister when his 12-member cabinet lineup was submitted to the palace office yesterday.

The submission was made after King Tupou VI appointed Pōhiva as Tonga’s Prime Minister until 2021 after the November snap election resulted in a decisive win for Pōhiva’s Democrats.

“In accordance with Clause 50A of the Constitution of Tonga, His Majesty King Tupou VI has appointed the Prime Minister-Designate, Honourable Samuela ‘Akilisi Pohiva, as the Prime Minister of Tonga, with effect from 2 January, 2018,” the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.

The Prime Minister has the power to nominate his cabinet lineup before recommending the king to appoint them, according to the constitution.

-Partners-

Lord Ma’afu has been chosen from the nobility by Pōhiva to be his Minister of Land and Survey.

Defence Ministry moved to PM
The Ministry of Defence, a portfolio the noble held in the Pōhiva government before the election, has been removed and brought under the control of the Prime Minister.

The Ministry of Custom and Revenues has been brought under the control of Minister of Police Māteni Tapueluelu.

Four of Pōhiva’s Democratic Party team who were elected in the snap election on November 16 do not have portfolios.

They are Tongatapu 5 MP Losaline Mā’asi, Ha’apai 12 MP Mo’ale Fīnau, Ha’apai 13 MP Veivosa Taka and Niua 17 MP Vātau Hui.

The Minister of Justice, Vuna Fā’otusia, has confirmed the lineup list obtained by Kaniva News.

He said it had yet to be officially announced because it was being submitted to the king.

Legislation changed
Fā’otusia said some of the legislation regarding government portfolios had to be changed to allow movements of some of the ministries, such as Sports and Information.

The Ministry of Sports which is currently under the control of the Minister of Internal Affairs was planned to be be returned to the control of the Minister of Education.

The Ministry of Information was also intended to be attached to the Prime Minster’s portfolios.

Fā’otusia alleged corruption existed in the Ministry of Custom and Revenues and that was why the portfolio was being given to the Minister of Police.

The new lineup:
Samuela ‘Akilisi Pōhiva – Prime Minister of Tonga; Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs

2. Sēmisi Sika – Deputy Prime Minister; Minister of Tourism and Infrastructure

3. Sēmisi Fakahau – Minister of Agriculture & Forestry and Food

4. Dr. Pōhiva Tuionetoa – Minister of Finance and National Planning

5. Penisimani Fifita – Minister of Education

6. Poasi Tei – Minister of Energy, Environment, Information and Climate Change (MEIDEEC)

7. ‘Akosita H. Lavulavu – Minister of Internal Affairs and Sports

8. Dr Tu’i Uata – Minister of Labour and Commerce

9. Dr Saia Piukala – Minisiter of Health and Public Enterprises

10. Lord Ma’afu – Minister of Lands and Survey

11. Sione Vuna Fā’otusia – Minister of Justice and Prisons

12. Māteni Tapueluelu – Minister of Police & Fire Services; Customs and Revenue

Asia Pacific Report republishes Kavini News articles by arrangement.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Why is Israel so afraid of 16-year-old Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi?

By Pacific Media Centre -

January 4, 2018

OPINION: By Ariel Gold and Taylor Morley

Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi was back in court last Thursday, with the judge ruling for the third time that her detention be extended – this time for another five days.

Over the past week and a half, Ahed has been shuffled between numerous Israeli prisons and police stations. She has been held in cold isolation cells with cameras pointed at her 24 hours a day.

Repeatedly, without a parent or lawyer present, they have attempted to interrogate her. The reasoning for the judge’s rulings to extend her detention is that she “poses a risk” to the military and the Israeli government’s case against her.

Israel is right that Ahed Tamimi poses a risk. But it isn’t a risk to one of the most heavily armed and advanced militaries in the world or to the legal case being built against her.

The risk she poses is in her refusal to submit to the Israeli demand that Palestinians acquiesce to their own occupation.

Israeli logic is that Palestinians should cooperate with their own oppression. They should move quietly through the checkpoints, open their bags, not look their occupiers in the eye and not challenge or protest the theft of their lands, resources and freedoms.

-Partners-

Israeli logic is that if they don’t like it, they can leave. Actually, they would strongly prefer that Palestinians leave. The strategy is to make life so unbearable for Palestinians, that they leave willingly. This even has a name: “voluntary transfer.”

Regular resistance
Since Ahed was a young child, she and her family have engaged in active resistance to Israel’s occupation. From 2013 up until the present, they have staged regular demonstrations against the military and the nearby settlers who have taken over their lands and water spring.

The protests are met with tear gas, rubber bullets, skunk water and live ammunition.

In 2012, Ahed’s father was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. In 2013, her uncle was killed by a tear gas canister shot to the head. In 2014, her mother was almost permanently disabled when she was shot in the leg with a .22 caliber bullet.

In 2015, a video of Ahed preventing her younger brother from being arrested went viral. Her cousins and her older brother have spent time in Israeli prisons.

On Friday, December 15, during a protest of President Trump’s announcement of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Ahed’s 14-year-old cousin Mohammed Tamimi was shot in the face with a rubber bullet. He was taken to the hospital where he required surgery and a was placed in a medically induced coma.

A few hours later, when armed soldiers came to Ahed’s home demanding to enter, she pushed back. She slapped and kicked them, and screamed that they could not come in.

Shenila Khoja-Moolji wrote in Aljazeera about the stark contrast between the support Malala Yousafzai received after being shot in the head by the Taliban and the silence on Ahed’s case by feminist and political leaders.

Big difference
Granted, there is a big difference between being shot on the way to school and arrested after slapping a soldier.

Malala was invited to meet with President Barack Obama. She was championed by Senator Hillary Clinton and listed as one of the 100 most influential people in Time magazine.

In 2013 and 2014, Malala was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and in 2014, she won. In contrast, while Ahed’s story has received some coverage in the news, she has yet to find state actors or prominent influencers to champion her cause.

While the West seems mostly indifferent to Ahed’s plight, Israel is hell-bent on hating the girl.

Israeli Education Minister Neftali Bennett called for Ahed and her family to “spend the rest of their lives in prison.”

Minister of Defence Avigdor Liberman said she and her family should “get what they deserve,” and prominent Israeli journalist Ben Caspit said that Israel should “exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras”.

Caspit afterwards tried to backpedal his threat, saying his words had been taken out of context. But as the #MeToo movement has made clear, denying one’s intentions does not undo or excuse them.

Marginalised voices
As the #MeToo movement continues to build and uplift more marginalised voices, Ahed’s voice is not recognised when she could be regarded as a pillar in the movement.

Ahed is revoking her consent for Israel’s brutal occupation. She refuses to give her consent to Israeli forces that invade her family’s home in yet another vicious, meritless night raid. She confronts her aggressors and stands up to the violent system of power that keeps perpetuating this cycle of abuse against Palestinians.

In the same way survivors of sexual assault and rape are silenced, doubted and blamed for the crimes committed against them, Ahed is facing the same backlash from her aggressors.

Israel is working overtime to discredit her and erase her voice, with the hope that people will believe their fabrications over her truth. Now is the time for voices in the #MeToo to call for her release and help draw the parallels.

Shenila Khoja-Moolji explains the reasons for such lack of support for Ahed as being due to acceptance of state violence, Western society’s selective humanitarianism and the political, rather than individual nature of Ahed’s feminism.

These are all valid and important explanations. But support for Ahed is also a condemnation of the state of Israel. It is a condemnation of Israel’s military court system which allows children to be held in isolation and denied access to their parents during interrogation.

It is a condemnation of Israel’s settlement enterprise and continued presence on Palestinian land. To support Ahed is to rebuke Israel’s assertion that Palestinians must comply with their occupiers, that they must open the doors for the soldiers who enter their homes.

Internal power
Certainly their 16-year-old girls must not raise an arm to soldiers. It is one thing to support Malala for taking on the Taliban, but quite another to support Ahed as she takes on Israel’s strongest allies and the purported only democracy in the Middle East.

Not all feminist leaders are afraid to express support for Ahed. CodePink is hosting a petition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding Ahed’s release. We, along with others, like Jewish Voice for Peace, are asking Members of Congress to sign onto Representative Betty McCollum’s legislation to require that US aid to Israel not go to the abuse and detention of Palestinian children.

Ahed is a threat to Israel’s entire system of power. She is not only aware of her own internal power, she is completely unafraid of her aggressors.

This is the same bravery required for sexual assault survivors to tell their stories and hold their accusers responsible. It is the essence of the struggle for women’s rights and why feminism is so incompatible with militarism.

For Ahed to be successful in her fight for the liberation of her people, we first need her to be released from jail. To make this happen, we need all people who call themselves feminists and human rights advocates to say #FreeAhed.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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King’s second son’s noble rights announced in Tonga Gazette

By Pacific Media Centre -

January 3, 2018

Prince Ata … Mormon prince has entitlements gazetted in Tonga. Image: Kaniva News

By Kalino Latu in Auckland

King Tupou VI’s second son is the lawful successor to the hereditary noble title and estate of Ata, it has been announced in the kingdom of Tonga Gazette.

It said Viliami ‘Unuaki-‘o-Tonga Mumui Lalaka-mo e-‘Eiki Tuku’aho was entitled to the hereditary estate belonging “to the title to which he has succeeded together with the rents and profits thereof and all other rights and privileges attached to the title as from 25 September 2006”.

The King’s order comes after he sent former Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakanō and some royal guards to intervene in a baptism ceremony that would have made Prince Ata a Mormon three years ago.

The prince drew back, but a year later he was baptised as a Mormon in Hawai‘i.

As Kaniva News reported at the time, an unconfirmed report said the King later warned Prince Ata he could have some of his princely privileges revoked if he was baptised into the Mormon church.

It is believed he was the first prince of Tonga to become a Mormon after his aunt, the late Princess ‘Elisiva Fusipala Vaha’i, became the first member of the royal family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1980s.

-Partners-

The Tongan constitution does not say that successors’ rights to the throne will be affected by their religious beliefs.

The royal family are members of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga.

It was unclear why the announcement was published on November 23, 2017 more than 11 years after the 29-year-old prince was appointed in 2006.

Prince Ata’s estates
Prince Ata is fourth in line to the throne. The noble title was previously held by his father.

In 2006, the palace office announced the late King George V had appointed him to the noble title Ata.

It said the appointment was to be effective from September 25, 2006.

Ata’s hereditary estates are Kolovai in Tongatapu and the island of ‘Atatā, 10 kilometres North-West of Nuku‘alofa.

As Kaniva News reported last year, Prince Ata had joined Mormon church leaders who held the first Sunday prayer service for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the island of ‘Atatā.

The service marked a milestone in the history of the Mormon church on the island.

In the past they have had to make a 30 minute crossing to Tongatapu, the main island of Tonga, to attend Sunday services and church meetings there.

The Gazette
The announcement by His Majesty’s Lord Privy Seal Tēvita Malolo is published verbatim below.

“In Exercise of the powers conferred by Section 38 of the Land Act, His Majesty King Tupou VI hereby Orders to be published in the Gazette that:

Viliami ‘Unuaki-‘o-Tonga Mumui Lalaka-mo e-‘Eiki Tuku’aho is the lawful successor to the hereditary noble title and estate of: ATA and shall possess and enjoy the hereditary estate appurtenant to the title to which he has succeeded together with the rents and profits thereof and all other rights and privileges attached to the title as from 25 September 2006.”

The Land Act
The relevant provision of the Land Act says:

“King to publish name of lawful successor (1) Upon the death of a holder of an hereditary estate or upon being convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to imprisonment for more than two years or upon his being certified as insane or imbecile by a medical officer,

His Land Act CAP. 46.02 Section 39 to 2016 Revised Edition Page 25 Majesty shall cause the name of the lawful successor to the title of such holder to be published in the Gazette together with the date of his succession thereto which shall be the day following that on which the death of the holder took place or on which the holder was convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to imprisonment for more than two years or was certified by a medical officer as insane or imbecile.

25 (2) On a convenient day not more than 6 months after the date of such publication, or, where the lawful successor is on such date a minor, 6 months after the day he attains the age of 21 years, His Majesty shall summon the person so named to appear before him in the Privy Council and there to take the oath of allegiance set out in Schedule VII. (3) The clerk of the Privy Council shall keep a roll of all persons holding hereditary estates.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Momis calls for unity as Bougainville future status referendum nears

By Pacific Media Centre -

January 3, 2018

EMTV News report on the call for unity.

By Aloysius Laukai in Buka

The Autonomous Bougainville Government president, Chief Dr John Momis, has called on the people of the region to unite in spite of their differences with the future status of Bougainville at stake in next year’s referendum.

In his New Year message to the people of Bougainville, President Momis said Bougainville had progressed despite the national government’s failure to fulfill the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

He said that the peace agreement was a joint creation of the Papua New Guinea government and the ABG and the two governments must work together to implement it.

President Momis said despite this Bougainville had continued to move forward with policies and laws that would enable the ABG to operate in the future.

With the Bougainville mining law and the approval of exploration licences for three local joint venture companies, the government had started getting some money to support the autonomous government.

-Partners-

Momis praised PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and his cabinet members and the ABG delegation for agreeing to speed up development issues in 2018.

He said that the national government had agreed to complete the Buka ring road sealing, Kokopau to Arawa road upgrading and sealing, the Arawa to Buin road sealing in 2018.

President Momis also announced that the national government would finally fund the Siara to Koripovi road that has been neglected for a long time.

He said the West Coast of Bougainville was one economical road that the government had not looked into in a long time.

Headquarters choice
In response to a recent parliamentary question, Chief Momis said a committee would be set up in the New Year to look into recommending a location to establish the Bougainville headquarters for.

He said there was a need for the government to approve a location quickly as building everywhere could be a very expensive exercise.

President Momis also said he would like development to be distributed in all districts so that the presence of government services can be felt by the people of Bougainville.

If the headquarter was in one location, then other major economic activities could be done in other areas.

Aloysius Laukai is editor of Bougainville New Dawn FM’s radio.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Glittering time at Toulouse, but Novès’ sacking smacks of scapegoating

By Pacific Media Centre -

January 3, 2018

Guy Novès … “his sacking smacks of scapegoating … after two decades of terrific rugby his Toulouse teams gave to us all.” Image: NewsDuJour

TRIBUTE: By former Planet Rugby editor Danny Stephens

Not three hours had passed since last week’s message from Queen Elizabeth II said she was “…hoping that they [the French] rediscover their swagger” when the news broke that Bernard Laporte had ended Guy Novès’ attempts at helping the French do just that.

It was news that, in all probability, has ended Noves’ rugby career unless Toulouse come calling once more. A one-club man, he spent 13 seasons on Toulouse’s wing as a player and 22 years orchestrating the team in that famous one-kneed coaching posture (not forgetting a couple of years prior as an assistant).

His time in charge of Toulouse was nothing short of glittering: nine championships, four Heineken Cups and a pair of runners-up medals for each tournament as well. He was responsible for probably three of the great generations of French players emerging and dominating – the first of Califano, Pelous, Castaignede, Ntamack the second of Servat, Elissalde, Michalak, Jauzion, Clerc, the third with Maestri, Dusautoir, Picamoles, Medard.

He was considered for the national job after the 2007 World Cup, but declined the offer to stay with Toulouse.

It wasn’t the first time he had declined the national team either: he ended his own international playing career.

After declaring himself not yet recovered from a thigh injury ahead of one match, the selectors didn’t pick him again when he did declare fitness before the next. He promptly quit, alleging a lack of contact and respect from the federation.

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His decision to reject the national team and stay with Toulouse in 2007 smacked of lingering bitterness from that, as well as giving the impression that he simply wasn’t interested in anything outside la Ville Rose.

Embodied Frenchness
Yet, he embodied Frenchness. His unique and mildly eccentric coaching posture, his perpetually well-groomed appearance (tracksuits looked stylish on him) and weighty antipathy toward the English – he once ended a radio interview with the words “I’ll take no lessons from the English” – all combined to leave you in no uncertain terms where he came from, as did his occasional explosions of temper; he was led away by police after the Heineken Cup win in 2005 when stewards refused to let his family onto the pitch to celebrate with him.

But it was a strange last decade. He seemed unable to find a fourth generation to bring through at Toulouse, up against the stiffer competition that other clubs imported and finding no way to cope with the increasingly attritional demands of the French season.

Toulouse looked outdated by the time Novès relented to take the national job.

He could not find selectoral consistency in the national team either, rarely his fault. Having started out looking to impose his own philosophy of forward bullies allowing graceful backs to play, combinations of injury and club/country overlaps left him returning to a more direct game, not his natural inclination.

And as a coach who loved to let his players express themselves, the international level playing structures seemed to be too antithesis, while the inconsistencies in selections – again, rarely his fault – also left him unable to achieve that which he had been able to at Toulouse.

Capacities for his teams to wow
But whatever the recent criticisms thrown his way, nobody should forget what Novès contributed to the game of rugby at Toulouse, the abilities and calibre of player he developed and nurtured, the capacities for his teams to wow.

That should be a legacy that lasts far longer than his time in charge of a national team governed by a national rugby framework in desperate need of a large shake-up.

His sacking smacks of scapegoating in some ways – which should be another reason Noves should proudly disassociate himself from the FFR and reflect on two decades of terrific rugby his Toulouse teams gave to us all.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Indonesia beefs up anti-terror police unit to combat ‘extremist’ challenge

By Pacific Media Centre -

January 2, 2018

Densus 88 special police force … history of repression in West Papua. Graphic: AK Rockefeller

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Indonesia is beefing up its elite Detachment 88 (Densus 88) unit in light of increased threats from local and international terror networks, says National Police Chief General Tito Karnavian.

There will be additional 600 policemen assigned to the squad, bringing the total headcount to 1300, reports The Straits Times.

“We now have Isis, not only Al-Qaeda elements. We are also seeing those who, through the internet, got self-radicalised, learnt how to make bombs and made attack plans,” said General Tito at a media briefing in Jakarta.

“Therefore, the Detatchment 88 must be beefed up.”

General Tito, who was involved in various high-profile terrorist raids when he was a field officer with Detachment 88, said silent operations must be stepped up, meaning more preemptive strikes were needed.

This in turn required higher detection capability, he added.

-Partners-

Tasks within Detatchment 88 are divided into various operations: arrests and raids; investigation and cross examination; interrogation; wiretapping; and evidence handling.

Won praise, condemnation
The unit has won praise for the many raids it has made on militant networks in Indonesia, foiling attacks and arresting terrorist suspects.

However, it has also been heavily criticised for a repressive role in West Papua against indigenous self-determination and civil society groups.

In 2017, Detatchment 88 arrested 154 and killed 16 terrorists during raids, with 14 officers injured and four killed during the raids operations.

The unit made more than 150 arrests in 2016, disrupting terror plots, including the planned launch of rocket attacks on Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands from Batam island.

General Tito also unveiled plans to send more police officers for overseas studies, saying he was inspired by the late Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in his bold move in preventing corruption.

The police force has, for the first time, received an allocation of 120 scholarship positions from the Finance Ministry to send its personnel abroad. This would mean a record number of officers studying overseas in coming years.

Waves of new faces
“We want to have big waves of new faces and a less corrupt culture,” said General Tito.

“When they return to Indonesia, they will have their own community who think the same way and who will be the agents of change. We want to replicate the Singapore concept. This is what Singapore did.”

He noted that when young policemen were sent to the United States, Britain and other countries with a less corrupt culture, they would be shaped accordingly.

The plan is to send 100 of the 300 fresh graduates from the police academy overseas as well as scores of other early-career policemen, he added.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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One Palestinian family’s devastating story of Israeli military cruelty

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 31, 2017

OPINION: By Sister Barbara Cameron

When I read last week of the detention of a young Palestinian teenage girl, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi, dragged from her bed in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers, for me it wasn’t just another Palestinian teenage protester.

I was devastated. This is the beautiful young woman I’d met as a happy, innocent 10-year-old, in whose house I’d slept, with whose family I’d sat at table, to whose grandmother I had listened as she shared the pain of the terrible things her own children had suffered at the hands of the Israeli military, her daughter shot in a military court room, her son detained innumerable times.

I was gutted thinking of this family having to deal with yet another trauma, fearing what might happen to their 16-year-old daughter in military detention.

Ahed with her mother Nariman … a family suffering again from the cruelty and injustice of the Israeli occupation. Image: Al Jazeera

Not only that but her 15-year-old brother, Mohammed, is now lying in an induced coma as the result of the injury caused by being shot in the face by a rubber bullet. For me it was heartbreaking news.

In 2011, as a NZ Catholic nun, a Mission Sister, I had volunteered with the International Women’s Peace Service group in Palestine on the West Bank, a group that supports the Palestinians in any nonviolent resistance to the occupation of their land by Israel, and reports on human rights abuses.

It was at that time I had the privilege of meeting Ahed’s father, Basem Tamimi, a charismatic village leader (in my book, another Gandhi or Mandela), whose gentleness and commitment to nonviolent, peaceful protest against the Israeli occupation of their land was in stark contrast with the picture of protesters I’d formed, from the media, of Palestinian resistance to occupation.

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In that man’s home, with that little girl and their family, we enjoyed the warm, generous hospitality, typical of Palestine.

Accused by military police
Within days of that experience Basem was picked up by the Israeli military police accused of inciting protesters to throw stones at the soldiers.

What follows are excerpts from the speech Basem gave in the military court in June 2011.

“In my lifetime I have been nine times imprisoned for an overall of almost three years, though I was never charged or convicted. During my imprisonment, I was paralysed as a result of torture by your investigators…

“International law guarantees the right of the occupied people to resist occupation. In practising my right I have called for and organised peaceful, popular demonstrations against the occupation, settler attacks and the theft of more than half the land of my village…

“Our demonstrations are in protest of injustice. We work hand in hand with Israeli and international activists who believe like us that had it not been for the occupation, we could all live in peace on this land…

“I did not incite anyone to throw stones, but I am not responsible for the security of your soldiers who invade my village and attack my people with all the weapons of death and the equipment of terror…

“Despite all your racist and inhumane practices and Occupation we will continue to believe in peace, justice and human values. We will still raise our children to love; love the land and the people without discrimination of race, religion, or ethnicity, embodying thus the message of the messenger of peace, Jesus Christ, who urged us to “love our enemy”.

“With love and justice we make peace and build the future.”

Again suffering cruelty
Now, six years later in the wake of the demonstrations on the West Bank following Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, this family is again suffering from the cruelty and injustice of the occupation.

Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested by the Israeli army on December 20 is now scheduled for trial. This is the second delay in her trial date. Her father, Basem, has been summoned for interrogation. Her mother, Nariman, is still being held in detention.

This update from Basem:

“They dragged Ahed out of bed, handcuffed her and put her in the back of their military jeep. She is 16 years old.

“The next morning, my wife went to the police station to be with our daughter as she was interrogated. But Israel took her into custody as well. The following day, they arrested my 21-year-old niece Nour.

“This is too much! Israel must immediately release the Tamimi women! They must stop their persecution of my family.

“All of this started last Friday when soldiers in my village shot 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi directly in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Following surgery, Mohammad had to be placed in a medically induced coma.

“Then the soldiers came to our home. Ahed and Nour slapped the soldiers in the face and pushed them back, yelling that they could not enter our home.

“The Israeli military is threatened by our regular protests, by our refusal to live with occupation.”

Focus on ‘slapping’
What some people will focus on reading this or hearing the news will be the slapping of an Israeli soldier by a 16-year-old Palestinian girl.

What we don’t usually hear about is the provocation that leads to the reaction. In this case we do … the shooting of a rubber bullet in the face of the girl’s 15-year-old brother which has left her brother in an induced coma, and the ongoing history of harassment that family has experienced .

In the light of all this suffering by the Palestinians over 50 years and in an effort to end the violence and the occupation, Palestine leadership some years ago asked the international community to support them in one of the few nonviolent ways pressure can be brought to bear on the occupying force, that is through the BDS movement – the boycott of Israel, as was done in the past to bring an end to apartheid in South Africa.

That is why Lorde’s decision to cancel her tour to Israel is significant and she deserves to be commended for her courage in taking such a principled stand. Where you have victims and oppressors we all know on whose side we should stand.

New Zealand and New Zealanders have done that in the past. Let’s continue to do this for all the children and young people of our world, who suffer at the hands of military power, for Ahed and Mohammad, for their grandmother, for their mother and father, for the whole Tamimi family.

Sister Barbara Cameron is a Mission Sister in Morrinsville.

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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 30 December 2017 – Today’s content

By Bryce Edwards -

December 30, 2017

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 30 December 2017 – Today’s content Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download). Lorde not playing in Israel Herald: Editorial: Lorde’s stand on Israel does her credit Mark Dawson (Wanganui Chronicle): Editorial – Good Lorde, what a dilemma Damon Rusden (Daily Blog): Lorde has spoken; a courageous move in a complex struggle Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Lorde’s apology & ignorance, unfair hard left criticism, claims of hypocrisy and the power of Israeli propaganda Te Wharepora Hou: If Liel Leibovitz is Serious About His Māori Politics He Shouldn’t Be Undermining Indigenous Sovereignty in Palestine Liel Leibovitz (Tablet Magazine): If Lorde is serious about her politics, she shouldn’t boycott Israel but her native New Zealand David Cohen (Times of Israel): Our Lorde David Sedley (The Times of Israel): Lorde should have contributed to ‘spirit of hope and peace’ – ambassador Jess (The Jewish Chronicle): A letter to Lorde from a devastated fan Jerusalem Post: Editorial – Lorde and the BDS bullies Amy Spiro (Jerusalem Post): After Lorde nixes Israel gig, envoy to NZ asks to meet with her Newswire: Israel ambassador seeks meeting with Lorde after Tel Aviv concert cancelled John Small (Small Torque): Cheers Lorde The Australian: Teenagers worship Lorde but the Kiwi pop princess is very wrong to boycott Israel RNZ: ‘Music should unite not divide’ – Israel’s ambassador to NZ Alex Braae (Newstalk ZB): Activist faces death threats after urging Lorde Israel boycott Karl Quinn (Brisbane Times): Lorde’s Israel backdown shows doing the right thing in music is far from black and white Yousef Munayyer (Forward): Thank You, Lorde, For Standing Up For Palestinian Human Rights Josh Brown (Scoop): Some Sympathy for Lorde’s Israeli Fans New Year Honours Jo Moir (Stuff): Former MPs honoured for services to Parliament and state Catherine Groenestein (Stuff): Borrows awarded QSO for Government, community service Dominion Post: Editorial – Honours should go only to the truly outstanding Chris Hutching (Stuff): Business women power ahead in New Year’s honours Herald: Editorial: Honours list a way to say thank you The Press: Editorial: health critic Philip Bagshaw deserves public recognition 2017 in review Liam Hehir (Newsroom): My year as a National supporter Louis Houlbrooke (Newsroom): My year as an ACT supporter Chris Ford (Newsroom): My year as a Greens supporter Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of Looking at the year in satire Steve Braunias (Herald): Surviving the Fear of Trump – making it through Ophelia Buckleton (Herald): From National’s rule to Paddles the cat: what we lost in 2017 Herald: Metiria Turei’s benefit fraud tops list of 2017’s toughest PR gigs Employment and inequality Dennis Eichert (Stuff): New Zealand isn’t working Rob Stock (Stuff): ‘Unfair’ wealth divide hurting middle NZ Rob Stock (Stuff): Can middle New Zealanders still get ahead? Rob Stock (Stuff): ‘Harsh’ retirements not felt by most over 65s The Press: Editorial – When wealth grows, who pays? Government Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Multination tax rorts in Minister’s sights 1News: Whanau Ora about to be re-booted under new government Chris Trotter (Bowalley Road): Jacinda And The Bard. Matt Shand (Stuff): PM demands meeting with troubled NZ Ballet amid anger at failure to tour locally Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Government does not expect Landcorp to pay dividend Drug law reform Leighton Keith (Stuff): Medicinal cannabis legislation disappointing say Taranaki couple ODT: Editorial – Caution on cannabis Chris Fowlie (Daily Blog): Govt medicinal cannabis Bill a huge step but should go further Rebecca Reider (Newshub): Government’s medicinal cannabis bill doesn’t go far enough Other Karl du Fresne (Stuff): Taking a hands-off approach to male guilt Kathy Spencer (Stuff): Tax burden unfair on smokers Megan Gattey (Stuff): Why rent really is too high for Kiwi battlers gallery Millie McCaughan (1News): Five questions with human rights lawyer, refugee and Green MP Golriz Ghahraman Murray Horton (Evening Report): Independent foreign policy? Fine words, but not reality Brian Easton (Pundit): What is New with the HYEFU? Sam Hurley (Herald): First te reo speaker Justice Joseph Williams appointed to Court of Appeal Tom Peters (World socialist website): Anti-Chinese witch-hunt against New Zealand MP intensifies Ian Hyslop (Newsroom): High hopes for children David Farrar (Kiwiblog): A rotten OIA story Stuff: My wife reversed her Do Not Resuscitate order – I can’t support euthanasia Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): NZ First website down for more than a month]]>

Bryce Edwards’ Political roundup – Dear Lorde here’s what they’re saying about your boycott of Israel

By Bryce Edwards -

December 28, 2017

Bryce Edwards’ Political roundup: Dear Lorde, here’s what they’re saying about your boycott of Israel

Dear Lorde [caption id="attachment_15718" align="alignright" width="193"]

Lorde performing in Brisbane.
Created: 23 November 2017. Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 – DavidEye.[/caption] It seems that everyone is writing open letters to you about whether or not you should be performing in Israel. So, I thought I’d join in, rounding up the political coverage, to help you work out whether you’ve made the right decision. The case in favour of your boycott It all kicked off when local political activists put the case for you to cancel your Tel Aviv concert. Nadia Abu-Shanab and Justine Sachs argued that “Playing in Tel Aviv will be seen as giving support to the policies of the Israeli government” – see: Dear Lorde, here’s why we’re urging you not to play Israel. They noted your political opposition to “institutional racism, sexism and white privilege” and suggested you extend this to the Israeli state. Other local activists said likewise, including New Zealand Iranian Donna Miles-Mojab – see: An open letter to Lorde: Don’t bring your tour to Israel. Your decision not to play Tel Aviv was celebrated by many in New Zealand. The capital’s daily newspaper, the Dominion Post, published an editorial yesterday pronouncing your decision as “commendable”, saying “We support Lorde’s efforts to do what she thinks is right, and we hope she has the maturity and political dexterity to fight for her corner and handle what is likely to come next” – see: Lorde’s first steps on new, dangerous stage. The newspaper also notes that your career is likely to suffer as a result: “she is also set to tour the United States – 30 concerts that could go some way to solidifying her status in global pop royalty. That new-found political awareness and maturity is likely to be tested in what is still regarded as the most important entertainment market in the world. Given the strong Jewish influence in American politics and the clear and painful rebuke for the United States in the still-fresh UN vote, Lorde is likely to meet a very different type of melodrama and the kind of questions that go beyond her music.” Others in the local media have congratulated you for your decision, especially in light of the criticism you have received. Entertainment reporter Dani McDonald says: “The blood of Palestinian children continues to flood the streets of Gaza, but Israelis seems more concerned about Lorde’s choice to cancel her Tel Aviv show. There, Lorde, is evidence that you made the right decision. It’s been amusing and sickening reading the backlash to the 21-year-old Kiwi singer’s decision to backtrack on her show that was scheduled for June, 2018” – see: Israelis’ reactions to Lorde is exactly why she shouldn’t play there. Leftwing bloggers have been particularly buoyed. A writer at The Standard blog, draws parallels with the boycott movement against South Africa, and your stand is seen as having a global significance in the context of recent conservative trends: “Of the tiny moments of resistance in 2017’s cascading cataclysm against civility, tolerance, and decency in Europe, US, and most of the Middle East, this is the largest tiny moment from a New Zealander in a very, very long time” – see: Ain’t Gonna Play. Writing on the Daily Blog, Frank Macskasy is even more enthused, suggesting your “courageous stand” will go down in history as a continuation of other progressive political beacons this country is supposedly known for, and “Once again, New Zealand has shown the way in the world” – see: Lorde takes a stand. You are given a place in the pantheon of activist heroes: “2017 has become the year that women have spoken out against injustice and abuse by those in power. Lorde has become to her generation what Rosa Parkes, Jane Fonda, Kate Shepherd, and many others were to theirs.” See also, Robin Martin’s Palestinian rights group welcomes Lorde’s caution. The case against your boycott of Israel Not everyone in New Zealand is full of praise. Local comedy writer, Dane Giraud speaks up for the Jewish community in a folksy letter to you, providing a counterview to those who have asked you not to go to Israel, saying “Here’s what it comes down to: you’re being asked not to sing in front of a stadium full of Jews. Sounds pretty crappy when put that way” – see: Dear Lorde, here’s why an Israel boycott is the wrong answer. He makes the case that by boycotting Tel Aviv, you are boycotting ordinary Israeli fans rather than the Israeli state. What’s more, although boycotts have their allure (“I think people dig them because they feel both extremely dramatic and benign all at the same time”) they can be counterproductive, potentially encouraging “intransigence from either side”, thereby adding “to the misery of both Jews and Arabs”. Not surprisingly, a number of others from New Zealand’s Jewish community are expressing disappointment with your decision. A spokesperson for the New Zealand Jewish Council, Juliet Moses, attempts to correct what she sees as misinformation about Israel and its treatment of Palestinians – see: Lorde has taken a bow to the bullies. And back in Israel, there is disappointment with your boycott. The Jerusalem Post newspaper published an editorial that alleges you don’t understand the issues properly: “Lorde would do herself a favor to study the issues before making such a decision. Lorde is in a blissful state of unawareness, at least with regard to the history and reasons behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” – see: Lorde and the BDS bullies. The paper also says: “By caving in to BDS pressure, Lorde let herself be used as a political tool and joined a short list of performers who backed out of shows in Israel out of some distorted sense of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.” Many Israelis are clearly more saddened than angry that you won’t be playing Tel Aviv. Einav Schiff, writing for YNet News, emphasises what Israeli fans are missing: “It’s not every day and not every decade that the Israeli audience gets an opportunity to see a musician as she sails to the top, at the end of a phenomenal year in nearly every aspect” – see: BDS, unfortunately, is still alive and kicking. Reflecting on the boycott movement against Israel – referred to as “BDS” (Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions) – Schiff says Israelis need to realise the significance of your decision: “The past summer’s concerts, and primarily the high profile of Radiohead’s arrival, gave us the feeling that BDS had been defeated. Lorde’s cancellation indicates that it was an illusion.” David Brinn of the Jerusalem Post, also says “Lorde’s cancellation is more ominous than it looks. The sudden cancellation of New Zealand pop sensation Lorde’s concert next June in Tel Aviv, only days after it was announced, was undoubtedly a blow to the ‘BDS is ineffective, everything is fine’ mantra we, Israelis, like to believe. She was, by far, the biggest contemporary name to announce a 2018 show in Israel” – see: Lorde’s cancellation: Losing a generation. Questions about boycott tactics The biggest challenge to your decision to boycott Israel relates to the very concept of boycotts – the idea that they can be inconsistent or even hypocritical. After all, when an artist like yourself makes a decision to exclude a particular audience on moral or ethical principles, then there is a natural tendency of critics to check if you are being arbitrary or consistent in the application of your principle. When you’ve come out to say that a particular country doesn’t meet your political standards to play in, you are implicitly suggesting that the countries you do perform in are political acceptable. Hence, a number of people you have disappointed by boycotting Israel are asking why you are boycotting their country but willing to play other politically-questionable countries. For instance Juliet Moses from the New Zealand Jewish Council challenges you on your recently announced concerts in Russia: “Strangely, despite that country’s human rights abuses, support of the genocidal Assad regime in Syria, and occupation of Crimea, no one called for her to cancel that show or suggested she is a Putin supporter. Likewise, she is not accused of complicity with Trump and his policies when she performs in the United States”. Similarly, a “heartbroken” 15-year Jewish fan living in London has written you a letter to say: “you are playing St. Petersburg and Moscow when Russia has broken the Geneva convention for its actions in Ukraine – how can you pull out of one concert and not the other? In addition, in Russia, it’s just been announced that the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, will not be allowed to run against Vladimir Putin for President. You are punishing the people of one country because you don’t agree with their government, but not another. Why?” – see: A letter to Lorde from a devastated fan. Even yesterday’s Dominion Post editorial, which was highly supportive of your decision, felt inclined to raise this point: “People might quite rightly ask why Lorde would boycott Israel but continue in the US, which has so clearly turned its back on peace, and the Palestinians, and sided with its Israeli allies. They might also want to know if she still intends going ahead with two concerts in Russia, where homosexuals are hounded, the LGBT community are virtually outlawed and democracy is near-dead. What is her stance on that? Politics is a Pandora’s Box. Opening it might seem the right thing to do, but you risk being squeezed into a corner” – see: Lorde’s first steps on new, dangerous stage. Clearly your decision is raising lots of interesting philosophical and practical questions about how to deal with injustices in the world. And plenty of other musicians before you have had to deal with the question of Israel – see Lisa Bonos’ Lorde cancelled her show in Israel over politics – here’s how other musicians handled it. You might also want to check out an interesting feature in the Sydney Morning Herald by Karl Quinn about musical boycotts, discussing what other countries should be on the list for you to avoid: “If you’re going to boycott every country with a dubious record, how about adding the United States to the list? It may be the world’s biggest market for live music but it is guilty of targeted political assassinations, installing puppet regimes in foreign countries, and exporting Mariah Carey’s music to the world. Or how about Australia, where much of the remote indigenous population languishes in abject poverty and the treatment of refugees is in serious breach of human rights conventions” – see: Lorde’s Israel backdown shows doing the right thing in music is far from black and white. It’s obviously very difficult to come up with a list of “clean countries”. Quinn has this conclusion: “Maybe touring Denmark might be safe (oh, wait, there’s that history with Greenland). What about Sweden? (Oh no, there’s the Sami issue.) Oh well. There’s always New Zealand I guess.” But is New Zealand even a politically acceptable country to tour? An argument could be made that it’s not. And Israeli-American journalist Liel Leibovitz does just that in his article: If Lorde is serious about her politics, she shouldn’t boycott Israel but her native New Zealand. This provocative piece asks you: “Offended by colonialism, wanton land theft, and an ongoing discrimination of an indigenous population? Say goodbye to Wellington, not Tel Aviv.” Here’s his challenge to you: “If Lorde is truly committed to the principles she now espouses, she should announce her refusal to perform in or return home to her native New Zealand, a country that is guilty, in spades, of the crimes BDS supporters falsely attribute to Israelis.” The argument is then backed up with a trawl through New Zealand history of land theft and ethnic disparities, concluding that an “occupying force” is “illegally and cruelly” depriving “an indigenous population of its right for self-determination in its historical homeland”. It’s worth pointing out that not all musicians agree with the tactic of boycotting Israel. In fact, there are a number of highly-political and even leftwing artists who have felt very strongly about the correctness of going to Israel – most notably in the last year, Radiohead, Morrissey, and Nick Cave. And for some interesting leftwing celebrations of those artists breaking the boycott, see Brendan O’Neill’s Nick Cave vs the BDS bigots, and Tom Slater’s Three cheers for Thom Yorke. A different approach to showing solidarity with Palestinians Rather than boycotting your Israeli fans, there is another option – visiting the West Bank and Gaza while in Israel. This was actually suggested by the New Zealand Jewish Council’s spokesperson Juliet Moses, who says that if you wanted to help with furthering the peace process you “could have performed in Tel Aviv, a liberal secular city, and visited grassroots movements in the West Bank, co-founded by Palestinians and Israelis, as I did last year – movements promoting non-violence, transformation and dialogue between the two sides”. Of course, you could go much further than that, and actually perform a concert in Palestine. This is what one Israeli writer, activist, and musician has suggested – you should definitely read Yuval Ben-Ami’s important article, This Israeli urges Lorde: Play Palestine instead. He says to you: “Instead of simply cancelling your show in Tel Aviv, cross the checkpoints and the separation wall and do what most pop icons have yet to do: perform in the West Bank.” Ben-Ami suggests that you play in the small city close to Ramallah, and not far from Tel Aviv: “Israelis are legally allowed to visit the new open-air theater in the Palestinian town of Rawabi, which seats 12,000”. He argues that this act would make an important political statement while encouraging Israeli fans to travel into the occupied territories to learn more about the Palestinian situation. Finally, Yuval Ben-Ami is actually a huge fan of yours, and is responsible for a fascinating project called the Israel-Palestine Lorde Diaries – an attempt to collectively record a tribute cover album of Pure Heroine in Hebrew and Arabic which he undertook two years ago upon becoming obsessed with your first album. You can read more about this in Renee Ghert-Zand’s Lorde help us, Daniel Estrin’s In Holy Land, a tribute to Lorde gets complicated, or you can listen to his interview with Wallace Chapman on RNZ: Yuval Ben-Ami – Lorde in the Holy Land. But best of all, check out some of the middle eastern covers he produced, such as Team, Biting Down, and Royals.]]>

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 27 December 2017 – Today’s content

By Bryce Edwards -

December 27, 2017

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 27 December 2017 – Today’s content Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download). Lorde not playing in Israel Dominion Post: Editorial – Lorde’s first steps on new, dangerous stage Herald: Emmy award winner Roseanne Barr slams Lorde as a ‘bigot’ over Israel cancellation and calls for boycott Dani McDonald (Stuff): Israelis’ reactions to Lorde is exactly why she shouldn’t play there Einav Schiff (Y Net News): BDS, unfortunately, is still alive and kicking David Brinn (Jerusalem Post): Lorde’s cancellation: Losing a generation Juliet Moses (Stuff): ‘Lorde has taken a bow to the bullies’ Yuval Ben-Ami (972 Mag): This Israeli urges Lorde: Play Palestine instead Lisa Bonos (Stuff): Lorde cancelled her show in Israel over politics – here’s how other musicians handled it Peter Beaumont (The Guardian): Lorde cancels Israel concert after pro-Palestinian campaign Stuff: Kiwi pop singer Lorde cancels show in Israel after open letter from fans RNZ: Lorde reportedly cancels Israel show after backlash RNZ: Lorde urged to reconsider Israel gig cancellation The Standard: Ain’t Gonna Play Frank Macskasy (Daily Blog): Lorde takes a stand David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Lorde will do Russia but not Israel Steven Cowan (Against the current): Lorde cancel concert, and two young activists feel the backlash Times of Israel:Lorde may cancel Israel concert after backlash from fans Robin Martin (RNZ): Palestinian rights group welcomes Lorde’s caution Eleanor Ainge Roy (The Guardian): Lorde considering cancelling Israel concert after backlash from fans Dane Giraud (The Spinoff): Dear Lorde, here’s why an Israel boycott is the wrong answer Donna Miles-Mojab (Stuff): An open letter to Lorde: Don’t bring your tour to Israel 2017 in review Claire Trevett (Herald): Jacinda nick of time: A remarkable year in New Zealand politics Chris Trotter (Stuff): 2017: Metiria’s speech and Jacinda’s wild ride Brent Edwards (RNZ): 2017: A very long time in politics Finlay Macdonald (RNZ): 2017: MMP comes of age Brigitte Morten (RNZ): Democracy: What is it good for? Nikki Kaye (Herald): What I have learned this year: Nikki Kaye Damian Light (Newsroom): My year as a UnitedFuture supporter Bevan Rapson (North & South): 2017…the year that was. Lamia Imam (RNZ): 2017: Or was it all a bizarre dream Lean Damm (RNZ): 2017: In this year of feminism Herald: New Zealander of the Year: the best of 2017 Stacey Kirk (Stuff): The political fire starters of 2018: What can we expect next year Liam Dann (Herald): Squinting through rose-tinted glasses Scoop: Dotcom, Elections and Google – Most Read Items Scoop 2017 Api Dawson (Newsroom): My year as a NZFirst supporter Te Reo debates Karl du Fresne (Stuff): So-called liberals heap scorn on Don Brash Teuila Fuatai (Newsroom): Māoridom through the eyes of Dame Sian Elias Ian Johnstone (Stuff): Carry on the good work, Kim Dave Witherow (Breaing views): Jabberwocky Ernest Penman (The Spinoff): New Zealand in 2017: At last someone unafraid to speak the truth Mihingarangi Forbes (Herald): How Mihingarangi Forbes found her roots in 1993 Media Stuff: Majority of Press Council rules Duncan Garner column in breach David Farrar (Kiwiblog): As Press Council expands, is it time up for BSA? Scoop Foundation: Earthquake Journalism Grant Investigations Published Other Eugene Bingham and Paula Penfold (Stuff): Calls for Defence Force transparency over Battle of Baghak footage Steve Braunias (Herald): The Great political ping-pong tournament: The rematch with Jacinda Ardern Steve Braunias (Herald): The Secret Diary of Christmas Paul Buchanan (Kiwipolitico): A matter of insubordination and contempt Barbara Brookes (ODT): It’s about respect: some men’s view of women must change David Slack (Stuff): I wouldn’t change a word Newshub: New Zealand ‘Bigot Bingo’ in time for Christmas David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Newshub thinks everyone is a bigot! Jihee Junn (The Spinoff): The rise of conscious (and convenient) consumerism Brennan McDonald: The Glass Ceiling of Inequality Julian Lee (Stuff): Outgoing health boss Chai Chuah spends $26,000 on nine-day course in San Francisco 1News: Watch: ‘Sit still kitty!’ Gareth Morgan delivers Christmas message while holding cat Peter Lyons (Herald): NCEA teaching our kids they don’t need to try too hard Liam Hehir (Stuff): It’s struggling in the West, but Christianity is still growing globally Kiwifirewalker: A spy in the Beehive part II: further dodgyness from Jin Yang Caitlin Moorby (Stuff): $1 billion prison expansion entering final stages of approval Gary Taylor (Herald): Make natives major part of billion-tree plan]]>

Murray Horton: Independent foreign policy? Fine words, but not reality

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 27, 2017

apr-waihopai-stopmakingsense-680wide-jpg — ]]>

OPINION: By Murray Horton

The Aotearoa Independence Movement (AIM) congratulates Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for explicitly defying President Trump’s bullying in relation to New Zealand’s United Nations vote against the US declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. She went on to say that “New Zealand has, and always has had, an independent foreign policy“.

Fine words. If only they bore some semblance of reality. The fact is that New Zealand is the most loyal, albeit junior, satellite of the US Empire.

AIM assumes that Jacinda is referring to things like the nuclear free policy. Yes, that is commendable – but never let it be forgotten that if the 1980s’ Labour government that implemented it had had its way, NZ would have been both nuclear free and still in the ANZUS military alliance with the US.

New Zealand did not leave ANZUS, it was kicked out by the US.

New Zealand’s most important contribution to the US Empire is as a decades-long member of the Five Eyes spy alliance and hosting the Waihopai spy base, which is operated by the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) on behalf of the the US National Security Agency (NSA)

Within the past few weeks Andrew Little, the Minister Responsible for the GCSB, has stated in writing that this government has no intention of closing Waihopai.

-Partners-

AIM is happy to give the Prime Minister some suggestions that would make her statement actually be true.

What would a non-aligned foreign policy look like?

It’s time for this country to pull the plug, to finish the business started in the 1980s which saw NZ both nuclear free and out of ANZUS; and to break the chains – military, intelligence, economic and cultural – that continue to bind us to the American Empire.

The Americans are very proud of having won their independence from the British Empire; it’s time for us to do the same from the American Empire. Let’s deal with the world on our terms, not on those dictated from whichever empire we happen to be a junior member of at the time.

AIM thinks that gaining true independence from the American Empire, and becoming non-aligned, is an idea whose time has well and truly come. It is not “anti-American” (or “racist” or “xenophobic”, for that matter). We stand with the American people who are fighting back in their millions against the daily outrages being perpetrated by Trump and his reactionary billionaire cronies.

We stand with them as we have stood with them in common causes ranging from the war in Vietnam to the invasion of Iraq and the campaign to impose the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) on our peoples.

It doesn’t mean isolationism. It would mean that New Zealand would pick our allies and, if necessary, our wars, on a case by case basis, decided first and foremost by what is in the interests of the New Zealand people, not the interests of foreign governments and/or corporations.

It would involve cutting the strings that continue to bind us to the American Empire. Specifically:

get out of the Five Eyes spy alliance (with the US, UK, Canada and Australia), and pull the plug on the ANZUS-in-all-but-name military and intelligence alliance with Trump’s increasingly dangerous and unhinged US. Renounce the recent Wellington and Washington Declarations with the US. Get out of the American wars that we are already in, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan and definitely stay out of any new wars that Trump may try to drag us into, such as in Korea.
the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) spy bases at Waihopai and Tangimoana (which are US National Security Agency bases in all but name) must be closed;
the GCSB, which is simply a junior subcontractor for the NSA, must be abolished. Cyber-security (the excuse offered for its existence) can be provided by a dedicated non-spy Government agency.
the US military transport base at Christchurch Airport, which has been there for more than 60 years, must be demilitarised, to end it providing cover for US military and intelligence activities that have nothing to do with providing logistic support for peaceful scientific research in Antarctica.

Cutting the Empire ties
AIM believes that not only should the national dialogue be about cutting the ties with the American Empire but also about cutting all vestigial ties with our original Empire, namely dear old Mother England.

Get shot of Mother England and Uncle Sam. It’s called leaving home and living your own life and it’s what all of us do in the much vaunted “real world” that we keep getting told about. It’s called being independent.

But we do not advocate NZ transferring its allegiance to become a loyal servant of the arising Chinese Empire. Why jump from the frying pan into the fire? Let’s stay independent of anyone’s empire.

Neutrality should be on the agenda of that dialogue. Armed neutrality is a well-established practice globally. Does anybody think counties like Switzerland, Sweden or Austria are disadvantaged, poor, or isolated as a result of their long entrenched national policy of armed neutrality?

The NZ peace movement put in a lot of work promoting positive neutrality in the 1980s as part of the successful campaign that made NZ nuclear free and out of ANZUS.

A non-aligned Aotearoa would be the opposite of “isolationist”. It would pursue an activist foreign policy. There is plenty of unfinished business.

Spreading the Kiwi disease
Let’s spread “the Kiwi disease” and actively work for a nuclear free world, one country or region at a time, if necessary.

Let’s demand that all the nuclear powers, overt or covert, disarm and dismantle their weapons of mass terror and genocide. Let’s speak truth to power and tell countries such as Australia and the US what we find abhorrent in areas such as their human rights and race relations practices. Because that’s what’s friends do.

There have been some encouraging signs of this with the Ardern government politely offering to help Australia solve its self-imposed mess vis a vis the refugees cruelly imprisoned and then abandoned on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. But the Aussies said “mind your own business, little brother”.

New Zealand’s response should be: “This is our own business. Human rights abuses are everyone’s business”.

Regionally, Aotearoa needs to be much more activist.

Take in more refugees
As a First World capitalist economy we are part of the climate change problem that threatens the whole world and nowhere more imminently than our tiny Pacific neighbours. There is clamour for NZ to take in more refugees and AIM fully supports that – the inhabitants of these doomed atolls need to be at the top of the list. All of them, if necessary – we’re only talking thousands of people.

This is not a solution to the problem of climate change (that’s a whole other, but vitally related, issue, one which Trump is actively making worse) – it is merely a reaction to the problem, a recognition that we have a responsibility to help our neighbours whom we have harmed.

There are other regional issues that Aotearoa should be addressing. Decolonisation of France’s Pacific empire is an obvious one. Support the benighted people of West Papua to gain their freedom from Indonesia, in the same way we (very belatedly) supported the East Timorese people.

Confront the government of the Philippines over its shocking human rights record (President Duterte makes Trump look like a sensitive new age guy). Offer the peace-making skills that we demonstrated so successfully in Bougainville to help the Philippines to find an end to the wars that have wracked it for more than half a century.

These are some regional examples of where Aotearoa could offer to “lend a hand” (to quote Jacinda Ardern on the Manus Island refugees).

This material is an extract from a longer AIM generic flyer, which can be read online here.

AIM will be officially launched in Blenheim, as part of the Waihopai spy base protest activities, on Saturday, January 27. Details online at AIM Launch Event page updated.

Murray Horton
Spokesperson
Aotearoa Independence Movement

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Momis announces moratorium on Panguna mining and exploration

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 23, 2017

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Panguna copper mine on Bougainville … the catalyst for decade-long civil war. Image: Aloysius Laukai/Bougainville Forum

By Aloysius Laukai in Buka

The President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government, Chief Dr John Momis, has announced an indefinite moratorium on exploration and mining in Panguna.

He said the Bougainville Executive Council had its meeting on Wednesday made a “thoughtful and considered” decision to impose an indefinite reservation moratorium from any exploration or mining over Panguna in the best interest of the landowners and the people of Bougainville.

The council debating the issue following advice from the Bougainville Mining Advisory Council.

“It is with much regret that the basic requirement for obtaining the landowners consent under the Bougainville Mining Act 2015 could not be met,” Momis said.

The voice of the Panguna landowners was clearly heard during the mining warden hearing that decided in a narrow split between those supporting the mine reopening by Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) and the opponents.

Dr Momis also said that to develop the mine by any other developer would be “untenable” under current circumstances.

-Partners-

“We will not allow this project once again to reignite the wounds of the Bougainville crisis and distract our focus for restoring peace and our preparation for our referendum in 2019,” he said.

Continued consultations
While imposing this Panguna moratorium, Dr Momis said his government would continue to consult with Panguna landowners and the people of Bougainville over an “appropriate arrangement” or best alternative models of development of the mine if the people still had an appetite to develop the mine in the future.

The Bougainville Civil War was fought in 1988-1998 between Papua New Guinean military forces and secessionist guerrillas of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).

The conflict led to an estimated 15,000-20,000 deaths on Bougainville before a peace agreement was brokered by New Zealand in 1998. This led to the establishment of the Bougainville Autonomous Region Government.

Bougainvilleans are due to vote in a referendum on possible independence in June 2019.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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True Christmas story: What history really tells us about the birth of Jesus

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 22, 2017

Your average Christmas card featuring a peaceful nativity scene bears little resemblance to what happened in that “first Christmas”. Image: Lifesite News

ANALYSIS: By Robyn J. Whitaker in Melbourne

I might be about to ruin your Christmas. Sorry. But the reality is those nativity plays in which your adorable children wear tinsel and angel wings bear little resemblance to what actually happened.

Neither does your average Christmas card featuring a peaceful nativity scene. These are traditions, compilations of different accounts that reflect a later Christian piety. So what really happened at that so-called “first Christmas”?

Firstly, the actual birth day of Jesus was not December 25. The date we celebrate was adopted by the Christian church as the birthday of Christ in the fourth century.

Prior to this period, different Christians celebrated Christmas on different dates.

Contrary to popular belief that Christians simply adapted a pagan festival, historian Andrew McGowan argues the date had more to do with Jesus’s crucifixion in the minds of ancient theologians. For them, linking Jesus’s conception with his death nine months prior to December 25 was important for underscoring salvation.

Only two of the four gospels in the Bible discuss Jesus’s birth. Luke recounts the story of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, the couple’s journey to Bethlehem because of a census and the visit of the shepherds.

-Partners-

It features Mary’s famous song of praise (‘Magnificat’), her visit to her cousin Elizabeth, her own reflection on the events, lots of angels and the famous inn with no room.

The inn
The matter of the inn with “no room” is one of the most historically misunderstood aspects of the Christmas story. ACU scholar Stephen Carlson writes that the word kataluma (often translated “inn”) refers to guest quarters.

Most likely, Joseph and Mary stayed with family but the guest room was too small for childbirth and hence Mary gave birth in the main room of the house where animal mangers could also be found.

Hence Luke 2:7 could be translated “she gave birth to her firstborn son, she swaddled him and laid him in the feeding trough because there was no space for them in their guest room”.

The wise men
Matthew’s gospel tells a similar story about Mary’s pregnancy but from a different perspective. This time, the angel appears to Joseph to tell him that his fiancé Mary is pregnant but he must still marry her because it is part of God’s plan.

“There were probably not three magi [wide men] and they were not kings.” Image: The Conversation

Where Luke has shepherds visit the baby, a symbol of Jesus’s importance for ordinary folk, Matthew has magi (wise men) from the east bring Jesus royal gifts. There were probably not three magi and they were not kings. In fact, there is no mention of the magi’s number, there could have been two or 20 of them. The tradition of three comes from the mention of three gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Notably, the magi visit Jesus in a house (not an inn or stable) and their visit is as late as two years after the birth. Matthew 2:16 records King Herod’s orders to kill baby boys up to the age of two based on the report about Jesus’s age from the magi. This delay is why most Christian churches celebrate the visit of the magi on “Epiphany” or January 6.

Notably absent from these biblical accounts is Mary riding a donkey and animals gathered around the baby Jesus. Animals begin to appear in nativity art in the fourth century AD, possibly because biblical commentators at the time used Isaiah 3 as part of their anti-Jewish polemic to claim that animals understood the significance of Jesus in a way that Jews did not.

When Christians today gather around a crib or set up a nativity scene in their homes they continue a tradition that began in the 12th century with Francis of Assisi. He brought a crib and animals into church so that everyone worshipping could feel part of the story.

Thus a popular pietistic tradition was born. Later art showing the adoration of the baby Jesus reflects a similar devotional spirituality.

A radical Christmas
If we pare back the story to its biblical and historical core – removing the stable, the animals, the cherub-like angels, and the inn – with what are we left?

The Jesus of history was a child of a Jewish family living under a foreign regime. He was born into an extended family living away from home and his family fled from a king who sought to kill him because he posed a political threat.

The Jesus story, in its historical context, is one of human terror and divine mercy, of human abuse and divine love. It is a story that claims God became human in the form of one who is vulnerable, poor and displaced in order to unveil the injustice of tyrannical power.

While there is nothing wrong with the devotional piety of Christian tradition, a white-washed nativity scene risks missing the most radical aspects of the Christmas story.

The Jesus described in the Bible had more in common with the children of refugees born on Nauru than the majority of Australian [or New Zealand] churchgoers. He too was a brown-skinned baby whose Middle Eastern family was displaced due to terror and political turmoil.

Christmas, in the Christian tradition, is a celebration of God becoming human as a gift of love. To enjoy adorable, albeit a-historical, nativity plays and all the other wonders of the season is one way of delighting in this gift.

But if we nostalgically focus on one baby while ignoring the numerous babies who suffer around the world due to politics, religion and poverty, we miss the entire point of the Christmas story.

Robyn J. Whitaker is Bromby senior lecturer in biblical studies, Trinity College, University of Divinity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 22 December 2017 – Today’s content

By Bryce Edwards -

December 22, 2017

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 22 December 2017 – Today’s content Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download). Israel Henry Cooke (Stuff): New Zealand votes against US and Israel at UN Herald: NZ votes against US over declaring Jerusalem as capital of Israel Stuff: Jacinda Ardern vows NZ will take independent stance on UN Jerusalem vote RNZ: NZ won’t be bullied on Israel vote – Ardern Emma Hurley (Newshub): New Zealand won’t bow to United States over Jerusalem – Prime Minister Herald: NZ likely to vote against Trump and the US in UN vote on Jerusalem tomorrow Stuff: Lorde rethinks Israel concert after backlash David Farrar (Kiwiblog): The nasty BDS crowd target Lorde John Drinnan: Lordy Lordy Lorde End of year reviews Toby Manhire (Herald): Walking in a Winston Wonderland RNZ: The Public Address word of the year is … 1News: ‘Friends don’t let friends torture refugees’ – Golriz Ghahraman reflects on baptism into ‘mad world of politics’ 1News: ‘These things are supposed to be funny’ – Chloe Swarbrick wraps up first five weeks as MP, says colleagues offered to laugh at her jokes Kiwifirewalker: Post election fallout contaminates TOP, the Maori Party and National Government Simon Wilson (The Spinoff): It’s not easy being Jacinda: the challenges ahead Chris Trotter (Bowalley Road): Long Live The Sun Queen! Gwyn Compton (Libertas digital): Clare Curran seemingly in breach of Cabinet Manual again ODT: Editorial – Matching words with deeds Stuff: Jacinda Ardern refuses to sing Mariah Carey Christmas song on The Edge Minimum wage and employment Sophie Boot (Herald): Minimum wage to rise in April, says government Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Minimum wage boost delivers 75 cent hike for lowest paid workers Mitchell Alexander and Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Pay rise for all Kiwis on the minimum wage 1News: ‘People should have the right to earn decent wages’ – Government officially announces increase to minimum wage Mike Treen (Daily Blog): Minimum wage increase good but we need to protect margins for skill and service Aimee Shaw (Herald): Wage by age: Average weekly earnings announced Drug law reform 1News: New medicinal cannabis bill should include chronic pain sufferers – Green Party Paul Charman (Herald): Prohibition not a complete failure Media Mike Hosking (Herald): Election debate my highlight of the year – even though I signed petition demanding I be removed Mark Jennings (Newsroom): TV news teams look for a hangover cure Colin Peacock (RNZ): Publishers’ paid content ‘deliberately designed to deceive’ – watchdog RNZ: Tony Veitch leaves Newstalk ZB, goes it alone Ethnicity and Maori politics Joshua Hitchcock (The Spinoff): Moana Jackson and Joe Williams: two tōtara of Māori justice Herald: Mt Taranaki will be granted special legal status similar to Te Urewera and the Whanganui River Simon Pound (The Spinoff): Why hiring tangata whenua should be a priority for all businesses Megan Gattey (Stuff): Dame Susan Devoy to Flava radio: ‘Why target Māori people?’ Sean Hogan (1News): Legal action looms over Te Mata Peak walking track as angry iwi say sacred hillside ‘scribbled on’ Economy Liam Dann (Herald): Poor Bill English – GDP revisions paint rosier picture of economy than we thought Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Statistics NZ recalculation adds $8 billion to size of NZ economy RNZ: OIO decision on UDC Finance ‘inconsistent’ – Chinese buyer Anuja Nadkarni (Stuff): OIO concerns justified over ANZ rejected bid, journalist says National Party Stuff: Appeal grounds revealed in Eminem copyright case against National Party Newshub: Winston Peters predicts the next leader of the National Party 1News: Winston Peters swaps politics for comedy, leaves MPs from both sides in stitches after racing odds speech Health Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Former health boss, now top private sector consultant, made acting director-general of health Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Mental Health review could take close to a year, Parliament committee told Environment Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Defence Minister plots a war on climate change Rosalee Jenkin (Herald): In response to Mike Hosking on climate change, I say bring it on No Right Turn: Nick Smith strikes again! Tax working group David Farrar (Kiwiblog): The Tax Working Group members Enzo Giordani (The Standard): Tumbleweeds from National on the Tax Working Group Employment Willie Jackson (Daily Blog): I’m not playing National’s game on employment Henry Cooke (Stuff): Regional unemployment scheme probably won’t have sanctions Jian Yang MP Matt Nippert (Herald): Jian Yang case divides Chinese community Greg Presland (The Standard): Jian Yang wanted to help the SIS with recruitment Other Wendi Wicks (Herald): Justice committee members all voted for Seymour’s bill Collette Devlin (Stuff): Dozens of Wellington buildings still haven’t done urgent earthquake strengthening Simon Maude (Stuff): PM makes donation appeal for Auckland needy Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Salisbury saved: Minister announces end of closure process for Richmond-based school Henry Cooke (Stuff): Housing NZ’s new meth policy still months away, but for now they are softening up Temitope Egbelakin (Stuff): Provincial New Zealand towns face abandoned town centres, loss of heritage Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): TV review: Kim Dotcom – Caught in the Web Matt Stewart (Stuff): Kent Boyd gets $750 compo after seeking $30,000 over John Key dinner fiasco 1News: ‘It’s a bunch of people who found the lolly bag’ – Fired up English takes aim at government’s ‘moral awesomeness’ Adam Goodall (Pantograph punch): The One-Day Spin: A Chat With Sarah and Catherine Delahunty Justine Whitfield (Pantograph punch): The Silent Killing Ground: Abortion in Aotearoa Emma Hurley (Newshub): Labour MP Willow-Jean Prime stands up for breastfeeding mothers Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Civil Defence review set for January release Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Stories of beneficiaries’ lives delivered to Parliament]]>

Australia, Pacific nations sidestep overwhelming UN vote on Jerusalem

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 22, 2017

Palestinians react to the Security Council vote on Jerusalem vetoed by the US earlier this week. Video: Al Jazeera

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Australia and other Pacific nations did not join almost 130 countries in an overwhelming vote at the UN demanding the United States drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reports RNZ Pacific.

US President Donald Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favour.

A total of 128 countries — including New Zealand — backed the resolution, which is non-binding, nine voted against — including Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and Nauru — and 35 abstained.

Twenty-one countries, including Samoa and Tonga, did not cast a vote.

New Zealand supported the UN resolution calling for the US to withdraw a decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

-Partners-

New Zealand’s longstanding foreign policy position supports a two-state solution.

President Trump’s move overturned decades of American foreign policy and defied world opinion.

The 35 abstentions included Australia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tuvalu.

US ‘leadership role’
Australian UN Ambassador Gillian Bird said Australia wanted to see the US play a leadership role in brokering peace and abstained from the vote, saying: “We do not wish to see any party isolated from the process.”

“There is much in this resolution with which we agree,” Bird told the General Assembly after the vote.

“We do not, however, consider that this further resolution in addition to the many on the peace process issued by the general assembly helps brings the parties back to the negotiating table.

Nevertheless, Washington found itself isolated as many of its Western and Arab allies voted for the measure.

Some of those allies, like Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, are major recipients of US military or economic aid, although the US threat to cut aid did not single out any country.

A spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the vote “a victory for Palestine” but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the vote as “preposterous”.

US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, told the 193-member General Assembly ahead of Thursday’s vote: “The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation.”

Australia was joined by Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan in abstaining.

Micronesian nations
Guatemala, Honduras and Togo joined the Micronesian Pacific countries, formerly administered by Washington as a UN trust territory, US and Israel in voting no.

According to figures from the US government’s aid agency USAID, in 2016 the US provided some $US13 billion in economic and military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa and $US1.6 billion to states in East Asia and Oceania.

The General Assembly vote was called at the request of Arab and Muslim countries after the United States vetoed the same resolution on Monday in the 15-member UN Security Council.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the US or Trump but expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem”.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Indonesia losing only female top justice amid gender rights worries

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 22, 2017

By Rieka Rahadiana and Yudith Ho in Jakarta

Indonesia is set to lose its first and only female constitutional justice, whose term is up next year, potentially dealing a blow to women’s rights in a country where they’re being challenged in the face of growing religious conservatism.

Maria Farida Indrati will end her second and final term in about eight months, leaving the nine-member board of justices entirely male on one of the two highest courts in the country — where cases on discrimination, domestic violence, early-age marriage and female political participation continually arise.

The constitutional court differs from the supreme court, where the top judges are all male and which determines final appeal in legal matters not deemed to be constitutional.

“The point of view I bring to the table is different from what my male colleagues present,” the 68-year-old judge told Bloomberg in an interview.

It’s not a certainty that Indrati’s replacement, who likely will be chosen by President Joko Widodo from a list of three candidates picked by a committee, will be male.

While her successor won’t be known for several months or even until after her departure, Indrati said there are several qualified women to consider. She herself was chosen by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2008 after decades of lecturing in law at the University of Indonesia and assisting lawmakers in drafting legislation.

-Partners-

In Indonesia, female law students prefer a career outside the courtroom rather than in it because “women don’t like to be seen as argumentative or to debate,” said Indrati, who plans to return to teaching full time when her term finishes. Quotas aren’t the solution to increasing women’s participation in public life, including on the bench, she said.

‘Be unafraid’
“It is important that women take this role and be unafraid to take this role,” said the judge, who suffered from polio as a child and walks with a limp.

Although when she was young she aspired to be a piano teacher, Indrati listened to the advice of her father, a journalist and former teacher who had wanted to complete his unfinished law degree.

He encouraged his daughter to study to become a law professor instead, according to her official biography.

When the constitutional court in 2015 declined a judicial review to raise the decades-old minimum legal marital age for women from currently 16 years old to 18, Indrati was the only justice with a dissenting opinion.

Raising the marriage age to 18 would allow girls more of a chance to secure their futures, Indrati said. The challenge was brought by a group promoting women’s health. Activists are again appealing, seeking to have the case heard again.

Last week, Indrati cast a decisive vote in the court’s decision rejecting by 5-4 a petition by conservative academics seeking to deem extramarital and gay sex as crimes punishable by prison terms.

She has also ruled in favour of other gender and minority-related cases such as pornography and blasphemy.

More difficulties
“It’s not always the case where the existence of a female justice means the law will take the side of women,” said Indri Suparno, a commissioner at the National Commission on Violence Against Women. “But the absence will give more difficulties to women to become more progressive.”

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is considered a model of moderate Islam.

The president, known as Jokowi, has put more women into senior roles compared with other Muslim-majority countries — a record nine of 34 cabinet ministers, the most among the world’s most populous countries.

High profile officials include Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi — a first in the country’s history — and Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. Rosmaya Hadi became Bank Indonesia’s only female deputy governor this year.

The country also imposes gender quotas for political party candidates put forward for public office.

In 2016, Jokowi launched the first nationwide survey on violence against women and children. However, he’s been silent on calls from human rights groups to end virginity tests for women applying to the military and the police.

Polygamy app
Worries over women’s rights have increased as attempts to hamper equality have been made more openly. A Tinder-like app, AyoPoligami, or Let’s Do Polygamy, and a seminar called “The Quickest Way of Getting Four Wives” have sparked controversy.

Indonesia allows Muslim men to take up to four wives if granted by a court and approved by the first wife.

Some 26 out of 153 countries have women as chief justices, or 17 percent, according to a World Bank report in 2016 called “Women, Business and The Law.”

Outside court
It’s possible that the challenge to the law legalising the age of marriage at 16 may be heard again while Indrati is still on the bench.

Campaigners for women’s rights say that women who marry young will miss out on what’s being called a demographic bonus by 2030 — when the numbers of working-age people are greater than the numbers of elderly — by not being able to further their educations and embark on careers.

The government wants to improve its professional workforce, but allowing women to marry at 16 means they likely will have to stay home and raise families instead of being able to participate, said Zumrotin Susilo, chairwoman of the Women’s Health Foundation, who was involved in the first appeal of the marriage law.

A Central Statistics Agency census in 2010 found 6.7 million out of 78 million women age 15 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree, or 8.5 percent. About 500,000 women have postgraduate degrees.

“Women have to fight for the presence of female justices and build strong communications and perspective at the constitutional court,” said Suparno of the women commission.

The Jakarta Post

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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PNG mobile revolution about to enter new high-speed cable phase

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 22, 2017

Papua New Guinea’s cellphone culture change … 3 million mobile users, says new research. Image: Ourmaninproject

By Scott Waide in Lae

In 2007 when Digicel entered the PNG market, Papua New Guineans realised how much in unnecessary charges they had been paying for mobile and internet services.

Until 2007, the mobile phone monopoly run by a government subsidiary, BeeMobile Communications, forced customers to pay K125 (NZ$45) for a mobile start-up kit which contained a SIM card and K100 in phone credits.

Digicel slashed costs and flooded the market with up to 1 million handsets selling at K30 a piece with free SIM cards.

Over the last 15 years, the implementation of government legislation and regulations have drastically improved the digital landscape in Papua New Guinea.

Research this year conducted by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) puts the figure of internet users in PNG at 960,000.

There are more than 3 million mobile subscribers, which means at least four of 10 people own a mobile phone.

-Partners-

However, despite 15 years of legislative and regulatory reforms and general improvements, the country still lags behind in ICT infrastructure and the cost of services.

Among highest Asia-Pacific rates
Statistically speaking, Papua New Guineans continue to pay among the highest mobile data rates in the Asia Pacific region.

Three of PNG’s top mobile service providers; Digicel, BMobile Vodafone, and Telikom are the six most expensive service providers in Asia Pacific.

Papua New Guinea’s closest neighbours – Indonesia, New Zealand, Fiji and Australia – are among the top six countries that have the cheapest rates.

Ten years on and Papua New Guineans are on the brink of another phase of development.

The government’s budget policy for 2018 highlights that a new high-speed internet cable funded by the Australian government will be laid from Australia to PNG. It will take 24 months to complete.

This is expected to take care of PNG’s ballooning ICT demands over the next 25 years.

The submarine cable will complement the investments to mobile telephone infrastructure to improve the availability of 3G and 4G services to more Papua New Guineans.

Through community-based programmes, NICTA also has plans to support the expansion of access to high-speed broadband internet connectivity to selected communities.

As Papua New Guinea prepares to host a series of APEC meetings in 2018, the country is under a lot of pressure to live up to expectations as an exemplary player in the region despite its ICT challenges.

Bringing costs down will trigger, improvements in large business activity and SMEs. It is an area of the economy that desperately needs a boost with government help.

Scott Waide is the Lae bureau chief of EMTV News and a former journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation bureau in Port Moresby. He has won several awards for his journalism. EMTV News reports are republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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66 arrested, 4 beaten in pro-Papuan independence rallies across Indonesia

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 21, 2017

Free West Papua rally to reject “Operation Trikora” in Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Image: AMP

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

West Papuan students have demonstrated to reject Indonesia’s occupation and were joined by an unprecedented wave of solidarity from people across Indonesia, reports the Free West Papua Campaign.

The West Papuan Student’s Alliance (AMP) and the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-West Papua) held rallies in 14 Indonesian cities on Tuesday, December 19 – Jakarta, Denpasar, Manado, Solo, Ambon, Ternate, Yogyakarta, Sula, Moratai, Malang, Bandung, Bogor, Salatiga and Semarang.

The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) also demonstrated in Port Numbay and Biak, West Papua.

The growing support from Indonesian people in solidarity with West Papua is reaching new heights and shows similarity to Indonesian solidarity with the people of Timor-Leste (East Timor) in the late 1990s, reports the Free West Papua Campaign.

While all the rallies held were peaceful, Indonesian police and police militia tried to break up the demonstrators’ freedom of expression.

In Malang, East Java, 66 people were arrested and some of those arrested were assaulted.

Demonstrators being arrested at a Free West Papua rally to reject “Operation Trikora” in Malang, Indonesia. Image: AMP

-Partners-

Elia Agapa from the West Papuan Students Alliance told Suara Papua: “Our mass action saw 66 of us surrounded and blocked for demonstrating peacefully.

“There was a clash and four of those from our mass action were wounded. One of those four people is a West Papuan woman.”

The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) demonstrating in Biak, West Papua, to reject “Operation Trikora” and to show their support for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

Operation Trikora

Indonesian forces in action during Operation Trikora in 1961. Image: Free West Papua Campaign

In 1961, the Dutch government (West Papua’s former colonial ruler) was moving towards granting West Papua independence and on December 1 the West Papuan national flag Morning Star was raised with the promise of full independence in the coming years.

In response, Indonesia’s President Soekarno ordered “Operation Trikora”, a military plan to take West Papua by force, on December 19.

In the next few months, with backing from the Soviet Union, the Indonesian military launched ruthless military attacks on West Papua, from naval shelling to artillery bombing.

Hundreds of Indonesian soldiers were airdropped into the country but the West Papuan defence force managed to successfully repel Indonesian attacks.

It was not until 15 August 1962 that West Papua was left unable to defend itself.

Due to growing Cold War fears of war with a communist friendly Indonesia, the US intervened and effectively forced the Dutch to hand over West Papua to Indonesia without the consulting any West Papuans.

The West Papuan defence force was disbanded and by 1963, the Indonesian military had taken full control of West Papua; their illegal occupation cemented through a so-called “Act of Free Choice”, described by critics as a sham.

This year more than 1.8 million West Papuan people signed a petition rebuking that plebiscite and calling for a legitimate act of self-determination.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 21 December 2017 – Today’s content

By Bryce Edwards -

December 21, 2017

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 21 December 2017 – Today’s content Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download). Year in review Russell Brown (Public Address): Jacindamania: Word famous in New Zealand Jane Clifton (Listener): Politician of the Year Awards 2017: And the winner is… Laura McQuillan (RNZ): The top 12 political shockers of 2017 Lloyd Burr (Newshub): Newshub 2017 Politician of the Year – Jacinda Ardern Barry Soper (Herald): Best and worst politician of the year David Farrar (Kiwiblog): 2017 Kiwiblog Awards winners Emma Espiner (Newsroom): Māori of the year awards 1News: Jacinda Ardern humorously reflects on her amazing year – ‘if you’re the deputy to Andrew Little, possibly run for the hills!’ Brent Edwards (RNZ): True MMP: Ardern as PM, English as deputy Medicinal cannabis bill Dominion Post: Editorial – Govt’s ‘halfway house’ of cannabis law RNZ: Medicinal cannabis users disappointed at legislation Nicholas Jones (Herald): Medicinal cannabis legislation introduced to ‘ease suffering’ Anna Bracewell-Worrall and Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Government rules terminally ill people allowed to smoke cannabis Peter Dunne (RNZ): New law a half-baked cure Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Government’s cannabis plans include legal defence for terminal patients who use Russell Brown (Public Address): The new medical cannabis law is quite a bit more than nothing RNZ: Campaigner wants more than ‘tinkering’ with medicinal cannabis law 1News: Double up on medicinal cannabis bills in parliament shows cracks in government – Bill English Government Herald: Editorial: New Government’s 100-day plan should not sacrifice quality for haste Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): How the Government’s tracking on its 100-day plan Andrea Vance (1News): Concerns about ‘cowboy cops’ as Labour floats idea of volunteer rural constabulary Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): Damien O’Connor to table holding bill on dairy restructuring to allow deeper review Guardian: Jacinda Ardern takes part in New Zealand’s nationwide Secret Santa Jim Childerstone (ODT): Govt on right track but must not move too fast Steven Cowan (Against the current): As Labour backtracks, its supporters say nothing Pete George (Your NZ): The tail wagging the dog and pup? Jamie Morton (Herald): Forest and Bird accuses MPI of sitting on dieback documents Parliament Jo Moir (Stuff): Politicians adjourn with recollections of a campaign that nobody expected Claire Trevett (Herald): Beware the Christmas tree and other cautionary tales Herald: It’s a wrap – barbs fly as Parliament takes break Charlie Gates (Stuff): Christ Church Cathedral restoration bill passes in Parliament Herald: PM pays tribute to Andrew Little as Parliament rises Education Nicholas Jones (Herald): Rush to start free tertiary study comes with ‘gaming’ risk Jo Moir (Stuff): Education Minister and predecessor go head-to-head over Government policy Herald: Questions over ‘honesty system’ for tertiary fees-free students Julie Iles (Stuff): Fewer students are taking out bigger loans Nicholas Jones (Herald): Student loan debtor arrested at border, more warrants sought Megan Gattey (Stuff): Old school reports: Education Minister Chris Hipkins v former minister Nikki Kaye John Gerritsen (RNZ): Principal refuses to discuss expense allegations Eva Corlett (RNZ): Ministry demands explainer over school spending 1News: ‘Why won’t she visit a partnership school?’ – Bill English suggests Jacinda Ardern is abandoning charter school students Housing and foreign house buyer ban Alastair Paulin (Stuff): Government’s move to end mass state house sell-off honours long-standing social contract Henry Cooke (Stuff): Government announces end to state home selloff Herald: Govt stops Canterbury state house sales Benedict Collins (RNZ):Rush for foreign buyer law labelled a ‘sham’ Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Foreign buyer rule change may have unintended consequences Megan Gattey (Stuff): Homeless in New Zealand: ‘They’re shy and they feel shame’ Mike Hosking and Maori Party mistake Mike Hosking (Herald): The real reason I left Seven Sharp Mike Hosking (Herald): ‘Pontificating’ Broadcasting Standards Authority humourless earnest clipboarders RNZ: Mike Hosking apology for Maori Party comments ‘flippant’ Stuff: Mike Hosking hits back at BSA, calls them humourless time wasters Tim Watkin (Pundit): Mike Hosking: You do the crime, you do the time Marama Fox (The Spinoff): Dear Santa, I’m writing on behalf of Mike Hosking Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Why Mike Hosking is wrong and why I still don’t think he understands MMP Tax working group Laura Walters (Stuff): Government reveals who it’s asking to overhaul NZ’s tax system Herald: Govt names 10 people from unions, business, academia, public and private sector for Tax Working Group Newswire: Government’s tax working group announced: includes former Finance Minister, head of Air NZ insurance Andrea Black (Let’s talk about tax): The last post Health Jessie Chiang (Stuff): ACC claimants losing millions under tax system – lawyer Herald: Injured New Zealanders stung by huge tax bills after receiving ACC back-payments Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Auditor-General to investigate Waikato DHB’s SmartHealth project Natalie Akoorie (Herald): DHB app purchase under scrutiny RNZ: Inquiry launched into DHB’s use of HealthTap app Herald: Nigel Murray was head of Canadian health authority when 84 patients died from infection Herald: Senior doctor at Dunedin Hospital leaves with $408,000 payout Maori politics and issues Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Crown ‘dishonoured its obligations’ – govt apology to iwi Jo Moir (Stuff): Government Ministers’ attack on iwi leaders slammed by National Dougal McNeill (International socialist organisation): There are no white people Dave Witherow (NZCPR): Could You Say That Again Please – In English? Lorde to play in Israel Nadia Abu-Shanab and Justine Sachs (The Spinoff): Dear Lorde, here’s why we’re urging you not to play Israel Herald: Pressure mounts on Lorde to cancel Tel Aviv concert Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Dear Lorde – don’t play Apartheid Israel Stuff: Fans call Lorde to boycott Israel after she announces her show in Tel Aviv Pike River Recovery Agency Laura Walters (Stuff): Former army chief Major General Dave Gawn to head Pike River Recovery Agency Herald: Major General Dave Gawn to head Pike River agency Ellen Read (Stuff): Pike River families come first, Rob Fyfe says Environment Ged Cann (Stuff): Government calls for end of fossil fuel subsidies globally, but what are the plans to end them here? Greg Presland (The Standard): The new government’s approach to climate change Joanna Mossop (Newsroom): A rare chance to help our oceans Jian Yang MP Matt Nippert (Herald): Winston Peters calls for investigation into Yang saga on security vetting Stuff: Jian Yang denies asking Ministers to overturn security clearance block Jamie Smith (Financial Times): New Zealand urged to probe lobbying by China-born MP Greyhound industry report Nicholas Jones (Herald): ‘Disturbing’ greyhound death rate revealed: Industry under fire Stuff: Greyhound report disturbing and deeply disappointing – Winston Peters RNZ: Greyhound euthanasia numbers ‘unacceptably high‘ Other Tim Watkin (Pundit): A snaking line of humanity that NZ can be proud of Stuff: Cross appeal filed in National Party’s appeal against Eminem rip-off 1News: ‘All we need the men-folk to do is actually agree’ – NZ media commentator weighs in on Sir Ian McKellen’s sexual-misconduct comments Keith Rankin (Evening Report): The Next Economic Correction Keith Rankin (Daily Blog): Thinking about Capitalism Matthew Theunissen (Herald): A third of NZ cyber attacks state-sponsored: GCSB Tommy Livingston (Stuff): Destiny Church to fight Charities Commission in High Court Stuff: Corrections might get off lightly in prisoner compensation cases Mary-Rose Leversedge (Stuff): Of course we should offer euthanasia to those who want it Chris Hutching (Stuff): Buyer found for Christchurch publishers of Trans Tasman newsletter Gwyn Compton (Libertas digital): Andrew Little borrows from North Korea’s playbook Herald: Big immigration drop likely in 2018 The Standard: Germany and New Zealand Redux 1News: ‘Get off the couch and do some real work’ – National MP accuses Shane Jones of laziness David Slack (RNZ): 2017: The nature of people Anuja Nadkarni (Stuff): $1 billion price tag put on shifting vehicle imports from Auckland port]]>

Two Timorese journalists named for Balibo Five-Roger East fellowships

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 20, 2017

Augustus Dos Reis (left) and Pricilia Xavier … 2018 fellowship winners. Image: MEAA/APHEDA

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Two journalists from Timor-Leste will benefit from the Balibo Five-Roger East Fellowship in 2018, an initiative of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA.

They were chosen from four outstanding applications assessed by a selection panel in Australia, the MEAA says in a statement.

The next recipients of funding from the fellowship, which aims to nurture the development of journalism in East Timor are:

• Maria Pricilia Fonseca Xavier, a journalist and news broadcaster in Tétum and Portuguese at Timor-Leste Television (TVTL).

• Augusto Sarmento Dos Reis, senior sports journalist and online co-ordinator at the Timor Post daily newspaper and diariutimorpost.tl website.

The Balibo Five-Roger East Fellowship has been established to honour the memory of the six Australian journalists murdered in East Timor in 1975, and to improve the quality and skill of journalism in East Timor.

-Partners-

The applications were assessed by a panel of MEAA communications director Mark Phillips; Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA organiser trade union development and education for Timor-Leste and Indonesia, Samantha Bond; senior lecturer in journalism at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Jock Cheetham; and former television journalist and newsreader Mal Walden, who was a colleague of three of the Balibo Five.

Funding for projects
The successful applicants will be provided with funding to assist them with specific journalism projects in Timor. It is anticipated that each will also be offered the opportunity to travel to Australia in 2018 to spend some time observing and working in an Australian newsroom.

MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said all the applications were again of a high quality and representative of the diversity of journalism in East Timor.

“We are well aware that is not easy to work as a journalist in Timor-Leste, and journalists face many hurdles, including a lack of resources and training, and attacks from the government on press freedom,” he said.

“But we are delighted that the successful applicants represent both print/online and broadcast media, and there is a balance between genders.

“Both Pricilia and Augusto are young journalists with impressive track records and a thirst to succeed in their chosen profession.”

Kate Lee, executive director of Union Aid Abroad-Apheda, said: “We are delighted to again be able to partner with the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance to support the development of independent journalism in Timor Leste through the Balibo Five-Roger East Fellowship and look forward to seeing some great investigative work from Pricilia and Augusto in 2018”

Funding for the Balibo Five-Roger East Fellowship has come from MEAA, the Fairfax Media More Than Words workplace giving programme, and private donations.

40th anniversary
The fellowship was established on the 40th anniversary of the murders of the Balibo Five in 1975.

Last year, four journalists successfully applied for funding from the fellowship, while separately the fellowship assisted Timorese journalist Raimundos Oki to spend a week with Fairfax Media in Sydney in September.

The fellowship carries the names of six journalists who were murdered by Indonesian forces in East Timor in 1975.

Five young journalists working for Australia’s Seven and Nine networks – reporter Greg Shackleton, camera operator Gary Cunningham, sound recordist Tony Stewart (all from Seven), reporter Malcolm Rennie and camera operator Brian Peters (both from Nine) – were killed in the village of Balibo after witnessing an incursion by Indonesian soldiers on October 16, 1975. Their killers have never been brought to justice.

Freelance reporter Roger East, a stringer for the ABC and AAP who provided the first confirmed accounts of the killing of the Balibo Five, was executed by Indonesian troops on Dili Wharf on December 8. His body fell into the sea and was never recovered.

A media release from MEAA and APHEDA.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Keith Rankin Analysis: The Next Economic Correction

By Keith Rankin -

December 20, 2017

The Next Economic Correction By Keith Rankin. [caption id="attachment_1450" align="alignright" width="150"] Keith Rankin.[/caption] In September I published a chart showing that, over a century-and-a-half, economic growth has been lower in years ending with an ‘8’. It’s suggestive of a fundamental capitalist cycle that repeats around every 10 years. The 10-year cycle has a name, the Juglar Cycle. In 2008 we had the global financial crisis. In 1998 it was the East Asian financial crisis. In late 1987 we had the global share market panic. The 1987/88 crisis hit New Zealand especially hard. The 1998 crisis was smaller than the others, but did have quite an impact on New Zealand. While the 2008 world crisis began early in New Zealand – finance companies started to fall in 2006 and the economy went into full recession at the beginning of 2008 – overall it affected New Zealand less than most developed economies. While there will most likely be an ongoing Juglar Cycle, each event in the cycle will be different. I’m picking that the next corrective event will be somewhat muted at the global level, but may affect New Zealand more than many other developed economies. The developing economies will be hit more than the developed economies, most likely. At the global level, there has not been the rapid growth of household financial deficits that preceded the global financial crisis. With respect to spending, there remains pronounced caution in Europe, North America and much of East Asia. Most importantly, interest rates in the developed world remain very accommodating (ie historically low). The global financial crisis was triggered largely by interest rate increases from 2005. Much of the developed world’s unspent income has been advanced to the developing world and to countries like New Zealand which have offered high returns in real estate. The correction will be characterised by withdrawal from those speculative funds; profit-taking by risk-seeking savers who will park their funds for a year or two before embarking on further ‘investment’ ventures. Capital losses in some speculative markets will precipitate further asset sell-offs. Saver economies will experience rising exchange rates – especially the Euro – while countries like New Zealand can expect relatively weak currencies until their economies revive as a result of those weak currencies. Thus momentum in New Zealand will shift, through a sharp correction in real estate, in favour of traded goods and services. The big danger that could turn a normal cyclical downturn into a major world crisis is deflation. Massive increases in the world money supply only just averted a deflation crisis earlier this decade. After the present peak of the global economic cycle (world inflation is probably peaking now), a drop-off in consumer spending means zero percent inflation if we are lucky, deflation otherwise. One of the characteristics of the Great Depression of the 1930s was the debt-deflation spiral. As deflation takes hold, debts become bigger in real terms, as do savers’ hoards of uninvested money. Existing imbalances exacerbate, creating conditions that are even more prone to deflation. The good news is that a number of countries have already adopted negative interest rate policies, and these policies worked. Thus the reticence around cheap money that may have existed – and that definitely still exists in New Zealand – will be less than it might have been. In a period of market recession, what is needed is negative real interest rates (meaning interest rates lower than the inflation rate); an incentive to bring forward spending (including government spending) and a disincentive to delay, defer or avoid spending. Savers’ hoards need to depreciate in terms of what they can buy, to dissuade spending deferral. Negative interest rates provide just such a penalty on unspent money. At times of deflation, deposit interest rates need to be even more negative than the inflation rate. It also means that penalties on cash hoarded outside of the banking system need to be greater than penalties (negative interest) on bank deposits. The interest rate is the price of ‘inter-temporal trade’. This is trade across time; earning in one time‑period and spending in another. If, when interest rates are zero, more people want to defer spending than to bring spending forward, then interest rates at zero are too high, and should be allowed to fall. Negative interest rates encourage more people to spend in the present (by borrowing more, by saving less, or by withdrawing past savings) and fewer people to defer spending. Through this market-price mechanism, an interest rate (a price) is eventually struck whereby spending deferred and spending brought forward will balance. That’s the ‘equilibrium’ rate of interest. The interest rates that we are used to, however, have been managed above the equilibrium rate (as an effective ‘price floor’); such disequilibrium encourages speculative borrowing (for capital gain) rather than investment or consumption borrowing (which is to buy, in the present, newly-produced goods and services). The last time interest rates were at their equilibrium level was in the late 1970s. That precipitated the global neoliberal revolution, led by rich people who regarded interest as an entitlement (a ‘free lunch’) rather than as an equilibrating price. Monetarist policies were implemented; these were all about forcing interest rates up, in the guise of a democratically-mandated attack on inflation. This decade, mortgagee sales will be kept to a minimum by banks offering distressed borrowers extended interest-only loans at low rates. Mortgagee sales consequent on rising interest rates were the main trigger for the 2008 global financial crisis. While a possible debt-deflation crisis will most likely be nipped in the bud this decade, it is most unlikely that policymakers and financial analysts will learn the lesson about interest rates that needs to be learned. I expect there will be a general dip in financial asset prices (including real estate) this decade, followed by a resurgence of financial speculation in the first half of the 2020s. Poor people will continue to survive in the early 2020s through evermore debt. I also expect that there will be pressure, by the overpaid, on the monetary authorities to raise interest rates, significantly, in the mid-2020s. My call is that the big global financial and economic crisis will begin in (or around) 2028, not 2018. Unless there’s a world war before that. The world economy this decade faces very similar tensions to those that existed prior to World War One.]]>

RSF media freedom round-up for 2017 – 65 journalists killed, 326 in prison

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 20, 2017

Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker reports from London. Video: Al Jazeera/RSF

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Reporters Without Borders has documented the number of journalists killed or jailed this year.

It says Syria and Mexico are among the most dangerous places for reporters to work. Sixty percent of journalists killed are targeted because of their journalistic work.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released its annual round-up of violence and abuses against journalists throughout the world.

A total of 65 journalists were killed in 2017, 326 are currently in prison, and 54 are held hostage.*

The 65 journalists who were killed were either fatally injured in the course of their work (for example, in an artillery bombardment) or were murdered because their reporting angered someone. The murdered reporters were the majority – 60 percent of the total figure.

-Partners-

Although these figures are alarming, 2017 has been the least deadly year for professional journalists (50 killed) in 14 years. Journalists are of course fleeing countries such as Syria, Yemen and Libya that have become too dangerous, but RSF has also observed a growing awareness of the need to protect journalists.

The UN has passed several resolutions on the safety of journalists since 2006 and many news organisations have adopted safety procedures.

Deaths of women double
The fall does not apply to deaths of women journalists, which have doubled. Ten have been killed in 2017, compared to five in 2016.

Most of these victims were experienced and combative investigative reporters. Despite threats, they continued to investigate and expose cases of corruption.

The victims include Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta, Gauri Lankesh in India and Miroslava Breach Velducea in Mexico.

In another noteworthy trend in 2017, some countries that are not at war have become almost as dangerous for journalists as war zones: 46 percent of the deaths occurred in countries where no overt war is taking place, as against 30 percent in 2016.

There were almost as many deaths (11) in Mexico as in Syria, which was the deadliest country for journalists in 2017, with 12 killed.

“Investigative journalists working on major stories such as corruption and environmental scandals play a fundamental watchdog role and have become targets for those who are angered by their reporting,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

‘Alarming situation’
“This alarming situation underlines the need to provide journalists with more protection at a time when both the challenges of news reporting and the dangers are becoming increasingly internationalised.”

Like the death toll, the number of journalists in detention has also fallen. The total of 326 journalists in prison on December 1, 2017 was 6 percent fewer than on the same date in 2016.

Despite the overall downward trend, there is an unusually high number of detained journalists in certain countries, in particular Russia and Morocco, that did not previously number among the worst jailers of professional journalists.

Nonetheless, around half of the total number of imprisoned journalists are being held in just five countries. China and Turkey are still the world’s two biggest prisons for journalists.

Finally, 54 journalists are currently held by armed non-state groups such as Islamic State and the Houthis in Yemen.

Almost three quarters of these hostages come from the ranks of local journalists, who are usually paid little and often have to take enormous risks. The foreign journalists currently held hostage were all kidnapped in Syria but little is known about their present location.

See the full round-up here

* These figures include professional journalists, non-professional journalists and media workers.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 20 December 2017 – Today’s content

By Bryce Edwards -

December 20, 2017

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 20 December 2017 – Today’s content Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download). Housing, KiwiBuild and foreign house buyer ban Nicholas Jones (Herald):KiwiBuild to get underway – attacked as a ‘slogan’ by National Henry Cooke (Stuff): First KiwiBuild homes ready in mid-2018, Phil Twyford hopes 1News: Watch: ‘She’s not building 100,000’ – Bill English accuses Jacinda Ardern of fudging election housing promise Newswire:Government takes first steps in setting up KiwiBuild housing programme Laura Walters (Stuff): Govt says $5k housing grant isn’t working, National says they’re just desperate for cash Herald: Axe falls on Auckland relocation grant – despite helping 500 families Laura Walters (Stuff): Government one step closer to banning foreign house buyers Nicholas Jones (Herald):Overseas buyer ban rushed through amid fierce debate Nicholas Jones (Herald); Twyford slams ‘moral panic’ on meth testing state houses Herald: Property makes Kiwis wealth surge to $1.5 trillion over last decade: Statistics NZ David Hargreaves (Interest): Statistics New Zealand says investment in houses made up nearly a third of all kiwis’ investment in the past year Baz Macdonald and Lynn Grieveson (Newsroom): Twyford wants new meth testing standards Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Quarter of Auckland state houses overcrowded Media and thwarted Fairfax-NZME merger Richard Harman (Politik): Political journalism in an unquiet time Tim Murphy (Newsroom): The Endgame begins Ellen Read and Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): All you need to know about the Fairfax-NZME merger appeal Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): Loss of diversity in rejected media merger ‘virtually irreplaceable’ Damien Venuto (Herald): Merger failure clears path for potential sale of Fairfax assets Donal Curtin (Economics New Zealand): Quick reaction to NZME/Fairfax Herald: NZME and Fairfax merger appeal rejected by High Court Tom Pullar-Strecker and Ellen Read (Stuff): Fairfax, NZME merger appeal dismissed Stuff: BSA says Mike Hosking misled voters with comments on Māori Party Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Seven Sharp taking on John Campbell would be a step back in time, producer says Medicinal cannabis bill Henry Cooke (Stuff): Medicinal marijuana bill will be introduced to Parliament today Herald: Medicinal cannabis bill to be introduced tomorrow Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Medicinal cannabis rules to be loosened by govt Pete George (Your NZ): A watered down Medical Cannabis bill? Year in review Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): 10 biggest NZ political scandals and scams of 2017 Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Long Live The Sun Queen! Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Media person of the year Jenna Lynch and Isobel Ewing (Newshub): New Zealand’s parliamentary playlist of 2017 Environment and climate change Gordon Campbell (Scoop): On yesterday’s quest for zero net carbon emissions David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Government all talk no walk no climate change Mike Hosking (Herald): Climate change commission will achieve nothing No Right Turn: Climate change: The slow boring of hard boards Henry Cooke (Stuff): James Shaw’s two positions on fossil fuel extraction Dominion Post: Editorial: Saving the planet with a bit of help from the public Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Ardern and Shaw hope for bi-partisan Carbon Act Official Information Act Sam Warburton (The Spinoff): Bluster, waste and delay: the new reality of a rotten OIA Charlotte Graham (Scoop): I OIA’d every council in NZ and all I got was this headache RNZ: Ministry for Primary Industries reprimanded over OIA No Right Turn: OIA dieback infects MPI Education Jo Moir (Stuff): Iwi Chairs have questions for the Government over charter school closures RNZ: Most teachers are using te reo Māori RNZ: Weak parental support for national standards – survey NZ Herald editorial: Schools’ discretionary grants still public funds Briar Lipson (Stuff): Hipkins on right path but achieving an excellence mark for NCEA will need innovative thinking Todd Barclay Sam Sachdeva and David Williams (Newsroom): ‘Grounds to suspect’ Barclay made recording: Police David Fisher (Herald): Todd Barclay refused to co-operate with police three times Employment Nicholas Jones (Herald): Unions jump gun on pay equity announcement: Health Minister David Clark Mike Treen (Daily Blog): For a living wage plus restoring margins for skills and service Waka jumping bill RNZ: ‘Waka-jumping’ law plan dangerous – English David Farrar (Kiwiblog): The terrible waka jumping bill ODT: Editorial – Bill attacks democracy National Party Newshub: Judith Collins picks fight with Labour Party meme page on Twitter Barry Soper (Herald): For National, this year has struck new lows Cameron Slater (Whaleoil): The back of the envelope analysis of what National needs to do to win in 2020 Other Matt Nippert (Herald): MP Yang lobbied ministers to overturn Security Intelligence Service block Shane Cowlishaw (Newsroom): Willie Jackson: I wanted to destroy the Māori Party Dominic Harris (Stuff): Police investigator in Japan to explain decision not to prosecute over CTV building collapse Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Online giants escape regulatory probe Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Resigned Opportunities Party candidates start ‘political action group’ Phil Pennington (RNZ): MBIE promises to cut back on consultants Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Finance Minister Robertson names expert panel for Reserve Bank Act review Frances Cook (Herald): Former premier Helen Clark awarded Japan’s highest award for helping bring two nations closer together Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Helen Clark decorated with top Japanese honours for diplomatic work Fiona Rae (Listener): Kim Dotcom’s truly bizarre story retold in Caught in the Web Newsroom: Peters still wants to sue over super leak Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Search on for New Zealand chief technology officer Graham Adams (Noted): Hollywood scandals, #MeToo and abuse in New Zealand state care Katherine Granich (Noted): Women are carrying the burden of poverty this Christmas Ellen Read (Stuff): Rob Fyfe to advise Govt on Pike River re-entry Rob Stock (Stuff): NZ Super Fund won’t buy recreational cannabis shares Nadine Higgins (Herald): It’s about time we stood up to Australia LaQuisha St Redfern (Daily Blog): How Stats NZ Censors Non-binary Gender Identities David Williams (Newsroom): Census faces paper form shortfall]]>

Tongan Parliament elects Pōhiva as PM for next four years

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 19, 2017

Reelected Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva … bringing “justice and good governance” to Tonga. Image: Kaniva News

By Kalino Latu, editor of Kaniva News

‘Akilisi Pōhiva, 76, has been elected by a majority of Members of Parliament to become Tonga’s Prime Minister for the next four years.

A total of 14 members out of the 26 Members of Parliament voted for Pōhiva, while 12
MPs voted for the rival candidate, Siaosi Sovaleni.

Lord Fakafanua has been elected as new Speaker of Parliament.

Pōhiva, who has led the PTOA or Democratic Party since its establishment in the last
decade, told the House before the election yesterday he was grateful to the people of
Tongatapu for electing him to Parliament from 1987 to 2010 when the old electoral system enabled the whole of the mainland to elect three candidates to the House.

He also thanked the constituents of Tongatapu 1 for voting him into Parliament since 2010
after the electoral system was changed to give Tongatapu 10 candidates to be elected to Parliament.

After it was announced about 6.30pm that he had been elected as Prime Minister, Pōhiva thanked the king and the people for putting their trust in him again.

-Partners-

In his speech in support of Pōhiva, Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa, Tonga’s Minister of
Finance, said the results of the snap election showed that the majority of people trusted
Prime Minister Pōhiva and his ambition to have a government which supported good governance and justice.

He described the results in Tongan with a Biblical saying ( Luke 6:43-45) “a tree is known by its own fruits”.

Watching government
He said he supported Pōhiva to be Tonga’s next Prime Minister after his 30 years experience as Tonga’s former Auditor-General.

Tu’i’onetoa said one of his roles was to watch on government leaders to make sure they were accountable to their responsibility for people.

He then referred in his speech to some Tongan vocabularies such as “‘ikai toka’one” and “fōfō’anga” to describe previous government leaders, saying they could not beat Pōhiva when it comes to principles such as justice and good governance.

Another Party member, MP Mo’ale Fīnau, said he believed previous governments upheld
justice and good government, but they did not maintain a constant level of support.

Finau believed Pōhiva stood firm in his desire to bring justice and good
governance to Tonga more than any previous Tongan government leader.

Fīnau said that in 2010 and 2014 the Democratic Party failed in its attempt to elect its
17 candidates or the majority of PTOA to Parliament. However, in the snap election they had won a majority of seats for the first time.

MP ‘Akosita Lavulavu for the Party told the House that according to the snap
election results the majority of voters in the Vava’u islands, Tonga’s second largest island
group, wanted Pōhiva to become Tonga’s Prime Minister.

Help for Vava’u
She said God wanted Pōhiva to become Prime Minister and that was embodied in a majority of the voters who went to polls in the snap election.

She said he had promised her the government would help Vava’u in a special way in the next
four years.

Niua MP Vātau Hui said the nation had been praying for an answer to the snap election and
the results had been given that Pōhiva should lead the nation.

However, MP Sāmiu Kiuta Vaipulu, who nominated Sovaleni, said MPs needed to work
together to build the nation.

He said prices for consumer goods were high because of a levy imposed by the government.

Asia Pacific Report republishes Kaniva News articles with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 19 December 2017 – Today’s content

By Bryce Edwards -

December 19, 2017

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 19 December 2017 – Today’s content Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download). 2017 in review Liam Hehir (Stuff): Only one person truly in the hunt for politician of the year Graham Adams (North & South): 2017: A year of hard truths John Armstrong (1News): Politician of the Year John Armstrong (1News): Plonker of the year, heroes and zeroes John Armstrong (1News): On the wane, the comeback kids and the best put down Anna Connell (Newsroom): Some of 2017’s best and worst Kate Newton (RNZ): 2017: Are we there yet? David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Scoring my 2017 predictions 1News: How to make slime, how to vote and fidget spinners – Kiwis’ weird and wonderful Google searches in 2017 Eugene Bingham and Paula Penfold (Stuff): The Demise and Rise of Andrew Little Environment and climate change Richard Harman (Politik): Todd Muller reverses climate change policy Herald: Government starts down pathway to net zero emissions by 2050 Tom O’Connor (Stuff): Climate change cannot be denied Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Government plans to go carbon neutral by 2050 Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Government to consult before drafting ‘Zero Carbon Act’ to reduce emissions Herald: Prime Minister announces formulation of Zero Carbon Act, climate change commission No Right Turn: Climate change: Costs and benefits of ending oil Steven Cowan (Against the current): Jacinda Ardern: Empty posturing on climate change Dominion Post: Editorial: Morgan was right: moggies are a problem Government Tamsyn Parker (Herald): PM non-committal over Winston Peter’s KiwiSaver plan Katie Bradford (1News): Jacinda Ardern ‘pleased’ to attend Waitangi as powhiri moved to keep protesters away from her 1News: Custom clothing featuring Jacinda Ardern’s face helps US artist ‘adjust to Trump’s presidency’ Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Governing For The “Other Half” Of New Zealand Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Sweet Jesus – I agree with Heather du-Plessis Allan?!? Gwyn Compton (Digital Libertas): Is Clare Curran the first Minister to breach the Cabinet Manual? Drug law reform Nicholas Jones (Herald): Bill to legalise medicinal cannabis introduced this week Damien Grant (Stuff): Making drugs illegal won’t keep your child safe 1News: ‘Enough support in the House to pass’ – Jacinda Ardern confident ahead of Medicinal Cannabis Bill introduction Employment and welfare Lloyd Burr (Newshub): Government promises pay rise to Parliament’s cleaners and cooks RNZ: Parliament’s cleaners to get living wage Stuff: 13-hour clock for women the answer to fixing pay discrimination in New Zealand Stuff: Women under-represented in retail leadership, pushing earnings down Colin Peacock (RNZ): PR push to highlight the glass ceiling Chris Trotter (Stuff): Christian roots of welfare state safety net frayed by free-market economics Sue Allen (Stuff): Hype about tinned tomatoes has raised the debate on giving Parliament and Waka jumping bill Henry Cooke (Stuff): National: Waka jumping bill ‘an affront to democracy’ Herald: National says bill would gag MPs and make them loyal to leader, not voters Nicholas Jones (Herald): National MP given summer homework – by Labour CTV building collapse Rebecca Macfie (Listener): CTV Building: Why no one is being prosecuted under current law for the collapse Newswire: ‘I just instinctively think that it’s wrong’ – Justice Minister looks at introducing corporate manslaughter law RNZ: Corporate manslaughter law possible next year – Little Health Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Government out of money for new hospital and building works – National Newswire: Government short on hospital funding, says National Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Health dollars sunk into stalled IT project Economy and immigration Liam Dann (Herald): Take that, bitcoin, New Zealand’s value blows you out of the water Jamie Gray (Herald): Gap opens between consumer and business confidence Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Facebook to book NZ advertising sales revenues here, not in Ireland Keith Rankin (Daily Blog): Public Equity and Tax-Benefit Reform Rob Stock (Stuff): Kiwi laws fail to keep up with the speed of digital disruption Dene Mackenzie (ODT): Economic risk in reducing immigration Oksana Opara (Briefing papers): Immigration reform spotlight: Fairness, economic development, and the Working Holiday Scheme Education Zizi Sparks (Stuff): Youth advisory group to influence education and minister Tom Hunt (Stuff): Zone-tightening fears as mini population boom bears down on secondary schools Adele Redmond (Stuff): More schools broke the rules in 2016 – auditor-general Media Colin James (ODT): Lifetime’s learning, insights peculiar privilege of journalism Ben Robinson-Drawbridge (RNZ): Manus Island and media manipulation Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): How Steven Joyce killed NZ music & how a new youth radio station could save it Mark Jennings (Newsroom): Word Holocaust ‘dangerous and derogatory’: Google Other Simon Chapple (Herald): China is seeking an insidious influence in New Zealand Henry Cooke (Stuff): Opportunities Party board ‘did not allow any internal criticism’ David Hay: Why I’m sticking with TOP Newswire: Conservative Party to be re-named Alice Snedden (Stuff): Weinstein affair is a modern Christmas miracle Alice Snedden (Stuff): Don Brash and Bill Gallagher – keeping racism in the public eye Pete George (Your NZ): A new era of post baby boomer politics No Right Turn: Little on the SIS David Farrar (Kiwiblog): A letter from a reader Victoria University of Wellington (Newsroom): Meet the world’s first virtual politician Laura Walters (Stuff): Australia backs down on plans to charge Kiwi students higher fees Enzo Giordani (The Standard): Tory Translation Service]]>

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 18 December 2017 – Today’s content

By Bryce Edwards -

December 18, 2017

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 18 December 2017 – Today’s content Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download). 2017 in review Audrey Young (Herald): My politician of the year Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Top 20 New Zealand political moments of 2017 Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Past year in politics has been totally unpredictable Stacey Kirk (Stuff): What does Santa have in his sack for our hardworking politicians? Andrew Gunn (Stuff): ‘Joyce to the world’, ‘Away on a Manus’ and other Christmas carols for political junkies Lizzie Marvelly (Herald): Winners and losers of 2017 Peter Dunne (Interest): Politician of the year Spinoff: 2018 in politics: What will be the crucial issues? Duncan Garner (Dominion Post): A year to trump so many others Hannah Martin (Stuff): ‘Youthquake’ named 2017 word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries Nadine Higgins (Stuff): Feminists just seeking sexual equality – who knew? David Farrar (Kiwiblog): 2017 Kiwiblog Awards voting David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Welfare fraudster should be NZer of the Year! Pete Burdon (Media Training): Bill English my Media Communicator of the Year Katie Parker (The Wireless): Best of the year: Who won 2017? Spinoff: The world in 2017, in one sentence Government Shane Cowlishaw (Newsroom): Documents reveal insight into coalition talks Claire Trevett (Herald): Information provided to political parties in coalition talks released Derek Cheng (Herald): $15 billion: Official costing Greens given on total ban on new coal mines, oil drilling and fracking Dave Clemens (Newsroom): Chasing a fuller OIA ‘menu’ Heather du-Plessis Allan (Herald): Labour has the shortest honeymoon ever John Roughan (Herald): Polled voters back National’s economic legacy Newsroom: National ministers return serve over Peters leak Herald: Sunshine Coast beckons new PM Jacinda Ardern for 2018 holiday National Wayne Mapp (Spinoff): National’s best chance now? The eradication of NZ First Branko Marcetic (Spinoff): The secret history of National party collusion with Australian politicians and strategists Jogai Bhatt (Newshub): Life in opposition more relaxed – Gerry Brownlee Parliament NZ Herald editorial: Waka jumping law shouldn’t be necessary Britt Mann (Stuff): Layers of meaning: Reading a world leader by their wardrobe Benedict Collins (RNZ): Delayed lunch break brings out hangry MPs Nicholas Jones (Herald): Tempers flare in Parliament as families’ package debate drags out Laura Walters (Stuff): Long days and busy schedules start to get to MPs CTV building collapse RNZ: Corporate manslaughter law possible next year – Little RNZ: CTV building: Little promises law changes Dominic Harris (Press): CTV families demand law changes to stop people “getting away with murder” 1News: Families of CTV building collapse victims say Justice Minister Andrew Little ‘sympathetic’ to them at meeting Annabelle Tukia (Newshub): Families of collapsed CTV building victims vow to keep fighting Lisa Davies (1News): Families of CTV collapse victims emerge from ’emotional’ meeting with police vowing to ‘fight for justice’ Employment and welfare Jamie Morton (Herald): NZ living wage needs urgent look, Massey University and AUT researchers say Anthony Hubbard (Stuff): Seeds of hope or of despair? Katarina Williams (Stuff): New benefit wait times out of step with government’s own standard CPAG: The further fraying of the welfare safety net Simon Collins (Herald): Hardship grants at record highs as welfare state ‘frays’ RNZ: NZ welfare safety net starting to unravel – report Brian Easton (Pundit): Social Investment is Fashionable at the Moment Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Open letter to the Honourable Carmel Sepuloni – end the horror of the neoliberal welfare state Health Cate Broughton (Stuff): ACC: An unequal playing field? Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Value for money questioned in $1.2m spending by health board bosses Weekend Herald editorial: Expenses call into question a need for 20 DHBs Herald: Lester Levy resigns as chairman of Auckland health boards Tom Furley (RNZ): Binge drinking still a ‘significant burden’ on strained EDs Dave Macpherson (Daily Blog): What’s the Red/Black/Green Government up to on mental health? Dale Husband (E-Tangata): Debbie Sorensen: Whānau Ora is working for our communities Euthanasia Martin van Beynen (Stuff): A good death is hard to find but End of Life Choice Bill will help Dominion Post Editorial: Parliament can’t keep dodging the issue of euthanasia Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The neoliberal seductiveness of euthanasia Environment RNZ: Mining permits to be taken case by case – Ardern Charlie Mitchell and Simon Maude (Stuff): Government lacks ‘coordinated plan’ for climate change, withheld report shows Jamie Morton (Herald): Climate change: NZ lacks co-ordinated plan Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Confusion reigns due to lack of leadership on climate change – Ministry for the Environment Leith Huffadine (Stuff): What you need to know about the previously withheld climate report Jim Salinger (Herald): Grim climate outlook demands action now Cass Mason (Newsroom): New sea level rules prepare for the worst Herald: Government to review ‘grossly substandard’ kauri dieback programme Mini-budget and economy Shamubeel Eaqub (Stuff): Mini-Budget carefully reshuffles the deck chairs Jane Patterson (RNZ): The battle of the ‘Families Packages’ Frank Newman (Breaking Views): Mini-budget delivers on promises RNZ: Families package passes in Parliament under urgency Stuff: Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson make first Super Fund payment in nine years Herald: Super Fund repayments restart with click of button Rod Oram (Newsroom): Rogue US threat to Goldilocks economy Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): NZ growth may have cooled in lead-up to election, new headwinds building Jamie Gray (Herald): No early Xmas present expected for Grant Robertson, GDP growth expected to be tepid Education Simon Collins (Herald): Childcare workers speak out against ‘factory farming’ of children RNZ: ERO to investigate special education in schools Philip Matthews (Stuff): Free fees and changing degrees: The changing face of higher education Media Ben Robinson-Drawbridge (RNZ): Manus Island and media manipulation 1News: TVNZ and Maori TV in talks for single te reo newservice: ‘If you don’t move that way, you’re a dinosaur’ Kendall Hutt (Evening Report): Film industry sources criticise TVNZ ‘devaluing’ of Māori programmes Jane Bowron (Stuff): Sharp choices ahead for TVNZ with Mike Hosking, Toni Street gone John Drinnan (ZagZigger): What about a simulcast Mike for TVNZ Brekkie? Brian Edwards: I Doff my Hat Steve Braunias (Herald): Secret Diary of Mike Hosking Calum Henderson (Spinoff): 100 possible host combinations for Seven Sharp in 2018 Jack van Beynen (Stuff): Susie Ferguson broadcast through pain as bad as childbirth David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Press Council decision on complaint against Kiwiblog Housing Henry Cooke (Stuff): Housing New Zealand will not be restructured, breaking Labour election commitment John Tookey (Dominion Post): Huge task ahead to build more houses Herald: Treasury warns of unintended consequences on foreign buyer ban RNZ: Wgtn City Council defends social housing clampdown Defence Tommy Livingston and Kirsty Lawrence (Stuff): Defence Force sex assault victims say ‘enough is enough’ after suffering for years Tommy Livingston (Stuff): Hayley Young speaks out about sexual harassment and rape in NZ and UK navy Kate Pereya Garcia (RNZ): Navy sex attack victim speaks out Kate Pereyra Garcia (RNZ): ‘It’s really difficult to keep telling your story’ Foreign affairs and trade Reuben Steff (Spinoff): Winston Peters is softening on China – and that’s not necessarily a good thing Christian Novak (Incline): Warmer NZ trade relations with Russia? Probably nyet 1News: Watch: Inside Parliament: Diplomatic immunity controversy Graham Cameron (Spinoff): Manus Island: why we can’t keep our noses out of it Herald: PM’s father Ross Ardern will be the new Administrator for Tokelau, based in Auckland RNZ: Ross Ardern to be NZ’s next administrator to Tokelau Child welfare Darrell Latham (Stuff): Ending child abuse and killings is a task for our whole country Tim Watkin (Pundit): Moko: The first thing we need to do to save lives is... Liz Beddoe (Newsroom): Tragic deaths must not mean surveillance Jogai Bhatt (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern wants to ‘lift every child out of poverty’ Herald: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wants all NZ children out of poverty Laura Walters (Stuff): Children’s Minister Tracey Martin says new measures will help all 155,000 kids in poverty Net neutrality Max Towle (The Wireless): What the end of net neutrality in the US means for NZ Herald: Net neutrality repeal – what it means for NZ Transport Laura Walters (Stuff): Government announces road safety measures ahead of Christmas, speed limit changes to come Benedict Collins (RNZ): Thumbs up for rural road initiative RNZ: New funding to make risky rural roads safer Dave Armstrong (Dominion Post): Kedgley was right – we were off our trolleys Disability Bess Manson (Stuff): Paula Tesoriero – fighting for equality Ruby Nyika (Stuff): Bringing te reo to deaf Māori MBIE Matt Nippert (Herald): Super-Ministry’s super spending revealed Matt Nippert and Chris Knox (Herald): Ministry in spotlight over high-earning contractors Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Ministerial advisory group to bring ‘focus’ to closing digital divides Other David Williams (Newsroom): Concerns raised over census IT system Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Kris Faafoi: Putting the consumer first Madison Reidy (Stuff): New minister wants NZ to up ante against cyber-crime Liz Gordon (Daily Blog): Time for new strategies for women’s equality Emma Hatton (RNZ): Copyright law confirmed for an overhaul Rob Stock (Stuff): Perils of $600m a year KiwiSaver first home withdrawals Herald: Don’t make KiwiSaver compulsory: Brian Gaynor Alexa Cook (RNZ): Incomplete farm records slow tracking of cattle disease spread Jogai Bhatt (Newshub): Why Auckland Mayor Phil Goff wants $6b from the Govt RNZ: Optimism grows over Ngāpuhi Treaty settlement Laura Tupou (RNZ): Tauranga iwi commit to resolve Treaty issues Jamie Morton (Herald): LGNZ: More cash needed to meet tourist influx Simon Draper (Stuff): We need to talk about tourism Liam Dann (Herald): Rob Campbell, the anarchist who conquered the corporate world Cherie Howie (Herald): Kim Dotcom: Judge rejects seven of internet mogul’s arguments against extradition to US Kurt Bayer (Herald): Sir John Key awarded with a Doctor of Commerce honorary degree Hayley Stevenson (Stuff): Prime minister must overhaul Royal NZ Ballet board, says former chairman Stuff: ‘English only’ sign for staff in Bay of Plenty supermarket Thomas Manch (Stuff): Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster breaks another milestone in New Zealand Laura McQuillan (Spinoff): New Zanada: the strange, deeply-explored proposed merger of Canada and New Zealand]]>

Opinion: Towards Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Asia and the Pacific

By Selwyn Manning -

December 18, 2017

Opinion: Towards Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Asia and the Pacific

By Dr. Shamshad Akhtar –

[caption id="attachment_15680" align="alignright" width="300"]

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar.[/caption]

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

In 2017, Asia and the Pacific will be home to 62 million international migrants. That’s a population larger than the Republic of Korea’s. Even more people from our region – over 100 million – live outside their countries of birth. At the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) we see this as an opportunity. One we should seize to shape a better future for our region.

There are many reasons for which people migrate. Students do so looking for an education unavailable in their own county, to broaden their horizons and improve their prospects. Some migrants are refugees, fleeing violence and persecution. In our region, we have tragically seen hundreds of thousands of civilians, the clear majority Rohingya, flee their homes in Myanmar to seek safety in Bangladesh in what the UN Secretary General has rightly described as a refugee emergency: an unacceptable humanitarian and human rights nightmare that must be brought to end.

But most migrants move in search of jobs, higher wages and a better life for themselves and their families. Their remittances – $276 million dollars in Asia-Pacific in 2017 alone – provide welcome support to communities in their countries of origin. Put simply, remittances feed children, pay for education and healthcare and lift people out of poverty. But if migrants move for their own benefit, they also do in response to the needs of the countries to which they travel. By moving where the jobs are, migrants support innovation, productivity and growth.

Migrants’ contribution is all the more remarkable considering the challenges they face on arrival, after long, expensive and perilous journeys. Migrants are often poorly paid and have limited access to public services. They tend to work in low skill jobs in the informal sector. Debts taken out to pay illegal fees to secure employment mean they can have little choice but to accept dangerous physical labour. Female migrants are particularly vulnerable. Often employed as domestic workers, they can suffer exploitation and abuse. To compound matters, migrants are frequently turned into scapegoats, their contribution downplayed by inaccurate, prejudice fuelled narratives.

Addressing these challenges could help unleash migrants’ potential as a force for positive change. The economic dynamism of the Asia-Pacific region and its ageing population means migrants could play an even bigger role in our economies and societies, plugging labour and skill shortages. But for them to do so, clear policies are needed to protect migrants’ rights in the workplace, improve their access to essential services and make it easier for them to help families they have had to leave behind.

This was recognised by Member States of the United Nations in the wake of the European refugee crisis when a bold initiative was launched to negotiate a global compact for safe, orderly, and regular migration by 2018. At its heart lies a simple ambition: to protect migrants’ human rights. Grounded in existing laws and practices, and with full respect for Member States’ sovereignty, this compact should lay the foundations for international cooperation for the benefit of countries of origin, destination, and the migrants themselves.

To help shape this agenda, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific held a regional consultation in November. Governments, civil society and the private sector met to identify regional trends, share best practice and agree on priorities to feed into global negotiations. Several key priorities emerged: protecting migrants against exploitation by unscrupulous employers by facilitating legal migration; ensuring migrants can transfer money quickly, securely and at low cost; cracking down on human trafficking; and helping those who may be forced to move because of natural disasters exacerbated by climate change.

There was strong commitment on all sides to cooperate to drive this agenda forward. I hope International Migrants Day can help keep up the momentum, promote the positive contribution migrants make in our region and help achieve safe, orderly and regular migration across Asia and the Pacific.

Shamshad Akhtar is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

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Yogyakarta airport developers warned not to ‘steal’ people’s land

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 18, 2017

A police officer looks on as workers of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I bulldoze a building in the vicinity of Glagah village to make room for the New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA) in Kulonprogro, Yogyakarta on Friday. Image: Bambang Muryanto/The Jakarta Post

By Bambang Muryanto in Yogyakarta

Indonesia’s National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has demanded that state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I consider human rights aspects while working on the construction of a new airport in Kulonprogo, Yogyakarta.

The project should be free from human rights breaches, in particular when it comes to land ownership, the organisation said.

“Please, do not steal the citizen’s lands in the name of infrastructure development,” said Komnas HAM commissioner Choirul Anam.

Choirul added that he had received reports from local activists claiming that people of Glagah village were being forced by the company and police to give up their land.

Thirty of some 2700 families living on the disputed land reportedly insist on staying in their homes. Choirul suggested the company engage in dialogue with the people to find a solution.

-Partners-

“This is not only about land ownership; the eviction also threatens the people’s culture and social wellbeing,” he said, noting that violence could create even more problems.

Meanwhile, PT Angkasa Pura, through the manager of the New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA) construction project, Sudjiastono, claimed it had done everything in line with the law on land procurement for public utilities construction.

According to the regulation, he added, the company was allowed to forcibly evict people who refused to give up their land in return for compensation through the court.

“We’ve respected the people’s rights by giving them compensation, more than they deserve to get,” he said.

Bambang Muryanto is Yogyakarta correspondent of The Jakarta Post.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Film industry sources criticise TVNZ ‘devaluing’ of Māori programmes

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 18, 2017

By Kendall Hutt in Auckland

Independent filmmakers fear a slow erosion of Māori and Pacific content at Television New Zealand has begun.

Their fears have emerged after the role of commissioner for Māori and Pacific programmes was removed from a full-time commissioning role in recent restructuring by TVNZ.

The move has left some within the film and television industry shocked and questioning whether it is ignorance or arrogance.

“Given that we are an increasing demographic, this seems like a mad racist move,” said Joanna Paul (Ngai te Rangi), an independent television producer who was one of the pioneers of the Māori Television Service.

“That TVNZ considers this a part-time job is arrogant and ignorant enough, but given there is more Māori and Pacific programming on air than ever before beggars belief,” Paul said.

She told Pacific Media Watch in August she had “nothing to lose” in bringing TVNZ’s moves to light and calling the public broadcaster to task.

-Partners-

“The only way to stop TVNZ and find some justice is to be open and be transparent to the media.”

Victim of restructure
The role was previously included in the factual entertainment, Māori, Pacific and children’s commissioner role, but recent developments have seen the position reduced from a 0.5 position to a 16-hour-a-week “commissioning consultant” role.

This is despite an internal document provided to Pacific Media Watch, dated June 16, 2017, which stated the role of the commissioner “is a part-time role, which is in line with our current output”.

The commissioning structure, according to the 16 June 2017 document.

The commissioner for Māori and Pacific programmes is responsible for the commission of Māori and Pacific language programmes from the initial “sell” of the programme, right through to production, delivery and its fine-tuning throughout the shows tenure on air.

As the “most senior voice at TVNZ as a Māori”, the commissioner also provides guidance on tikanga Māori across TVNZ’s content team and output, former commissioner Kathryn Graham (Ngati Koroki Kahukura) said.

In the position for 13 years before her exit in July, Graham told Pacific Media Watch the commissioner was also responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders including NZ On Air, Te Māngai Pāho and Ngā Aho Whakaari, along with Māori and Pasifika communities.

TVNZ’s flagship te reo Māori news programme Te Karere.

But one independent Māori producer who did not wish to be named said the way the new role was proposed had potential negative impacts for both Māori content and independent Māori producers.

“It limits the ability of the person in the 0.4 position to truly participate as an integral member of the content team as they will not be present full-time and therefore cannot be involved fully in broader commissioning decisions.

Independent producers affected
“For independent producers making Māori and Pacific content, not having a commissioner available to them full-time is a potential disadvantage as often decisions need to be made quickly, and feedback is required promptly.

“They will have to work around the part-time availability of their commissioner which may impact on their ability to be agile and nimble in their programme making,” they said.

The producer also expressed concern at the disestablishment of the Kaihautu role and Māori programmes department, which they described as a “scaling-down” of TVNZ’s commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and true partnership, and the “de-prioritising” of Māori and Pacific content.

However, TVNZ spokesperson Georgie Hills said in a statement in response to Pacific Media Watch’s questions that TVNZ was not scaling back its commitment.

“The changes we’ve made to our content team this year do not change our commitment to continue providing New Zealand’s most watched Māori programming.

“Under our new structure, we have created a dedicated role with a singular focus. The new consultant position sits within our content team and specifically oversees TVNZ’s Māori and Pacific content,” Hills said.

Hills added the public broadcaster was proud of its Māori language content, responding to claims it was “scaling-down” its commitment to Te Tiriti.

TVNZ’s ‘scant concern’
“We’re proud of our dedicated Māori language content and we embrace the everyday use of te reo Māori in TVNZ’s broader local content offering.

“We typically air nine hours each week of dedicated Māori programming – 483,000 viewers tuned into at least one of these programmes a week during the financial year of 2017,” she said.

However, Pacific Media Watch’s industry sources claimed TVNZ had scant concern for their statutory obligations.

Under the Broadcasting Act 1989, New Zealand’s Broadcasting Commission is required to reflect and develop the country’s identity and culture, which includes the promotion of Māori language and culture.

“Our commitment to reflecting Māori perspectives is enshrined in legislation, such is the fundamental importance placed on the role we fulfill,” Hills responded to industry criticism.

Although the role is advertised as “commissioning consultant”, Hills added TVNZ was open to the time being 0.4 or 0.5 and that the title of the role was “immaterial in the big picture”.

“It will depend on the skills and capability the individual candidate brings to the role. We’re flexible. If our output increases, so will the role.”

‘Unrealistic job description’
But despite TVNZ’s assurances, some remain fearful the role will be disestablished.

“I predict they will scrap the role entirely using the reason they cannot find a suitable candidate,” Graham told Pacific Media Watch.

This was criticised by both Paul and Pacific Media Watch’s anonymous source, who said an “unrealistic job description” illustrated a lack of respect and priority for the role, placing “inherent limitations” on potential applicants.

“The commercially sensitive nature of the role makes it very difficult for anyone to juggle this with other production work, either for TVNZ or any other broadcaster.

“Creating a position which will likely struggle to attract the kind of candidates they are asking for does suggest a lack of respect and priority for the role,” one source said.

TVNZ first advertised the role on November 7, but it has been readvertised and the closing date has been extended from November 28, December 8 through to January 15, 2018.

“It’s a key role and it takes time to find the right candidate with the highly specialist skills we’re after. We’ve advertised, put the call out to our own network of contacts, the production community and have taken recommendations from within the industry,” Hills stated.

‘Conflict of interest’
Since Graham’s exit in July, the role has been overseen by the general manager of content creation, while Scotty Morrison (Ngati Whakaue) has been available to provide expert advice and guidance.

This is not the first time the general manager has overseen Māori and Pacific programming, one source told Pacific Media Watch.

A former TVNZ staffer who did not wish to be named said that for 15 years Māori and Pacific programmes had no commissioner at all and had successfully been overseen by the general manager.

“We count ourselves immensely fortunate to have somebody of Scotty’s skills to call on. His te reo and tikanga expertise have been invaluable to our content team,” Hills said.

However, Morrison and TVNZ have been criticised by Pacific Media Watch’s industry sources for a “conflict of interest”.

This is due to the fact that Morrison, along with his wife, fellow broadcaster Stacey Morrison, does consultancy work for shows with Māori content.

With the role of Māori and Pacific programmes commissioner hanging in the balance, Pacific Media Watch’s industry sources say TVNZ’s restructuring means a conduit for Māori and Pacific voices is being lost.

TVNZ ‘devaluing role’
“TVNZ is devaluing the role and putting it aside. It is symbolic of chipping away at Māori programming,” Pacific Media Watch’s independent Māori producer said.

“The lack of a commissioner is a another kind of door shutting. It’s a total disservice to Māori,” Graham reflected.

Ngā Aho Whakaari did not respond to several requests for comment.

The Directors and Editors Guild of NZ declined to comment.

Kendall Hutt is contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Gideon Levy: New Zealand, one state for two nations

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 18, 2017

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ANALYSIS: By Gideon Levy in Auckland

Late-morning light bathed the landscape in bold colors. It’s early summer here, and the sun was already very strong, broiling. It’s also the season in which the pohutukawa trees burst into crimson blossoms along the roadside.

The view from the heights of this Auckland suburb of Orakei is breathtaking, like almost every place in the beautiful country of New Zealand: an azure bay, endless green meadows, homes, boats and of course sheep.

Only a few skyscrapers spoil the horizon, on the other side of the bay.

The sound of birdsong sliced through the silence. An Australian magpie was perched on a structure atop a hill, singing a song unlike any I’d ever heard in my life. The landscape was equally inimitable. The colours of the magpie, black and white, blended with the black and white of the structure, which serves as a marker for ships at sea.

Soon another magpie arrived, and the two began singing to each other, a serenade for two magpies, a hypnotic duet, before flying away.

Unavoidably, Israeli poet Nathan Zach’s “A Second Bird” leaped to mind: “A bird of such wondrous beauty I shall never see again / Until the day I die.”

-Partners-

[embedded content]
Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy’s message for New Zealanders. Video: PalestineHumanRights

Father of social welfare
On the slope below, close to the waterline, is the tomb of New Zealand’s 23rd prime minister, Michael Joseph Savage, with a large stone obelisk rising over it. Savage, who served as the country’s first-ever Labour prime minister, from 1935 to 1940, is considered to be the father of its social-welfare policy.

He was laid to rest here in 1940, at Bastion Point on the coast, a gesture of esteem for someone who became a beloved figure to his nation. “The New Zealander of the century,” The New Zealand Herald called him.

But the hill above the grave site of the adored premier is fraught with a more recent, different and painful history. Forty years ago, hundreds of people barricaded themselves here for 506 days. They were Māori from the Ngahi Whatua tribe, and were joined by white human-rights activists who came to show solidarity with them in what was called an “occupation” but was actually a liberation.

It was an indigenous display of protest and independence, revolving around ownership of the land on which we were now standing, above Bastion Point. The so-called occupation lasted from January 5, 1977, until May 25, 1978, when the protesters were evicted, ending 17 months of a determined civilian, nonviolent struggle.

Some 230 people were arrested during the eviction, but no one was hurt. The event became a milestone in New Zealand history.

A television report broadcast here on that May day when the occupiers were evacuated carries the voices and the images. On film, the site looks more like Woodstock than like Umm al-Hiran, the Bedouin town in the Negev where a villager and an Israeli policeman were killed last January.

In the footage, hundreds of unarmed New Zealand police and soldiers are seen quietly removing the demonstrators, who had camped here for almost a year and a half in order to restore the land to its Māori owners. No blood is shed, no violence erupts; there’s only singing and weeping.

Model of nonviolence
The activists later claimed that the police had orders to open fire at them, but that didn’t happen: The officers were unarmed throughout the eviction. The reporter likened the convoy of police vehicles arriving at the site to a military convoy in World War II, no less, but to Israeli eyes, which have seen violent evictions in the Negev and in the territories, the Bastion Point incident is a model of nonviolence and civil resistance.

The only fatality was little Joanne, a 5-year-old Māori girl who died in a blaze caused by a heating stove that the protesters on the hill lit on a cold winter night in one of the makeshift structures they lived in – tents, trailers and huts.

Near the place where she died, on the lower slope of the hill, stands a memorial to Joanne Hawke – a Māori sculpture and a commemorative sign that tells her story.

The Negev Bedouin have reason to be envious of the Māori achievements and of the solidarity that some of the white European population, known as Pakeha in the Māori language, have demonstrated for them. In the end, the land in question was returned to its Māori owners, even though they are not permitted to build on it.

Bastion Point is now the greenest hill in the vicinity of Auckland, a nature reserve and a national heritage site for the country’s indigenous people. Atop the hill today is a small Māori village with well-kept homes in a uniform style, among them the house of the leader of that protest 40 years ago, Joseph Hawke, the uncle of Joanne. He was a two-term Labour member of Parliament, serving until 2002, and is now a homebody. His son, Parata Hawke, told us the story of the hilltop protest his father led. He was a boy then, and thought his dad was taking him on a picnic.

The younger Hawke, a social activist who has nine daughters, is a handsome man in his fifties, head shaved with only a ponytail in the back, adorned with a traditional wooden ornament. Barefoot and wearing shorts, Parata Hawke first speaks in the Māori language before switching to English. His family’s original surname was Haka, but his father anglicised it, like many other Māori.

The television in the guest room in his parents’ home, where he’s now staying, is tuned to Al Jazeera in English. He serves his guests homemade bread with butter. A magnificent Māori singer, named Paitangi, with a tattooed chin, will accompany him in her powerful voice, at a solidarity rally with the Palestinian people (where I was speaking).

Collection of Māori weapons
Parata Hawke is active in that movement and is well informed about events in the Middle East. He has a collection of ancient Māori wooden weapons, including a 300-year-old spear, which he forbids strangers to touch.

Roger Fowler, who was active in New Zealand’s large-scale movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, was present during the entire “occupation”. He married his Māori bride, Lyn Doherty, on the hill in the midst of the protest. In recent years he’s been a vigorous and determined activist for Palestinian rights.

Last weekend he took part in a demonstration of hundreds of people outside the American consulate in the city, against the decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. When the Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe’er took part in a tournament in Auckland some years ago, Fowler threw a tennis ball onto the court in an attempt to disrupt the match.

He also took part in a raucous demonstration against the apartheid regime in South Africa when that country’s rugby team played at Eden Park, Auckland’s largest rugby stadium, in 1981. It was the South African team’s last game in New Zealand before the regime changed. And speaking of rugby – every match here begins with the haka, the Māori war dance.

About 750,000 residents of New Zealand are Māori, 17 percent of the population. In most realms of life, the Arab citizens of Israel, whose proportion within the population is roughly the same, can only envy them. There are no Māori ghettos, Māori are well integrated into society, mixed marriages are a matter of routine, and at Auckland’s international airport visitors are greeted by typical Māori artwork and murals. There are also five Māori universities in New Zealand.

Nevertheless, Parata Hawke says that his people are still in the midst of a battle for their land, their heritage and their national honour. It’s a war of attrition, he says.

“They stole our land and killed our people,” he explains, “and until the occupation of the hill, no one even talked about it.” For the Palestinians, he suggests nonviolent resistance. “If we take another route, we’ll lose.”

Elections defeat
The Māori Party sustained a defeat in the last election, in September, not managing to get even one seat at the House of Representatives, the country’s legislature, which, like Israel’s, has 120 members; most Māori vote Labour. But Winston Peters, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the new centre-left Labour-Green-NZ First government, is the son of a Māori father and a mother of Scottish origin.

The road to having an Arab foreign minister in Israel is still very long.

The foreign minister of New Zealand’s “big sister”, Australia, is not an aboriginal. Julie Bishop is white, industrious and ambitious. She receives the guest from Israel warmly and courteously in her office in the Parliament building in Canberra. She even plies the stranger who has come to meet her with gifts: stuffed kangaroo and koala bear toys.

Our conversation takes place off the record, but her position on the Palestinian issue wouldn’t shame any Israeli right-wing leader. It’s easy to see why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu felt so comfortable on his visit to Australia last February. Hard-right MK Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) would feel equally at home here.

Australia’s Jewish lobby wields dramatic influence. Almost every new MP is invited on an “informational” trip to Israel, along with many journalists. And signs of the Israeli propaganda machine are hard to miss here.

Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who has changed his views since leaving office, also points to the large donations that Jewish activists make to the two big parties when explaining Australia’s one-sided approach.

Carr is one of the few politicians in Australia to have a balanced approach to Israel and the Palestinians, who is not a member of the Greens.

Coalition anomaly
Mark Coulton, deputy speaker of Australia’s House of Representatives, a member of the National Party that is part of the ruling centre-right coalition, is an anomaly here. He tells us that he returned a few months ago from a visit to the occupied territories – very different from what is seen on the Israeli information tours – and has since become one of the independent, exceptional voices in the House against the Israeli occupation.

Coulton, himself a farmer, was especially shocked by the attitude of the occupation authorities toward Palestinian agriculture. He won’t forget the farmers he met from the Qalqilyah area of the West Bank who can’t access their land because it’s on the wrong side of the security barrier, or the shortage of water they suffer – in contrast to the abundance of water in the Jewish settlements – and the butchered olive trees.

In Australia, in any event, the Israeli occupation can go on celebrating. Its only opponents, pretty much, are the Greens.

Beautiful Australia, with its beaches and its affable people, is occupied with other matters. A major furore erupted here recently when it emerged that some members of the House and the Senate hold dual citizenship, sometimes even without being aware of it. Now they have to resign.

On the margins of that storm there were also some who asked about the question of dual loyalty of Australia’s Jews, although that question did not come up for public debate. The Jewish establishment there can go on activating its effective, aggressive pro-Israel lobby without interruption. “Israel, right or wrong,” is its slogan, I’m told.

All of that is forgotten as though it’s air on Karekare Beach, about an hour’s drive from Auckland. The sand here is black with bits of glittering iron; the landscape is rocky and wild. This is where Jane Campion’s film The Piano, with its unforgettable landscapes, was filmed.

Now, in early summer, the beach is empty. Here, on the shores of the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand, opposite the cliff and the rocks, the waves and the black sand, almost everything is forgotten amid nature’s ravishing beauty.

Gideon Levy is a Haaretz columnist and a member of the newspaper’s editorial board. He joined Haaretz in 1982, and has won many awards. He recently visited Australia and New Zealand on a lecture tour.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Duterte on nationwide martial law – up to ‘enemies of the state’

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 18, 2017

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Martial law … “all options on the table”, says President Rodrigo Duterte. Image: Malacañang file photo from Marawi City

By Pia Ranada in Manila

President Rodrigo Duterte says he will consider nationwide martial law if the New People’s Army steps up attacks.

When asked if he would expand martial law coverage nationwide, President Duterte said “all options are on the table”.

Speaking to reporters in Taguig City last week, the President said it would be the threat posed by the New People’s Army (NPA) more likely to push him to expand martial law’s geographic coverage.

If the NPA – armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) – intensifies its recruitment of new members and steps up attacks such as they are about to topple the government, Duterte said he would consider nationwide martial law.

“If the NPA say they are recruiting in mass numbers and they create trouble and they are armed and about to destroy government, the government will not wait until the dying days of its existence,” said Duterte.

-Partners-

Ultimately, he said, any decision for him to proclaim martial law across the country is “up to the enemies of the state”.

He stressed, however, that he would listen to the military and police.

“To what extent, what level of atrocities, attacks, it is not for me to say that. It is for the Armed Forces and the police,” said the President.

During the joint session where Congress debated Duterte’s request to extend martial law in Mindanao by one year, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon warned that the President’s recommendation sounds like a “prelude” to nationwide martial law.

Some lawmakers insist there is no legal basis for martial law extension, saying there is no state of rebellion or invasion of Mindanao.

Duterte, however, said frequent ambushes by the NPA and attacks by terrorists prove there is a state of rebellion in Mindanao.

“Count how many died there. Count how many died today all over Mindanao. My police are ambushed everyday, also my military. There is actually rebellion in Mindanao, it’s ongoing,” he said.

Congress voted overwhelmingly in favour of the martial law extension until December 31, 2018.

Pia Ranmada is a journalist for Rappler, the independent Indonesian and Philippines multimedia social action website.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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20 years on, the disturbing case of journalist ‘JPK’ is still unsolved

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 16, 2017

By Walter Zweifel of RNZ Pacific

It’s 20 years today since French Polynesian journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud vanished.

“JPK”, as he was widely known, left no trace, no body has ever been found. There is conjecture and speculation – and there are denials. Murder charges have been laid and they have been dropped.

Police investigations have been running since 2004 but for the lawyers of those suspected of kidnapping JPK “it’s more likely that yeti exists than Jean-Paul Couraud was murdered.”

Today, members of his family are at his empty grave in Punaaiua, remembering a son, a father, a brother.

They remain convinced that in 1997 he was the target of foul play and killed for researching the affairs of the then strongman and president Gaston Flosse.

Until 2004, Couraud’s family was led to believe that he might have committed suicide.

-Partners-

However, amid the political upheaval of that year, a former spy of the now disbanded intelligence service of Flosse told a minister that the journalist had been drowned.

Hit like a bomb
When the claim by Vetea Guilloux was repeated in the Territorial Assembly in the middle of a no-confidence debate into the pro-independence Temaru government, it hit like a bomb.

According to Guillox, two employees of the GIP militia, Tino Mara and Tutu Manate, kidnapped Couraud, maltreated him and after tying breeze blocks onto his body, they dumped him into the depth of sea between Tahiti and Moorea

The GIP was an unarmed militia led by Rere Puputauki, who in turn reported to Gaston Flosse.

Another branch of the Flosse apparatus at the time was an intelligence unit run by a former French spy, whose tasks included keeping an eye on political rivals and Gaston Flosse’s mistresses.

Vetea Guilloux was in the intelligence unit, his father had a top job within the GIP.

In the feverish political climate in late 2004, Guilloux was immediately arrested, tried, sentenced and jailed for slander.

The Couraud family, however, lodged a formal murder complaint, triggering an investigation which is yet to be concluded.

Switched sides
Gaston Flosse, meanwhile, succeeded in getting a Temaru supporter to switch sides and oust his first pro-independence government.

Defying the assembly leadership, he arranged a presidential election to be returned to power and while giving a policy speech, he swore that he had never ordered anybody’s death.

Investigative journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud … drowned by assassins? The headstone on his empty grave in Punaaiua, Tahiti, says: 20 May 1960-15 December 1997 – “he struggled for more democracy, more justice and against all forms of corruption.” Image: AFP/RNZ Pacific

Like many observers, the publisher of the Tahiti Pacifique monthly Alex du Prel noted Flosse’s surprising declaration.

“He said he never gave orders for anybody to kill and everybody believed him. But he didn’t say nobody ever was killed.”

The case had an echo even in France where national television networks dispatched reporters to Tahiti. Also, Le Monde paid close attention to the JPK affair.

Gaston Flosse claimed he had been defamed by France 3 and took unsuccessful court action against its chief executive and a reporter.

He also pursued Le Monde for linking him to the 1997 disappearance of Jean-Pascal Couraud.

Slow investigation
JPK’s brother, Philippe Couraud, noted that the investigations were slow.

“The problem we had was between 2004 and 2007, three years, and it was very difficult. At this time, I was sure that the Justice did not want to help us. I mean, not Justice but the men who were there. So that’s why at this time, everything was organised to stop the enquiries.

JPK’s mother told TV reporters at the time about her disappointment with the judicial machinery, suggesting there had been obstruction.

Alex du Prel confirmed that: “We had state attorneys who admitted themselves that they had been appointed to protect Mr Flosse, and they did that job quite well actually.”

As a former minister in the Chirac government, Gaston Flosse had enjoyed cordial ties with Paris for a couple of decades, not least because he was a staunch supporter of the French nuclear weapons testing regime.

Things changed in 2007 when Jacques Chirac was replaced as president by Nicolas Sarkozy.

Pent up corruption complaints started to find their way through the courts and now Gaston Flosse is ineligible to hold public office having also become the most sentenced politician in contemporary France.

Murder charges
In 2013, the JPK affair saw murder charges being brought against Tutu Manate and Tino Mara after investigators surreptitiously recorded their phone conversations.

A year later, the charges were dropped over an apparent technicality.

“The phone taps were illegal because they didn’t have the right signature and the right explanation when they were ordered, so that kind of robs the smoking gun”, said du Prel.

Rere Puputauki failed to challenge the murder charge in time.

What is left are kidnapping charges against the three GIP men.

As for a possible motive for a killing, Philippe Couraud said he believed his brother had documents that could have damaged Gaston Flosse and his associates in Paris.

JPK had a career at the local newspaper Les Nouvelles de Tahiti and became its editor but was forced to quit under pressure from Flosse.

He subsequently joined the opposition politician Boris Leontieff as an advisor and worked for him when he disappeared.

Sensitive information
His brother Philippe said JPK had sensitive information.

“We discovered a paper of 12 to 13 pages which was in possession of my brother, and in fact it was because he had this information that he was killed,” he said.

Du Prel said the papers pointed to money being channelled via Japan, possibly to an account held by Jacques Chirac.

“At the time, they were looking into financing over in Tahiti and they saw that part of the money had gone to Japan. So the local representative to the state attorney had asked Paris for help to define where the money would have gone in Japan and he got a message back saying stop, do not enquire in that direction, you’re getting close to the top of the state. That, I published at the time and nobody ever denied it.

French media reports however said Japanese authorities had found no record of any bank account alleged to have been held by Chirac.

This came despite a French secret service report in 1996 mentioning it.

Whatever the possible reason for JPK’s disappearance, Philippe Couraud remains convinced his brother was killed.

“We are absolutely certain that my brother has been assassinated, and everybody who can read the files has the same conclusion,” he said.

Twenty years later and after 13 years of investigations, the only person taken court has been Vetea Guilloux for claiming JPK had been killed.

No wonder, there is the French expression ‘justice á deux vitesse’ – two-speed justice.

Walter Zweifel is a senior journalist with RNZ Pacific and a specialist in French Polynesian affairs. This article had been republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Racist reporting still rife in Australian media, says new monitoring report

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 16, 2017

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New research shows Muslims are more negatively portrayed in the media than other groups. Image: Lukas Coch/AAP/The Conversation

By Dr Christina Ho in Sydney

Half of all race-related opinion pieces in the Australian mainstream media are likely to contravene industry codes of conduct on racism.

In research released this week, the Who Watches the Media report found that of 124 race-related opinion pieces published between January and July this year, 62 were potentially in breach of one or more industry codes of conduct, because of racist content.

Despite multiple industry codes of conduct stipulating fair race-related reporting, racist reporting is a weekly phenomenon in Australia’s mainstream media.

We define racism as unjust covert or overt behaviour towards a person or a group on the basis of their racial background. This might be perpetrated by a person, a group, an organisation, or a system.

The research, conducted by not-for-profit group All Together Now and the University of Technology Sydney, focused on opinion-based pieces in the eight Australian newspapers and current affairs programmes with the largest audiences, as determined by ratings agencies.

We found that negative race-related reports were most commonly published in News Corp publications. The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and Herald Sun were responsible for the most negative pieces in the press. A Current Affair was the most negative among the broadcast media.

-Partners-

Chart 1: Number of race-related stories by outlet and type of reporting. Source: Author

Muslims were mentioned in more than half of the opinion pieces, and more than twice as many times as any other single group mentioned (see chart 2).

Chart 2: Number of race-related stories by outlet and ethnic minority group. Source: Author

Portrayed more negatively
Muslims were portrayed more negatively than the other minority groups, with 63 percent of reports about Muslims framed negatively. These pieces often conflated Muslims with terrorism. For example, reports used terrorist attacks in the UK to question accepting Muslim refugees and immigrants to Australia.

This was a recurring theme in race-based opinion pieces over the study period. In contrast, there were more positive than negative stories about Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.

Chart 3: Number of stories by ethnic minority group and type of reporting. Source: Author

Negative commentary about minority groups has lasting impacts in the community. An op-ed in The New York Times recently highlighted the impact that racism in the media has on individuals. It explained:

…racism doesn’t have to be experienced in person to affect our health — taking it in the form of news coverage is likely to have similar effects.

The noted effects include elevated blood pressure, long after television scenes are over. Racism is literally making us sick.

Note also that given the lack of cultural diversity among opinion-makers, particularly on television, social commentators are largely talking about groups to which they do not belong. According to the 2016-20 PwC Media Outlook report, the average media employee is 27, Caucasian and male, which does not reflect the current population diversity of Australia.

This creates a strong argument for increasing the cultural diversity of all media agencies to help minimise the number of individuals or groups being negatively depicted in race-related reports.

Our research echoes the findings of the UN expert panel on racial discrimination, which reported last week that racist media debate was on the rise in Australia. The UN recommended the Australian media “put an end to racist hate speech” in print and online, and adopt a “code of good conduct” with provisions to ban racism.

Urgent recommendations
Our report makes urgent recommendations to strengthen media regulations in relation to race-based reporting, to support journalists to discuss race sensitively, and to continue media monitoring.

While media regulations enable audiences to make complaints about racism in the media, under some codes, audiences have only 30 days to do so. The research report recommends that this deadline be removed to allow audiences to make complaints about racist media content at any time.

It also calls for the definition of racism be broadened in the codes of conduct to include covert forms of racism. Covert racism includes subtle stereotyping, such as the repeated depiction of Muslim women with dark veils, implying secrecy and provoking suspicion.

News agencies need to do more to help journalists address race issues responsibly. They can do this by providing training, recruiting more journalists of colour, and ensuring that their editorial policies are racially aware.

The media are meant to hold up a mirror to society. When it comes to race-related reporting, we need a more accurate portrayal of the successes of Australian multiculturalism.

Dr Christina Ho is senior lecturer and discipline coordinator in Social and Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney. Priscilla Brice and Deliana Iacoban from All Together Now, a not-for-profit group working to combat racism, also contributed to this article. Republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 15 December 2017 – Today’s content

By Bryce Edwards -

December 15, 2017

Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 15 December 2017 – Today’s content Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. [caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.[/caption] Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download). Government’s Mini-Budget Audrey Young (Herald): Stunning impact for Government’s no surprises package Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Labour’s big ticket families package puts a stake in the ground Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): National gasping for air Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Grant Robertson’s “Mini Budget” Presents Progressives With A “Maxi-Problem” Chris Trotter (Bowalley Road): Transformational Politics Demands Transformational Economics Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Labour’s families package a massive political risk Corin Dann (1News): Labour delivers on election promises in mini-budget and keeps books in the black, although there is limited wriggle room Dene Mackenzie (ODT): Restraint evident in budget statement Dene Mackenzie (ODT): Cutting child poverty one aim of $5.5b Families Package Stuff Editorial: The mini-budget is a test of new powers Herald Editorial: Treasury expects higher growth in two years Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Treasury shrugs off plunge in confidence with rosy outlook for economy David Snell (Herald): Robertson walking tightrope between paying for policy and controlling debt Richard Harman (Politik): Government calls on private sector to help balance books Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Analysis: Debt anchor dragging Labour into PPPs Patrick O’Meara (RNZ): Solid economy to underpin government’s spending plans Herald: Labour’s Families Package good for Maori, children and parents Claire Trevett (Herald): Goodbye tax cuts but Labour’s families package expected to halve child poverty Shane Cowlishaw (Newsroom): Good news for children in poverty Claire Trevett (Herald): Finance Minister Grant Robertson: health, education and poverty focus of Budget 2018 Brad Flahive (Stuff): Families Package: What the Best Start payment means for you Henry Cooke (Stuff): The table that shows how much each family gets in mini-budget Henry Cooke (Stuff): How the mini-budget affects five Kiwi families Jane Patterson (RNZ): Govt reveals $5bn families package: Will it affect you? Nita Blake-Persen (RNZ): Families look forward to budget boost for ‘the little things’ Andrea Vance (1News):‘Feel-good’ Budget promises to slash child poverty and make nearly 400,000 families better off by $75 a week Lloyd Burr (Newshub): Labour introduces major $5b plan to halve child poverty Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Economists cast doubt over Treasury’s ‘optimistic’ forecasts Jenee Tibshraeny (Interest): Bank economists say Treasury’s projections are ‘somewhat of a best-case scenario’ Michael Reddell (Croaking Cassandra): A few HYEFU thoughts Audrey Young (Herald): Books point to tight cost pressures ahead for new Government Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Government will start paying into the NZ Super Fund on Friday Dene Mackenzie (ODT): Govt resumes payments to NZ super fund today Sam Carran (Newstalk ZB): Sir Michael Cullen warns super fund can’t recover lost ground Herald; At a glance: half-yearly Treasury update Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Books opening shows fiscal hole real – National Jane Patterson (RNZ): Labour’s books ‘look very tight’ – National Nicholas Jones (Herald): National hits out: ‘the Grant that stole Christmas’ David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Government is saying it will keep new spending to $600 million a year NZ spy agencies David Fisher (Herald): The Big Read: How our spies got so out of control that they wound up getting Kiwi data ‘unlawfully’ David Fisher (Herald): Spies slammed by watchdog for ‘unlawful’ access of database which includes most Kiwis Chris Bramwell (RNZ): SIS unlawfully accessed Customs data for 19 years No Right Turn: NZ’s intelligence oversight is a bad joke Government and 2017 in review Toby Manhire (Herald): Ardern’s year beyond a shadow of doubt Jane Patterson (RNZ): Govt tracking to hit its 100-day goals Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Winston Peters’ KiwiSaver dream a step closer Herald: Greens win extra safeguard in waka-jumping bill Herald: Coalition agreement to stay secret after Ombudsman Peter Boshier’s ruling RNZ: Ombudsman rules coalition document outside OIA Laura Walters (Stuff): Ombudsman says Prime Minister entitled to refuse release of coalition document Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ombudsman backs Govt over coalition document in final ruling David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Which Associate Ministers actually have a proper job? International relations Terence O’Brien (Dominion Post): Money, military keys to Aussie foreign policy Ged Cann (Stuff): Protesters stand for Manus Island refugees with a classic Aussie barbecue Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Peters aims to tackle diplomatic ‘inexperience’ Workplace safety Kurt Bayer (Herald): Ex-Marsden Point Oil Refinery worker with cancer wants compensation, claiming lead poisoning James Paul (Stuff): The nature of deaths in the forestry industry is changing, worrying WorkSafe NZ Euthanasia Sinead Donnelly (Herald): Palliative medicine uses morphine with care Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Why I do not welcome euthanasia in New Zealand 1News: David Seymour says three quarters of Kiwis would support voluntary euthanasia in referendum No Right Turn: Passed Health Cecile Meier (Stuff): Opinion: Electric shock therapy without consent is a disgrace Craig Hoyle (Stuff): Medicinal cannabis users pen open letter to new government, pleading for law change Karen Brown (RNZ): Departing DHB head: ‘We have to be super-efficient’ Education Herald: Education Minister Chris Hipkins announces review of NCEA Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Mainstream schooling failing rangatahi, says former teacher Dominion Post Editorial: Karori Campus: Asset or liability? Environment Jamie Morton (Herald): NZ’s glaciers have shrunk by a third in area Kate Pereyra Garcia (RNZ): Officials refusing to release foam contamination info Johnny Moore (Stuff): Belfast water bottling rort shows we undervalue our most precious natural resource Defence Gordon Campbell (Werewolf): On Defence spending, Alabama, and Dolly Parton Keith Locke (Daily Blog): $639 million upgrade poses question of whether we need frigates Herald: Ministry of Defence shields previous Govt from $148m blowout Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Defence takes blame over frigate cost blowout Housing Nicholas Jones (Herald): Housing constrained by lack of builders, lending: Treasury John Anthony (Stuff): Housing New Zealand has nearly 4000 Auckland state homes worth more than $1m Stephen Selwood (Herald): Housing needs big investment in the future CTV building collapse Michael Wright (Stuff): CTV families vow to ‘keep fighting’ following police meeting over criminal charges 1News: Families looking for answers over deadly CTV buildng collapse to meet with police and justice minister Media Colin Peacock (RNZ): Prime time presenters call it quits John Drinnan (ZagZigger): Weatherman Sam To Take Over From Hosking Herald: John Campbell and Hilary Barry: Could this be the new face of Seven Sharp? Herald: Mike Hosking, Toni Street to leave TVNZ’s Seven Sharp RNZ: Hosking, Street step down as Seven Sharp hosts John Drinnan (Herald): Maori news unit to boost te reo? Karl du Fresne (Stuff): ‘Dinosaur’ v dominatrix: Don Brash didn’t stand a chance Guy MacGibbon (Stuff): MPs are more compelling when they look like a Renaissance painting America’s Cup Todd Niall (RNZ): Council chooses preferred option for America’s Cup village Newshub: America’s Cup: Auckland Council votes for Wynyard Basin site Auckland Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Phil Twyford’s big challenge for Auckland’s success Tony Garnier (Herald): 2018 will be a defining year for Auckland Michael Barnett: (Herald): God save Auckland Other Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): Government ponders Auckland backup for Beehive emergency management centre ODT Editorial: Can cattle disease be contained? RNZ: No pay cut to top public servants’ existing salaries]]>

Keith Rankin Analysis: Public Equity and Tax Benefit Reform

By Keith Rankin -

December 15, 2017

Keith Rankin Analysis: Public Equity and Tax Benefit Reform Public Equity and Tax-Benefit Reform, The Policy Observatory, AUT, 13 December 2017. [caption id="attachment_1450" align="alignright" width="150"] Keith Rankin.[/caption] Public Equity is not a difficult concept to understand. Equity is about ownership. And equity is about equality. Equal owners own what they own equally. Two equal owners of a house own that house equally. Two people with equal shares in a business have equal equity in that business. In capitalism, we understand equity to represent a private property right. That’s why many of us distrust capitalism; the problem is that emphasis on the word ‘private’. With public equity, the same principles apply to a public property right. However, given that public property is not divisible as private property is, public equity best applies to the aggregation of public property rights; all property rights associated with a public domain. We – economic citizens – own our public domains equally. There are multiple public domains: global, national, local, ‘iwi’ (tribal) and ‘club’. In a free world, membership of (ie belonging to) the first three is essentially a right of residence. Iwi membership is a right of birth. Club membership is a right of subscription. While my focus here will be on the national public domain, the same principles of equality apply to all public domains. An ‘economic citizen’ of a sovereign nation is an adult with residential rights in that nation. (In a mature global system that recognises public equity it would be desirable to have consistent global definitions of “adult” and “residential rights”. We note that, while the International Labour Organisation already has an implicit global definition of adulthood – age 15 or above [stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=4848] – the New Zealand Human Rights Commission uses age 16 [hrc.co.nz/enquiries-and-complaints/what-you-can-complain-about/age/]. In a mature global order that recognises public property rights, every adult human being would be an economiccitizen of one and only one sovereign nation.) The idea is that every economic citizen has rights – indeed equal rights – to the economic fruits of the national public domain, and that the income tax and benefit systems of a sovereign nation should reflect that right. While developed nations each recognise these rights in different ways, the recognition is implicit rather than explicit. It is generally accepted that the much higher average incomes in developed economies reflects the higher productivity of those economies. This is not because individual labour capacities are an order of magnitude higher in economically developed countries. Rather, it is the higher levels of collective capital and investment in those economies that renders a worker more productive. Those investments (eg in education and healthcare) and capitals are substantially public in nature. Higher earnings are due to higher levels of public equity. When we argue – as most of us do – that hourly earnings should increase with productivity, we are arguing that a return on public equity should be incorporated into our wage settlements. And we – or at least the working classes – seek immigration restrictions to create levels of labour scarcity that can enforce a relationship between productivity and wages. In economically developed countries, most of us also subscribe to a comprehensive economic ‘safety net’ that ensures that every economic citizen gets something – indeed enough to ensure basic provision for dependent children. This is another acknowledgement of public equity, that a public equity dividend should not exclude any economic citizen, even though economic citizens in different life-situations receive their returns on public equity through different payment mechanisms. Access to land, and to the fruits of land – including clean air and clean water – is also a beneficial return on public equity. That’s why our ancestors came to Aotearoa, as economic migrants. So we – in New Zealand and in other economically developed countries – do pay public equity dividends (lower case). We do not pay Public Equity Dividends (upper case), meaning formal or explicit payments that serve as a baseline yield on public equity. Our public equity dividends – haphazard, covert, unacknowledged – are nevertheless real. That’s why many people from economically less developed countries would like to live in New Zealand; New Zealand is richer in public capital, and pays higher public equity dividends than their economies of origin. Public equity dividends – mostly subsumed into wages – form the motivation for economic migration between countries. And the motivation for resistance to economic immigrants on the part of existing residents. In my Report on Public Equity published this week – Public Equity and Tax-Benefit Reform – I have endeavoured to find some commonality across the various kinds of cash benefits that New Zealand economic citizens receive, with a particular emphasis on conceptually integrating those benefits paid unconditionally through the income tax system with those benefits paid (conditionally, except for New Zealand Superannuation) through agencies such as ‘Work and Income’. Benefits here represent ‘publicly-sourced disposable income’; income paid either as explicit benefits, as tax concessions, or as a mix of both. I have called the most important benefit paid through the income tax mechanism – paid unconditionally though implicitly – as a ‘public equity benefit’ (PEB); a benefit that represents the value of the tax concessions that arise from lower marginal taxes on income brackets below $70,000 per year. Then, by adding that benefit (upto $175 per week) to the explicit benefits many New Zealanders receive, I have shown that most economic citizens receive total benefit amounts of $175 per week (or more). Further, for most of the rest, their total benefit is already close to $175 per week. As a result of this conflation of the two different sorts of benefits that we receive, it is clear that our public equity could fund an explicit Public Equity Dividend (PED) of at least $175 per week, payable formally to all economic citizens. In addition, we have the means to fund both a universal superannuation (the difference between present New Zealand Superannuation and the PED) and to continue paying conditional benefits as social assistance to those for whom $175 per week is insufficient. Today, and from a 33% tax rate, we can easily pay ourselves a formal Public Equity Dividend of $175 per week. It represents both a holistic accounting perspective on our present benefit payments, and a commitment to removing the welfare ‘cracks’ that too many New Zealanders are falling into. Economic citizens are entitled to an explicit and universal publicly-sourced equity dividend. It’s their public property right. Can public property rights address the twin issues of inequality and poverty? Yes. But, in the first instance, such reformed public accounting gives an intellectual mandate to stem the haemorrhage of purchasing power from the poor to the rich. Then, it gives us the intellectual tools to determine whether 33% is the most efficient income tax rate for a country such as New Zealand, and whether $175 per week is the most appropriate level of unconditional publicly-sourced benefit. (Possibly both numbers are too low.) And it gives us to tools to determine a mechanism to raise productivity over time – and to raise our just returns to public equity, the principal determinant of productivity growth.]]>

Tributes flow for NZ’s Arab Spring journalist Yasmine Ryan

By Pacific Media Centre -

December 15, 2017

yasmine-ryan-1982-2017-680-wide-png — ]]>

Yasmine Ryan … a “global” freelance journalist who died tragically in Turkey last month. Image: PMW

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

New Zealand journalist Yasmine Ryan, credited with being the first reporter writing in English about the Arab Spring from her base in Tunisia, has been farewelled at a funeral held in Auckland today, reports Stuff.

Ryan died in Turkey at the age of 35 after reportedly falling from the fifth storey of a friend’s apartment building in Istanbul on November 30.

Friends and family gathered at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Auckland to farewell the much-loved and respected journalist.

Yasmine’s mother, Deborah, spoke during the service of her daughter’s goodwill in the field of journalism.

“She believed in journalism, she believed in good journalism,” she said. “She did everything for women in journalism, did everything for everybody.

“She [Yasmine] died doing what she loved most.”

-Partners-

The freelancer previously worked for Al Jazeera when she was covering the Arab Spring, and was later a fellow of the World Press Institute visiting the United States in 2016.

International award
She won an International Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2010 for a story about Algerian boat migrants.

She also worked as an online producer and video journalist for the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and in New Zealand with independent news agency Scoop.

She also contributed to Pacific Scoop and Pacific Journalism Review.

Friends and colleagues described her as a “selfless human” and “a fearless woman”.

Investigative journalist Selwyn Manning, who worked with Ryan at Scoop, said “the world is a better place because of her”.

He said: “It takes a lot to sink in. You see someone who has got such youth, zest and professionalism, who has so much to offer, and it is just a significant loss from so many angles,” he said.

Ryan was co-author with Manning and Katie Small of I Almost Forgot About the Moon, a book about the human rights campaign in support of Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui and his family’s right to stay in New Zealand.

Theologian Zaoui was at the ecumenical funeral today where he said prayers in Arabic for Ryan.

Te Reo Māori and Hebrew prayers were also given at the funeral with Monsignor Bernard Kiely as celebrant.

A GiveALittle page set up by Jacinta Forde, who works at the University of Waikato with Ryan’s father, said her dad had “left on the first plane to Turkey … to bring her back home to New Zealand”.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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