Super-Rich Horde $NZ125tn in Global Tax Havens

Posted on July 28, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject
By  Guardian/Observer
 

• Study estimates staggering size of offshore economy

• Private banks help wealthiest to move cash into havens

  • Aerial view of the Cayman Islands

    The Cayman Islands: a favourite haven from the taxman for the global elite. Photograph: David Doubilet/National Geographic/Getty Images

A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary $NZ25tn of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network.

James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has compiled the most detailed estimates yet of the size of the offshore economy in a new report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, released exclusively to the Observer.

He shows that at least $NZ25tn – perhaps up to $NZ39tn – has leaked out of scores of countries into secretive jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with the help of private banks, which vie to attract the assets of so-called high net-worth individuals. Their wealth is, as Henry puts it, “protected by a highly paid, industrious bevy of professional enablers in the private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries taking advantage of the increasingly borderless, frictionless global economy“. According to Henry’s research, the top 10 private banks, which include UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland, as well as the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, managed more than $NZ7.7tn in 2010, a sharp rise from $NZ3.9tn five years earlier.

The detailed analysis in the report, compiled using data from a range of sources, including the Bank of International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund, suggests that for many developing countries the cumulative value of the capital that has flowed out of their economies since the 1970s would be more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world.

Oil-rich states with an internationally mobile elite have been especially prone to watching their wealth disappear into offshore bank accounts instead of being invested at home, the research suggests. Once the returns on investing the hidden assets is included, almost $NZ973bn has left Russia since the early 1990s when its economy was opened up. Saudi Arabia has seen $NZ383bn flood out since the mid-1970s, and Nigeria $NZ381bn.

“The problem here is that the assets of these countries are held by a small number of wealthy individuals while the debts are shouldered by the ordinary people of these countries through their governments,” the report says.

The sheer size of the cash pile sitting out of reach of tax authorities is so great that it suggests standard measures of inequality radically underestimate the true gap between rich and poor. According to Henry’s calculations, $NZ12.2tn of assets is owned by only 92,000 people, or 0.001% of the world’s population – a tiny class of the mega-rich who have more in common with each other than those at the bottom of the income scale in their own societies.

“These estimates reveal a staggering failure: inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people,” said John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network. “People on the street have no illusions about how unfair the situation has become.”

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “Countries around the world are under intense pressure to reduce their deficits and governments cannot afford to let so much wealth slip past into tax havens.

“Closing down the tax loopholes exploited by multinationals and the super-rich to avoid paying their fair share will reduce the deficit. This way the government can focus on stimulating the economy, rather than squeezing the life out of it with cuts and tax rises for the 99% of people who aren’t rich enough to avoid paying their taxes.”

Assuming the $NZ25tn mountain of assets earned an average 3% a year for its owners, and governments were able to tax that income at 30%, it would generate a bumper $NZ235bn in revenues – more than rich countries spend on aid to the developing world each year.

Groups such as UK Uncut have focused attention on the paltry tax bills of some highly wealthy individuals, such as Topshop owner Sir Philip Green, with campaigners at one recent protest shouting: “Where did all the money go? He took it off to Monaco!” Much of Green’s retail empire is owned by his wife, Tina, who lives in the low-tax principality.

A spokeswoman for UK Uncut said: “People like Philip Green use public services – they need the streets to be cleaned, people need public transport to get to their shops – but they don’t want to pay for it.”

Leaders of G20 countries have repeatedly pledged to close down tax havens since the financial crisis of 2008, when the secrecy shrouding parts of the banking system was widely seen as exacerbating instability. But many countries still refuse to make details of individuals’ financial worth available to the tax authorities in their home countries as a matter of course. Tax Justice Network would like to see this kind of exchange of information become standard practice, to prevent rich individuals playing off one jurisdiction against another.

“The very existence of the global offshore industry, and the tax-free status of the enormous sums invested by their wealthy clients, is predicated on secrecy,” said Henry.

 

Tommy Pettersson (FairTrade Community)

The world economy may still be in the doldrums, but global wealth continues to grow, hitting an all-time high this year of $231 trillion, according to a new global wealth report from Credit Suisse.

And more than ever, that figure is concentrated at the top of the pile. A mere 0.5% of the world’s population owns an eye-popping 38.5% of its total wealth.

As protests against the “1%” continue to rage on in downtown Manhattan and cities across the globe, we’re taking a look at how wealth is distributed and which countries are increasing their share of the world’s richest people.

The charts are from Credit Suisse’s 2011 Global Wealth Report. Click here to download the full report.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: 0.5% of the world's population owns 38.5% of its wealth. This is insane.

0.5% of the world’s population owns 38.5% of its wealth.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: And the bottom two-thirds account for just 3.3% of wealth.

The bottom two-thirds account for just 3.3% of wealth.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: Here you can see what continents comprise different wealth deciles. Developed markets clearly dominate the top 10%.

The graph shows which continents comprise different wealth deciles. Developed markets clearly dominate the top 10%.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: Wealth inequality in Africa is so high that while almost half of African adults are in the bottom two wealth deciles, some individuals are still in the top 1%.

Wealth inequality in Africa is so high that while almost half of African adults are in the bottom two wealth deciles, some individuals are still in the top 1%.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: China, India, Latin America and Africa account for 56% of the world's population, but just 16% of its wealth.

China, India, Latin America and Africa account for 56% of the world’s population, but just 16% of its wealth.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: The U.S. is home to 21% of people who have more than $100,000 in wealth. Japan is home to 16%.

The U.S. is home to 21% of people who have more than $100,000 in wealth. Japan is home to 16%.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: And those numbers are even more concentrated when you look at millionaires. One-third of the world's millionaires live in the U.S. Sweden and Switzerland each have 2% of global membership, but a much smaller fraction of the global population.

The numbers are even more concentrated when you look at millionaires. One-third of the world’s millionaires live in the U.S. Sweden and Switzerland each have 2% of global membership, but a much smaller fraction of the global population.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: And the number of ultra-high net worth individuals is growing, due, in part, to the fact that

The number of ultra-high net worth individuals is growing, due, in part, to the fact that “the past decade has been especially conducive to the establishment of large fortunes,” according to Credit Suisse.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: This year, Europe surpassed the U.S. in terms of the number of high-net worth residents (who own between $1 million and $50 million).

This year, Europe surpassed the U.S. in terms of the number of high-net worth residents (who own between $1 million and $50 million).

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: However, it's the only region where the growth of wealth slowed down in the past year.

 

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: In terms of ultra-high net worth individuals (with net assets above $50 million), the U.S. still dominates. It's home to 42% of the group.

In terms of ultra-high net worth individuals (with net assets above $50 million), the U.S. still dominates. It’s home to 42% of the group.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: The U.S. is home to 32% of the world's billionaires and 41% of people whose net worth exceeds $10 million.

The U.S. is home to 32% of the world’s billionaires and 41% of people whose net worth exceeds $10 million.

13 Staggering Facts About The Global Super Rich :: China's share is increasing. The number of millionaires in China is expected to double between now and 2016.

China’s share is increasing. The number of millionaires in China is expected to double between now and 2016.

Posted in Business, Economics, New Zealand, Parody, Politics, Social Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stateside: Travels in a Parallel Universe

Posted on July 25, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject

Off the Top of My Head

By Paul Murray
 
***A huge thank you to all the wonderful people I met in the United States…warm, generous,  intelligent, hard-working, creative, happy, beautiful people.***
 

New York City

 

o-NEW-YORK-CITY-SKYLINE-facebook

NYC: Stayed at The Gershwin Hotel on East 27th Street just off 5th Avenue between the Flat Iron Building and the Empire State Building and adjacent to the Museum of Sex. The Gershwin is famous for pop art and general funkiness and the hotel is currently exhibiting the work of Michael Albert, who deconstructs advertising logos to create collages with political, social, religious and historic messages pertaining to the United States.

dadhoc com

Michael Albert: Map of USA

Twin Room was $US200 per night including taxes, the rooms were small, basic, Spartan, but acceptable…the Birch Coffee café on the ground floor was superb and many local office workers went there for coffee, breakfast on the way to work…the grilled cheese sandwich was apparently “the best ever in the whole world,” as stated by several people I met in the café, but I didn’t try it myself…grilled cheese is a little heavy for my breakfast palate.

The Gershwin Hotel Room

The coffee was good and like most places in New York City, you can order it EXACTLY as you want it…I eventually settled on a tall 2/3 double-shot expresso Arabica blend from Puerto Rico with a steamed 2% milk topper with organic agave sweetener stirred anticlockwise with a electro-plated nickel silver teaspoon and served at 95C with the cup served handle right…and I felt so good that they could meet my morning coffee needs! Coffee sizes range from “jumbo” to “massive” to “grande,” which is essentially a 2-gallon bucket brim full of “joe,” which is apparently American for coffee…I have no idea why.

[However, thanks to “Big Red” on Yahoo Questions, I now know…]

Cup of Joe
 
Josephus Daniels (18 May 1862-15 January 1948) was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his reforms of the Navy were inaugurating the practice of making 100 Sailors from the Fleet eligible for entrance into the Naval Academy, the introduction of women into the service, and the abolishment of the officers’ wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard Navy ships could only be coffee and over the years, a cup of coffee became known as “a cup of Joe.”
 

Notes on New York: Strong Jewish influence/Kosher Restaurants/Central Park/Hudson River/Massive homes in The Hamptons/Jazz clubs…segways are illegal in NYC/Upstate New York…Hill Billies in massive V8 4×4 trucks, SUVs, decaying and abandoned houses, stars and stripes everywhere…NYC smells like a BBQ. Gold-plated shit squirrels openly discussed in public and on the streets.

Manhattan from the Empire State Building

Downtown NYC

Flat Iron Building…Efficient use of a small section….

DONALD TRUMP has a major influence on the real-estate markets in NYC and Chicago…monuments to his colossal self-aggrandisement stab into the skylines of both cities and his name is branded all over the place…One assumes he is oblivious to the Cockney rhyming slang associated with his name––taking a Donald…Donald Trump/Dump­­––my erstwhile indomitable travelling companion Doktor Heagney and I certainly made sure many of the fine folk we met are now familiar with the expression.

DT Taking a Donald

Gold-plated shit squirrel…a phrase we invented and attempted to establish as a popular street expression by asking people we met what the phrase meant saying that we’d often heard it on the street, is it a new drug? A cry for help? A cuss? A metaphor for something? We managed to say several times in conversations with locals, “As you Americans like to say…or as you say in the United States…or in the words of your compatriots…or as the saying goes…XXX is like a gold-plated shit squirrel.” Many a blank face was followed by a puzzled squint as we strode off quickly to release our mirth…I bet gold-plated shit squirrels will be discussed on the streets of New York City and Chicago for some time to come and hope that it will enter popular parlance and lexicon of the street in the near future…it will be interesting to see what meaning is attributed to the phrase that came from the warped mind of Doktor Heagney on a hot day after several pints of cold beer-flavoured soda pop in the Big Apple.

Doktor Heagney: Hot on the Trail of Gold-Plated Shit Squirrels in NYC

The Wedding: 

The main reason for the trip to the United States was to attend the nuptials of an old mate Erik Sanner. Erik is an artist and the inspiration behind the art facet of the LivnginPeace Project. I hadn’t seen Erik for many years and the opportunity to catch up, meet his bride Ruthie, see the Doktor, meet a whole lot of artists and spend some time Stateside was just too good to miss.

The wedding was to be in upstate New York and Ruthie organised a ride with her friend Judi, who works in publishing and is an aspiring jewellery designer. The Doktor and I waited outside The Gershwin for a sophisticated lady in a fancy car…Judi arrived at the appointed time in her father’s monster truck after apparently wrecking her new volvo earlier in the week…our confidence in her driving skills were not high, but the monster truck seemed pretty indestructible, so we climbed aboard. Judi turned out to be a total gold-plated shit squirrel (as the Americans say) and we laughed our way out of NYC and into the countryside.

Judi and her Dad’s “Car”

Judi Powers: Gold-Plated Shit Squirrel

We decided to stop in Woodstock for lunch…Old and young hippies alike can be seen and are welcome in this town…many shops have “Hippies Always Welcome” signs in the windows, which, if you’re a hippie, makes for a welcome change. One aged hippy, dressed in a sack-cloth robe of a Gregorian monk appeared to be meditating in the main street, stoically sitting perfectly still amidst the urban bustle and seemingly oblivious to the oppressive 100F+ heat…perhaps he was still coming down from an acid trip taken 50 years earlier? Tie-dye T-shirts, floral print skirts and peace signs were all the go and the town had a pleasantly laid-back feel. However, if you want to live here, you’d need a decent bank balance, homes in the area are well over $1million.

Some Locals Just Can’t Let Woodstock Go!

We asked a local for directions to an excellent restaurant for lunch in Woodstock, she recommended Oriloe9, which was superb….the restaurant has an organic farm that supplies it with fruit and vegetables…the salads were FANTASTIC…(they also had Magic Hat beer on the menu).

The wedding was in a small upstate town called Roxbury. We stayed at The Roxbury Motel, which has to have the zaniest decor of any motel anywhere in the world…there was clearly a whole LOT of cocaine involved in the interior decorating here…we stayed in a room called “George’s Space Pad,” which had a futuristic sic-fi theme…Space Odyssey meets Futurama.

George’s SpacePad

3

The Roxbury Motel by Day

AN EXPLOSION OF COLOR waits to surround you at The Roxbury - even at night...

The Roxbury Motel by Night

The Noir Boudoir

The Noir Boudoir

Angel Hair

Angel Hair Room

Amadeus' Bride

Amadeus’ Bride Room

Maryann's Coconut Cream Pie

Maryann’s Coconut Cream Pie Room

Genie's Bottle

Genie’s Bottle Room

The Wizard's Emeralds

The Wizard’s Emeralds Room

Erik and Ruthie have many artistic friends and they organized a pre-wedding function and invited all his friends to bring and display their artworks…I took one of my photographs from Karamea, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand and hung it on the wall with many other great artworks…it was an excellent way to meet all their friends and showcase their creative talents and artistic pursuits.

The Happy Couple Erik Sanner and Ruthie Ackerman

Mr and Mrs Sanner…Ready to PARTY!!

If you’re looking for a real hippy town in the upstate NY area, try New Paltz a university town that has taken up the mantle of the groovy and hip and features many great restaurants, including the Main Street BISTRO where we had lunch. WARNING…if you should be tempted to try a “popper” as I was, be sure to let the insanely HOT jalapeño pepper wrapped in cheese and crumbed deep fried to form a napalm bomb molten lava that can cause serious damage to the soft tissue of the mouth…I can offer first-hand experience in this as I popped one into my mouth and unsuspectingly crunched it, releasing the lava and serious melting my bottom lip with the contents…I spent the rest of the trip explaining that I didn’t have herpes, the red weeping welt on my lower lip was in fact a third-degree burn from my first-ever and now last “popper.”

Chicago

Notes on Chicago: Irish/Catholic/German/Italian influences…best tap water of any city I have ever been anywhere in the world (Straight out of Lake Michigan)…Lake Michigan/ Massive Houses in Lake Forest/Hotels cheaper than NYC/Blues clubs/Segway tour…segways can be legally ridden on Chicago footpaths. The smell of cigar smoke permeates the city. Gold-plated shit squirrels quietly discussed in private.

Chicago was the next stop, I was there to catch up with an old school friend I hadn’t seen for 30 years. He had recently married his partner Chris and they are pioneers of same-sex marriage in the state of Illinois. Peter and I were good friends back at boarding school and we’re good friends today, it was fantastic to see him after three decades and we resumed our friendship immediately.

 

Chicago_Skyline

Chicago

I spent four days with Peter and Chris exploring the downtown Chicago area and was there for the 4th of July Independence Day celebrations.  It was the hottest Independence Day since 1913…temperature soared to 105F and we thought we might as well enjoy the heat, so we signed up for a segway tour of the waterfront around Lake Michigan.

Peter and Chris Morin in Chicago U.S. Independence Day July 4, 2012

Paul Murray and Peter Morin take in Chicago on Segways

Just north of Chicago on the forested shore of Lake Michigan is the aptly named suburb of Lake Forest. There, two resident artists from the LivinginPeace Project, a venture I founded in New Zealand in 2004, are collaborating artistically.

Kristin Mikrut and Shota Kawahara met while on artist residencies at our place in Karamea at the top of the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand in 2011.

Kristin returned to the United States charged with creative fervour and got together with a childhood friend Cecelia Lanyon to establish Re-Invent, an exhibition space, art workshops and retail outlet in Lake Forest.

They offered Shota a residency at Re-Invent and he has been there preparing for an exhibition in the gallery space from August 17, 2012.

Shota Kawahara, a painter from Japan, is preparing to show his work at Re-Invent on August 17. Shota studied visual art at the prestigious Kyoto University in Japan and is currently a resident artist at Re-Invent. His acrylic works are nature-inspired, abstract, bright, vibrant, colourful and very, very happy…a Kawahara on your wall will bring much joy into your home and the messages in his intricate work will keep your mind active forever.

Shota Kawahara Re-Invent Resident Artist 2012

 

Shota Kawahara Re-Invent Resident Artist 2012

Kristin and Shota at Re-Invent

Re-Invent also sells art supplies and artworks by local artists on a commission basis. A broad array of regional creative talent is on display and available for purchase at the shop; metal sculptures, mobiles, stylish handmade children’s clothing and soft toys, jewellery, furniture, retro clothing, and accessories, scarves, lots of paintings and there is even a large dinosaur made from recycled vintage model-T parts on offer. The local art-supplies shop recently closed, so Mikrut and Lanyon took up the challenge to also sell art and craft materials, which should keep the creative people of Lake Forest well satisfied.

All holidays must come to an end and mine almost didn’t. Peter kindly dropped me off at Ohare Airport in Chicago and as I was about to check in, I found myself without ticket, passport of any of my travel documents…Peter calmly said, “OK, I’ll go home and get them for you.” Fortunately, he has a new porsche, which is made for high-speed traffic weaving…normally, Peter and Chris allow an hour to travel from their apartment to the airport. I had 40 minutes before the check-in deadline.

Peter fired up the porsche and sped off…I was kicking myself for being so stupid and really didn’t think I’d be leaving Chicago that day. However, in an amazing feat of death-defying driving, Peter made it back to the apartment, collected my documents and returned to the airport with 10 minutes to spare…thanks for risking your life over my absent-mindedness Pete! That has to be some kind of record…Ohare Airport to W Erie Street and back to the airport through traffic in 30 minutes…it’s possible some road laws were breached, so kids, please do not try and match this as I imagine Peter has set a record that will never again be challenged!

Ahead of me now was a daunting flight schedule; Chicago, Indianapolis, New York City, Los Angeles, Sydney, Wellington, Westport, Karamea…I would have plenty of time to reflect on my travels and ponder life.

High over the dead brown quilt of drought-stricken Midwest corn monoculture watching the CO2 vapour trail spew out of the Boeing 747-400 on the hottest U.S. summer ever recorded, I find myself thinking about permaculture. (Apparently, over 3,500 temperature records in the United States have been exceeded this summer).

My trip to the United States to attend the nuptials of a very close friend was an luxurious indulgence for me, and as I now winged home to my lush, green parallel universe in remote New Zealand, I reflected on the quality of my life there. While the quantity of life in the United States exceeds that in New Zealand, I feel the quality of life we enjoy is far superior to the average U.S citizen. We may not have the affluence, range of product choices, consumables, unlimited restaurant and retail choices, entertainment options etc, but we have a the ability to grow our own food, fresh clean air and water, less people, traffic, pollution and stress in our lives…this to me is life quality.

Flying over the land at 10,000 feet affords a perspective on life that is not possible at ground level. The view of a bird reveals clearly the perils of commercial agriculture and the devastating impact of human influence on natural systems.

Vast tracts of flat fertile farmland below me are devoted to the production of corn, which is now a staple food in the United States forming the basis for most processed food products. The diverse natural landscape that must have once existed here is all gone…the diversity of flora and fauna has been replaced with a single crop. Corn.

The interior of the Unites States resembles the dry withered skin of an old elephant…with the occasional festering pustule of consumption bursting through its leathery hide as we flew over cities…surely this is not a healthy landscape? How long will it be before the great elephant succumbs to consumption?

As I look around the plane, I consider that I am possibly the only passenger pondering the subject of sustainability. My fellow passengers and I are the lucky 10% of the world’s population who can actually afford to fly and I’m feeling very decadent indulging myself the environmentally expensive luxury of international flight, but decadence is a rather subjective evaluation.

Am I decadent compared with the businesspeople in first class who do this most every day? Are they decadent compared with the owner of the airline who has mansions all over the world, his own island and is planning flights to the moon? Thinking about the poor sods below watching their cornfields wither and die as they pray for rain puts my self-indulgence into sharp perspective.

A Quilt of Corn is Keeping the Mid-West Warm: This photo shows the region in lusher times). The U.S. interior is now a dustbowl for thousands of miles.

Aerial Photo of Boise Idaho: The entire Midwest currently looks much like this….

 

As Michael Pollan reiterates in his book “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and his articles in the New York Times Magazine on the subject of corn, “Take a typical fast food meal. Corn is the sweetener in the soda. It’s in the corn-fed beef Big Mac patty, and in the high-fructose syrup in the bun, and in the secret sauce. Slim Jims are full of corn syrup, dextrose, cornstarch, and a great many additives. The “four different fuels” in a Lunchables meal, are all essentially corn-based.

The chicken nugget—including feed for the chicken, fillers, binders, coating, and dipping sauce—is all corn. The french fries are made from potatoes, but odds are they’re fried in corn oil, the source of 50 percent of their calories. Even the salads at McDonald’s are full of high-fructose corn syrup and thickeners made from corn.

 Corn is the keystone species of the industrial food system, along with its sidekick, soybeans, with which it shares a rotation on most of the farms in the Midwest. I’m really talking about cheap corn — overproduced, subsidized, industrial corn — the biggest legal cash crop in America. Eighty million acres — an area twice the size of New York State — is blanketed by a vast corn monoculture like a second great American lawn.”

In the cities, consumers dutifully consume products that are essentially corn-based, eat beef and chicken that has been on corn stockfeed in feedlots and wash it down with sodas sweetened with corn fructose syrup. “If you are what you eat, and especially if you eat industrial food, as 99 percent of Americans do, what you are is “corn,” concludes Pollan.

 

The affluence of many people living in the United States is clearly evident, but there are also a lot of people living in the streets, drug issues, desperate people lacking sufficient health care, racial and economic disparity…this is also clearly evident to the casual observer.

The whole world is a class system that is determined by money…the many at the bottom of the pyramid supporting the few at the top…people are beginning to fully understand this and the recent “Occupy” movements around the world are testament to that awakening. Money is God and we’re all worshiping this new omnipresent deity, but at what cost?  The distribution of fiscal spirituality has become somewhat inequitable over the past few decades, with those at the top of the stack getting more God than everyone else. This situation is out of whack and will surely lead to escalating social unease and dissent among the godless minions, which we are seeing and rightly so…we need a good revolution every now and then to restore life balance and social equity.

From the comfort of my airline seat, I have a plan view of what would appear to be a monumental collapse about to happen. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe the 99% will accept that the 1% have every right to abject opulence and maybe this summer is a seasonal anomaly and that rains will come and refresh the land so that the cycle of production and consumption may continue unabated.

It would seem there are two ways of reacting to the world’s dwindling energy resources…become more efficient, use less energy, strive for sustainability, reuse, reduce, recycle…or accept that we’re running out of go juice and live it up, go hedonistic, consume more, expand everything, supersize the lot and party hearty until it’s all gone…it would seem that many in the United States have chosen the latter option…Gold-plated Shit Squirrels.

Posted in Business, Economics, Environment, Hilarious, Humor, Humour, LivinginPeace Project, New Zealand, Permaculture, Politics, Social Commentary, Travel, Uncategorized, United States, Wedding | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

花見／花火　Hanami / Hanabi by Paul Murray and Elise London

Posted on July 25, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject

花見／花火　Hanami / Hanabi

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/43714458″>花見／花火 Hanami / Hanabi</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user11925474″>Paul Murray</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Hanami is flower watching in Japanese and Hanabi is fireworks…this is a stop-motion slideshow of an arrangement of leek flowers opening over time into a spectacular fireworks display…enjoy!

(By Paul Murray, with technical prowess from Elise London)
Posted in Art, Business, Japan, Kahurangi National Park, Karamea, LivinginPeace Project, New Zealand, Permaculture, Photography, Uncategorized, West Coast | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

GR8 Poem by a Cranky Old Man

Posted on July 23, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject

The Cranky Old Man

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in an Australian country town, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.
 
Later, when the nurses were going through his meagre possessions, They found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.
 
One nurse took her copy to Melbourne. The old man’s sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas editions of magazines around the country and appearing in mags for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.
 
And this old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this ‘anonymous’ poem winging across the Internet.
 

Cranky Old Man

What do you see nurses? . . .. . .What do you see?
What are you thinking .. . when you’re looking at me?
A cranky old man, . . . . . .not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .. . . . . . . .. with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food .. . … . . and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice . .’I do wish you’d try!’
Who seems not to notice . . .the things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . . . .. . . A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not . . . … lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding . . . .The long day to fill?
Is that what you’re thinking?. .Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse .you’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am . . . . .. As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, .. . . . as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of Ten . .with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .. . . .. . who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen . . . .. with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . .. . . a lover he’ll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty . . . ..my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows .. .. .that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now . . . . .I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . .. . . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . .. With ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons .. .have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me . . to see I don’t mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .. …Babies play ’round my knee,
Again, we know children . . . . My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me . . . . My wife is now dead.
I look at the future … . . . . I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing .. . . young of their own.
And I think of the years . . . And the love that I’ve known.
I’m now an old man . . . . . . .. and nature is cruel.
It’s jest to make old age . . . . . . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles .. .. . grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone . . . where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass . A young man still dwells,
And now and again . . . . . my battered heart swells
I remember the joys . . . . .. . I remember the pain.
And I’m loving and living . . . . . . . life over again.
I think of the years, all too few . . .. gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people .. . . . .. . . open and see.
Not a cranky old man.
Look closer . . . . see .. .. . .. …. . ME!!

Posted in Art, Education, Historical, Social Commentary | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Letter to Hollywood from Mr Kim Dotcom

Posted on July 19, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject

Kim.com

Dear Hollywood,

The internet frightens you. But history has taught us that the greatest innovations were built on rejections. The VCR frightened you, but it ended up making billions of dollars in video sales.

You get so comfortable with your ways of doing business that any change is perceived as a threat. The problem is, we as a society don’t have a choice: The law of human nature is to communicate more efficiently. And the economic benefits of high-speed Internet and unlimited cloud storage are so great that we need to plan for the day when the transfer of terabytes of data will be measured in seconds.

Businesses and individuals will keep looking for faster connectivity, more robust online storage and more privacy. Transferring large pieces of content over the Internet will become common – not because global citizens are evil but because economic forces leading to “speed of light” data transfer and storage are so beneficial to societal growth.

Come on, guys, I am a computer nerd. I love Hollywood and movies. My whole life is like a movie.

I wouldn’t be who I am if it wasn’t for the mind-altering glimpse at the future in Star Wars. I am at the forefront of creating the cool stuff that will allow creative works to thrive in an Internet age. I have the solutions to your problems. I am not your enemy.

Providing “freemium” cloud storage to society is not a crime. What will Hollywood do when smartphones and tablets can wirelessly transfer a movie file within milliseconds?

The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of changing their views to fit the facts, they try to change the facts to fit their views. The fact remains that the benefits of Megaupload to society outweigh the burdens. But instead of adapting, you imported one of your action-conspiracy movie scripts into the real world. In my view, MPAA CEO and former Senator Chris Dodd lobbied his friends in the White House to turn me into a villain who has to be destroyed. Due process? Rule of law? Eliminate me and my innovation and worry about the consequences later. Never mind that millions of Megaupload users lost access to cloud data like their wedding photos. Well done, Hollywood, everyone with similar innovations got the message. But wait … You did not read the end of the script.

The people of the internet will unite. They will help me. And they are stronger than you. We will prevail in the war for Internet freedom and innovation that you have launched. We have logic, human nature and the invisible hand on our side.

As you should have known, our Mega services operated within the boundaries of the law. We had users that spanned from the military to Hollywood to lawyers and doctors. If you are unhappy with that, it is up to you to convince Congress to amend legislation. You tried with SOPA and you failed. As an alternative, you chose to lobby the Justice Department to ignore the law and stage a global show of force and destruction. The only parties a New Zealand court has found to have violated the law in this case are the local police and the FBI.

Regardless of the issues you have with new technologies, you can’t just engage armed forces halfway around the world, rip a peaceful man from his family, throw him in jail, terminate his business without a trial, take everything he owns without a hearing, deprive him of a fair chance to defend himself and do all that while your propaganda machine is destroying him in the media. Is that who you want to be?

There can still be a happy ending. I am working on solutions. Just call me or my lawyers. You know where to find me. Unfortunately I can only do lunch in New Zealand.

This open letter is free of copyright. Use it freely.
 

Megaupload Judge Declares U.S. ‘Enemy’

By David Kravets
 
July 18, 2012 
 
 

The New Zealand judge overseeing the extradition proceedings of accused file-sharing kingpin and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is recusing himself from the case after making a public remark that the United States was “the enemy.”

Auckland District Judge David Harvey was commenting at a copyright conference earlier this month when he said, “We have met the enemy, and he is (the) U.S.”

The court’s chief judge, Jan-Marie Doogue, said Wednesday that Harvey recognizes his comments “could reflect on his impartiality and that the appropriate response is for him to step down from the case.”

The U.S. government wants New Zealand to extradite Dotcom and Megaupload associates Mathias Ortmann, Bran van der Kolk and Finn Batato.

Among other things, the government is demanding New Zealand authorities send the four, who remain free on bail following their January arrest, to the United States to face trial on racketeering, money laundering, copyright infringement and other charges.

The United States claims Megaupload facilitated copyright infringement of movies, music, television programs, electronic books, and business and entertainment software on “a massive scale.” The government said Megaupload’s “estimated harm” to copyright holders was “well in excess of $500 million.”

An extradition hearing in New Zealand is not expected until March.

Here in the United States, Dotcom is is attempting to vacate orders that led to the seizure of Megaupload’s domain names, U.S.-based severs and $50 million in assets.

According to Dotcom, the only parties having been found so far to have violated the law in this case are New Zealand police, who a court found raided his house with an invalid order, and the FBI, which secretly made copies of Kim Dotcom’s computers and shipped them out of the country — contrary to court order.

Dotcom and Megaupload associates are seeking to break the legal impasse by offering last week to fly to the United States without an extradition hearing.

In return, Dotcom demands a fair trial guarantee and return of money to support their families and to pay legal fees, which are thought to be in the millions of dollars after several months of court battles.

Music Video Link: Kim Dotcom – Mr President

What was Megaupload?

  • Megaupload is a provider of cloud storage services. The company’s primary website, Megaupload.com, offered a popular Internet-based storage platform for customers, who ranged from large businesses to individuals. This storage platform allowed its users to store files in the Internet “cloud” and to use, if needed, online storage space and bandwidth.

    Through Megaupload, users were able to upload and store data securely, and to access data from any location via the Internet. Megaupload and cloud services of this kind have important and substantial non-infringing uses.

    For example, an individual user may use cloud storage for personal data storage and backup. Through a cloud storage service, the user’s files—whether pictures, documents, music, or video—are available for his use from any location.

    The user can send files to friends, business associates, and family via a unique link that are too large to transmit via email and has access to his files at any time. Businesses benefit from cloud storage by offloading data storage responsibility to a cloud service provider, allowing the organization to collaborate over the Internet.

    Megaupload databases revealed that nearly every large corporation, organization and government used Megaupload – from the US Congress to folks in Hollywood. Of course, millions of individual users used Megaupload as well.

  • Megaupload, similar to other large cloud storage providers that rely on efficient data storage like Dropbox, was designed to store a single useable copy of each unique file uploaded to its servers. If multiple users uploaded identical files, Megaupload would retain one instance of the file, and generate a unique link for each individual user, called a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). One user might choose to keep his unique link private; another user might wish to share his link with others via email or by embedding it in a webpage such as a blog post.

  • The Government’s case against Megaupload Limited (“Megaupload”) rests on a host of novel theories of criminal liability for copyright infringement.

    These theories extend U.S. copyright laws well beyond their intended reach, their territorial scope and the limits of the Constitution.

    The Government, at its core, wants to hold Megaupload criminally responsible for the acts of third party cloud storage users and such mass secondary copyright infringement cannot be found in any federal criminal statute.

    In essence the Government is attempting to use “civil law” claims in a criminal prosecution context which is not permitted.

    The Government turns a blind eye to the laws which provide immunity for dual use technologies that are capable of substantial non infringing uses (Sony doctrine) as well as safe harbors for such things as “caching” and efforts to remove infringing material in response to take down notices.

    In instructing the Government to provide discovery supporting its charges, the New Zealand court handling Kim Dotcom’s extradition proceedings in that country elucidated the flaw at the center of the Government’s case: “[T]he United States is attempting to utilize concepts from the civil copyright context as a basis for the application of criminal copyright liability which necessitates a consideration of principles such as dual use of technology or . . . significant non-infringing uses.”  See Decision of His Honor Judge David J. Harvey on Application for Disclosure, 244 (May 29, 2012) (“[T]he United States is attempting to utilise concepts from the civil copyright context as a basis for the application of criminal copyright liability . . .”)

  • The alleged money laundering charge and the rest of the criminal claims are devoid of merit because Megaupload’s and the rest of the defendants’ earnings were from businesses providing lawful cloud storage services and not from criminal copyright infringement.

    These claims appear to be concocted as flimsy support to freeze defendants’ assets, to try to support DOJ public relations in taking down the entire Megaupload site (which resulted in unprecedented harm to consumers), and to improperly pile on additional arguments for extradition.

  • The Megaupload site was taken down and Defendants’ assets have been frozen pursuant to these suspect charges, leaving no funds to defend a hugely complex case involving petabytes of potential evidence, an untold number of witnesses and a business that spanned the globe.

    The Government’s extreme tactics have wiped out Megaupload without the benefit of even the most basic guarantees of due process such as service of a summons.

    Innocent consumers lost access to their cloud files from wedding photos to spreadsheet files. Consumer data access issues are currently being heard by the US Court.

    Notwithstanding the basic civil rights axiom that one is innocent until proven guilty, the Government has impaired Megaupload’s and Defendants’ defense by freezing all of its worldwide assets, then refusing to agree to unfreeze one penny to fund defense efforts – not even funds to preserve or analyze the digital evidence. The Government, in short, has destroyed Megaupload without bothering even to serve the company and is now bent on preserving its advantage by disabling efforts to challenge the lawfulness of its actions.

  • Megaupload processed takedown notices swiftly and efficiently. Megaupload went beyond the ordinary and used technology to speed up the take down process. For example trusted parties including major Hollywood entities received access to an innovative real-time direct takedown web tool.

    Megaupload negotiated with major copyright holders or their agents—including the Recording Industry Association of America, Disney, Warner Brothers, NBC, and Microsoft—to allow them access to take down directly, in an automated manner, an active link to material they believed infringed their copyrights. Megaupload was commended by Hollywood organizations for its take down processes.

  • While Megaupload made efforts to curb abuse of its service, it recognized a competing obligation to its users who legitimately use[d] the service to store their own copies of copyrighted material. For example, a music file that was purchased or covered by fair use and uploaded by a user for the purpose of “space shifting” (where media files stored on one device are accessed by the owner from another device) would look the same to Megaupload’s automated processes as a music file to which the user had no legal right.

    This obligation to its users who had a legal right to the files they stored presented an ongoing problem because the company was committed to ensuring that there was a proper and legitimate basis to require a data file to be removed. As a result, where a user was subject to a proper and specific take down notice for their unique link or URL, that user’s link to the file in question was taken down or broken.

    The DMCA recognizes such complexities when it declares that Service providers (such as Megaupload) are not required to “monitor its service or affirmatively seek out facts indicating infringing activity,” 17 U.S.C. § 512(m)(1).

  • Whether a specific instance of a file is infringing or not depends on the context such as license status, fair use, and what local laws apply. For example, a news organization may be permitted to use a photo in an article under the fair use doctrine while a commercial entity may not. Copyright owners are in the best position to allege who and what is authorized and who and what isn’t.

    Taking down all links pointing to the same file is neither pragmatic nor required by the law, nor would it be justified – another exampleone person’s licensed music mp3 file is potentially another person’s infringing file.

    Megaupload had a copyright agnostic user rewards program limited to, amongst other things, small files under 100 MB – to help introduce users to the cloud storage service.

    The rewards program did not promote copyright infringement and the small file size limit was a strong deterrent against program misuse. The amounts paid out were small and when the program was discontinued many months before the US action, it had no material effect on site traffic or revenue.

  • Megaupload used a freemium model which made it affordable for individuals and small businesses to use and “try out” the nternet cloud technology and only pay if they desired faster bandwidth and more robust storage.

    Megaupload’s free cloud storage services were innovative, robust, and generous.

    Allegations made by the US that Megaupload did not have significant capabilities to store private content long term are false.

    Allegations made by the US that free user files were deleted if not downloaded within 21 days (or 90 days for those who were registered) are false. At the time of the shutdown, free user files had not been purged for multiple years.

    The US apparently wants to delete Megaupload server data evidence that will demonstrate the falsity of the Government allegations above.

  • The New Zealand court found that the New Zealand police used an illegal search warrant to confiscate hard drives and other materials from Kim Dotcom and further found that the FBI violated the law when they took hard drive data outside of New Zealand without authorization.

Posted in Business, Economics, Hilarious, Humor, Humour, New Zealand, Politics, United States | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

ArtofNature: Exhibition of One Photograph

Posted on July 18, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject
By Photographer Paul Murray & Belgian Graphic Artist Arnaud “PsoMan” Vanderkerkin

The Original: Taken on the Heaphy Track in the Kahurangi National Park at the Top of the South Island of New Zealand

I walked the Heaphy Track in 2004 to collect information and take photographs for the http://www.heaphytrack.com Web site. Along the way, I happened across an interesting rock and took its image home with me.

In my abstract nature photos, I try and incorporate a metaphor to increase the artistic merit of the shot.

To me, the image represents the passage of life. The staircase through the photograph indicates the challenges and seemingly insurmountable barriers that we all face as we travel through time. Easy times when life is good are represented by the horizontal lines, the difficulties by the vertical…with the net result being an exponential increase that represents the gaining of wisdom, knowledge, experience, comprehension, and proficiency and the steps get smaller as life progresses toward the end…the challenges of life easier to negotiate.

Looking at the photograph from different angles and rotations, it occurred to me that the image was interesting whichever way it was viewed and also that it could be joined to make patterns and flows that could be used to highlight the different perspectives and imagery in the picture.

Belgian artist Arnaud “PsoMan” Vanderkerkin assisted with the project to blend the images together into a whole series of montage photographs that utilize the original shot to make beautiful patterns, new stories, and art forms. The image was not altered in any way other than rotated, matched together and joined.

Then Arnaud took over the process and used his imaginative bent and superior photoshop skills to realise my artistic aspirations…thanks Arnaud!

 

Posted in Art, Business, Environment, Kahurangi National Park, Karamea, LivinginPeace Project, New Zealand, Photography, Uncategorized, West Coast | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Flood Destroys Lewis River Bridge on Heaphy Track

Posted on July 17, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject

Media release

17 July 2012

Heavy rain over the weekend has taken its toll on the Heaphy Track. The swing bridge across the Lewis River was destroyed during serious flooding that occurred in the region. “We believe that the unusually high floodwaters eroded the true right river bank, undermining the tower and anchor block and causing the bridge to collapse,” said Department of Conservation Programme Manager for Visitor Assets, Jonathan Thomas.

The bridge has been examined, however, it was determined that the extent of the damage will prevent even a temporary structure being built until the bridge can be repaired

The Remains of the Swing Bridge over Lewis River (July 17, 2012)

The Heaphy River is able to be forded immediately south of the Lewis Hut during normal river levels and DOC staff have erected signs and markers indicating the safe crossing.

Hut Warden Lizzie Coates, who is based on the track over the winter season, discovered the destruction, but was able to safely cross the river by midday on Monday.

As a result the Department will not be closing the track, however, trampers and mountain bikers who are planning to use the Heaphy Track are advised to check the weather forecast carefully and to be aware that travel times may be longer than indicated.

The two bridges that span the rivers at the Lewis – Heaphy confluence were due to be replaced later this year by a single 100-metre span suspension bridge.  The Department of Conservation will now look at bringing this work forward.

Floodwaters have also caused moderate damage to some other sections of the track along the river banks, as well as causing some erosion along the coastal sections of the track. Department of Conservation staff are working this week to begin rerouting the track around problem areas and repairing track damage.

Users are asked to bear with us while this is happens, and to be aware that it may take six months for the bridge to be replaced.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

LivinginPeace Project Permaculture Design Course

Posted on July 17, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject

LivingInPeace Logo
Permaculture Design Course in Karamea
(September 30 to October 14, 2012)

The course will cover theory and practice in Permaculture and will be held on a developing permaculture farm in sunny Karamea at the top of the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

Course Outline:

The PDC held at The Living Peace Project/Rongo Backpackers & Gallery from September 30 to October 14, 2012 will be slightly different to most other PDC’s. The full theoretical curriculum will be presented, but we will also be expanding the classroom out into the surrounding environment and conducting practical workshops so that students will go home with all the theoretical information, but also with confidence, ability and skills to put their course material into practice.

Practical aspects of the course will include:

  • Two 18-day compost piles will be built one of which will be complete by the end of the PDC.
  • Students will partake in building a rocket stove as a practical demonstration of efficient combustion.
  • Demonstration of the action of nitrifying bacteria and their essential role in soil biology, grey-water systems and aquaculture/aquaponics.
  • Examining the process of extracting essential oils.
  • Establish gardens and plant trees as well as examining the decomposing process in a natural forest system.
  • Vist permaculture farms in the Karamea region.
  • Vist old-growth forest systems in the Karamea region.
  • Completing a permaculture design for local client as practice for consultancy.

The students will also receive the diversity of 3 teachers all of whom are very experienced and knowledgeable in specific areas. Specialty subject teachers ensure the students receive the most critical information throughout the 72-hour programme.

On completion of the PDC, students may choose to stay on to experience life on a working permaculture farm: (Accommodation at the discounted rates as listed below)

Teachers’ Profiles

Tim Barker

Tim Barker’s Biography:

Aussie born, trained as a diesel fitter, began my Permaculture journey after reading Permaculture One by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison in 1981, still reading and learning. Ran an adventure tourism business in far North Queensland for 8 years, also contracted to the EPA as a guide for environmental impact studies on the cape York Peninsular, and in conjunction with Tourism Queensland and Aboriginal communities set up and ran turtle conservation camps as a test case for indigenous eco-tourism based business. Former treasurer of the Albatross bay catchment management group and served as environmental contracts administrator for a large contractor based in Far North Queensland. Received my PDC through Permaculture visions, and completed an internship at The Permaculture Research Institute under Geoff Lawton. Was invited back to the PRI as a MR Fix It and teacher. Favourite pastime; thinking, appropriate low tech and aquaponics. Age: 48

Dave Tailby

Dave Tailby’s Biography:
LivinginPeace Project Farm Manager, Dave was formerly a qualified builder and did his PDC with Geoff Lawton at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia Zaytuna Farm in 2010 and joined the LivinginPeace Project as the Farm Manager in March 2012. He has taken charge of the farm development and is creating a permaculture exhibition farm to help others learn about the principles of permaculture. Dave is a great people-person and loves to share his knowledge of permaculture and building.
Age: 49

Paul Murray

Paul Murray’s Biography:
Paul is the founder of the LivinginPeace Project.
He did his PDC with Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton at Melbourne University in 2009.
Grew up on a grazing property on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
Degree in Agricultural Science (horticulture) from University of South Australia (Rosweworthy).
Grad Dip Arts (Journalism) University of Southern Queenland (Toowoomba).
Age: 46

Course fee structure:

Course Fee: NZ$1,350 per person

Meals: $20 per person per day
(Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) (Morning and Afternoon Tea supplied)

Transport: Transport supplied by Karamea Connections (KarameaConnections.co.nz)

Accommodation Options:

Rongo Backpackers & Gallery
www.rongobackpackers.com
Camping/Van/Tent $15 p.p. per day
Dormitory $20 p.p. per day
Twin Room $30 p.p. per day
Private Room $50 p.p. per day
Karamea Farm Baches
www.karameamotels.com
Self-contained unit
(single occupancy)		 $60 per day
Self-contained unit
(two people)		 $75 per day

*** 25% deposit required on booking the course.
Full payment to be made by commencement of the PDC.

*** Please e-mail Paul Murray: rongo@actrix.co.nz for Bank Account Details or
send a cheque made out to Iltamara Ltd to:

Rongo Backpackers & Gallery
130 Waverley Street
P.O. Box 54
Karamea 7864
NEW ZEALAND

Cancellation Policy:

Up until September 30, 2012: Full refund of deposit and course fee
Between September 30 and October 7: 50% refund of deposit and course fee
After October 7: No refund of deposit of course fee

The LivinginPeace Permaculture Design Course is sponsored by:
Karamea Farm Baches LogoKaramea Farm Baches
http://www.KarameaMotels.com		 Rongo Backpackers LogoRongo Backpackers & Gallery
http://www.RongoBackpackers.com		 Karamea Connections LogoMovement of the People
KarameaConnections.co.nz
Posted in Business, Education, Environment, Kahurangi National Park, Karamea, LivinginPeace Project, New Zealand, Permaculture, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Karamea Ministry of Red Tape #13

Posted on July 14, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject

Karamea Ministry of Red Tape

A New Zealand Government Department Authorised by a Deliberately Ambiguous and Subtly Rhetorical Act of Parliament and Compounded by a Tacitly Implied Royal Approval to Receive Official Complaints.
 

Office Manager:    Red Scarlett

Office Manager: Red Scarlett

Senorita Complaints Officer:    Mater Harriet Yablonski

Senorita Complaints Officer: Mater Harriet Yablonski

Office Receptionist:    Honey Child Bizzarrre

Office Receptionist: Honey Child Bizzarrre

Tea Imperator:   Chai Yu

Office Tperadactyladilloasaurusoceros:    Rajah

Office Tperadactyladilloasaurusoceros: Rajah

Karamea Ministry of Red Tape:  Market Cross 9.15 am

Dalek Venutian:   “Exterminate, exterminate, exterminate!!!”

Dalek Venutian (right)

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    Ooh wow! Have you got a big horn in the middle of your forehead or are you just pleased to see me?”

Dalek Venutian:    “Take me to your leader!!!!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “Ooh you are so cute! Why don’t you come up and see me some time?”

Dalek Venutian:   “That does not compute! I can see you now! Exterminate!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “Wow, you are so sexy!! Why don’t we do lunch?”

Dalek Venutian:    “Earthling cretin, show me your mammary glands! You will obey!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    How naughty!!!  I don’t….. oh..alright!”

Dalek Venutian:    Exterminate!!!…Ex…..sproing…..sprark….kapowski!!!……”

Doctor Say When:    Congratulations! You have just destroyed an extremely dangerous Varazian Dalek Ninja!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    Why thank you Mister….???”

Doctor Say When:  They call me The Doctor! I am a Centaurian Time Lord from a time dimension in the seventh cosmosphere!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “A doctor! Great! I’ve had a slight tickle in the chest this week! Could you please have a look at it?”

 

Doctor Say When:    “Cough cough… Well, actually I’m a doctor of…..mmmm….aaaghhh….yes I can see the problem! ( Yowser!)

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “How many aspirins should I take?”

Doctor Say When:   “I’m prescribing an immediate diaphragmatic massage and the application of a homeopathic application of whipped cream and strawberry jam!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “Ooh Doctor! Can you also please have a look at this to the left of my sternum! Is it a melanoma?”

Doctor Say When:   “Mmmm! Looks more like an enlarged supernova!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “Ooh! I’m having a dizzy Doris episode! I need to sit down!”

Doctor Say When:    “Right, you had better sit on my knee while I take your temperature!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “Ouch!!!”

Doctor Say When:    “Pardon me!”

Chai Yu:    “Would you like a cup of chai tea Doctor?”

Doctor Say When:    “Indeed! Two lumps of sugar and some hot crumpet would be nice!”

Chai Yu:   “Voila!”

Doctor Say When:    “Ow! That is rather hot!”

Mater Harriet Yablobnski:   “Would you like to make a complaint?”

Doctor Say When:    “Well….yes!”

Mater Harriet Yablonski:    “An official complaint?”

Doctor Say When:    “Indeed!  Justass must prevail!”

Red Scarlett:    “How do you do Doctor….??????”

Doctor Say When:    “Say When!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “When!”

Red Scarlett:    “I am Red Scarlett the Karamea Ministry of Red Tape Office Manager and I will personally manage your complaint!”

Doctor Say When:    “Excellent! First of all I must complete a thorough physical examination of Mistress Bizarrrre! Now stand up and bend over!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “Should I drop my panties, doctor?”

 

Doctor say When:    “Cough… cough…Ahem !  Now open wide and say aaaaaagghhhh!!”

Honey Child Bizzarrr:    “But I am a virgin!”

Doctor Say When:    Open your mouth and say aaaghhhh!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “R!”

Doctor Say When:    “Mmmm! When did you last dye your hair??”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “About fifteen minutes ago!”

Doctor say When:   “What is your original hair colour Honey Child???”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “Why blonde of course!”

Doctor Say When:    “Mmmm! Rather serious! Tetrachlorohydroxyfluoromaxicapillarosis poisoning! Immediate mouth to mouth resuscitation is required followed by a jolly good spanking!”

 

Red Scarlett:    “Eureka! Karamea Ministry of Red Tape Official Complaint 48 DD. To whit…Lecherous Doctor from seventh cosmosphere…blah…blah…blah…burns his fingers…no I mean his mouth on sizzling hot crumpet…blah…blah…blah….extravagant cleavage….blah…blah…blah…official complaint… blah…blah…blah…That will be 20 sqazillion Ranganewthadons plus Imperial War Tax!”

Doctor Say When:    “Absolutely bloody outrageous! The cost of a new Tardis and a longer zargiffilo scarf! I would rather shoot myself than bow to extortion!!!”

Red Scarlett:   “I can save you the trouble!”

KABOOM!

Mater Harriet Yablonski:    “Yo! Bullseye!”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “Boo Hoo.”

Red Scarlett:    “Whatever is the matter?”

Honey Child Bizzarrre:    “I don’t think the Doctor took my temperature for long enough!”

Red Scarlett:    “I think two minutes is plenty!”

Rajah:    “ Arf arf!”

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Savaged: Oliver Stone Sells Out…AGAIN!

Posted on July 14, 2012 by LivinginPeaceProject

Off the Top of my Head

 
By Paul Murray
 

Oliver Stone’s counterculture credibility was seriously knocked with the 2008 release of his George Bushathon “W,” which clearly revealed his political leaning and showed that the Republicans have a friend in Hollywood.

“Savages” is yet another sellout to the authoritarian rule of the U.S. Government and seems to be an attempt to sway public perception of marijuana into line with U.S. Federal Law, which currently prohibits the use of the drug, despite State laws to the contrary.

Marijuana is portrayed in the movie as a Class “A” drug in the same league as cocaine or heroin. Grass smoking is shown to be stupefying, addictive, leading to morally reprehensible behaviour (licentiousness), is associated with violent criminal behaviour, is culturally threatening etc, etc…but hang on a minute…marijuana smugglers don’t go about beheading people with chainsaws…that wouldn’t be groovy man!

Marijuana is persistently portrayed in a negative light in this movie.

As an example, lovely stoner Blake Lively, is in love with both male leads and they are totally comfortable with each other having an open sexual relationship with Lively, whose character is “O.”

All three are in the dope business and enthusiastic champions of their product. Their bedroom antics clearly resultant from the licentiousness and promiscuous sexual experimentation encouraged by the use of marijuana…as the story goes.

Lovely Lively “O” is kidnapped and is held held as leverage by the Baja Cartlel to gain control of the U.S. production and distribution chain currently run by “O” beaus Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. She is incarcerated and at the mercy of henchman Benicio del Toro, fed a poor diet, chained and menaced and is quite terrified at her loss of Californian freedom.

Finally, after much persistent demanding, receives and audience with the head of the cartel Salma Hayek. Instead of pleading for her release, what does she request?…Marijuana, as she is apparently having some difficulty concentrating without the calming focus provided her by the drug, which she has been habitually smoking (and is addicted to) since she was a teenager. Ummm…this is not only unlikely, but ludicrous…another example of how marijuana is falsely portrayed in this film.

In this film, marijuana is a metaphor for cocaine OK…someone, perhaps the financiers, the government lawmakers, the CIA…whoever…want Joe Public to believe that marijuana is a threat to the fabric of society, but the question is, why do they want us to think that way? Perhaps the upcoming U.S. Presidential election has something to do with it? Is Mitt Romney considering making marijuana an election issue? Further leveraging the “War on Drugs” for political advantage? Or are federal lawmakers looking for help in bending the wave of public support for decriminalising the drug?

Salma Hayek and Blake Lively the Beast and the Beauty

“Savages” may be a Republican hedge against a potential Obama play to make the legalization of marijuana in the United States an election issue…If Obama runs on a pledge to make Federal Law amendments in line with the will of the people––as evidenced by the many states that have moved to legalise or decriminalize weed––the Republicans will likely provide copies of the Oliver Stone film to their members and arrange for screenings at local community halls across the nation to foster paranoia and garner votes.

Republicans politicians need to demonise  grass in the minds of their voters to make sure they can convince enough people support their ongoing “War on Drugs” to keep God-fearing U.S. citizens safe from the ravages marijuana will rain upon them and the pestilence and disease it will undoubtedly bring to civilised society.

The real motivation is of course to keep people believing that the government is doing everything possible to protect us from the narcotic scourge, when in reality, the government is controlling the entire drug trade. Given the border protection, customs checks and other security measures in the United States, how else are drugs brought into the country?

Tell an AmeriCAN they CAN’T and they’ll splash out their $pondoolie to show they can have whatever they want and they’re happy to pay…(provided they get a discount card with their first purchase that can be used for loyalty discounts to reward regular custom).

The United States has the toughest drug laws of Western industrialised, “first world” nations, but the country’s populace is the largest user of illicit drugs by a spectacular margin. The more illegal the drug, the more popular…it’s Economics 101…supply will rise to meet demand…and it’s a perfect business, low production cost, addictive product, loyal consumers, repeat customers assured, very high profit margin.

There is the  minor issue of the product being illegal, but this is both the problem and the solution for the government…as they control both sides of the equation…and in the United States, the more illegal it is, the more popular and, by association, the higher the profits.

USA, USA!

Stone makes the above points very well and in an engaging fashion and the movie is compelling viewing…it is also laden with propaganda, factual inaccuracies and misleading depiction.

The one concession I would make to Stone is the revelation that U.S. Federal Agents (John Travolta) are complicit in drug trafficking operations in the United States. The movie showed how it could happen, how the agents profit individually and how the agency, in this case the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, are used to cover crimes of avarice perpetrated by senior agents.

More praise for the cast…a brilliant line up from the Californian cute and sassiness of Blake Lively, the sultry Salma Hayek as the ruthless Mexican matriarch of the Baja drug cartel…her henchman Benicio del Toro…a sinister, evil, merciless and deviant killer… Taylor Kitsch the brawn and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the brains behind the Californian weed operation and the line-up is rounded off with a convincing performance from corrupt DEA agent John Travolta.

The movie is entertaining, but the content is factually incorrect and seriously misleading. Watching an Oliver Stone movie these days is much like reading a newspaper. You really need to interpolate…OK, this is what “they” want me to think…now, why do they want me to think this way? What’s the agenda? For a director responsible for such great movies as Salvador, JFK, Nixon, Wall Street and Platoon…Savages is a serious blight on his reputation…could Mr Stone be feathering his nest for retirement?

Salma Hayek as “Elena Sánchez” head of the Baja Cartel

Benicio del Toro as Baja Cartel head henchman “Lado.”

John Travolta as dirty DEA agent “Dennis”

No stranger to Class “A” pharmaceuticals, Stone said recently in the LA Times, that he hopes people will watch “Savages” and think about the war on drugs and the violence it has sparked, especially in Mexico. Decriminalizing marijuana, he said, is a good first step.

“Prohibition never works — if it’s sex or drugs or alcohol,” Stone said. “So let’s get it under some sort of medical control, rather than criminal control.”

Sage words from Mr Stoner, but his movie serves to send a message in support of continued crack-down on the drug trade…it belies his comments.

Who is paying you Stone? You’re worse than a reformed cigarette smoker…your pious reverence and Machiavellian fact-bending is not lost on the thinking public…to hell with you, your movie and your second-hand smoke and mirrors!

I have no proof of any of my above postulations, I have done little research into the subjects I broach, but to me, the only way any of this makes any sense at all is that what I have written is right…However, as you well know Uncle Sam, it matters not what is right, what matters is what people think is right…Right Rupert?
 
 

File:Savages poster.jpg

Wednesday, 11 July 2012 09:35

Oliver Stone Gets it Wrong on Mexico Drug War

Written by  Patrick Corcoran

On the publicity circuit to promote his new movie, director Oliver Stone has made a series of assertions about Mexico and the war on drugs that are not only false, but promote a dangerously misleading view of the country’s criminal groups.

In a recent interview on “Piers Morgan Tonight,” Stone used a series of unfounded statistical assertions to justify his opposition to the war on drugs, theme of his movie “Savages” which opened in the US earlier this month. Among his comments, as compiled by the Los Angeles Times:

The Mexican economy would die without [drugs] because they need the money. It goes into their legitimate economy. It’s bigger than tourism. It’s bigger than oil. It’s bigger than remissions from their Mexican emigrants back to their country … Fifty percent of our prison system is victimless crimes. People who’ve never hurt anybody, they’re in for marijuana and it has nothing to do with punishment. It’s a medical issue, and I think we have to move to decriminalization and legalization.

Stone is right to point out that the mass incarceration of drug offenders is demonstrably inefficient and in many senses immoral, but his facts are incorrect. Drug offenders do not constitute 50 percent of the US prison system’s inmates, but just over 20 percent. There are certainly more effective and humane ways to deal with the issue than tossing these people behind bars, but the opponents of the largely mindless approach to drug policy that has dominated in the last 40 years only hurt their case by casually tossing out falsehoods.

The problem continues with Stone’s statement that flows of drug money in Mexico are larger than those from tourism, oil, or remittances. Estimates for the value of the Mexican drug trade are all over the map, but themost rigorous analyses have concluded that export revenue from the drug trade is far lower than Stone suggests. Alejandro Hope, for instance, places the figure somewhere between $4.7 to $8.1 billion, while theRAND Corporation estimates that Mexican traffickers earn roughly $6.6 billion per year from sending drugs to the US.

In contrast, remittances sent by Mexicans living abroad in 2011 amounted to $22.7 billion. Mexico’s tourist trade, notwithstanding the nation’s unfortunate image in the international press, still managed to generate $11.9 billion in 2010. Stone’s claim is even further from the mark with regard to oil: the revenues for Pemex, the national oil company, amounted to $125 billion in 2011.

Consequently, Stone’s statement that the Mexican economy “would die” without drug money drifts into the terrain of the indefensible. Unfortunately, Stone is not alone in this exaggerated view of drug money’s role in the Mexican economy. One story, put forward by authors like Richard Grant and Charles Bowden, holds that a 2001 study by CISEN, Mexico’s intelligence agency, found that an end to the drug trade would result in a 63 percent contraction of the Mexican economy.

The study is not public — citing a story from El Diario de Juarez, Bowden wrote that it was leaked to the media in 2001, though InSight Crime’s online search for the original study turned up nothing. It is difficult to know, therefore, if its authors were perhaps making a more nuanced point that was lost in subsequent references to it. However, the scenario posited by Grant and Bowden, and the implicit idea that the Mexican economy would “die” without drug money, is simply absurd.

The most obvious flaw is the very idea that drug trafficking could disappear entirely. Though the size and composition of proceeds from the illicit trade may vary, longstanding industries, especially those that feed upon deep-seated human desires, don’t simply disappear from one year to the next.

Moreover, as demonstrated above, the total revenue generated by the drug trade is relatively small. Even using a methodologically suspect high-end estimate, such as the $39 billion cited by the US National Drug Intelligence Center for revenues of all Colombian and Mexican organizations, and for the sake of argument attributing all of the profits to the Mexican gangs, the figure still amounts to less than 4 percent of total Mexican output. Using the more rigorous calculations of the industry’s size, drug trafficking probably accounts for roughly 0.5 percent of the nation’s economy. Eliminating the proceeds of drug smuggling would certainly have a significant impact on the GDP, but such an event, aside from being virtually impossible, would be nothing like the economic apocalypse posited by Stone.

Beyond simply being incorrect, Stone’s comments fuel a dystopian narrative of Mexico that has done the nation a great disservice over the past few years. They also help feed a belief that Mexico’s criminals are invincible supermen, against whom capitulation is the only solution. This is wrong, just like Stone’s facts.

‘Savages’ boss Oliver Stone knows good weed

July 5, 2012 RSS Feed Print

By DAVID GERMAIN, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oliver Stone has smoked great marijuana all over the world, from Vietnam and Thailand to Jamaica and South Sudan. But the filmmaker says the best weed is made in the USA and that pot could be a huge growth industry for taxpayers if it were legalized.

Stone, whose drug-war thriller “Savages” opens Friday, has been a regular toker since his days as an infantryman in Vietnam in the late 1960s and knows a good herb when he inhales one. He insisted in a recent interview that no one is producing better stuff now than U.S. growers.

“There’s good weed everywhere in the world, but my God, these Americans are brilliant,” said Stone, 65, who sees only benefits from legalizing marijuana. “It can be done. It can be done legally, safely, healthy, and it can be taxed and the government can pay for education and stuff like that. Also, you can save a fortune by not putting kids in jail.”

Stone is known for mixing polemics and drama in films such as “JFK,” ”Born on the Fourth of July,” ”Wall Street” and “Nixon,” his saga of the president who declared the war on drugs 40 years ago. Yet “Savages” may be closer to a pure thrill ride than anything he’s done, the action coming without much in the way of preaching for legalization.

Still, the film offers a fictional portrait of violence among a Mexican drug cartel and California pot growers that makes legalizing marijuana seem like a sane option.

“That would be my personal solution, but as a politician, I would fight for decriminalization first, because that is the immediate by-product of this mess that we got ourselves into. It’s very hard to pull out of a $40 billion-a-year industry, which is the prison industry. It’s probably more than $40 billion. But they will fight you tooth and nail to keep these prisons as big as they are,” Stone said.

“It’s worse than slavery, per capita. In the black community, it is a form of slavery, this drug war, because it imprisons a huge portion of people, destroys their lives, coarsens our culture. And why? Marijuana is much less harmful than tobacco and prescription drugs in many cases and certainly alcohol. This puritanical strain got started with Nixon. It was a political issue for him, and it’s gotten worse. It’s like the Pentagon. You can’t stop it.”

“Savages” co-star Salma Hayek had some worries that the film could have become a sermon in favor of drug legalization. She was glad the film wound up sticking to a good story and generally keeping politics out of it, even though she agrees that legalization makes sense for marijuana, at least.

“Yeah, marijuana, if it’s legalized and controlled,” Hayek said. “Some of the other drugs that are on the market are really, really dangerous. The legal drugs. That your doctor can prescribe. And they can kill you with it slowly.”

Hayek plays the merciless boss of a Mexican cartel aiming to seize control of a California pot operation whose leaders (Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch) grow the best marijuana on the planet. The film co-stars Benicio Del Toro as Hayek’s brutal lieutenant, John Travolta as a corrupt Drug Enforcement Agency cop and Blake Lively as Johnson and Kitsch’s shared lover, whose kidnapping puts the two sides at war.

Stone, who has two Academy Awards as best director for 1989’s “Born on the Fourth of July” and 1986’s “Platoon” (the latter also won best picture), has had a fitful career since the mid-1990s, with critical bombs such as “Alexander” and modest box-office results for “W.”, “World Trade Center” and “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”

With gorgeous Southern California scenery, wicked humor and relentless action, “Savages” may have more commercial appeal than anything Stone has done in decades. While the film itself doesn’t preach, it has given Stone a soapbox to play devil’s advocate, even landing him on the cover of the marijuana magazine High Times, smoking a joint.

“He’s Oliver Stone for a reason. There’s no filter, and he is who he is, and I admire that,” said “Savages” star Kitsch. “At the end of the day, who you’re going to be facing is yourself. If you can stay true to that — and I tell you, this business tests every minute of it — I love that. I love to see someone that is like, ‘Look, this (expletive) movie is what I’ve done. Take it or leave it.’ It’s an admirable quality, especially in this business.”

Presidential Election and the International War on Drugs

By Michael Higham 

Credit: cannacentral.com

The federal War on Drugs is controversial and was most recently called a failure by Governor Chris Christie. The United States spends billions of dollars fighting drug trafficking abroad, as well. There is a long history of U.S. involvement south of its border, namely in Columbia, Mexico and Honduras. With growing support for drug legalization, it is important to recognize both presidential candidates’ view of the Drug War.

Foreign operations combating drug trafficking is not new. United States foreign policy has not always been globally popular, but would a withdrawal from the Drug War, even through legalization, affect perception? The outlook does not look good for anti-drug war supporters. President Obama has shifted the focus from counter-narcotics operations to institutional reform through budgeting. However, legalization is out of the question for the Obama administration.

As of now, we’ve heard very little from the Romney campaign about foreign drug policy but we might be able to predict possible policy. In regards to Latin America, he states military cooperation to eliminate drug cartels as a policy goal. We will not see a change in the international war on drugs with Romney as president. Perhaps there will be a slight escalation in the militarization of the international drug war. Romney has assembled his foreign policy advisers and most have worked under the Bush Administration.

The Bush Administration spent $6 billion to fight drug trafficking in Colombia. The policy was appropriately named Plan Colombia, and it promoted a militaristic approach comparable to counter-insurgency.

The United States is involved in Honduras to fight drug operations and launched Operation Anvil in April of this year. U.S. law enforcement and Honduran agents cooperated with each other. The U.S. military is also in a supporting role. Controversy was stirred when a raid killed four on a river-boat, two of them were pregnant women, as reported by CNN. This did not harm relations between the U.S. and Honduras. Critics question the legitimacy of casualties in a peacetime setting, especially when civilians can be mistaken casualties.

The newly elected President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto has stated that he opposes legalization. He does call for increased U.S. cooperation with a focus to reduce violence.

“I’m against legalization, but with a debate where countries in the hemisphere — and especially the U.S. — should participate in this broad debate to redefine the way in which we fight drug trafficking,” Nieto said in his interview on PBS’s NewsHour.

Pena Nieto places emphasis on U.S. participation. This means there will be increased responsibility invested in the elected U.S. president for what happens in Mexico.

In recent news, the Fast and Furious scandal is another botch in the War on Drugs. The U.S. hoped to track Mexican drug cartels through a gunrunning sting operation. However, a U.S. agent, Brian Terry, was killed by cartel using weapons supplied through Fast and Furious.

The main difference between our main presidential candidates in terms of the foreign drug war is where the funding will be going. Obama shows a prioritization in fighting the drug war from an institutional perspective. Romney seeks to maintain a militarized focus, similar to the Bush Administration.

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