State of the Union
I haven’t really been blogging much lately. I haven’t really felt like there was something that I should talk about. So in the spirit of sustaining content (dynamic website! Not static!), I thought I’d give a run down on how I see the world at the moment.
Domestic politics
Let’s call John Key what he is. A goddamn liar. I’m not going to prevaricate here like he does. I’m not going to accuse him of forgetting things, or “misremembering” them. He. Is. A. Liar. He has lied repeatedly. He’s avoided being upfront and honest too. Just today at the Herald, Jared Savage has the story of how Key knows Donghua Liu. Turns out Key had a private dinner at his house. We’d been told that Key had met Liu at some events, but the PM attends a lot of events so there’s no way he could remember specifics.
He’s lied about his relationship with Cameron Slater multiple times. When did he text him, has he spoken to him, etc. He lied about when he knew about the Mike Sabin story. His story of his recollection over just about anything changes multiple times. So let’s call it for what it is, our Prime Minister, our leader, is a liar.
But
Andrew Little needs to up his game. Because for all of the things that Key has lied about, they pale when you get a story like LITTLE DOESN’T PAY CONTRACTOR. Because the thing Key lies about are niche issues, they’re not issues that regular folk can relate to. But when you get a story when a former Union Boss, and the leader of the ‘workers party’ turns out that he didn’t pay his worker, well that’s simple enough for the masses to get. And Little is still new enough that his narrative hasn’t properly formed, so “guy who doesn’t pay people to do work for him” is a bad look.
He also needs to find an issue and really nail it. Get something that New Zealanders can rally behind. Make it something sexy. It doesn’t matter if it’s trivial, just find something we can connect to. Because right now you’re kind of floundering around with nothing going on.
Bein’ Green
The Greens meanwhile are not getting the oxygen they really should be out of the fact they’re about to elect a new leader. This is supposed to be an exciting time of rejuvenation. The candidates should be making a big song and dance about who they are so that those not in the Green Ideological Soup get to know them. Instead we have so far only had one candidate announced – Kevin Hague – and then he’s kind of vanished.
Kevin is a great guy, a phenomenally nice man, super smart and the most likeable MP in the house. I’m sure he’d do a great job as leader. But he needs to increase his presence. There should also be another candidate so it is somewhat democratic. People are talking about Gareth Hughes as a possible candidate but I think Gareth will always suffer from the appearance of a boy wearing daddy’s suit and playing dress-up-politics. I like the look of James Shaw. So far he’s not put a foot wrong, he’s been surprisingly funny in the house and I think he’d be a great balance for the more activisty Metiria. Having said that, he hasn’t given any indication whether he’ll be a candidate or not.
Whoever runs, they need to develop a stronger presence.
Not politics
The country is in a very good mood at the moment because of the cricket. It’s always a treat when New Zealand gets to host these international events. I’ll go ahead and admit that I didn’t think we’d be capable of doing a good job for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. I thought our infrastructure wouldn’t stand up to it and we’d be too backwards, but bugger me if we didn’t nail it. And it’s feeling similar to the cricket world up.
The CWC always suffers from the problem that it goes on too bloody long but so far, good job New Zealand.
The team is also firing in a way that I’ve never seen. Cricket is my first love as a sport – the 1992 World Cup lit a fire in me that has never been extinguished. There are a few 16 year olds who play in my club cricket team and for them the New Zealand team has always been reasonably OK. They didn’t suffer through the indignities of the 1990s when Blairs Pocock and Hartland opened the batting for New Zealand. When we couldn’t find an opening bowler who could nudge the speedball radar past 128km/h. So they’re not as excited as the rest of us. But wow. McCullum and his team are proving to be something very very special. Of course this doesn’t remove that lingering thought that it only takes one game for us to revert to type and be all out for 135. But so far…so good.
International
Man those ISIS guys just don’t let up do they? And I can’t for the life of me figure out their tactics. If they truly are trying to get a Caliphate going (and that’s what they’ve said), then pissing off every single country around you isn’t going to help. Executing 21 Egyptians only inspired the Egyptians to bomb the shit out of you. Same thing when they burned that poor Jordanian airforce pilot in his cage.
What will become (morbidly) fascinating to me is when Al Qaeda finally have enough and turn on ISIS because frankly they’re stealing all of their press. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend? In which case which enemy is my friend in this instance? Do the US start arming Al Qaeda (again)?
The Chechynans are also starting to feel left out. And Putin is still running amok in Ukraine. As well as Bassad in Syria. And yet we’re all captivated by these fuckers beheading people left, right and centre. When North Korea eventually crumbles we’re going to be exposed to the true horror of just what’s been going on there. And after the Concentration Camps were liberated in Europe in the 40s (Godwin), the world said we must never again allow this to happen. Well I think we are.
Righto, that’s how Dave sees the world right now.
Peace.
