Security alliances need loftier goals
Posted: April 21, 2024 Filed under: Other, submissions | Tags: climate change, disaster relief, exploitation mentality, NATO, Newsroom, nuclear deterance, NZ military, peter dunne, Ukraine war Leave a commentThe new security alliance framework of an NZ-specific Nato partnership agreement and Aukus Pillar Two membership must be more than simply a containment exercise against Russia or China
by Peter Dunne
My take: Aotearoa / New Zealand needs disaster relief capability of its land, air and sea forces. No military fighting unit is necessary.
Read more: Security alliances need loftier goalsIt was so astoundingly quiet how easily former PM Jacinda Ardern slid New Zealand back into the old alliance mentality (NATO) in relation to the Russian / Ukraine conflict. Instead of so shallowly looking backward as that we should be looking at the future. A future oriented foreign policy will not include a military fighting force but will be focused on climate change and nuclear disarmament. Given that, it is easy to see how much domestic policy is intimately related to foreign policy. Thie new government is purposely trying to destroy the capability of moving into this new world as they understand and are terrified by the knowledge that their exploitative philosophy is anachronistic in today’s world.
NZ’s foreign policy shift adds to piling flashpoints
Posted: April 21, 2024 Filed under: Other, responses | Tags: 'who we are', colonialism, Donald Trump, exploitation mentality, Jacinda Ardern, Mosque shootings, NATO, Newsroom, nuclear deterrence, nuclear suicide, Rob Campbell Leave a commentAs the new Government moves New Zealand more clearly into the American camp, we risk further division as a country – and must challenge efforts to enmesh us in alliances against our interests.
by Rob Campbell
I pick only one point from Rob Campbell’s terrific statement to comment on – Jacinda Ardern (remember her?)
Read more: NZ’s foreign policy shift adds to piling flashpoints‘while engaging in flirting – if not foreplay – with Nato in Europe.’
Up to now, since the Labour Party with Jacinda Ardern became the previous government, this country’s biggest problem has been that PM’s unthinking instinct to support NATO, a very aggressive militaristic organization. It was based on the PM’s understanding of ‘who we are’ as a people and our history. Remember that the PM’s response to the mosque massacre was ‘this is not who we are’. Fair enough assertion in that circumstance, though over the following weeks and months there was much welcome discussion about the colonialist nature of our history. But undoubtedly ‘who we are’ was fundamentally important to that PM. And when she realized that her understanding was incorrect, she resigned. So I think your description of ‘flirting, or ‘foreplay’, while clever and to a point insightful, is not personal enough to that PM to get at the best description.
Now we have a new government which has a better understanding of the shallow and dangerous nature of that understanding of our history because it reflects its own exploitation ideology. They instinctively understand that that philosophy will not be workable in the future so they know this is their last chance to implement it. And, of course, it is global, not just here and not just in the person of Donald Trump. This leaves a civilization, aware of the need to fundamentally change, rudderless and with weapons available to end it all.
This clear view reveals that it would not be unrealistic to call this a global suicide pact. There is no such thing as ‘nuclear deterrence’ and there never has been – it’s a figment of a collective insanity.
Soft power is NZ’s greatest power – Dan O’Brien on Newsroom
Posted: February 24, 2024 Filed under: Other, responses | Tags: climate change, colonialist narrative, Dan O'Brien, exploitation, exploitation mentality, Houthis, New Zealand, Newsroom, Post Truth Era, Soft Power, United Nations, Yemen Leave a commentDan O’Brien discusses the recent foreign policy decisions such as the support for unilateral military responses.
Opinion: Hard power solutions are neither New Zealand’s forté nor in our soft power tradition. They often lead to escalation rather than de-escalation.
Yet the Government’s support for military strikes against Houthis in Yemen without United Nations authorisation is an example of the increasing priority placed by our officials on security relationships with powerful security partners – and their hard power solutions to the world’s problems.
Read more: Soft power is NZ’s greatest power – Dan O’Brien on NewsroomMy response:
This a new time in history, The Post Truth Era where denial has become mainstream. As such, any discussion such as this must take that into account. Soft Power is a great term, but the context is that we know our history is fundamentally in the exploitation of our ecospheres. And in our history within an exploitative colonial empire.
Exploitation is not so nice a term. But the new government’s electoral popularity was shown to be in the desire to avoid change, a terror of the knowledge that only fundamental change will give us a chance to deal properly with climate challenges. As such, reasonable attitudes and policy will appear to challenge this resistance to change. The new government has quickly shown they are going to firmly reestablish our place in the exploitation mentality. Their desperation is so strong that they will not bother trying to justify their resistance to reconciliation and ‘soft power’ as foundational.
Letter to (about) Roger Douglas (remember him?)
Posted: July 29, 2023 Filed under: Letters | Tags: 'There is no alternative', colonialism, David Seymour, exploitation mentality, Maggie Thatcher, neo-liberal, New Zealand, Roger Douglas, ronald reagan, TINA, UK, USA Leave a comment Read more: Letter to (about) Roger Douglas (remember him?)The Editor, The Post, Wellington
23/07/ 2023
Dear Editor:
Roger Douglas of eighties neo-liberal fame is complaining that David Seymour’s version of ACT is pandering to the wealthy elite which Douglas says was not his original intent. Well he is certainly right that ACT policies favour the rich, but both Douglas’s and Seymour’s. Douglas should remember that the neo-liberal was championed by Reagan in the USA and Thatcher in the UK among many other places. Everywhere it catered to the rich. That’s where the great growth in inequality of the last 40 years has come from and continues today.
The neo-liberal was desperately touted to be the ‘only way’. (TINA –There Is No Alternative). ‘Only way’ for what? That no-other-way pandering to the rich is exploitative of people and is also consistent with the colonialist history of many outposts of the European empires, including New Zealand. And more generally the attack on the globe’s ecospheres through centuries of human-separatist-supremacist ideology and practice. So the breadth of the neo-liberal can also be seen to be responsible for the depth of denial of the continuing changes over the next decades necessary to avoid the worst of climate apocalypse. This threat is so well known by now that TINA may yet prove to be the only way to ‘prevent’ those necessary changes.
Sincerely,
Richard Keller
Excess profits and growing inequality is the goal of neoliberalism
Posted: March 5, 2022 Filed under: Letters | Tags: climate change, climate denialism, climate disruption, climate science, ecosystem, ecosystem degradation, exploitation, exploitation mentality, growing inequality, inequality, neo-liberal, neo-liberal economics, Post Truth Era, Ron Goudswaard Leave a commentThe Editor, The DomPost, Wellington
03/03/ 2022
Dear Editor:
Ron Goudswaard (2/3) asks a simply put question about excess profits which opens up a very big topic, namely about the history of NZ (and the globe) since the neo-liberal coup of the eighties.
Read the rest of this entry »What’s in a name? – the name of this country
Posted: September 27, 2021 Filed under: Other, responses | Tags: 'All New Zealanders', Afghanistan, Afghanistan interpreters, anti-colonialist, Aotearoa, Aotearoa / New Zealand, climate change, colonialism, exploitation, exploitation mentality, great replacement, imperialism, New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern 1 CommentI’ve been invited to sign a petition to not change the name of this country, keeping it ‘New Zealand’. This is my response:
Read the rest of this entry »How ‘main stream’ is far-right ideology in the USA?
Posted: September 15, 2021 Filed under: Letters, Letters-to-overseas | Tags: collective subconscious, colonialism, cultural history, Donald Trump, exploitation mentality, far right ideology, fear, history, imperialism, Madison, President, The Progressive, Wisconsin Leave a commentSeptember 14, 2021
The Editor, The Progressive Magazine
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Hello The Progressive,
The look at far right groups in your April / May print edition is informative and interesting. But it only hints at the discussion as to whether and how much of their message has made it into the main stream.
Read the rest of this entry »Helen Clark can’t have it both ways
Posted: September 14, 2021 Filed under: Letters | Tags: "war on terror", Afghanistan, Bush/Cheney, climate change, exploitation, exploitation mentality, Helen Clark, Iraq war, nuclear weapons, westernization 1 CommentThe Editor, The Sunday Star Times, Auckland
13/09/ 2021
Dear Editor:
Former PM Helen Clark has joined a growing chorus trying to resurrect mythologies, and her own policy, tarnished by the collapse in Afghanistan.
Read the rest of this entry »Anti-colonialist narrative hides need for urgent climate action
Posted: August 31, 2021 Filed under: Letters | Tags: anti-colonialist, carbon emissions, climate change, colonialism, culture, exploitation, exploitation mentality, fear, John Bishop, Max Rashbrooke, terrified 1 CommentThe Editor, The Dominion Post, Wellington
30/08/ 2021
Dear Editor:
Once again Friday columnists John Bishop and Max Rashbrooke both seem to be onto something similar, but I don’t think either one has nailed it down.
Read the rest of this entry »
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