After lunch we discovered a congress of baboons just outside our tent.

Then out on safari drive again and saw lost of antelopes.

Buffaloes with some Great White Egrits on them.

And Yellow-billed Oxpeckers on them also.

A buffalo enjoying his mud pool.

Antelopes also with birds around them to clean them.

Two Southern Ground Hornbills

We were fortunate enough to see a lion kill two afternoons in a row. The same pride caught another warthog. Here is a lioness just afterwards joining the others.

Two Waterbucks having a public display of affection.

An elephant just next to a bridge we passed over.

Another great African sunset.

Got back to the tent to see two giraffes just a couple of score metres away, just by the boundary fence,

And then for good measure a hippo walked past also. Amazing to not just go out looking for animals, but to have them wander past your tent.

The sad is in the NZ Herald:

The least surprising thing about yesterday’s turn of events in Paris is that Jews are the target. Because when it comes to home-grown anti-Semitism, France leads the world.

A survey last year from the European Jewish Congress and Tel Aviv University found that France had more violent anti-Semitic incidents in 2013 than any other country in the world. Jews were the target of 40 per cent of all racist crimes in France in 2013 – even though they comprise less than 1 per cent of the population. Attacks on Jews have risen sevenfold since the Nineties.

No wonder Jewish emigration from France is accelerating. From being the largest Jewish community in the EU at the start of this decade, with a population of around 500,000, it is expected by Jewish community leaders to have fallen to 400,000 within a few years. That figure is thought by some to be too optimistic. Anecdotally, every French Jew I know has either already left or is working out how to leave. …

David Tibi, the then leader of Paris’s main Jewish umbrella group, left last July. As he told The Jewish Chronicle: “There is an atmosphere of anti-Semitism in the streets. My daughter was attacked in the tramway, so was my son. The aggressors made anti-Semitic comments and pushed them around. We no longer have a place in France.”

The Jewish school shooting in Toulouse in 2012, in which four people were murdered at point blank range by a French-born jihadist trained in the Middle East; the growing support for Marine Le Pen’s National Front; and the popularity of anti-Semitic figures such as the comedian Dieudonne, are all part of the undercurrent of anti-Semitism that frames French life. And more recently synagogues have been firebombed and Jewish areas attacked by mobs. Almost of all these attacks have been carried out by Muslims.

Very depressing and sad. As Jews leave France because it is no longer safe, I feel glad there is one country on Earth where they can immigrate as of right, and be safe.

But on the uplifting front:

Lassana, employed by the Hyper Casher where a hostage situation occurred Friday, had had the reflex to hide his customers from the armed terrorist. Hiding them had permitted the escape from Amedy Coulibaly.

He introduces himself as being a “Mali Muslim,” as was Amedy Coulibaly. Confronted by the heavily-armed terrorist in the kosher supermarket where he worked, Lassana acted only on reflex: Helping the hostages to find a safe place. The customers were stuffed down, via a trap door, in the basement. “When they got down on the fly,” explained the employee of Hyper Casher to [a french TV station], “I opened the door to the freezer. There were man people who had come back [into the freezer] with me. I turned out the light, I turned off the freezer.”

Among the frightened customers, a man found himself there with “a two-year old baby,” said Lassana. He was actually a baby of three and a half years, who accompanied his father. “When I had turned off the freezer, I had put them inside, I closed the door, I said: “Remain calm, here, I will get you out.” “When they were out, they congratulated me, they thanked me,” recounted humbly this young man.

That’s a great example of the common humanity that binds together most people, regardless of religion.

At the memorial rally today in France, I think it is powerful symbolism that the President of France will not only be joined the UK PM, German Chancellor and Spanish PM, but also the PM of Turkey, the PM of Israel and the President of the Palestinian Authority.

The Herald reports:

Well-known TV and variety performer Chic Littlewood has died in Auckland.

He came to New Zealand from Britain with his wife and their two sons in 1964 and worked as a baker, later getting into theatre and eventually tv, hosting such favourite children’s shows as Chicaboom, which in 1978 became Chic Chat.

In 1977 he was the first variety entertainer to be awarded Entertainer of the Year, and in 1979 the Variety Artists Club awarded him a Benny Award.

As a kid I watched Chic Littlewood on TV. Willie McNabb was great with him. A sad loss.

Sam Bowman at the Adam Smith Institute makes the point:

Bullies succeed by making their victims fear them. The bully may be stronger than the victim, but he does not constantly use force against them. It is the fear of violence or humiliation that makes victims act in the way the bully wants them to. …

Terrorism often operates in the same way. Very few terrorists could ever hope to win in a full-scale war against their victims, so instead they do shocking, frightening things. Yesterday’s attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices was a very significant example of this, because the terrorists’ apparent goals (‘avenging the Prophet’ for blasphemous cartoons) seem ridiculously trivial compared to the lengths they were willing to go to to achieve them.

It is now clear that Western journalists who blaspheme against Islam may be murdered where they work. And most Western journalists don’t really want to blaspheme against Islam anyway. It’s rude, and it’s rude against a group that does not have much power in the West. …

But if a bully tells you not to do something, sometimes you should do it even if you didn’t really want to do it anyway. Defiance of the bully is very important to rob him of his power over you, and – just as important – to show to others that bullying is not effective.

And specifically:

Simply talking about how unafraid we are of terrorism is an empty, weak reaction.Cartoons that show the power of pencils are worthless. No Jihadi is disturbed by any of this. What disturbs them is to show in our actions that they do not have the bully’s power over us. 

Media who refuse to publish the cartoons are showing the bullies, that bullying works.

Stuff reports:

Police are cracking down on Uber, the cheap and trendy new-kid-on-the-taxi rank, leaving paying customers on the pavement.

After complaints from the old-school taxi firms, police have begun fining the Uber drivers whose lower fares have been hurting the big cab companies.

The private car hire service has hit back, lodging a complaint of police harassment with the Independent Police Complaints Authority. A spokeswoman said police officers put passengers at risk by booting them out of the hired cars.

Uber has taken the world by storm, and is gaining a big chunk of market share in Auckland and Wellington. It is expected to launch in Christchurch and Queenstown this year. But in the biggest city, police confirm they have stopped several Uber drivers and charged them or issued them infringement notices for using their smartphone app as a meter – a breach that would make them subject to tough taxi regulations.

So do I have this right? The Police have so little crime to focus on, that they are pulling over Uber drivers to check whether or not they are charging an up front fare or a per km fare? As if the difference has any impact on safety. It is a commercial issue, not a Police issue.

The Police have operational independence, but again if I was the Minister I’d be telling the Commissioner that he thinks it is a stupid waste of Police time.

A gory start to the day. A Martial Eagle had killed and was eating this baby impala. The eagle flew off and had a pretty huge wing span.

A Yellow-throated Sandgrouse.

Give way to the elephant! An adult can easily tip the jeep over. They weigh twice as much.

A couple of buffaloes giving us the stare.

The Grey crowned Crane.

A giraffe strolling along.

An African Fish-Eagle.

Yay, a proper sighting of a rhino. This one is only four years old.

Some elephants being followed by their attending birds.

A solitary Topi.

A couple of warthogs obviously lost a game of Truth or Dare and are advancing on a sleeping lion to see how close they can get!

The sleeping lion. They get more adventurous later in the day.

A pool of hippos.

A close up.

You only see how big they are out of the water.

A lioness.

A giraffe having a feed.

Two common ostriches.

Down in the river a couple of crocodiles.

Look closely here and from right to left there is a hippo, a submerged crocodile and then two cros on the bank.

Half the rocks here are actually hippos!

A couple of giraffes necking.

This may look cute, but this is how they fight for dominance. Very polite. They take turns until one gives up.

A baby elephant struggling to get out of the mud.

A long drive this morning, around four and a half hours. We saw a lot in that time though.

Went out for the first proper safari drive this afternoon. Passed this monkey on the way to the jeep.

Cheetahs are my favourite big cat are quite rare to spot, but we had a stroke of luck spotting two cheetahs just five minutes into the drive.

They are the fastest land mammal.

Then a few minutes later we saw a lion catch a warthog.

Before long there were a dozen lions there, including eight cubs. The poor warthog was still alive and making noises for 10 minutes or so, as the adults allowed the cubs to try and kill it.

The cubs didn’t manage it, so one of the adults then took off with it.

Next was a family of 40 to 50 elephants.

At a water hole there were a couple of grey crowned cranes.

The elephants on the move, including the babies.

Can’t see them well but that’s three rhinos in the grass.

And then we headed back to camp at sunset.

Using this measure, NZ has less child poverty than Ireland, the UK, Canada, Japan and France.

Not that I think 60% of median income is a good measure. On that measure there is arguably no child poverty in North Korea as the median income is so low, that everyone is within 60% of it.

The Asian Development Bank has announced:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $300 million loan to the Philippines to support sweeping reforms, spearheaded by the government, to the school system, with a focus on the addition of two years of senior high school.

“These major changes are designed to improve educational outcomes and better prepare students for both work and further education and training, as part of the government’s broader push for more inclusive growth,” said Norman LaRocque, Principal Education Specialist in ADB’s Southeast Asia Department. “ADB’s assistance will target improvements at the senior high school level including curriculum development, new school infrastructure and a voucher program to help students with tuition costs.” …

The ADB loan to the Philippines is the fourth results-based lending program approved by ADB, and the first in Southeast Asia and the Philippines. Results-based lending links disbursements directly to the achievement of program results. The loan complements other ADB support being provided to improve employment outcomes for youth in the Philippines.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members – 48 from the region. In 2013, ADB assistance totaled $21.0 billion, including co-financing of $6.6 billion.

The voucher system will allow senior students to decide where to study, and the funding will follow them. A good way to get results. I understand 800,000 students will get vouchers.

The UK media including the Daily Mail and The Telegraph are reporting on a convicted terrorist’s wife who is living in the UK on the benefit. Bill Gardner from The Telegraph explains.

The wife of an al-Qaeda lynchpin who mentored the Charlie Hebdo murderers is living on benefits in Britain after deciding France was too strict against Muslims.

Sylvie Beghal, a French citizen, lives rent free in a four bedroomed house in Leicester after she came to the UK with her children in search of a more “Islamic environment”.

She is married to Djamel Beghal, a former London-based lieutenant of Abu Hamza whose teachings are thought to have inspired the Paris attacks. At least two of the suspected gunmen responsible for the killings were Beghal’s disciples, it has emerged.

On Friday Beghal’s wife revealed that prison guards had thrown him into solitary confinement in retaliation for his links to the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

A blog at the NY Times by Ross Douthat:

1) The right to blaspheme (and otherwise give offense) is essential to the liberal order.

2) There is no duty to blaspheme, a society’s liberty is not proportional to the quantity of blasphemy it produces, and under many circumstances the choice to give offense (religious and otherwise) can be reasonably criticized as pointlessly antagonizing, needlessly cruel, or simply stupid.

3) The legitimacy and wisdom of criticism directed at offensive speech is generally inversely proportional to the level of mortal danger that the blasphemer brings upon himself.

He goes through each point:

The first point means that laws against blasphemy (usually described these days as “restrictions on hate speech”) are inherently illiberal.

We actually have such laws in NZ. They have not been used since 1922, but we should still scrap them.

The second point means that a certain cultural restraint about trafficking in blasphemy is perfectly compatible with liberal norms, and that there’s nothing illiberal about questioning the wisdom or propriety or decency of cartoons or articles or anything else that takes a crude or bigoted swing at something that a portion of the population holds sacred. …

But our basic liberties are not necessarily endangered when, say, the Anti-Defamation League criticizes Mel Gibson’s portrayal of the Sanhedrin in “The Passion of the Christ” or the Catholic League denounces art exhibits in the style of “Piss Christ,” any more than they’re endangered by the absence of grotesque caricatures of Moses or the Virgin Mary from the pages of the Washington Post and New York Times. Liberty requires accepting the freedom to offend, yes, but it also allows people, institutions and communities to both call for and exercise restraint.

And most people have no desire to say things which will cause offence to believers of a religion, except …

We are in a situation where my third point applies, because the kind of blasphemy that Charlie Hebdo engaged in had deadly consequences, as everyone knew it could … and that kind of blasphemy is precisely the kind that needs to be defended, because it’s the kind that clearly serves a free society’s greater good. If a large enough group of someones is willing to kill you for saying something, then it’s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization, and when that scenario obtains it isn’t really a liberal civilization any more.

The more a group of people want to kill you for a particular form of speech, is the more reason why one should say it.

Again, liberalism doesn’t depend on everyone offending everyone else all the time, and it’s okay to prefer a society where offense for its own sake is limited rather than pervasive. But when offenses are policed by murder, that’s when we need more of them, not less, because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.

Well stated.

Am spending three nights at the Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp in the Masai Mara. We flew in a small plane to the jungle strip, and as we came down to land we could see around the landing strip a giraffe, dozens of antelopes, scores of baboons, some buffaloes and zebras.

These buffaloes were just by the landing strip. We then had a 15 minute drive to the camp.

We weren’t expecting to see much until this evening, when we have a proper game drive, but a few hundred metres from the camp were four lions, two of which you can see here.

That’s how I like to sleep!

Then we saw a couple of elephants.

One of them started to advance on the jeep, so we hit reverse fairly quickly! If you want to know why, look at this video.

Lots of birds here as well as beasts.

The “tent” I’m in.

The view from the tent. Have already seen zebras, antelopes, warthogs, and a mongoose pass by!

A  path at the camp. Best to keep to them due to the scorpions and snakes.

A wart hog by the swimming pool. Looks like he has been using it!

And a monkey in the dining room.

Been three years since my last trip to Africa, and had forgotten quite how amazing it is.

MEP Daniel Hannan writes:

I was living in Brussels when François Hollande, the President of France, introduced his 75 percent top rate tax in 2012. Immediately, my quartier began to fill with French exiles, who could commute to Paris in just over an hour. …

Three years on, President Hollande is shame-facedly scrapping the 75 percent rate, having forcibly re-learned an ancient truth: Wealth taxes don’t redistribute wealth; they redistribute people.

The same goes with corporate taxes. Many companies can now choose which country to be based in for tax purposes. Of course they will avoid the high tax rate countries.

Hollande’s tax, levied on incomes above one million euros, has been a miserable failure. Over its lifespan, it raised around $500 million, a tiny fraction of the original projections. Why? Well, the Paris bureaucrats who made those projections overlooked something rather important. Rich people don’t sit around waiting to be taxed. They have all sorts of ways of beating the system, not necessarily involving accountants. The two most straightforward forms of legal tax avoidance are earlier retirement and emigration, and wealthy Frenchmen have made ample use of both.

The same happened in New Zealand. When Cullen’s envy tax of 39% on incomes over $60,000 came in, it didn’t actually increase the tax take. Research shows, it reduced it, as people made moves to avoid it.

The best way to maximize your tax revenue, though, involves neither harmonization nor secrecy. On the contrary, it involves lower, flatter, simpler taxes.

The complexity of a tax system is every bit as damaging to competitiveness as the overall tax rate, yet we take it almost for granted. If there is an American who understands the tax code in its entirety, I have yet to meet him.

NZ does well with a relatively simple tax system. The rates are still too high though, and should come down further.

The Cato Institute looks at charter schools:

or a deeper understanding of charters as a market-oriented reform, it is necessary to examine the dynamics of the charter sector.

Our research on charter school quality in Texas brings new evidence to bear on these important issues. Our analysis clearly indicates that charter school quality has improved over time. As seen in the figures below, the distribution of charter school quality initially lies to the left of that for traditional public schools but then converges and subsequently moves slightly to the right of the public school distribution.

This improvement is the result of three consistent changes. First, schools that close are drawn disproportionately from the least effective charter schools. Second, schools that open during the period of study far outperform those that close; the average value-added for new charters is roughly equal to the average among existing charters. Third, charter schools remaining open throughout the decade from 2001 to 2011 exhibit increases in average school value-added.

This is a key thing to understand. A charter school that performs badly will close.

Non charter schools that perform badly rarely close. Even when students flee them, nearby schools are now allowed to expand to allow more students in, so students are forced to keep going to these badly performing schools.

The Cato research shows that school performance improves when you allow failing schools to close.

A great column by George Packer in the New Yorker:

The murders today in Paris are not a result of France’s failure to assimilate two generations of Muslim immigrants from its former colonies. They’re not about French military action against the Islamic State in the Middle East, or the American invasion of Iraq before that. They’re not part of some general wave of nihilistic violence in the economically depressed, socially atomized, morally hollow West—the Paris version of Newtown or Oslo. Least of all should they be “understood” as reactions to disrespect for religion on the part of irresponsible cartoonists.

They are only the latest blows delivered by an ideology that has sought to achieve power through terror for decades.

It’s an ideology just as repugnant as fascism and communism – and one incompatible with democratic societies.

It’s the same ideology that sent Salman Rushdie into hiding for a decade under a death sentence for writing a novel, then killed his Japanese translator and tried to kill his Italian translator and Norwegian publisher. The ideology that murdered three thousand people in the U.S. on September 11, 2001. The one that butchered Theo van Gogh in the streets of Amsterdam, in 2004, for making a film. The one that has brought mass rape and slaughter to the cities and deserts of Syria and Iraq. That massacred a hundred and thirty-two children and thirteen adults in a school in Peshawar last month. That regularly kills so many Nigerians, especially young ones, that hardly anyone pays attention.

Because the ideology is the product of a major world religion, a lot of painstaking pretzel logic goes into trying to explain what the violence does, or doesn’t, have to do with Islam. Some well-meaning people tiptoe around the Islamic connection, claiming that the carnage has nothing to do with faith, or that Islam is a religion of peace, or that, at most, the violence represents a “distortion” of a great religion.

He explains:

A religion is not just a set of texts but the living beliefs and practices of its adherents. Islam today includes a substantial minority of believers who countenance, if they don’t actually carry out, a degree of violence in the application of their convictions that is currently unique. Charlie Hebdo had been nondenominational in its satire, sticking its finger into the sensitivities of Jews and Christians, too—but only Muslims responded with threats and acts of terrorism. For some believers, the violence serves a will to absolute power in the name of God, which is a form of totalitarianism called Islamism—politics as religion, religion as politics. “Allahu Akbar!” the killers shouted in the street outside Charlie Hebdo. They, at any rate, know what they’re about.

These thoughts don’t offer a guide to mitigating the astonishing surge in Islamist killing around the world. Rage and condemnation don’t do the job, nor is it helpful to alienate the millions of Muslims who dislike what’s being done in the name of their religion.

This is key, and it is worth remembering that one of those killed by the terrorist was a Muslim police officer. He died defending the right of Charlie Hebdo, to publish material he was personally probably offended by.

But the murders in Paris were so specific and so brazen as to make their meaning quite clear. The cartoonists died for an idea. The killers are soldiers in a war against freedom of thought and speech, against tolerance, pluralism, and the right to offend—against everything decent in a democratic society. So we must all try to be Charlie, not just today but every day.

Hear hear.

The Herald reports:

The New Zealand economy may be in its first six-month period of deflation in more than a decade, in the face of weak crude oil prices and global over-capacity, pushing the prospects of interest rate hikes out into 2016, according to Bank of New Zealand. …

BNZ head of research Stephen Toplis says for New Zealand, deflation during the current cycle isn’t the ugly phenomena being grappled with in, say, the euro-zone, where consumer prices fell 0.2 per cent in 2014 and where demand has been dwindling.

By contrast, New Zealand’s economy is operating at or above capacity, the housing market is still steaming, and kiwis are showing no inclination to rein in their spending.

“Normally when you talk about deflation you are petrified,” Toplis said. “The wheels are falling off, there’s a downward price spiral. But there’s zero evidence of that in New Zealand at the moment. The single biggest thing is our ability to freely access world goods at low prices. For New Zealanders that’s a good thing unless you’re a local retailer.”

“There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of retrenchment in activity due to the pressure on the general consumer price level,” he said.

I don’t think it would be a bad thing to have a growing economy, growing wages and falling prices.

With the tragic slaughter at Charlie Hebdo cartoonists worldwide have been very active in supporting their fallen comrades. The are many to choose from but I’ve chosen two that give a different perspective.

The first is somewhat aspirational and is by Kevin Siers which juxtaposes the famous Eugene Delacroix 1830 painting ‘Liberty Leading the People’ with this weeks events. Here is the Delacroix original.

© Kevin Siers – Found at cagle.com

The second cartoon is about PC attitudes and radical Islam.

© Michael Ramirez – found at Investors.com

My take on this cartoon is that Ramirez is arguing that PC attitudes in the west are being used by terrorists as tool to serve their own ends. I have no doubt this is the case.

There are a lot more cartoons on this topic, many can be found here at Cagle Post.

Karl du Fresne writes in the Dom Post:

Human nature is a perverse thing. It consistently thwarts all attempts to coerce us into behaving the way bureaucrats, politicians and assorted control freaks think we should.

Take the road toll. Since early December New Zealanders have been subjected to a ceaseless barrage of police propaganda about the futility of trying to defy speed and alcohol limits.

Stern-looking police officers have been in our faces almost daily, warning that zero tolerance would be shown to lawbreakers. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has found their lecturing increasingly tiresome and patronising.

There’s been huge resentment against the zero tolerance decision.

The figures suggest that people crash for all manner of reasons, and that the emphasis on speed and alcohol is therefore simplistic. The police focus on speed and booze because these are easy targets, and when the road toll comes down they can take the credit.

In the ideal world envisaged by ever-hopeful bureaucrats, wayward citizens can be managed much as sheep are controlled by heading dogs. But people will never be harangued into driving safely; human nature is just too contrary.

Besides, police crackdowns are only one factor in achieving a lower road toll.

Improved road design, safer cars, better-equipped emergency services and more immediate medical attention all contribute too. It would be interesting to know, for example, how many lives have been saved because of the use of helicopters to get victims promptly to hospital.

Better roads and better cars have had a major impact I believe.

They might also ponder the potential damage done to their public image by the zeal with which they immediately began enforcing the new alcohol limits.

It must have been like shooting fish in a barrel as they set up checkpoints to catch otherwise law-abiding citizens who had inadvertently consumed one glass of sauvignon blanc too many.

It was a formidable display of police power, but how many lives did it save? And how many of the apprehended drivers were left feeling humiliated and angry at being made to feel like criminals for unwittingly doing something that was legal only days before, and that probably posed no danger to anyone?

Police will say, of course, that they were merely enforcing the law. But there is a point at which the benefits of aggressive law enforcement have to be weighed against potential negative consequences, such as public resentment. I’m not sure our police bosses have done this equation.

Nope, they have not.

The BBC reports:

French police have stormed two hostage sites in Paris and north of the city, with the hostage takers reported dead.

Explosions were heard at a warehouse in Dammartin-en-Goele, where two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo magazine shootings had been holding one hostage.

Explosions and gunfire could also be heard at a supermarket in eastern Paris, at Porte de Vincennes, where several hostages were held.

Reports suggest a gunman there was linked to the Charlie Hebdo suspects.

After the operation started, several hostages could be seen leaving the supermarket.

Police told French media that four hostages in the supermarket had been killed prior to security forces storming the site.

It’s great that the Charlie Hebdo killers are no longer a threat, and their hostage was unharmed. Sadly it seems there was innocent loss of life in the other hostage situation. Three terrorists are dead, but at this stage Hayat Boumeddiene is at large, and wanted for the killing of a police woman.

The Herald reported:

Fox said on Facebook said the editor of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo had “paid the price” for his “bigotry” and “arrogance”.

The price he should have paid is people not buying his magazine, not execution. Is Fox saying that the victims deserved to be killed because of what they wrote?

Fox wrote that Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier was a “bully” who had abused free speech and was now responsible for the deaths of his colleagues.

Yes he is. So if a white supremacist killed all the staff of Mana magazine, would Derek have been responsible for that?

“The editor of the French magazine has paid the price for his assumption of cultural superiority and arrogance, he was the bully believing he could insult other peoples culture and with impunity and he believed he would be protected in his racism and bigotry by the French state.

Yeah the satirical magazine editor is the bully, not the murdering terrorists.

Fox also misses the point that this magazine insults all cultures and religions. It is a satirical magazine. Does Fox want satire banned at risk of death, or does he think certain religions should be immune from satire?

He continued: “Power cultures all like to use the old chestnut of freedom of speech when they choose to ridicule people who aren’t exactly like them, and mostly they get away with it.”

Yeah that freedom of speech thing is so over-rated. Who needs it eh Derek.

Fox said in this Facebook post that the privilege of free speech brought with it responsibility and ramifications. “These guys liked the privilege but didn’t think they’d be caught up in the ramifications – they were wrong.

“This should serve as a lesson to other people who believe they can use the power they wield by way of dominating the media to abuse and ridicule others they believe to inferior to them – just like [in] this country.”

Fox’s post is vile. He blames the victims and thinks that killing people for satirical cartoons is a food way to teach people a lesson. I’ve had a fair amount of time for Fox in the past, but on this issue I find his writings repugnant.

However unlike Derek, I don’t think people should be killed for writing vile and repugnant things. I think he has a right to do express his views, without being killed for it.

National Party list MP Chris Bishop said it was a “horrific, ridiculous, shameful comment”, adding that supporting freedom of speech was a human right, not “cultural supremacy”.

Free speech is a human right. Not being offended by someone’s speech is not a right.

Fox has stood by his comments, and said that if the magazine had not published gratuitous insults, the victims “would still be alive now”.

If she had just agreed to have sex with him, then she wouldn’t have been raped. That is basically what Fox argues with his victim blaming

Just had an amazing experience in the Rwanda jungle, getting up close to a group of 19 gorillas. We spent around 75 minutes with them.

The larger ones are incredibly powerful.

You have to trek in and up the mountain to the jungle to get to them, but we were lucky and had a group relatively close by.

You’re meant to stay 20 feet or so from them,but they often get very close to you.

The massive one with his back to me is Guhonda, who is the oldest and largest gorilla of all the groups in Rwanda. He is 44 years old. He may be the largest mountain gorilla in the world, weighing 225 kgs.

Guhonda sitting down.

This is Guhonda’s son, who will take over as alpha male from him. This photo is his strutting just after he decided to assert his dominance and charged towards our group, growling loudly. We’d been taught not to run, but just to crouch down which I did. Fair to say I was crapping myself, as this huge gorilla is charging towards me, and stopped less than a metre away. He then did his strutting, at which point we slowly backed away.

Some smaller ones.

These young ones were playfighting in the trees.

And this silverback was keeping an eye on us from the bush.

One of the many video clips I shot. Again you see how close they get.