Sydney!

Yes, you may have noticed a lack of updates in the past week. It's due to initially my preoccupation with getting prepared for Sydney, then the actual trip. Here is a summary of what happened:

Best things:

Went to Manly on the ferry and back by bus and train. Enjoyed seeing Sydney suburbs from the ferry and then seeing some Sydney streets on the bus. While we were at Manly we saw a beach volleyball school in action. All the girls were in skimpy bikini's - is that compulsary even in training?

Also, while in Manly we had lunch at the 'Wood and Stone' - highly recommended it to everyone. Does pizzas with lots of toppings, lovely starters with generous portions.


Went on the Monorail (Couldn't stop singing the Monorail song from the Simpsons all weekend) that runs from Pitt Street to Darling Harbour and back. See here.

Got to meet Michelle, my IBM account manager. We had a seafood lunch at Darling Harbour on Friday and chatted about how things were going in our account.

Went for a walk from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay on the Friday evening.

Went to the Taronga Zoo (with about 200 million billion others). Most of the animals were taking it easy as it was a hot day - but this lioness was active.

Went shopping at the Queen Victoria Building - a lovely building with lots of speciality shops, including a chocloate shop with a huge bunny. Also went to the Florsheim shop and got two pairs of shoes at a very good price.

Went to the Sydney Observatory. Was able to see the sun giving off flares and even able to see Sirius during the day. I never knew you could see a star in daylight, but apparently there are a few that are bright enough to be seen with a telescope.

Air New Zealand didn't even try to give me Hubbard's Cereal for breakfast on the way over.

Bad things

A restaurant called "I'm Angus" at the Cockle Bay Wharf - it does nice food but the service was pretty shoddy the night we went. They didn't bring a drink we ordered, never came to collect payment, basically ignored us the whole night. I might have been more forgiving if it had been busy, but it was only one third full.

The IMAX theatre didn't show any movies that we wanted to see at a reasonable time.

The loud, bitchy teenage girls on the Manly to Chatswood bus. Why did they have to sit right next to us?

How sore our feet were by the end of each day!

Other things

Chaucey was impressed by the double-deck trains. I wasn't so impressed by the run-down look of Sydney's rail service, except at the airport station. Not surprised to learn it's privately owned, whereas all the other services are state run!

Chaucey was not so impressed with me when I showed her that the Opera House is actually three separate buildings. But it was a lovely day.

We say five wedding partys getting the photos taken

Overall impression

I must say I actually enjoyed Sydney much better than my previous visits. The weather was still a bit changable and windy most of the time, but it has been cleaned up a lot since I last went - presumably for the Olympic Games.

Still, there are a few things I still want to see in Sydney so I will be back!

It's not far ... Yeah Right!

Just went for a wee cycle ride - left from Kaitoke, over the Rimutuka Incline to Lake Wairarapa, north to Featherston then east to Martinborough. Total about 60km (the bike computer stopped working after an hour) Total time was about 3 hours.

For the last 40km I rode on a broken spoke. This makes it very hard to cycle as the wheel rubs against the brake pad the entire time.

As you can imagine, I'm quite tired now. So, there will be no coherent political posting today.

It all stems from UN Security Resolution 687 in 1991

Almost two years ago, a coalition of willing countries (led by the USA and UK) invaded Iraq for non-compliance with Resolution 687 from the UN Security Council (and other resolutions confirming the original resolution). Highlights and commentary below:

Clause 8
Decides that Iraq shall unconditionally accept the destruction, removal, or rendering harmless, under international supervision, of:

(a) All chemical and biological weapons and all stocks of agents and all related subsystems and components and all research, development, support and manufacturing facilities;

(b) All ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometres and related major parts, and repair and production facilities;

Clause 12
Decides that Iraq shall unconditionally agree not to acquire or develop nuclear weapons or nuclear-weapons-usable material or any subsystems or components
end

Yes, the intelligence was flawed - but Iraq never allowed inspectors to verify once and for all that they had complied with the biological, nuclear and chemical parts of the resolution. But we do know that Saddam had developed missiles capable of a range greater than 150kms - he admitted as much and had them destroyed in a bid to placate the US and UK. So it is reasonable to think that Saddam would have built biological, nuclear or chemical weapons if he had the chance.

Clause 20
Decides, effective immediately, that the prohibitions against the sale or supply to Iraq of commodities or products, other than medicine and health supplies, and prohibitions against financial transactions related thereto contained in resolution 661 (1990) shall not apply to foodstuffs [and] to materials and supplies for essential civilian needs as identified in the report of the Secretary-General dated 20 March 1991, and in any further findings of humanitarian need by the Committee;
end

Saddam used to brag about beating this one. While he lived a life of luxury he let his people starve and die of diseases that were easily treatable. The only way he could keep the population from rising up against him was to either flee or to brutally suspress the population - no surprises about which one he chose.

Clause 32
Requires Iraq to inform the Security Council that it will not commit or support any act of international terrorism or allow any organization directed towards commission of such acts to operate within its territory and to condemn unequivocally and renounce all acts, methods and practices of terrorism;
end

Saddam paid money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers who killed innocents in Israel. He sure broke this part of the resolution.


So there you have it - Saddam broke UN 687 for 12 years while the UN sat on its hands and did nothing. When the US and UK finally decided to take action, the UN complained and asked for more talk - which had never resolved anything.

One other complaint the anti-war movement makes is that Saddam was supported by the west in the 80's. This was a delibrate attempt to stop Fundamentalist Islam from taking over more countries in the Mid-east - it was never an endorsement of Saddam.

Winston Peters is a dirty, filthy liar - and a coward!

And I'm happy to say that outside of Parliamentary Priviledge because I have a long memory:

In 1992, Winston Peters claimed on Television that he had been approached by a businessman on behalf of the Business Roundtable and offered money to change his econmic policies.

He later in parliament (thinking he was protected by priviledge) named Selwyn Cushing as the person who had approached him. The judge in the resulting defamation case found the accusation to have contained "not a word of truth", beyond getting Mr Cushing's name right. Mr Peters "was at best reckless, or even worse, he knew the words he used were false". Whatever the merits of Mr Peters' technical defence regarding the use of parliamentary privilege, he made no attempt to justify in court his defamatory statements.

Mr Peters has been quick in his career to call others to account for their alleged failings. Yet neither Mr Cushing nor the Business Roundtable (of which Mr Cushing has never been a member) have received any apology from Mr Peters for getting his accusation so completely wrong. (The only thing Selwyn Cushing recieved was $50,000 plus $75,000 in costs.)

So Mr Peters, if you are sure about your recent statements about Mr Peron, step outside the debating chamber, repeat them outside Parliament. Otherwise it's reasonable to assume that you are being reckless with the truth - again.

Dr Cullen's plan - Lower Wages = Lower Taxes

Much is being made by Dr Cullen and others about the OECD Report about New Zealand being one of the lowest taxed countries in the world. There is a simple reason for that - because New Zealand is one of the lowest wage rates in the world!

I check the OECD report and found these figures - I converted the Gross Wage to New Zealand Dollars and then calculated the tax rate using the NZ tax rates. So if the average Kiwi earned as much as the country listed then the tax rate would be as listed



So there you have it - New Zealand appears to be low tax, but it is kept down by the fact that we are actually a low wage country. This is further hidden by the high Kiwi dollar (for instance, if you calculate the German amount with the Euro at .45 against the NZ Dollar (like it was in 2001) you get a 28.7% tax rate on the income.

A clown with a Toothbrush

“[Annette King] should be ashamed of herself” says NZ First MP Barbara Stewart.

"I am flabberghasted" bleats Green Party MP Sue Kedgley.

And what's their problem? They want to stop Ronald McDonald Charities from paying $750,000 to put a picture of Ronald McDonald on the side of a mobile dental clinic van, encouraging them to brush their teeth. (See here.) That's right, no burger advertising, no encouragement to drink Coke, nothing more than a picture of an icon promoting dental health.

Oh yes, he's the symbol of a company that helped fund Hamish Carter and Sarah Ulmer - remember them, they won Gold Medals at the last Olympics. They now front their programme encouraging people to eat a balanced diet.

He's also been a long-time campaigner for road safety.

And did you know that McDonald's sponsors kids Soccer, Touch Rugby and Netball?

But I still don't see why everyone's knickers are in a twist! Surely it can't be McDonald's fault if I gorge myself on bad food? I know what's what. I also know that a diet with too much fast food is bad for children, too. So that's you can be assured that I will not take my kids to McDonalds every night for dinner - it will be a treat.


Finally a warning - a vote for the Greens is a vote for draconian policies like this:

“... why are these same DHBs not taking simple measures that would eliminate the need for mobile dental caravans in the first place – like requiring that all schools have water-only drinking policies in their schools?” - Sue Kedgley, from the same Press Release.

Since when did Sue Kedgley get to choose what we can eat and drink?

(As an aside, Sue Kedgley told an audience at the 1999 Candidates meeting that everyone should get out of their cars and use public transport. I immediately yelled out "So how did you get here tonight, Sue?" - she sat quietly while a Labour Party supporter next to me told everyone he had seen her arrive - in a car!)

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Well - not really. But the Police Recorded Crime Statistics while they sound encouraging are not exactly truthful of actual.

We have seen no discernable drop in violent crime - the type that is always reported. But minor property crime has fallen away, probably because homeowners have given up reporting it.

In the past twelve months I have had a fence pailing broken (not reported), a car broken into and some cheap sunglasses taken (not reported), and a grafitti attack on the front fence (not reported). None of these were reported to the Police because I didn't think any action would be taken.

During the last election campaign, ACT promoted 'Zero Tolerance to Crime'. One advantage of this approach is that minor property crime is recorded, followed up and the person responsible punished, not necessarily through the court system - usually with just a 'kick up the bum' from the constable the first time. The important thing is the criminal knows he has been caught for something he might have got away with earlier.

Of course, this means more community constables. With a $6.5 billion surplus I can't think of a better spending priority for Labour than 1000 new policemen. In the words of Sir Humphrey - "It will be popular, Minister."

Weird! Weird! Weird!

One of the great things about a website is checking the stats. I'm most pleased to see that readership grew by 33% last month, but my stats have some interesting results.

For instance:

Among the most common searches that returned my website are "Hippie Hairstyles" and "Perspex Fountain"

Websites that referred their readers to me include "hand job models" and "Miriam.camfun"

It seems have a following in Japan (Konnichiwa), Italy (Buon giorno), Spain (Hola), The Netherlands (Hallo) and China (Ni hao).

Anyway, the point of this post was to thank you all for reading. Yes, you!