Moments of 2009
Perk busting
Boy who cried balloon
People’s Hero Sue Bradford resigning
Michael Jackson’s daughter at his funeral reminded everyone that a Dad had died
Barack Obama being sworn in as president yet still managing to project the American Dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of everybody else’s oil.
David Bane not guilty
Iranian election protests
Clayton Weatherston’s creepy attempt to justify himself
Philip Field guilty
More civilian deaths in Afghanistan
Bennie Bashing
Misusing urgency
White mofos
Facebook Unfriend
It took a Tsunami to teach us that Samoans are NZers too
Ignoring Climate Deniers
Sensible Sentencing lynch mobs
Tiger Woods jokes
Sri Lanken refugee abuses
Fiji banana fruit salad republic
Palestinian land confiscations
Jaquie Brown Dairies was NZ comedy that was funny
Marcus Lush made us fall in love with South
Capitalism eats itself
John Key’s stratospheric popularity - blind aspiration for a passionless people
Steve Braunias’ celebrity diary in the Sunday Star Times is the funniest thing to happen this year
Alt Tv playing a 13minute version of the doors ‘this is the end’ as it’s final song was the classiest exit of 2009
Lockwood Smith as Speaker of the House was the best surprise of the year by actually forcing the Government to answer questions in Parliament (almost makes up for his lie to students on student loans and his embarrassing attacks on the ANC as a terrorist organization)
Wallace Chapman’s Backbenchers is one of the best TV shows of 2009
Melissa Lee who?
Gordon Campbell at scoop.co.nz is the best on-line NZ columnist.
posted by Bomber @ 12:11 am
6 comments
6 Comments:
The Colonial System
Colonialism, which Memmi describes as "one variety of fascism" (63), is based on economic privilege, despite suggestion of more noble goals of religious conversion or civilization. Its key tools are racism and terror.
Racism is ingrained in every colonial institution, and establishes the "subhumanity" of the colonized, fostering poor self-concepts in the colonized as well. By using terror to quell any reactionary uprising, the colonizers reinforce fear and submission.
The colonial system favors population growth. In order to keep the salaries of the colonizers high and their cost of living low, there must be high competition among the native laborers. In other words, the birth rate must rise in order for the system to perpetuate itself. Since all resources go to the colonizer despite the need for increased resources by the growing colonized population, the standard of living of the colonized inevitably goes down.
the birth rate must rise in order for the system to perpetuate itself
annual deaths at 7,000 plus 15,500 births equals 8,500 to replace the population not 50,000 plus caught in a no-mans-land movin between us and oz wif no dole for 2 years and can't enrol at uni due to "open entry'.
wot gives oh great oppressor/coloniser?
Your Bomber pick moments 2009:
Marcus Lush did a good trip around the deep South, quite gruelling at times and good New Zealand TV;
good pick Bomber
BY THE WAY - Does it strike anyone else as shocking that NZ Herald reporter Patrick Gower has been 'embedded' and paid for by the propaganda arm of the US State Department to write glowing reports of our boys from the front?
More interesting is Key's comment that he wants to withdraw the Bayman PRT after the current deployment because it is "sucking money." Since it is considered to be a very successful "hearts and minds" operation, he needs to be questioned as to whether simple monetary considerations should determine involvement in multinational nation-building exercises such as that. More importantly, if he does not think that the PRT is good value for money, then indeed we need to ask why on earth he would then send the SAS over there. Irregular combat operations may be nominally cheaper (especially when most of the costs are going to be borne by the US and UK), but the potential cost in lives is far greater than in PRT operations.
The Herald accepting transportation, lodging etc from the US State department for its reporter does raise questions about conflicts of interest and ethics. I guess the flip side is that any reporting of NZ operations in Afghanistan in the lead newspaper is conducive to better, if not more informed public debate on the matter.Training Afghan's troops to protect themselves from Taliban influence?
Paul, what is the connection between terrorism, 9/11 which wolfowitz said they needed to remove them the taleban? Or is this debate just like Saddam and bin laden,or weapons of mass destruction i.e no connection whatsoever.The cia financing jihad has got nothing to do with al qaeda or Taliban being one in the same and encourage you to keep debate abut NZ's international role, including its military role, in the public eye.The fact that the Taleban fight in ways that violate the rules of war allow for their categorisation as "domestic terrorism" within Afghanistan (I do not agree with this characterisation but it has been made). I believe that there is quite a difference between the justification for this fight and the lies that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
There are moderate elements of the Taleban that NATO is negotiating with (as mentioned in a previous comment). What is clear is that the issue is not about establishing democracy (if it ever was), but of establishing a moderate Islamic state that will not provide safe haven to extremists and cross-border armed incursions into its neighbours. That is the limit of what this nation-building exercise can do, and anything more grandiose is unachievable.
Although we disagree, the reason I have urged Bomber to keep this topic in the public eye as much as he can is because Kiwis need to have a say in how NZ foreign policy is conducted, and particularly with regard to how its troops will be used in foreign theaters. It was bad enough that Labour acted with impunity and without much consultation when it committed troops to overseas theaters (even if deployments to the Solomons and Timor Leste were justifed in my mind). But if left unchecked by public opinion National will take that elitist approach to foreign policy-making to new heights. Just look at its attitude towards foreign aid.
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How about some 'Great Expectations for 2010'......Like John Key protesting to China in light of its latest human rights abuse in executing someone clearly not in command of their senses.
Awe shit no, I forgot - we've got a free trade agreement to consider - besides the guy was from the EU, not the US.
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