Robson-On-Politics - Wednesday 9 August 2006
Our enemies, the Prussians
The biggest event in New Zealand in the past seven days is the news that the recent European Union ruling which will rob Fonterra of some of its quota rents on Kiwi butter sold in Europe has now spilled over into the far more lucrative chilled lamb
market. NZ Lamb is next in the firing line.
The EU and the U.S., amongst the richest societies in the world, between them destroyed moves to lower barriers to
cross-border trade in agricultural produce, thereby wrecking the Doha Development Round of multilateral trade reform.
It is true that Doha was very far from being fair to unsubsidised, impoverished Third World producers, or the efficient but
discriminated-against farm exporters like New Zealand. But Doha at least offered a tiny first step toward removing some of the U.S. and EU policies that literally starve tens of
thousands to death, damn millions to poverty and undermine our own country's ability to fully reap the benefits of trade
in areas where we have competitive advantage.
These aggressive actions against NZ Lamb and Fonterra represent the EU upping the ante in their efforts to squeeze our living standards and undermine our development even
further.
It is called Imperialism, and NZ's interests aren't with the imperialists
If we were in the playground, we would call it bullying. Bulling by the powerful of those less powerful, a process that
leaves all of us, rich and poor, worse off because it means we all live in a world which is poorer, more violent, more
politically unstable and less safe from the terrorism that gets its nourishment in injustice.
What do the selfish, self-defeating governments in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin think they are doing?
They seem to think that with fighter jets and bombs they they can stop progress. They appear to believe that through
rigged rules, political and military bullying they can stop the inevitable march of history in its tracks and put the
Shah back on his throne in Tehran and force the democratically-elected Lebanese government to again "control"the Shii as
if the Shiia, at around 45% of the Lebanese population, are somehow not an integral part of the Lebanese mosaic.
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But the reality is that while Western Imperialism can indeed slow down progress, at a terrible human cost to those in
the Third World, it can't actually stop it. Today the so-called G-8 economies account for 44% of the world's gross
domestic product, down from 55% thirty years ago.
China's share of GDP has recovered to about 13% of world GDP (up from 5% thirty years ago after a century of European destruction and humilitation), but China is heading back to where it belongs: Its share of World GDP was over 30% in 1820, around the time that
European Imperialism really started to make its mark on the world. Asia, all of Asia including India, south east Asia
and the Middle East, are headed back to their rightful, natural place in the world prior to that great big, but
temporary, imperialist period of European/U.S domination.
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Tala Po'e - Young Honest, and Reliable
Take the forced resignation for a $100,000 fraud by Labour’s Tamaki Community Board Chairman, a willing young
Progressive candidate, a contribution to cover the campaign costs of $3000 and a band of Progressive members to put up
20 billboards and distribute 10,000 Progressive postcards and what do you have? Heaps of fun and a great deal of practical learning on how to run a campaign ahead of the challenges that lie ahead of the Left in
2008.
Reminder: Otaki/Wellington Progressive meeting, Thursday 6 p.m; AGENDA: Running effective low-cost campaigns;
Progressive Conference and AGM - programme, elections and people.
NZLP Council should boot Phil Field out the door
For the life of me, I can't understand why the ruling Council of the Labour Party doesn't nullify the membership of one
Phil Field, M.P. for Mangere.
This is the same chap who this time last year, when he was a Minister, met Israeli officials at the height of the
diplomatic impasse New Zealand had with Israel over that country's stealing of Kiwi passports. Readers will recall that,
for all of Labour's spin at the time, the aforementioned former Minister was breaching the Prime Minister's ruling at
that time to suspend ministerial visits in protest at Israel's illegal taking of New Zealand passports, a practice which
endangers the safety of every New Zealander that ever uses a passport.
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So what if Phil joins the Families First Party? The Lab-Progressive minority government would continue to enjoy the
confidence of a majority in Parliament because our friend, the Green Party, is committed to not voting against us on
confidence - END OF STORY, Good-Bye Mr Field.
The Greens said they were opening the door to National, but this is ridiculous
The Green Party said at its annual conference that it wanted to "open the door to National" and could "deal with
National" so long as the Tories would move on Climate Change Policy.
The policy is delivering beyond anyone's wildest dreams but there is a silver lining for the Lab-Progressive-Green bloc. If Ian is indeed successful, that in turn will embolden Labour to match any move National makes and the
beneficiaries will be the government's Climate Change policy and all New Zealanders.
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West's War On Terror continues
As you may have seen on the TV, the U.S.-taxpayer funded, and U.K.- and French-supplied Israel Defence Force, has been
very busy in the War Against Terror. On Sunday, the IDF bravely kidnapped the Speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, Dr. Aziz Dwaik, the kidnapping comes
after the US-funded, UK-supplied IDF earlier snatched 27 democratically-elected Palestinian members of Parliament,
including eight ministers.
(Note to readers not familiar with mainstream media definitions of terrorists versus "moderates":
The U.S., U.K. et al. strongly support one-party state tyrant dictators in Egypt, and absolute monarchies like in Saudi
Arabia: These are referred to as moderate Arab regimes that parrot the latest twist and turn in U.S./U.K. policy while torturing their own people. Parties with
electoral mandates, such as Hamas in Palestine and Hizbuallah in Lebanon, are right-wing nationalist parties that have
indulged in armed resistance but don't have any where near as bad a record in terms of terrorism and repression as the
regimes in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, are referred to as terrorist organizations (e.g. they actually challenge Western control of the Mid East in favour of Mid Eastern control of the Middle East).
ENDS