The ozone hole could be holding back an Antarctic thaw...

The ozone hole could actually be holding back an Antarctic thaw...

The Ozone hole in the Southern Pacific area encompassing New Zealand and Australia, long blamed for increased skin cancers in these countries, could actually be holding back an Antarctic thaw. according to British research.

This reduces the effects of greenhouse gases in the southern ocean. It is causing more storms and extreme winds, but cooling down the Antarctic in the process.

But here is a dilemma for humankind - repair the Ozone hole, or let nature do the job for them over the next fifty years, but with the side effect of losing one third of sea ice in the Antarctic area.

Please visit the Green Planet Blog:

Read

No more Eskimo pies or gollie lollies...

By golly! Eskimo debate moves on to gollywogs


Hot on the tail of the Eskimo lolly debate is one even more contentious.

An African American living in Auckland has complained about seeing golliwogs in local shops.

Desmond Jefferson says golliwogs show an even more offensive depiction of black people than do the lollies of Eskimos.

Speaking to TV3’s Sunrise this morning, Mr Jefferson said “I don’t want to offend anyone in New Zealand as I know a lot of people are very fond of the gollywogs and it’s a completely innocent doll and story here, but the history behind it is rooted in racism.”

Toy maker Kate Finn has created brand new dolls, called “gollies” but Mr Jefferson says this is no less offensive.

“Most New Zealanders don’t know the history of the piccaninny stereotype” he said.

Mr Jefferson's offence lies at the heart of the “degrading and demeaning” caricature of African Americans which the gollywog represents.

“This piccaninny stereotype has never, ever had a good connotation to it, it was only meant as a slur.” He said.

Crabtree and Evelyn, the store Sunrise purchased the gollywog from declined to comment.



Eskimo debate rages on:

Inuits come to the defence of the word 'Eskimo'
Eskimo lollies slammed as racist by Canadian tourist
Eskimo lolly deemed offensive to the Inuit
No name change for Eskimo sweets

What no more Eskimo pies?

NZ SAS special forces could be sent to Fiji to restore law, order and democracy...

The New Zealand PM, John Key, mentioned the possibility of New Zealand troops going to Fiji to restore law, order and democracy, but thought it unlikely.

It was said that Fiji would fight back because they have a large defence force for the size of the country. Maybe! But the troops NZ could consider are among the premier special forces troops in the world - the NZ SAS, who have served with distinction in Afghanistan for a number of years.

The last time NZ troops were sent to a Pacific country to restore order was in Samoa in 1914; they were actually armed police and a number of Samoans were killed after riots Samoa was at that stage a German colony taken over by NZ - or so the story goes.Fijian troops would be mere babes in the woods against those Kiwi SAS troops.

Getting written out of credibility as a nation - Fiji dies one step at a time...

Australia's journalists' union says Fijian authorities are acting outside the law with the introduction of tough new media regulations.

ABC correspondent Sean Dorney is being deported from Fiji today after authorities objected to his coverage of the recent political and constitutional turmoil.

Journalists have been told not to publish or broadcast stories that present the reinstatement of the military government in a negative light, and police censors have been installed in newsrooms across Suva.

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) federal secretary Chris Warren has criticised the Fijian government for the introduction of the new censorship laws.

Mr Warren says the censorship is a very serious step.

"Fiji has now become the most repressive country, in terms of press freedom, in the region, and indeed is on the road to becoming one of the worst in the world," he said.

"Installing military fences inside newsrooms is one of the worst measures we've seen around the world.

"That sort of pre-publication censorship is a very serious step."

He also says the situation for the media in Fiji will get worse.

"Fijian courts were quite clear about what needed to occur," he said.

"The Fijian authorities are ignoring the laws, and ignoring the impact of the laws.

"That's very serious, because once they start down that road there's no clear point at which they're likely to stop."


'It's got to behave'

And Fiji's interim government is facing serious punishment, according to the special representative of the Commonwealth secretary-general to Fiji.

Sir Paul Reeves, who is also the former New Zealand governor-general, says the military regime's crackdown on journalists is a disgrace.

He says Fiji could be kicked out of the Commonwealth.

"Fiji's got to stay an international player, it can't just flout things," he said.

"Face it, it's a small nation in a vast sea, it's got to realise that it depends on other people - it can't exist on by itself, it needs an international context, it's got to behave."

Happy Easter to you all...

Happy Easter to you all! But to many of you it is still the day before Good Friday. We are ahead of you down here in NZ and the Pacific. It appears that some Americans don't think Easter starts until Easter Sunday? Did they lose good Friday? LOL

The crucifiction is actually the most significant part of Easter to many who don't actually believe the resurrection. Believing that Jesus Christ actually died on the cross is important, I guess! It is a starter to believe in this great man who was around two thousand years ago.

Cheers and happy Easter.

NZ police nab potheads in cannabis sweep...

NZ police nab potheads in cannabis sweep...

A cannabis sweep in the eastern North Island has seen 260 people arrested and 40,000 cannabis plants destroyed.

Two hundred and sixty people have been arrested and 40,000 cannabis plants destroyed in a sweep across the eastern North Island.

The police annual cannabis recovery operation covered an area from the bottom of the Coromandel to Central Hawke's Bay, including Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty.

Customs, Ministry of Fisheries and Inland Revenue staff were also involved in the operation.

Thirty people are facing drug dealing charges, another 88 face a variety of other drugs charges.

A large quantity of cash and five vehicles have been seized. Twenty seven firearms and a P lab were found during searches of various houses.



Acknowledgements:
© 2009 NZCity, NewsTalkZB

Big Brother is alive and well, and trawling social network sites...

I was just reading a weekend paper here in Wellington, New Zealand, where an article reveals how "Big Brother" is alive and kicking and trawling social network sites to gain possible information on their members.

The article discussed how NZ government departments are trawling these sites for information that can be used against people on social welfare benefits for fraud purposes. One woman had been caught, redhanded you might say, because she admitted a relationship on the social networking site, and the department took a fraud case against her.

Even employers are in on the act looking for information to use against employees: In one case an employee was caught bragging on the site that he was taking a "sickie" from work because he still had a massive hangover.

If this is happening in a little country like NZ, just imagine on what scale it is being used in larger countries like Australia, Britain or in North America and Europe?

In the United Kingdom they propose to go one step further by creating a special website designed for monitoring the internet. So much for democracy and freedom of expression.

In my opinion they are a despicable bunch of Sebastians!