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.

www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3757186a3600,00.html

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.

www.maketradefair.com/en/index.php?file=wto_prtr33.htm

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.

www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?
edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=74418

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.

www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecid=900003
&contentid=253413

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.

Tala Po'e - Young, Honest, and Reliable

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.

http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?
c_id=606&ObjectID=10333780

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.

www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?
storyid=000F0F09-D16E-14A4-875C83027AF1010E

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.

www.almubadara.org/new/edetails.php?id=1762#

(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).

www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=15648

ENDS

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