The Herald reports:

New Zealand’s absence from a global holocaust memorial event has been called disappointing by the New Zealand Jewish Council and labelled disgraceful by the Opposition.

Almost every President or PM in the western world is attending.

The decision not to attend is disgraceful, and also stupid.

It is disgraceful because anti-Semitism is on the rise, as just seen in Wellington with a swastika painted onto a synagogue.

It is disgraceful because the Holocaust is the worst atrocity of modern times. What message do we send, by saying sorry we couldn’t spare anyone.

But it is also stupid because we missed out on the very important networking opportunities from the largest gathering of heads of state or governments outside the UN. You’ve got Mike Pence, Putin and Macron for a start.

Five years ago for a less prominent holocaust event, The Government sent both a Minister and a senior Opposition MP (Chris Finlayson and Annette King). Good bipartisan work.

For a gathering of this nature we should have sent either the Governor-General, the Speaker or the PM.

Future Crunch has 99 good news stories from 2019, you have probably never seen. Here’s a few:

• New surveys revealed that the population of humpback whales in the South Atlantic region now number 24,900 — almost 93% of their population size before they were hunted to the brink of extinction
• In Kenya, poaching rates have dropped by 85% for rhinos and 78% for elephants in the last five years
• Algeria and Argentina officially eliminated malaria this year
• The Global Burden of Disease Report said that between 1990 and 2017, the number of kids and teenagers dying around the world decreased by more than half, from 13.77 million to 6.64 million
• Remember bird flu, the disease that was going to be the next global pandemic? There hasn’t been a single H5N1 human infection since February 2017
• In the biggest breakthrough for cystic fibrosis in decades, a new drug that targets the genetic roots of the disease was approved by the FDA.
• Malawi eliminated the world’s most common infectious eye disease, trachoma, the second African country to do so after Ghana. In 2014 more than eight million people were at risk. Today, that number is zero.
• A new Ebola vaccine was cleared for distribution in 2019, and is working miracles, reducing mortality rates from 70% to as low as 6%.
• New research showed that the proportion of people in extreme poverty around the world fell from 36% in 1990 to 8.6% in 2018.
• The biggest global story you didn’t hear about this year was the successful conclusion of India’s extraordinary sanitation drive. In the last five years, 90 million toilets have been built, 93% of households now have access, and 500 million people have stopped defecating in the open.
• China now has equal numbers of girls and boys in primary and high school, and more than half of university students are women, up from less than a quarter in 1978

I’m running a poll on the 2020 US Presidential Election, embedded below. Please take 30 seconds to vote in it.

I’m interested in not just the topline results, but the cross tabs. Which Democratic nominees would do best against Trump, and how people describe their politics. Also which Democratic nomiee would make the best President, if elected.

I’ll publish on KB an analysis of results. Voting is anonymous and private.

The Herald reports:

A couple’s 1300-kilometre bicycle journey to lay a coffin on Parliament’s steps has been stopped 20 metres short after an emotional exchange with security guards.

Dunedin parents Julian and Camilla Cox have this month cycled across the South Island, towing a coffin behind their tandem bike, in a protest calling for Government drug-buying agency Pharmac’s $1-billion-a-year budget to be doubled.

On Wednesday, they finished the last leg of their three-week trip, ferrying across the Cook Strait to Wellington and carrying the box onto Parliament’s lawn with the help of fellow protesters.

The Coxes’ 19-year-old daughter Rachael is one of 550 New Zealanders who suffer from the lung disease cystic fibrosis. They say Pharmac’s current funding means she and others don’t have access to life-prolonging drugs available in other countries.

But as the coffin was carried towards the Parliament building on Wednesday, security guards halted the mock funeral procession of about 30 to tell them they didn’t have permission to take the final few steps.

After a tense exchange about what exactly had been cleared by the office of Parliament’s Speaker, Trevor Mallard, the campaigners eventually set the box down about 20 metres across the forecourt.

It left Camilla Cox outraged.

“We have cycled 1300km to make change for our child and all the people we have met on our long journey. To arrive here and have people bickering about 50 metres. How pathetic,” she said.

“Our families are dying, are being torn apart and we have small-minded people bickering about 50 metres of public space. You ask how we feel? I am furious and I’m disgusted and I’m disappointed with our politicians.”

They have my sympathy. It was petty.

The couple have also used the trip to deliver a letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pleading for the drug-buying agency to be better funded and reformed to allow for faster decision-making.

“Jacinda, you are our elected leader and you have led the world at showing compassion at times of crises,” the letter reads.

“Now we have another crisis that is costing lives on a daily basis; it’s called Pharmac and we need you to show both your world-famous empathy and leadership by giving the agency the money it needs.”

The Government is wasting up to $1.2 billion a year on free tertiary fees (which has seen enrolments drop). Think what a difference ut would make if even half that money went to Pharmac.

But I guess more students vote than families of cystic fibrosis sufferers.

Their petition is here. They hope t get 250,000 signatures.

A UK Labour activist wrote on election day:

Fuck off, Jeremy Corbyn, you hopeless old tatterdemalion, and take your useless fucking coterie with you.

You’ve wasted years, lost everything you’ve tried, and are the single biggest cause of the Tory win.

Should’ve gone 3 years ago. Go now. People will say “I bet you want Blair”. No. Blair might be the opposite of Corbyn, but he’s not the only alternative to him. The mistake Labour made is thinking a bad person being good at politics means everybody good at politics is bad. 

People will say “the media is biased”. Yes. But that’s the environment Labour leaders always operate in. Complaining about it is like trawler captains complaining the sea is wet. Yep. Learn to thrive in those conditions, or get off the boat. 

People will say “they treated him worse than any previous leader”. They did. Cos he was shit at working the press, had a history of opinions that could be easily made to look awful, was inept on antisemitism, shifty on Brexit and cantankerous on TV. 

People will say “no way is he racist”. Perhaps. But if people accused me of antisemitism, I’d be able to clearly defend myself, demonstrate my credentials, and put in place a strategy to stop accusations. He couldn’t. If he’s not antisemitic, he’s inept. 

People will say “voters love him in person”. I’m sure. But we’ve been in the age of broadcasting for 80 years. What the hell use is being warm and cuddly to 600 people in a field, when you come over badly to 60 million people on TV? 

People will say “he grew the party”. He did. But he lost elections.

People will say “members love him”. They do. But members aren’t all voters.

People will say “his manifesto is great”. Maybe. But the more radical your are, the better salesman you need to be. And he’s crap. 

A good summary.

People will say “we had to let him try”. We did let him try. For years. He lost the referendum in 2016. He lost the election in 2017. He lost the EU elections in 2019. He’s lost again. The only thing he’s won was “most unpopular Leader of Opposition in history”. 

And that takes some doing.

The Herald reports:

A Kiwi in the United Kingdom says she’s a student loan exile – unable to come home to take care of her mother because she fears being arrested at the border.

The woman estimates her student loan is now more than $100,000. She blocked contact from Inland Revenue about five years ago, saying attempts to organise affordable repayments had failed and the stress was overwhelming her.

News of another student loan defaulter being arrested at Auckland Airport had left her more convinced she couldn’t come home.

“I feel so guilty because I have friends who did have to pay their loans back. I really feel strongly that I want to pay a reasonable amount back, but if I start paying any back then they are going to know where I am, have my information and they are going to demand it all. And I’ll never be free of it.

Tough,

Repayment are a maximum 10% or 12% of your income. She’s not willing to pay back her debt.

If she even makes a minimal regular contribution, IRD would not have her in the potential arrest category. But if you refuse to pay s single cent, and refuse to talk to IRD, well there are consequences.

Stuff reports:

A forestry company with close links to New Zealand First says it gave a presentation to Shane Jones about a project it was seeking a $15 million government loan for – months before Jones says he first heard of it.

When NZ Future Forest Products (NZFFP) applied for Provincial Growth Fund money on 8 April, 2019, the company was asked whether the project had been “previously discussed” with the government.

The application form shows NZFFP ticked the ‘yes’ box and said it had made a “presentation to the Minister” about its forestry and wood processing plans “including descriptions of the applicant”.

Jones, a New Zealand First MP who is forestry minister and the minister responsible for the $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund, has consistently claimed he first heard about the NZFFP bid on 14 October last year.

So not only does the forestry company linked to NZ First get a private meeting with the Minister to present their plans, he then denies he had ever heard of them prior to the media stories.

Again in any normal Government, this would be grounds for sacking. But not in this one.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

On the 23rd of January (World Holocaust Memorial Day), the Fifth World Holocaust Forum is being held in Israel, hosted by the President of Israel and Yad Vashem.

Invites were sent to many world leaders, including New Zealand. And leaders from 46 countries are attending including US Vice President Mike Pence; French President Emmanuel Macron; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Charles, the Prince of Wales; and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeie.

The attendees include:

• Presidents – Albania, Armenia, Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, EU x 3, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, US
• Prime Ministers: Czech, Denmark, Sweden
• Governor-General: Australia, Canada
• Speakers: Belarus, Latvia, US
• Monarchs: Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, UK
• Ambassadors: Holy See
• Ministers: Monaco

Now who is missing?

Which is the (almost) sole first world country that is absent?

New Zealand. Not only did we decide not to send the Governor-General, we’re sending no-one at all. Not even a Minister or an Ambassador.

Most of the 46 other countries are sending their heads of state or head of government. We’re not sending anyone.

The Holocaust was a crime against humanity. This Government goes on and on about human rights a lot, yet has decided not to attend the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the largest ever gathering of countries to fight anti-Semitism.

Why?

We send thousands of people to hundreds of different international conferences and gatherings. But no-one for this one.

One News reports:

The son of acclaimed fantasy author JRR Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, has died aged 95.

Christopher Tolkien was responsible for publishing much of his late father’s work and undertook significant editing on those works.

The Tolkien Society announced his death this morning, sending its “deepest condolences to the Tolkien Family”.

Tolkien Society Chair Shaun Gunnar said “all of us in the Tolkien Society will share in the sadness at the news of Christopher Tolkien’s death, and we send our condolences to Baillie, Simon, Adam, Rachel and the whole Tolkien family at this difficult time.

It can be hard to be the son of a great man, but Christopher Tolkien handled it well. In fact he was a significant contributor to his father’s legacy, which became his own life’s work.

In fact JRR referred to Christopher as his “chief critic and collaborator”.

It will be interesting to see who becomes the literary executor to the Tolkien works, as this can have a major impact on future TV series and films.

Stuff reports:

The Green Party opposes the changes on the grounds New Zealand shouldn’t allow bodyguards and security staff from other countries to carry firearms. 

Justice spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman said existing laws should be enough to provide for security of visitors during APEC. 

This is just being silly.

New Zealand will not be eligible to host APEC unless all heads of government can attend, and the US President never visits a country without his own Secret Service protection.

If you want to host international events such as APEC, you have to allow the Secret Service to do its mandated job of protecting the US President.

Tsai Ing-wen was re-elected President of Taiwan with 57% of the vote. The KMT candidate got just 39%.

The heavy handed tactics by China in Hong Kong were no doubt a big influence in this election. Turnout was 9% higher than in 2016.

So the results of China trying to heavy Taiwan was to get the pro-independence President easily re-elected.

Hopefully they’ll learn their tactics are counter-productive. Well outside NZ universities anyway.

Stuff reports:

The filming of the new Lord of the Rings television series is causing some headaches for local film producers as they struggle to find workers and studio space.

Amazon’s new billion-dollar series is based in Auckland but is being filmed across the country and is set to kick off next month.

At the same time, Netflix’s new live-action series Cowboy Bebop and the long awaited sequels to James Cameron’s Avatar are already in the works.

But Great Southern Television chief executive Phil Smith said while the filming was a boon, it was causing some headaches.

The local film industry was struggling to find workers or studio space amidst all of the action, he said.

“First of all it’s quite a good problem to have. Having an industry in New Zealand that is so incredibly buoyant and exciting, no-one is going to be complaining about that, but clearly there’s only a certain number of skilled people who can do an exceptional job and when international companies come in they want the very best, and so do we.

Definitely a good problem to have.

Steve Cortes at Real Clear Politics lists what he sees as Trump’s top 10 achievements last year:

1. Jobs
2. Broadening the Movement
3. Confronting China
4. Trade Deals With Allies
5. Judges
6. Remain-in-Mexico Policy
7. Mueller Exoneration
8. Al-Baghdadi Killing
9. Natural Gas Exports Soar
10. Space Force

I’d agree with 1, 5, 8 and 9.

Frank Furedi writes at Spiked:

There is an insidious crusade afoot aiming at controlling what the public sees, hears, thinks and believes. This project, which seeks hegemony in various Western cultures, is no less pervasive and thoroughgoing than previous attempts at thought control by totalitarian and theocratic regimes.

But since this campaign to control the narrative has no name, and does not promote an explicit ideology, its significance tends to be underestimated, even by those who oppose the many attempts to police language and thought.

A new identity-obsessed, anti-humanist and anti-civilisational narrative has taken hold. We are increasingly encouraged to change our language, adopt hitherto unknown words, and accept deeply questionable claims.

An example:

A group of 16 scientists – from such prestigious universities as Cambridge and Oxford – wrote a letter to the journal Nature denouncing its use of the term ‘quantum supremacy’. This was on the grounds that it conveys racist and colonialist ideas.

They said that, in their view, ‘supremacy’ has ‘overtones of violence, neocolonialism and racism through its association with “white supremacy”’, and demanded that the term be replaced by ‘quantum advantage’.

What muppets.

In August, a team at the Human Interface Technology lab in New Zealand asserted that it was problematic that most robots were manufactured out of white plastic, since it smacked of imperialism and white supremacy.

Here we can see how white supremacy has been redefined, turned from a distinct and vicious political ideology into a kind of original sin possessed by all those born with light skin.

And just recently we’ve seen the term white supremacist thrown around at anyone.

In some instances, the policing of culture can rely on the police themselves. Earlier this year, Harry Miller, a docker from Humberside, was contacted by the police after he retweeted a trans-sceptical limerick on Twitter. The officer informed him that ‘we need to check your thinking’.

So sad.

The World Bank has NZ as top of 190 countries for doing business in 2020.

A lot of this is because we make it so simple for people to set up a company. You don’t need permission from anyone. In fact you can do it online in 10 to 15 minutes. In many countries it can take weeks.

Some examples:

• In NZ it takes just one procedure to start a business. In some it takes 18.
• It takes less than half a day to start one in NZ. In one country it takes 100 days.
• We have the equal top legal rights
• Documentary compliance to import is under one hour. In some countries it takes 240 hours.

Someone joked on Twitter that maybe he couldn’t find a suicide vest that fitted. Mind you, he could probably take down a building without one.

He is a particularly nasty piece of work. He provided religious justifications for the rape and enslavement of numerous people. Worth clicking on the Twitter link and reading the thread about him, or on Facebook here.

Stuff reports:

A childcare centre must pay a former employee $3000 in damages for breaching her privacy by giving her a bad job reference which saw her miss out on a job.

How dare they give a bad reference.

In February 2015, she resigned to take up what she thought was her new position but the management at Katui decided not to give her a reference because of her unsatisfactory work performance. 

After Gin-Cowan signed her employment agreement, MUMA contacted her asking her for a curriculum vitae. She put one together in haste, naming the manager at Katui as her referee and providing the centre’s phone number as the contact number for the manager.

So she listed the old centre’s manager as a referee and used the centre phone number.

When the Māngere centre staff rang Katui, the manager Gin-Cowan had selected as her referee was on sick leave.

The acting manager answered the phone and said she and Gin-Cowan did not get on, she would not provide a reference for her, and she would not re-employ her. She then gave out a phone number for the Matthews. 

The Māngere staff member rang Mrs Matthews, who said Gin-Cowan was often late to work, was unreliable and had unsatisfactory work habits, according to the staff member’s evidence. 

If she listed a work number as a referee, then she was risking they would end up talking to someone else.

The tribunal found Gin-Cowan’s humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to her feelings was caused by a minor breach in privacy under Principle 11 of the Privacy Act. That states any agency that holds personal information shouldn’t disclose it unless it believes the disclosure is authorised by the individual concerned.

Katui was ordered to pay Gin-Cowan $3000 and costs were reserved.

Incredibly unfair. If a work phone number is given out for a referee check, then you’d assume consent when someone phones on that number.

I haven’t used Norton for many years but was offered a review copy of Norton 360 so thought it would be interesting to try out.

Of course it wasn’t a copy, as in the old days. It’s all cloud based so all you do is go to the Norton website and enter in a code. I had Norton 360 premium which provides protection for up to five devices.

This aspect was useful as you can install it on your laptop and them just send a link to your other devices to install it there also. Very simple and easy.

You don’t have to choose all the features, so I declined to have it be the default search engine.

Did an initial scan of my laptop and three vulnerabilities found and fixed which was good. And then after that it just sat in the background, as you want it to.

The VPN capability is also very useful in numerous scenarios.

So overall very easy to install and use, and some welcome extra protection.