New Zealand Conservative

It's heartening to see a real connection being made between Australia and Ukraine, after the horrific shooting down of passenger jet MH17 by Russian backed rebels a couple of months ago. From the Sydney Morning Herald : Prime Minister Tony Abbot is planning to visit Ukraine, according to the country's president. Mr Abbott phoned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday, the president's press service reported. During the phone call Mr Abbott promised to send military equipment to Ukraine's army, the president said. A week ago Mr Abbott told parliament that Australia would send "non-lethal military assistance" to Ukraine such as military winter clothing, blankets and first-aid kits. According to the president's press office, Mr Abbott told Mr Poroshenko "Australia will consider the opportunity of enhancing military-technical cooperation and, as the first stage, will send the lot of military equipment and means of warming. ...

"Even as China is softening its one-child policy, one if its most renowned film directors is finding himself in trouble for violating the nation's infamous family planning law." Yes indeed. He fathered three children . This has caused outrage amongst the brainwashed population: "Zhang's breach of the policy has set off a firestorm, especially among netizens who resent how the rich and famous in China flout rules and policies. JinqiuT wrote on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging service: Celebrities should abide laws and rules as common people." When the government subjects its citizens to a constant diet of its own propaganda, the population eventually come to believe that justice is reached by obeying the law, not flouting it. This is why their society accepts millions of forced abortions every year. Or maybe they are not all forced. Maybe there are huge queues of women asking for their babies to be terminated? Certainly, in Ind...

I have to say at the outset that I believe, based on what I have heard of this man's story, that he should never have been found guilty of manslaughter, given that he was set upon by a number of men who wouldn't stop attacking him. In any sane jurisdiction he would have been either not charged at all or been found innocent and let go. But not in the Chinese justice system which from what I have read and heard, does not have justice at it's mandate. What was supposed to be a business trip instead became a stint in a Chinese jail for Danny Cancian after a restaurant fight took a lethal turn. He was charged with manslaughter and, although the judge at his trial acknowledged that he did not start the fight, he was deemed to have used excessive force on one of his attackers, who died of a brain bleed. Danny Cancian phoned NewsTalkZB this morning (the Tim Fookes Morning Show) and explained that at that point in the fight, he had been hit in the back of the head with a chai...

Whilst 20 children were gunned down in Connecticut, 22 children were also stabbed in Chenpeng Village Primary School in the Henan province. Thankfully none were killed, but some have apparently lost fingers and ears. If we take away guns, do we also need to take away knives? I suspect then that such people will turn to using explosives, poisons and improvised weapons. It's very disturbing in general that innocent children are being targeted. Perhaps that is the key question to answer, when we begin to search for answers. Although, I think the Boomtown Rats provided one possible answer to that riddle long ago: And he can see no reasons 'Cos there are no reasons What reason do you need to die, die?

"A Chinese government think tank is urging the country's leaders to start phasing out its one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015, a daring proposal to do away with the unpopular policy ." Looks like forced abortions may set in the east even as the abortion machine known as "Family Planning" rises in the west.

This has to be the funniest thing I've read in a while: A view from Beijing

Here's an interesting story on the issue of human rights and suicide. A 16 year old monk sets himself alight and dies. The people that assisted in this process get sentenced for their part in this. Human Rights Watch, the bastion of human rights and supposedly a clear thinking and principled organisation, complains about the sentencing.   I think they can't see the wood for the trees. I'd argue that our declining morality sets up this contradiction in the issue of rights, and I can see its only going to get worse. On one hand: 1. A 16 year old is too young to consent to certain activities. 2. Suicide is wrong; Suicide was once seen as a mental problem. 3. Adults (such as the 46 year old uncle involved) are supposed to act as guardians to the young. 4. Life is precious 5. People that kill others, or help kill others should generally be punished On the other hand: 1. The right to kill one-self is a very important right to the new wave of humanists* 2. 16 year...

The Chinese ambassador reckons the New Zealand Government (in reality the long suffering taxpayer) should pay extra to the families of the Chinese killed in last months earthquake. "There is a very notable difference in terms of the family situation between the Chinese family members and other foreign family members," he said. "You can expect how lonely, how desperate they are, not only from losing loved ones, but losing almost entirely their source of economic assistance after retirement." The notable difference is of course China's obnoxious "one child policy" which means that the parents of the dead students have lost everything. I grieve for them. But I ask this, every day in China there must be parents who loose their one child, through accident, disease etc - what provisions does the Chinese Government make for those people? Hmmm . Grief knows no international borders - we all want to do everything we can to alleviate the pain of the b...

Watching the video replay of Russel Norman being beaten up by what appeared to be Palestinian peace activists armed with only an umbrella, I'm trying to decide if the steps of Parliament can be considered international waters. Only last week, he was decrying the Israeli special forces team for landing on a boat, and here he is rappelling on to the main deck and not surprisingly being pushed overboard. It's lucky they were not the kind of peace activists that had knives and steel bars handy. Or perhaps he thinks their personal space is a metaphor for a Japanese Whaler? And the Tibetan flag acid to destroy the harpoon? In the video clip, it shows Russel as being aggressive and rude. If Russel were an anti-abortionist, and acted like that towards women walking into an abortion clinic, there would be zero sympathy for Russel. Is democracy allowed to be a little ugly, a little imperfect? I don't see a big deal either way here. Just hot headed opinions. Russel stor...

Last year, for Easter, I did a post about public holidays; Freedom To Shop . This year I regurgitate the same post, partly to see if the comments will change, and partly because the post was on sale at half price, and I couldn't resist a bargain. Freedom To Shop (2008) Over at Kiwiblog, David fights gamely to assure all freedom can be defined by how many days a year a society can shop. He assumes of course that asking people on low incomes to work at time and a half is really an honour that would not be refused. This is all before we consider the Helen Clark factor. Dear Helen turned lower and middle class New Zealand into welfare beneficiaries. Working for Families (WFF) does actually encourage workers to stay at home with their family on a public holiday. Helen deserves full credit for the first accidentally family friendly policy that Labour has introduced. You see, the moment a worker gets paid overtime rates, their income go up, which raises their tax rate and reduces th...

Where better to read about the perils of social networking than on a blog? Stay away from them. They is bad. New Zealand Conservative links to a technology update that shows how social networking causes brain damage, jealousy, social ineptness and cancer:

If you are reading this post, you may be an addict. China may well be the very first county to define Internet addiction as a disorder and give official recognition to it as a clinical disease. Essentially, you are addicted if you find yourself using the Internet more than six hours per day, or exhibit a number of symptoms such as insomnia, difficulty concentrating, mental or physical stress, irritation or experience the desire to go back online. Of course, in a socialist country like New Zealand, it would mean long term unemployed who spend too much time on the net may be eligible for tax payer funded therapy. Perhaps even people caught surfing at work who subsequently lose their jobs might be able to claim addiction as the cause under ACC? I wonder if the drugs used to "cure" the addiction will result in new addictions? And therapists could get addicted to huge fee schedules. Can we really afford for John Key to fund broadband throughout NZ? [insert tongue-in-cheek ta...

Three incidents occurred today that shook rust free. I saw a hard-core crusty old dude at the gym, Neil Armstrong made a rare public appearance , and China launched a mission that is to include a space walk. As someone born after the Apollo Moon landings I find it lame that no significant exploration has happened since then. Even though we now congratulate ourselves on global awareness it is a mediocre fact that only 30 people have ever seen the Earth from a distance sufficient to view it as a blue globe. Of those 30 astronauts (Apollo 8 to 17) only 12 walked on the Moon and of them only eight now survive. They are all aged over 75 years! Grand-dad's generation flew to the Moon and I stumble around thinking a sleek music player, the latest add-on, and espresso coffee is “progress”! One of the eight Moon veterans is Neil Armstrong, aged 78, a certifiable hard-core old dude. Armstrong appeared for the 50th anniversary of NASA and there he said, “Our highest and most important hope is...

It's Friday. Don't the Olympic Games kick off today? I found a picture of the opening ceremony. It's good they got a bright sunny day, and obviously they've now got the smog under control. About 90% of the athletes have tested positive for high levels of chemicals, but it turned out to be pollutants from the surrounding city. They are allowed to compete, if they recover in time. Stop by and drop a comment. But before you read on, warning - this 5 minute brain dump may be far too contemplative for a Friday of idle chit chat. Read it at your peril. Or are you yellow? Many people are already over the Olympics. Part of the problem is that China wanted to use them as an entree into the Western World as a new, improved, re-marketed, re-branded and re-modeled country. In many ways they are, and China is a country full of promise and potential and it's impact on the world stage in the next 50 years is perhaps going to be bigger than we can imagine. However, China...

Mugabe's corrupt regime is protected from sanctions as Russia and China veto moves by the UK and US to bring Mugabe into line. They reason that whatever Zimbabwe gets up to is not a threat to international stability. Next door to Zimbabwe lies the Democratic Republic of Congo. Six million have died there within the last 10 years for precisely the same reasons. South Africa was another country to vote against the sanctions. They maintained a rather futile hope that Mugabe was prepared to share power with the opposition. Futile, because Mugabe's thugs have been far more brutal since the elections. I don't know why I'm bothering to report this anyway. We all know the United Nations is an absolutely useless, dysfunctional monumental waste of tax payer dollars. Oh, that's right, China. With the Olympics due to kick off in Beijing next month, perhaps there is still time to establish some new Gold Medal events. Despotism. World Apathy. Best use of Veto. Business...

Who needs photoshop, when you have Google? I was actually looking for information on China's new Earthquake reconstruction policy, but came across this newly opened restaurant themed around toilets. Absolutely crazy. And stupid. There are just too many one-liners to choose from, I'll leave it to my commenters, if they feel so inclined. Related Link: Eating on the Go Unrelated link: China's Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Plans

It's a small world we live in. We've tried to separate sport from foreign affairs, foreign affairs from morals and yesterday Winston Peters tried to even separate foreign affairs from trade . So where has that got us? China spent a fair amount of effort to host the Olympics, figuring they can market the country just as well as Nike can flog products made on the back of cheap labour. They got their wish, and have, in efforts to prove how much they are improving on issues of human rights, demolished many homes and summarily turfed out citizens to make space* for the Olympic venues. They have banned factories and cars from operating in days preceding pollution measurements in efforts to assure athletes to leave the air bottles behind. When it comes to making the games go ahead, they exemplify the Nike motto; "Just Do It". But their biggest problem with the Olympic PR exercise, is that it all seems to be unraveling over the perpetual thorn in their side - Tibet....

This morning on the TV news they had clips of Helen Clark from an interview she did on BBC World News trying to defend her stance on the Free Trade Deal she is soon to sign with China. She says - "I'm conscious that in my lifetime China will be the world's biggest economy. It will be a super power and it's important to me that we get on the best terms we can with that large and powerful country." OK, well, getting on good terms is one thing but I'm not sure whether because a country will be a super power is a good enough reason to sign up to a free trade deal with them. Would we sign up with Iraq if it turned out they were going to be a super power? Or Afghanistan? It's unlikely that Iraq or Afghanistan will become super powers, but I'm just trying to make a point here. If the world were to become unstable with a conflict developing and battle lines drawn then with whom would we be allied? Communist China? It's worth thinking about. ...

Over at Kiwiblog, David fights gamely to assure all freedom can be defined by how many days a year a society can shop. He assumes of course that asking people on low incomes to work at time and a half is really an honour that would not be refused. This is all before we consider the Helen Clark factor. Dear Helen turned lower and middle class New Zealand into welfare beneficiaries. Working for Families (WFF) does actually encourage workers to stay at home with their family on a public holiday. Helen deserves full credit for the first accidentally family friendly policy that Labour has introduced. You see, the moment a worker gets paid overtime rates, their income go up, which raises their tax rate and reduces their WFF tax credit. Ultimately it means their net return for working on a public holiday produces little extra. Indeed, the extra money may not even cover the cost of Labour's other Family Friendly policy: "Free" childcare. Remember the free childcare policy ...

Scrooge is out, it must be coming up to Christmas The National Party is questioning why taxpayer funding is being used to train coal miners in China on safety issues. The party's industrial relations spokeswoman, Kate Wilkinson, said Labour Department officials confirmed to MPs on Parliament's transport and industrial relations select committee that $84,711 had been granted to the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) for "safety training for safety representatives in Chinese coal mines". ..She said it appeared as if the Government was effectively subsidising the Chinese coal industry. "How does that square with Labour's position on carbon neutrality and greenhouse gases?" She said the money would be better spent on workplace safety issues in New Zealand. China are certainly rich and capable enough to spend their own money on their own people. But they don't. China has an appalling safety record when it comes to miners. I for one, do not begrudge this sma...