tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post234480996001565605..comments2024-03-29T17:12:19.648+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Pro PatriaChris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-33062089236521706072010-07-18T16:46:21.233+12:002010-07-18T16:46:21.233+12:00As to the impact of China on our economy, there ar...As to the impact of China on our economy, there are legitimate grounds for anxiety that go beyond the obvious generic concern over the expatriation of profits etc.<br /><br />So huge is China's current predominance and so weak the export prospects beyond the emerging China-Australia economic axis, that there is a temptation to reshape our economy to fit in wholly with China's perceived needs.<br /><br />Given China's current circumstances, that means emphasising our role as an exporter of bulk raw materials, primarily milk powder but also timber and such mineral wealth as we possess.<br /><br />I'm not privy to John Key's thinking but the signs are that our economy is being deliberately re-positioned in that direction.<br /><br />This, however, has implications for our brand and for our (not always deserved) reputation as a high quality, environmentally-friendly producer, with rigorous standards of food safety, animal welfare etc. And, in turn, this could impact on how we are viewed in more selective markets.<br /><br />However, given the normal way economies develop, China will very soon itself become a quality market. It will then turn to other suppliers to meet its increasingly sophisticated needs.<br /><br />In this context, we should remember that China's chief interest in the "Free Trade" agreement with NZ is to have a proto-type to use in forging economic ties with larger and wealthier developed nations. <br /><br />So any advantages we gain are likely to be short lived and not worth any great sacrifice of principle or of longer term economic interest.<br /><br />I'm actually not all that concerned about land per se falling outside New Zealand ownership. The land concerned remains our sovereign territory and subject to our laws. <br /><br />I also take the point that Chinese investors make up a small percentage of those buying up New Zealand land. <br /><br />But I see warning lights when I read of integrated paddock-to-plate production and distribution systems under Chinese ownership.Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-41590308829084884502010-07-18T13:46:31.308+12:002010-07-18T13:46:31.308+12:00I remember, when reading Deborah Hill-Cone's a...I remember, when reading Deborah Hill-Cone's article on xenophobia, thinking to myself that it was strangely out of time.<br /><br />I've lived in New Zealand for 25 years, with the sensitivities of an immigrant and of a card-carrying internationalist, and I've never known a time when the mood was less xenophobic. <br /><br />I don't think that an advertising agency these days would come up with anything as crass as:"You'll only be a Kiwi if you love if your Wattie's Sauce" and I don't think it would be acceptable if it did so. <br /><br />Most of us understand that you can be reared on Fettuccine, Boerewors, Dahl or Hainan Chicken and still be a Kiwi.<br /><br />Meanwhile, even Maori nationalists and their liberal hangers-on have stopped rejecting multiculturalism as an alleged plot to undermine bi-culturalism (a common attitude 20 years ago). <br /><br />So why are Deborah and her fellow right-wing scribes coming out with this anti-xenophobe line at the moment? <br /><br />It's just an attempt to shame us into accepting the expatriation of profits and the further reduction of democratic control over our economy.Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-46058923729710939152010-07-18T11:18:42.942+12:002010-07-18T11:18:42.942+12:00On the whole, ideological Nationalism is a sicknes...On the whole, ideological Nationalism is a sickness. At best, it's an excuse for feeling smug or self-pitying about yourself. At worst, it's an excuse for murder. In either event, it involves a dilution of our global sense of common humanity.<br /><br />However, the nation state is the only vehicle we have for asserting democratic authority and control over the community and the economy, including the flows of goods and capital that dominate our lives.<br /><br />The nation state is also the only possible way of embodying the democratic right of self-determination.<br /><br />And the nation state may also embody certain principles and traditions that are inherently valuable and worthy of emulation. In New Zealand's case, that includes parliamentary democracy, rule of law, equality before the law, freedom of speech etc. <br /><br />It's also the case that good citizenship tends to start with the immediate and work outwards. <br /><br />As Edmund Burke remarked: "To love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections." <br /><br />More to come......Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-3003134680910964822010-07-17T12:36:35.801+12:002010-07-17T12:36:35.801+12:00Chris
You write:
'Fortunately Patria – liter...Chris<br /><br />You write:<br /><br />'Fortunately Patria – literally, "the land of our fathers" – has a pretty tough neck.'<br /><br />How are you meant to read the two immediately following paragraphs other than as an exemplification of that allegedly fortunate principle? <br /><br />I'm not being pedantic for the sake of pedantry. I think there is a huge difference between the internationalism of principle and the globalism of profits.<br /><br />It's just a Neo-Liberal marketing ploy to have confused the one with the other.Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-80331878215578769352010-07-17T11:21:36.008+12:002010-07-17T11:21:36.008+12:00Test.Test.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-70596046272351977542010-07-17T02:10:31.452+12:002010-07-17T02:10:31.452+12:00I think the phobia some have of Chinese ownership ...I think the phobia some have of Chinese ownership is the perception that its growth, once started, will be without end. Once a parcle of productive land has been purchased by Chinese owners it is difficult to imagine it being on-sold back to New Zealand interests. In the most extreme example, we may recall how often land in Israel that has been purchased by Jewish interests is resold back to the Arabs.<br /><br />I don't see how the Greens can claim the high ground over immigration. They may say they are "not exclusionary" in press releases, but how much effort have they put into campaigning against Labour's and now National's highly exclusionary immigration policy?<br /><br />Third world countries: give us all your rich, your skilled, your ambitious money rakers. Impoverished masses and the poor need not apply. <br /><br />Ironically, NZF was the only party that might have put a stop to this unsavoury and very unsocialist practice.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-50158239164312544002010-07-17T01:05:11.455+12:002010-07-17T01:05:11.455+12:00How on earth did you arrive at that conclusion, Vi...How on earth did you arrive at that conclusion, Victor?<br /><br />To describe the historical reality is by no means to endorse it.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-79575694721018436712010-07-16T23:50:04.363+12:002010-07-16T23:50:04.363+12:00"It’s always struck me as odd that both the e..."It’s always struck me as odd that both the extreme Left and the extreme Right have no love of borders. "<br />....<br />You might have expected the Green party to see some value in the Kiwi way of life but <br /><br /><i>Anti-immigration feeling has no place in the Green party Immigration and Population policies released today, Green MP Keith Locke says.</i> He and his supporters have one idea and that is racism rules peoples opinions about migration. <br />http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/greens-counter-peters-welcoming-immigration-policyjhnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-2691861862525583392010-07-16T17:44:58.992+12:002010-07-16T17:44:58.992+12:00Chris
Why do you regard it as fortunate that the ...Chris<br /><br />Why do you regard it as fortunate that the workers of the belligerent powers were so happy to rush off and be slaughtered in 1914?Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-18444634731292152122010-07-16T08:57:05.592+12:002010-07-16T08:57:05.592+12:00Anon @ 6.51pm July 15, I'm a little puzzled b...Anon @ 6.51pm July 15, I'm a little puzzled by your comment. I can't see "Labour" mentioned at all in the above article by Chris. <br />Good luck with your PhD. I hope it has included a more vigilant attention to detail.<br /><br />On the article, I'm not so much into a strong patriotic stance. But it does seem to me that Free Trade benefits the larger and more powerful economies (like China and the US) at the expense of less powerful ones (like NZ). As such, I do think the NZ government should have more protections for the workers and businesses in NZ - that's who they have been elected to represent.Carolnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-89395910330688998842010-07-15T18:51:32.622+12:002010-07-15T18:51:32.622+12:00Hi
First time commenter here.
In politics I am g...Hi<br /><br />First time commenter here.<br /><br />In politics I am generally somewhat right of center though I have occassionally voted labour and horror of horrors even Social Credit under Beetham(sp?). I regularly enjoy reading your point of view though I commonly disagree with parts of it. <br /><br />By occupation I am a Geologist with 25 years work experience. In addition I am close to graduation with a PhD as a result of a long part-time project in Palaeoclimate and Geomorphology.<br /><br />I have been watching the evolution of climate science and the AGW issue for many years, along with the attitude of the public towards it. One thing that I have detected over the last year or so is a stready reduction in public support for the alarmist version of the theory (which contains a very strong leftist/environmentalist "we know better than you" streak) and the proposed solutions to this relative non-issue.<br /><br />You could rewrite your article exchanging "AGW activist" in place of "Labour" and I am sure the result would resonate with thousands of ordinary Kiwis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com