Podcasts about trans pacific partnership agreement

[English description below]Trong tập này, chúng ta sẽ có cơ hội gặp gỡ một người Đức có khả năng giao tiếp tiếng Việt tốt, ông Oliver Massmann - Partner, General Director - Duane Morris Vietnam LLC.Oliver Massmann không chỉ là một chuyên gia hàng đầu mà còn từng tư vấn cho Chính phủ Việt Nam về quá trình gia nhập WTO vào năm 2007. Năm 2016, ông đã đưa ra bài thuyết trình trước Quốc hội Việt Nam về tác động của Hiệp định Đối tác Xuyên Thái Bình Dương bằng tiếng Việt. Và cho đến thời điểm hiện tại, ông vẫn là người nước ngoài duy nhất làm được điều này.Đặt chân đến nước ta từ 1990, sau 23 năm nhìn lại, Việt Nam đã thay đổi ra sao? Điều gì khiến ông Oliver Massmann xem Việt Nam như chính quê hương mình, cùng host Miro Nguyễn tìm hiểu nhé.Xem phiên bản video trên YouTubeVà đọc những thông tin thú vị trên vietcetera.com.Nếu có bất cứ góp ý, phản hồi hay mong muốn hợp tác, bạn có thể gửi email về địa chỉ team@vietcetera.com---In this episode, we have the opportunity to meet a German individual with excellent proficiency in Vietnamese, Mr. Oliver Massmann - Partner, General Director of Duane Morris Vietnam LLC.Oliver Massmann is not only a leading expert but has also provided consultancy to the Vietnamese Government during the WTO accession process in 2007. In 2016, he delivered a presentation before the Vietnamese National Assembly on the impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in Vietnamese, making him the only foreigner to achieve this to date.Having set foot in Vietnam in 1990, after 23 years, how has Vietnam changed? What makes Oliver Massmann consider Vietnam his second home? Join host Miro Nguyen in exploring these questions in our latest episode.Listen to this episode on YouTube And explore many amazing articles at the website vietcetera.com.Feel free to leave any questions or invitations for business cooperation at team@vietcetera.com

Find out that 10s of $Billions of holdings are hidden with direct NZ Government knowledge - so as to not be scrutinised by 'we the people.’ We first cover some recent history, and the stopping of economic imperialism here in NZ on the far reaches of what was once the British Empire. However it's about Offshore Corporations being able to profit from NZ resources and labour and taking all their profits away overseas and not really investing in the NZ community at large. For example, back in 1975 at the bottom of the South Island the Bluff aluminium smelter was built by the Rio Tinto Group an Anglo-Australian multinational and the world's second largest metals and mining corporation. This smelter was classified by CAFCA as the largest corporate bludger in NZ. They obtained cheap electricity from Governmentally owned power stations  - huge amounts -  at a tiny fraction of what a NZ householder would pay for. Murray also stated that CAFCA has a clear message – that it does not take immigration as a reason for the  inequities of large amounts of money being taken out of NZ, as this can be easily hijacked and if you are not careful, slip into racism – especially if you are not vigilant. The concern is foreign big business and their domination of virtually all aspects of the NZ economy. Like land sales, banks, news media etc – but virtually any sector of the NZ economy you care to  think about is dominated by TransNational Corporations. They used to be called MultiNational Corporations – because they increasingly operate in a huge number of countries, a number of them so global that they are far larger than the NZ economy. Oil corporations and Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft – the digital corporations – they are enormous and continue via software developments to expand their influence whilst encroaching on ours. NZ Needs to Become Self Sufficient. AIMs of CAFCA – that NZ should be a self sufficient economy and that if you are going to have foreign investment it has to be for the benefit of NZers not to simply for overseas investors to ‘fill their own pockets.' For example; 2,000 workers at the Bluff smelter will be now out of work. Because it suits the Corporate interest to do that. That a corporation basically does not have a social contract or obligation and they are doing nothing to improve NZ's debt situation. Thus CAFCA considers them to be a net liability – not an asset. He mentions also the film playing now in NZ called 'Island of the Empire' and it's about NZ’s military relationship with the United States that's been updated with Murray starring (my words) way back in the mid 1980's featuring journalist Nicky Hager, ex Green MP Keith Locke and his sister Maire Leadbeater. Plus ex Activist now Mayor of Invercargill - Tim Shadbolt. Also mentioned, is the 30 year old campaign against the Five Eyes Waihopai - Echelon Listening outpost for the US - UK alliance – that vacuums up all our, (meaning your) - telephone calls, fax’s, texts etc etc. And then saves them for later. Green Rush - Murray mentions the excellent Radio NZ research on who owns our land. The four largest private landowners in New Zealand are all foreign-owned forestry companies. This superb research by Radio NZ is an eye opener. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/400417/green-rush-foreign-forestry-companies-nz-s-biggest-landowners The information comes from an excellent RNZ investigation into land ownership in New Zealand. Using Land Information New Zealand data, Companies Office searches and other research, RNZ compiled a list of what is believed are the 100 biggest private landowners in New Zealand by area, not including the Crown and public entities (which control at least 28 percent of the land) or iwi (Maori). Forestry – not the above radio NZ article which only focussed on land ownership and did not focus on leased land and that is more dominant. This is important to realise - that it is not what is recorded - but what is obscured or hidden. Foreign direct investment (ownership of companies) in New Zealand increased from $15.7 billion in March 1989 to $121.7 billion as of March 2019 - almost eight times. As a proportion of the total output of the economy, Gross Domestic Product, it has risen from 22% to 40%. Statistics NZ data shows the countries where $100m or more in foreign direct investment was based as of March 2019 as being, in decreasing order: Australia, Hong Kong, US, Japan, UK, Singapore, Canada, Netherlands, British Virgin Islands, China, Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany and France (though the investments from some countries have been suppressed). These accounted for 93% of foreign direct investment in New Zealand.. Australia alone accounts for 50% with $57 billion of the $113 billion total. Murray continues, About You - the average NZ home owner. The average house owner who owns less than 5 hectares of land and collectively owns about 1.5 % of NZ. But, it gets worse - those who have around an acre of land with their house on it, such as Mum and Dad owned homes -  the total comes to 0.5% of NZ. Large units of Privately owned land in NZ  We have 4,600 people in NZ  0.1% of the total population that own half of the land owned by the 10 largest landowners. Listen to this, because Murray says the present government is doing something about curtailing the sale of our land … Eugenie Sage, the Green, Minister for Lands ‘outside’ of Government (not invited to Cabinet meetings) has actually said No to an overseas buyer. The Transnational mining company Oceania Gold, who are mining in Waihi in the Coromandel (where there is a huge hole in the ground) was not allowed to expand its operations to buy more farmland so as to use it to dump more toxic waste – however she was overruled by Labour Govt Cabinet Ministers. In this case the Finance Minister David Parker who is basically at the top of the pecking order along with David Clark (also the Minister of Health ) who is associate Minister of Finance. Both overruled her. However Murray states that since 2017 that this Labour lead Govt, of NZ First and the Greens has been doing something substantive to slow down the sales of land to overseas buyers. The Government now has a watchdog type unit that is monitoring sales. Called the ‘Overseas Investment Office’  - you must first check in with the OSIO to see if you can buy … listen or better still track the links below this article. Banking $10,000,000,000 of banking profits from NZers annually - from 5 million people. NZ's Four largest banks in NZ are Australian - These four Aussie banks constitute an enormous chunk of the NZ economy (and who is it who owns these Australian Banks?  Do they have links back to the UK or the US? Follow the money …. They are taking out of the NZ economy $10.3 billion dollars profit which is a substantial amount from less than 5 Million people. In the decade from 2010 up until 2119 they made $84.4 billion in profits out of satisfied NZers. Of which ¾ of this money left NZ. We discuss how the ASB the Auckland Savings Bank, once a very successful ‘Trust’ bank was sold off to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia - which was then privatised by the Conservative Howard, Australian Government. In NZ the many ‘Trust’ Banks that were here - were absorbed into Westpac of Australia. Only Taranaki and Southland remained sovereign.  We learn that Jim Anderton of the Alliance Party managed to start Kiwi Bank totally against the wishes of Prime Minister Helen Clark and Finance Minister Michael Cullen of the Labour Party. In 2019 we learned of ‘other’ tax havens such as the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Channel Islands which include Jersey and Guernsey, Dubai and United Arab Emirates and Island of Man – but the value of all their holdings have been suppressed as quote unquote – Confidential. That the NZ government refuses to let this information out. Listen ... we can go on becoming serfs in our own country or we can ask every political candidate why is this so?  Even Ex National PM John Key mentioned that NZers may become tenants in their own country. Not that he really made an effort to alleviate that. We also learn in this interview, how Labour’s Minister of Finance, David Parker is now making it more streamlined for overseas investors to buy into NZ. This is a shocker. Note that any purchase in NZ that is under $100 million does NOT have to go through any Government oversight – and they do not show up in the statistics! Murray gives an example – if the Auckland Sky tower went up for sale at $99.999 million dollars and someone from Russia, China or America wanted to buy it – that sale would not figure in any of the NZ Government books – it would just go through as an ordinary real estate transaction. (hidden from Public scrutiny) So you can see that the present Government has actually taken the goal posts away from the field altogether. This being done in plain sight by our generously paid elected Representatives who have run away with their own agenda by refusing to represent the interest of ‘we the NZ public.’ Just like selling our house or a flat or whatever … but in Australia it’s considerably higher - they have a $520 million threshold – so the Australian public are being shafted too. That all sales under that $100 million threshold, 'fly under the radar' and the NZ Government (your Government) for decades has been complicit in this. You would have to question that they are wanting to do away with our Sovereignty as a self-reliant nation! Have a good focused listen.  This is an Election Issue. In 2017 the Government put in certain breaks to stop certain countries coming in and bulk buying houses – Have a listen ... Australian and Singaporeans can buy a house in NZ today or many, because of the NZ/Singapore Free Trade Agreement and the Closer Economic Relations (CERA) with Australia, respectively. Note that recently the Australian Government convened a Royal Commission of Enquiry into their Banks (and the Insurance Industry) and have found very damning evidence of wrongdoing – but the NZ Government has declined to do the same – though the 4 largest banks in NZ are Australian owned. Which gives us cause to wonder … We hear from Murray that over seas insurance corporations take in profits of $38 billion annually. As there is an election here in September I asked Murray what questions we should ask Politicians in any public forum? Every candidate be asked about* – why the Government rushed through the Temporary  Overseas Investment (urgent measures ) Amendment Act – so that any foreigner has to have it run by a Governmental National Interest Test. This is to stave off in the situation that critical businesses and infrastructure cannot be bought out in a fire sale - if due to another Covid or other national disaster that collapse the economy  and then have a foreign entity or predator come in and scoop our assets up at a bargain basement price – an then exit the country … Now most countries globally have done the same and in Australia too. So* ask our political candidates to make this 'National Interest Test' - permanent – be it a farm or the Auckland harbour bridge – it has to go through that National Interest Test. Do you agree to that? That it be made permanent. Plus, to now make this to apply to transnational investors already operating in this country. Murray said that the Bluff Aluminium smelter would not have passed this test – saying they are a bunch of bludgers – he said if the National Interest Test had been applied to all the overseas banks in NZ – they would have failed it too. Also ask this question. Do you renounce the whole Neo Liberal Economic Model?This will let you see who is independent or who follows the party line.  Also mentioned that farms are being bought up and converted to pine forests – do we not need to keep the rural sector populated and have schools – villages and towns and the local infrastructure working sustainably - being robust? Other subjects covered. NZ sources so many of its medicines, pills etc from overseas - that a huge percentage come from India and this was compromised during the Covid lockdown - because we had all our eggs in one basket. The US too had 95% of its antibiotics sourced from China. Trump has certainly put a halt to that. Rio Tinto of Australia and what they did on the island of Bougainville was totally lacking in a social conscience. US Bases at Christchurch? It is exempted from NZ Nuclear Free Law, and NZ politicians will tip toe around it, trusting NZers will remain silent. That NZ Legalised spying on NZ – by the J Key Government The Global media program lies that NZ is an honest country, when it is definitely not. Murray states that CAFCA is also for Progressive Nationalism Versus Globalism. Wanting NZ to become as self sufficient and sustainable as possible. To remind you all. Find out that 10's of $Billions of holdings are hidden with direct NZ Government knowledge - so as to not be scrutinised by 'we the people.’ This is a giant scam and needs to become an election issue - and it will - with your help and assistance. What I didn't get around to asking about: Fishing companies in NZ. TPPA.  Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.  Anything we need to know? Water resources being sold off at a pittance to overseas entities. I have this link. To Aotearoa Water Action https://www.aotearoawateraction.org.nz/     IMPORTANT. Selling into NZ – Products from China that overtime deteriorate in quality. I apologise to readers, in my listening and poor note taking and writing them up coherently. It's just too time consuming and then to reread and rewrite so that they make sense takes hours and hours. Trusting you forgive me as it’s all voluntary. By clicking on the three below links you will be able to see the bigger picture. http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/key-facts.html http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/key-facts/cafca-key-facts-2020-with-notes.pdf https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/400417/green-rush-foreign-forestry-companies-nz-s-biggest-landowners   Next Week’s Interview Ray Broomhall On the deployment of 40,000 satellites in near earth orbit that will facilitate global saturation of 5G wireless frequencies - everywhere. The ramifications to human health, but more so to all biota in the biosphere. What health professionals are doing to educate the public and Councils so as to slow down and stop invasive technologies that have not been ‘independently proven to be safe. What we as families and community can do to protect our health and well being.

All politicians are engaged in this pernicious game and are equally caught into its vicious web. President Erdogan talks about Turkey's growing hemisphere of influence in the Middle East, North Africa the Western Balkans, and lest we forget in the EU over parts of Cyprus and the immigrant population in Germany. His grandiose plans saw Turkey on the cusp of reviving its Sultanate and becoming the leading light for people lost in the darkness of their local labyrinths. Such people, according to Erdogan's rhetoric, are waiting for the torch of faith, held by the Caliph in Istanbul,to be their beacon for hope. According to recent economic reports, the Turkish economy slowed sharply in Q3 caused by high debt,currency volatility, and inflation. Annual retail sales were flat, industrial production was patchy and the unemployment rate increased significantly in July and August of 2018.  President Rouhani and his puppeteers promised the creation of a Shia Crescent that would shine on the dispossessed masses of this sect from Tehran to Tartus. The Islamic Republic of Iran would bring them pride, a sense of belonging, and salvation into their wretched lives and, their after-lives too. According to the Financial Tribute, an Iranian economic daily,the rise in 2018 of the retail prices of goods that used the government's subsidized foreign currency at a rate of 42,000 rials per US dollar (about three times cheaper than the market rate) was no less than in other consumer goods.  Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the head of Plan and Budget Organization of Iran, announced that "as much as $14 billion will be spent on subsidizing the imports of essential goods as per the budget bill of next year[2019]".  [President] Nassrallah of Lebanon has offered his community -and as a collateral effect – to all the Lebanese, the gifts of repelling terrorists on the Northern border,intimidating Israel on the Southern border, freeing Yemen from the yoke of the Saudis, and lend a helping hand to the Iraqis in  their war on terror. As per actual reports activity in the economy remained sluggish in 2018, against a backdrop of prolonged political deadlock. The real estate sector—a cornerstone of the economy—seems to have performed poorly in the period, with cement deliveries contracting year-on-year and construction permits dropping significantly, while the merchandise trade balance widened despite robust export growth. According to the World Bank, such difficult economic conditions in the medium term are likely to adversely impact poverty rates.  Even President Macron promised a “European economic government”, a "European Army" in the face of Russia, China and ...the US (?), total adherence to the Paris Climate Agreement, continued cooperation with Iran despite the US exit from the Nuclear Deal, and all that rich international agenda coupled with higher taxes on fuel for all motorists to enjoy. The latest protests in Paris by the angry Yellow Vests have caused economic havoc. According to the FT food retailers are expected to take a hit of about 1 per cent this quarter, with hypermarkets down4 to 5 per cent. And, this week, the French central bank slashed its forecast for economic growth for the fourth quarter from 0.4 per cent to 0.2 per cent.   Atthe far opposite of this spectrum, President Trump promised to ‘Make America Great Again!” but through economic nationalism (not nationalization). He scrapped the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement because he judged it not in US consumers' interests, re-negotiated the NAFTA deal to redress inequities that put US products and services at a disadvantage, is waging a tariff war on China, which has caused many US factories to de-localize  to catch up with cheaper labor and a manipulated Chinese currency; and has threatened the EU with severe consequences if the imbalances in trade -especially with Germany- are not tackled. He told NATO and the US' Asian and Arab allies (not protectorates) that they should sh...

Cody is joined by comedian and podcaster Brandie Posey to DEFINITELY NOT UPSET ANYONE ABOUT POLITICS. You can find your copy of the book online and in the apartment of, like, the worst of your dude friends. Like, he’s a good enough guy… but… you wouldn’t let him talk to your boss at a work party.   ‘Bernie Sanders for President 2016: A Political Revolution’ by John Davis BA JD LLM   Why vote for Bernie Sanders for President in 2016?   This fascinating book explores all that voters need to understand about the issues. The book includes many references to the legislative initiatives of Senator Sanders, and, his supporters, including Senator Elizabeth Warren. The book is intended to empower voters to understand how and why Bernie has become the champion of the People in the darkest hours facing our disappearing middle class, and the poor in America.   The book begins with an analysis of the 40 years of corruption and tyranny, by our own leaders, the media and large corporations, to exploit the people of the United States, economically and otherwise.   Remaining Chapters explore the major issues facing Americans in the upcoming election, including: (1) The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (fast track); (2) Tax breaks for the wealthy, and corporate welfare; (3) Perpetual debt, and perpetual war, as a form of slavery over the American People; (4) Criminal Justice reforms; (5) Too Big to Fail (TBTF) banks; (6) The conspiracy to lower wages and working conditions for every working American; (7) Wall Street reforms and many other issues facing Americans.   Show Notes:   Previous Episodes: 15. LIVE: ‘Lyndon’ w/ Brandie Posey & Justin Davis  37. 'Let's Make Mary' w/ Lady to Lady  38. 'How to Disappear' w/ Brandie Posey & James Fritz  75. 'How to Good-bye Depression' w/ Jeffrey Jay & Brandie Posey   Currently Reading: ‘Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Atwood ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ by WHAM   Topics: Depression, hoo boy the sadness, wow stuff is bad isn’t it, just keeping going, surviving, hopes and dreams, the rocks they are dashed upon, in-group thinking and policing, politics, government, giving up, not giving up, giving up again.   Follow TOMEFOOLERY for information about upcoming episodes & books: @Tomefoolery and Facebook.com/Tomefoolery. Please rate and review on iTunes!   WEBSITE: http://Tomefoolery.com   STORE: http://squareup.com/market/CodyMelcherEsq   PATREON: http://patreon.com/CodyMelcherEsq   FAN GROUP: http://www.facebook.com/groups/Tomefoolery

This week on Love (and Revolution) Radio, we interview activist Margaret Flowers from the Flush the TPP campaign about the #NoLameDuckUprising next month to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. From secret negotiations to rigged trade courts to stripping away indigenous rights (as well as yours), this discussion about a nefarious trade deal is bound to shock you into action. Sign up for our weekly email: http://www.riverasun.com/love-and-revolution-radio/ About Our Guest: Dr. Margaret Flowers, MD, is the cofounder of Popular Resistance.org, one of the organizers of the Flush The TPP campaign, the co-host of Clearing the Fog Radio, and currently running for US Senate from Maryland. Related Links: Flush The TPP http://www.flushthetpp.org/ #NoLameDuckUprising http://www.flushthetpp.org/nolameduck/ Clearing the Fog Radio http://clearingthefogradio.org/ Popular Resistance https://www.popularresistance.org/ On Columbus' "Discovery" and the Need for Indigenous Peoples' Day by Sherri Mitchell http://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/columbus-discovery/ Music by: "Love and Revolution" by Diane Patterson and Spirit Radio www.dianepatterson.org About Your Co-hosts: Sherri Mitchell (Penobscot) is an Indigenous rights attorney, writer and activist who melds traditional life-way teachings into spirit-based movements. Follow her at Sherri Mitchell – Wena’gamu’gwasit: https://www.facebook.com/sacredinstructions/timeline Rivera Sun is a novelist and nonviolent mischief-maker. She is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, Billionaire Buddha, and Steam Drills, Treadmills, and Shooting Stars. She is also the social media coordinator and nonviolence trainer for Campaign Nonviolence and Pace e Bene. Her essays on social justice movements are syndicated on by PeaceVoice, and appear in Truthout and Popular Resistance. http://www.riverasun.com/

Knowing the matriarch, the queen bee is the sexual organ of the hive - it is she who lays the foundation for the whole colony - but there are many challenges in a rapidly changing world of the varroa mite and colony collapse.  That commercial operations use insecticides to control the varroa disease are likely to cause problems because queens do not survive as long today as in pre-varroa times. Today, nearly every element within the biosphere,is under pressure and yet honey, is still seen as an elixir especially recently, as NZ manuka honey becomes a premium for its antibacterial qualities especially with the increase of dis-ease and other ailments - so how is it possible to be a pure honey advocate and producer in our world today? Nine years ago Richard took time off working as an interior designer to take care of his kids instead - and became a hobby bee keeper that has grown into a robust little organic business. Starting from 2 hives to 4 to 8 now he has 120 hives and a thriving little business.  Living on Waiheke Island 7 kilometres off the NZ coast  - there are many larger (land) sections with numerous fruit trees, plums, apples and citrus and quite well established too -  as well as differing flower gardens including bottle brush, so there is a lot of feed for bees - plus manuka trees - as there has been more reforestation on the island. It was a little over a hundred years ago the island was basically denuded as they used the wood for charcoal in Auckland 17 kilometres by boat across from Waiheke.  Native kanuka is now becoming predominant  - though there are cabbage trees and flax as well.  With very little agricultural and horticultural pressures there are more vineyards, with most of them running organic systems. Other than the use of a little fungicide, which Richard acknowledged is not particularly good for bees, they are not using insecticides that directly affect bees. Glyphosate is still a challenge though most of the vineyards will not use it and there is not much of it used on Waiheke Island, in a commercial sense. Bee’s being a matriarchal society the Queen may be the leader, but is actually the egg layer and genetic carrier for the hive as the bees seem to ‘just know' what they need to do - as in anarchy - being a very complex society - no real hierarchy  - so the workers can manipulate the Queen as to what they want or ‘think' needs to be done and the Queen can do the same as well.  He says it is such a complex society - the more you learn - the more you realise you have yet to learn. Bees are quite complex - that they can ‘think’ for themselves even when they are connected to a hive mind. That the Bee is an esoteric symbol - especially from ancient Egypt, where they were readily acknowledged. Nectar for the bees is their carbohydrate and for the flower that is the payment to the bee - for the bee being the sexual organ of the flower. Honey that is made from nectar when capped off can be stored indefinitely. Bee researchers overseas are looking at the individual honey properties from differing flowers, some have found anti inflammatory properties which is good for people in their older age. The strain of varroa mite found in New Zealand in April 2000 was the worst strain of this pest - called Varroa Destructor and is here in NZ to stay. It easily infests hives by jumping from bee to bee within the hive or from flower to bee as bees forage for their food. Prior to that NZ was essentially an organic honey paradise. Some bees are becoming immune to the chemicals that have been used. Richard listened to Randy Oliver in the USA and decide to go organic and is still successfully doing so. Randy has his own bees which he studies very intently and his relationship with them brings about a deeper intuitive knowing. http://scientificbeekeeping.com NZ has the highest number of bees ever at present and growing every year. But, the big producers use synthetic chemicals, which has its drawbacks.  It is very difficult to handle large quantities of hives organically as the extra precautions and checking all the time, is time consuming. Colony collapse here in NZ has been nowhere as disastrous as it is in the Northern hemisphere.  The bee is in some ways the canary in the ecological coal mine. Bees in the US are a factory system with around 2.74 million colonies and it is huge for almonds in California. This is where they need a million hives to just pollinate the almond flowers.  Bees are fed sugar water as well which equals a mono culture - thus shortcuts are taken everywhere and bees may get only one particular pollen, so it can have an effect that stops them becoming robust. Pollen is what the bees eat and if there is only one flower such as the almond flower - there are problems - because they need a mixed diet. The thrust of the interview then turns to industrial agriculture and factory farming. Today’s industrial agriculture is the extractive model that is based on how much profit can be made and we are pushing it to the limits of what the biosphere can provide.  We are needing to make some critical decisions as to what is going to be for us to remain as healthy human beings as well as retaining a sustainable environment that will serve future generations and Richard sees that this must apply across the board in all agricultural and horticultural businesses.  He says that it is a ‘common sense thing’ and we have to get back to factoring our children into our common future. Richard also says we have to question why corporations exist and what is their purpose?  We have to look at them again, as we have set the whole game up with the wrong goal in mind  - it can not be all based on the profit motive or increasing your share portfolio  - we need to increase the value of our planet and the biosphere and we are finding this out now. Manuka honey is big in NZ, but it has become too expensive for the average New Zealander to buy. One of the reasons is that ‘big bee businesses are paying farmers living close to manuka and bush, large amounts of money  like $200 a hive for possibly 8 - 10 weeks of honey to place their bees close up, when flowering - driving up the price.    About his bees. Most bees are Italian and we are not allowed to import any stock into NZ now. We do have Carniolan bees in NZ they are a darker bee plus a little black bee that the early NZ settlers brought with them to NZ - these a somewhat feral - but can be found in hives on Great Barrier Island. NZ exports 35 tonnes of live bees out of the country. That is bees only, their body weight itself, nothing else - for example have a bee alight on your hand that is how heavy one bee is. Then extrapolate what 35 tonnes of these critters are worth in volume.  Mostly exported to the USA and Canada as they cannot produce enough of their own up there. All those live bees are exported with a queen. When the season finishes in NZ and the flowers stop producing  - bees from hives are then harvested and a new queen introduced and they are flown up to the Northern hemisphere where that can start all over again as spring emerges - such is the way the industry has become global. Worker bees may live 40 to 45 days, depending on how much flying they have to do, but in winter they will stay close to the hive, keeping it warm and can live for a couple of months - easily -  eating honey and vibrating warmth keeping the little amount of brood around the Queen in the hive alive . Bees are seen as not as healthy today as previously, as they eat lots of white sugar in winter - when for thousands of years they stored honey which they ate over winter. A good organic honey apiarist will leave them more honey in the hive so they don’t have to give them sugar.  Agrisea here in NZ  http://www.agrisea.co.nz - make a sea weed product that can be added to the sugar water to give the bees minerals etc. In China many trees are hand pollinated due to the atmospheric pollution and smog making it too difficult for bee or even other flying insects to live or survive. NZ must down scale from the full on industrial factory system - by doing so we may be able to have a viable localised industry. Compliance costs are huge in NZ pushing people to become bigger businesses - as they are the only ones who can afford the exorbitant compliance fees - so it is totally weighted against the small producer  - as there is no government support - especially to contribute to  smaller ‘craft; industries. Thoughts Richard states, people want the small craft industries that have their own essence and flavour - they don’t want the big homogenous industrial giant.  They want to know the guy and even talk with them, who made their cheese, their wine or their honey or the chair you sit in - people don’t mind paying the extra - when they know who and how it was made …they want that human connection … we need to tell Government that we don’t need farms with 2,000 to 3,000 dairy cows, that we can have a farm of 200 to 300 cows and make a very good living - especially that in NZ organic dairy farmers are getting $9.30 per kilo weight of fat compared to the poor return of $5 that conventional chemical farmers are getting. So by supporting the smaller guys to make a better product that is more beneficial to health and takes care of the ecology is being seen as a wise decision. Biological agriculture and increasing bacterial levels in the soil is bringing huge results - getting rid of the synthetic chemicals that we have been pumping onto the land. The Corporate model -  all it does is pay the investors and the investors have virtual zero to do with the running of the corporation and they have no responsibility and all they care about is the bottom line and how much that can be extracted out of the environment each year. Richard says, set some goals and do some research, turn off TV and instead check and see where you milk comes from - or where your grapes get sprayed … or how many times your veggies are sprayed. Grow your own food - or go to a farmers market.  Check your seeds that you buy from the local plant shop - ask what coatings they have on their seed - make sure that they are not covered in neonicotinoids - which are extremely dangerous and need to be taken out of the commercial realm. That we need to be proactive as it is important to know what chemicals are on what and one individual can do that - it just means that we make the effort - as many other people can benefit from your initiative and Richard says that if we have a society doing that - then other good things can happen. He re emphasises that colony collapse is a result of a whole cocktail of chemicals from many various sources all coming together to cause the collapse - the same is with neonicotinoids - they are all contributors to causing increasing problems within the environment. Richard questions how did the earth system evolve and create healthy living ecological systems and biota that have made it over a hundred million years? That it has been basically healthy for us up until this last century. When we embrace more holistic and natural systems this will enhance our future for children of today and tomorrow  - without the use of all these chemicals. He mentions that the TPPA, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, is also not in the best interests for the human race, being corporate centred.  http://www.waihekehoney.co.nz    Richards Own Website http://scientificbeekeeping.com    Randy Oliver http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/karen-wealleans-pat-baskett-dangers-of-neonicotinoids In finishing I wish to mention that I have interviewed four of the Evatt Family, each with an important viewpoint that relate at a holistic, community, involvement - level. There is father Christopher and son’s Jonathan, Justin and Richard. A very unique family. http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/chris-evatt-entrepreneur-business-mentor-and-assister-of-non-government-organisations http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/jonathan-evatt-the-columbian-native-kogi-message-for-humanity http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/jonathan-evatt-author-teacher-mentor-on-the-subtle-aspects-of-life-and-the-true-nature-of-man http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/justin-evatt-jasmax-architectural-firm

This week features a speech by Sam Castro from Friends of the Earth's Economic Justice Collective about the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and the ramifications for our environment.  The ISDS clause could have dire effects on the ability of community campaigns to stop destructive projects.  More plastic has been been produced in the first 10 years of this century than the whole of the last.  A huge amount makes it 's way to the oceans where it is predicted that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.  Founder of Plastic Free July Rebecca Prince Ruiz joins us. Guests: Sam Castro, Friends of the Earth Economic Justice Collective (www.foe.org.au) & Rebecca Prince Ruiz,  Plastic Free July (www.plasticfreejuly.org).

This week I interviewed David Icke the British researcher - on shattering the hypnotic program that has psychologically allowed us to sleep-walk our way into George Orwell’s 1984 and conversely, succumbing to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World - by default. David has a very interesting take of what’s happening today and even though we have been warned to participate more fully in our democracy, we have let our politicians essentially, run away with their own agenda. For instance, increasing their own pay packets regularly, and on many levels, basically dispensing with their commitment to being ‘our servants’ to act for the public good. Note that, when we visit the book - 1984, we read that a totalitarian regime reigns by fear, using mass surveillance and the media to impose its authority on the populace. Those who step out of line risk having their existences erased. Rebellion is quelled by force. Then we compare it to Brave New World, mass surveillance is unnecessary - rather, people are controlled by their desires; promiscuity is encouraged, people are given endless supplies of narcotics, and there’s entertainment galore. There’s no force to quell a rebellion, because one could never happen. The populace has become comfortably numb. This then leads to the study of the hybridisation of the above two scenarios, where today, the controllers, bankers and their world wide security apparatus at the top of the pyramid - continue to cast their spell. They are doing this by feverishly working 24/7 to consolidate their power with ‘treaties’ and ‘acts’ pushed through under urgency - in many cases in secret without the knowledge of the masses, as they accelerate the neoliberal economic programme - in lockstep with the neocon agenda - coupled with the military industrial complex - to secure a One World Government. So in this interview David decodes the psychological and mental processes that influences our behaviours in particular how we have been subtly programmed for decades and before that - to not now - question anything - especially consensus reality!  That with the advent of electronic mass media, and mesmerising sound bites, plus mobile technology - and the titillation of stardom, glamour and celebrity, we are being constantly steered away from thinking deeply about issues. Specifically, negating the values and virtues we were once imbued with, many, generations and decades ago. We have instead become engrossed and distracted in minutiae at the expense of the big picture. So this lucid exchange, explains how we have become entangled in this spell, as well as awakening us to the real possibility of breaking this increasing mass psychosis and again reclaiming our humanity, our respective countries and our planet, especially for the future of our children and grandchildren. This interview covers a diverse number of subjects and went for nearly 90 minutes. We will post the video of the full skype recording shortly, but this one hour interview will give you a warm taster.   In this particular interview David covers: The nature of reality and the quantum field. He then says that when we acknowledge that we are: “Infinite awareness, all that is, has been and ever can be - and that ‘we’ are all possibility.”    A subtle, but substantial shift happens.                                           That every human has this potential - meaning you and I and everyone else. This leads us to get beyond the onion skins - of the programming     It’s about “connecting the dots.” That we live within a holographic universe - that our world is also and it is also illusionary.   Covering religion and the paranormal. Programming and sleep walking. Once humans open up to expand their awareness - it will be so great that it will out-picture the status quo, including the limitations of the shadow as we become able to expose that which has been recently closing in around us. Banking and politics, are lockstep together. Trans-humanism and this insidious and deceptive programming of turning humans into robots, with silicon chip consciousness. (He just touches on this). Unless we awaken to our true-self and go beyond the program - nothing is going to change, especially for the better. Decoding that our planet at another level is holographic - and that our planet is a vast swirling information field. As are all the planets and constellations in this quadrant of the galaxy. That the universe is basically a colossal / gigantic wifi field so the more our awareness expands - the more of the field we become aware of … Vibrations and how to be able to decode and access the many levels so as to understand, sound, sight, touch, smell and taste. That everything is information and how we can interpret and decipher this information - intuitively - spontaneously. Plant intelligence and that there are many instances of people recording and measuring their responses, that we can have relationships on many levels. With animals too.    Pain relieving techniques that cut of the senses from an area in the body that is in pain. There are hospitals now doing this. A global agenda for controlling the human race. The minds of many just do not want to see things in the future - especially if it’s going to be perceived as difficult. Denial and negativity -  certain people do not want to face reality.    A powerful piece on what is negativity and perceptions of why is it that people only want to see the easy and good things of life?   So the clever way is to manipulate people’s reality and ’tell them what they want to hear and read.’  Yes it’s true - ‘NZ is still very Clean and Green’ so, don’t be put off by a few radical hippy, greenies pointing out the data from scientific research! This is becoming more and more pronounced here in NZ, as no matter how many untruths emanate from the present government, supporters will continue to believe their elected representative, because the unvarnished truth will erode their version of reality. So they avoid and deny this reality, to the long term detriment to society and our value system and our children’s future.   This is particularly relevant with the super secret global trade deals that are being enforced on us. David clarifies what is happening regarding: The TPPA, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and the TIIP, The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership having different names but are one interlocking deal, like giant jigsaw pieces that slot together, that will clamp and lock all countries into a new world order of trade - run by corporations.  Including the (CETA) The Canada and European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. These are all not people friendly and we have to wake up to what’s in our future. Plus much other subject matter from 911 to Geo-engineering.  This will soon be on the GreenplanetFM.com web site as an MP4 video - unedited. David Icke will be in NZ on August the 6th at the Logan Campbell centre in One Tree Hill Auckland. from 10 am to 10 pm - to download what is happening. Tickets:   http://theworldwidewakeup.com

 We speak with Martin Baker from Greenpeace's Coal and Water Project about the release of 'The Great Water Grab' a report that maps the deepening water crisis with current and proposed coal mines all across the world. Then we join TPP Union and Communities Roundtable at a rally last week protesting the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and the selling out of people and planet for corporate profit.

[image:46933:full] Technology news with Peter Griffin and Google aka Alphabet becomes the biggest business on the planet. There are also rumours that Amazon is planning to open a network of up to 400 physical stores, and some of the implications of this week's signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.  

The country is divided as it hasn’t been since the South African Springbok tour in 1981. And probably along somewhat similar lines. This time it is over a complex international treaty – the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, TPPA (often referred to as the TPP). The negotiations were kept secret for six years, and for good reasons. Analysis of the final agreement shows that the TPPA is not in our interests. Beyond the spin and myths, there are three hard truths about the impacts of the TPPA on New Zealand.

Edition #963 Today we take a look at the proposed TPP trade deal from a whole variety of different angles. Since the agreement was negotiated entirely in secret, primarily between corporate interests, it's not surprising to find that the deal looks pretty bad for everyday people no matter what angle you're looking from   Be part of the show! Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Show Notes Ch. 1: Opening Theme: A Fond Farewell - From a Basement On the Hill 00:00:30 Ch. 2: Act 1: Crony Capitalism Goes Global: The TPP & ISDS Explained - Follow the Money #2 - @RepresentDotUs - Air Date: 04-01-15 Ch. 3: Song 1: The Redemption Of Zounds - Zounds 00:06:27 Ch. 4: Act 2: TPP Signed...So What the F&%$ Is In It? - @davidpakmanshow - Air Date: 10-07-15 Ch. 5: Song 2: She Said - Stray Dogg 00:11:25 Ch. 6: Act 3: TPP will Allow Corporations to Sue Countries! - @Thom_Hartmann - Air Date: 5-14-15 Ch. 7: Song 3: Nightwalker Vol. 1 - Boogie Belgique 00:16:01 Ch. 8: Act 4: Don't Expect The Master's Media To Cover the Master's Trade Deal - The F Word with @GRITlaura Flanders - Air Date: 4-28-15 Ch. 9: Song 4: Greek Tragedy - Plusplus 00:19:07 Ch. 10: Act 5: TPP vs. Human Rights Groups Express Concern Over Record of Member Nations - @democracynow - Air Date 06-11-15 Ch. 11: Song 5: Afraid New World - Easter and the totem 00:24:11 Ch. 12: Act 6:  TPP Grants Banks Terrifying Secret Powers - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 06-20-15 Ch. 13: Song 6: Sneeuwland - Oskar Schuster 00:34:05 Ch. 14: Act 7: Obama Rams Through TPP With Little Democratic Support, Even from Black Caucus - @blkagendareport - Air Date: 6-24-15 Ch. 15: Song 7: Ennio - Silence Is Sexy 00:38:36 Ch. 16: Act 8: Breast Cancer Patient Arrested for Protesting TPP: "This is Price Gouging at the Cost of Lives" - @democracynow - Air Date: 10-06-15 Ch. 17: Song 8: Adventure, Darling - Gillicuddy 00:48:12 Ch. 18: Act 9: Disaster: TPP Kills Internet Freedom, Bomb-Throwing Begins - @davidpakmanshow - Air Date: 10-13-15 Ch. 19: Song 9: Horfid (Live @ KEXP) - Lay Low 00:54:24 Ch. 20: Act 10: #FallRising to #StopTPP via @EFF & @FlushtheTPP — Best of the Left Activism Ch. 21: Song 10: Activism - Shihan 00:57:22 Ch. 22: Act 11: Not too early to doubt the motivations of secretive, corporate trade deal - CounterSpin (@FAIRmediawatch) - Air Date 10-9-15 01:00:13 Ch. 23: Final comments asking what we can do better here at BotL Closing Music: Here We Are - Everyone's in Everyone Activism: #FallRising to #StopTPP via @EFF & @FlushtheTPP Update! Terms on the Trans-Pacific Partnership were finalized: "Trade Officials Announce Conclusion of TPP—Now the Real Fight Begins” via Electronic Frontier Foundation Follow-up/new Action! ATTEND the #FallRising to Stop TPP, TTIP, & TISA by registering through Flush the TPP: Call to Action Against Global Corporate Domination: November 14-18 & RSVPing to the Facebook event Find out projected job loss & more expected in your area using the Public Citizen state-by-state outcome map: 50 Reasons We Cannot Afford the TPP’s Expansion of the NAFTA Model. Then use ContactingTheCongress.org to directly lobby your representatives to vote no on passage of the TPP. Sources: What Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)? via Electronic Frontier Foundation WATCH: "U.S., Other Nations Reach Agreement On Trans-Pacific Partnership” via NPR The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Leveling the playing field for American workers & American businesses. via Office of the US Trade Representative Summary of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement via Office of the US Trade Representative "TPP deal: US and 11 other countries reach landmark Pacific trade pact” via The Guardian "TPP or not TPP? What's the Trans-Pacific Partnership and should we support it?” via The Guardian "Trans-Pacific Partnership Is Reached, but Faces Scrutiny in Congress” via The New York Times "Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Job Loss, Lower Wages and Higher Drug Prices” via Public Citizen Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Check out the BotL iOS/Android App in the App Stores! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Review the show on iTunes and Stitcher!

Bennet Kelley speaks withthe U.S. Chamber of Commerces Senior Vice President for Asia Tami Overby about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. The US Chamber of Commerce is an active supporter of the TPP, although there is opposition to the treaty within the tech community.The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement ("TPP") is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated by nine countries: The United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter attended and spoke to a room of delegates about topics from the Trans-Pacific-Partnership Agreement and about the increased activity in the South China Sea.

The 14th Asia Security Summit was held in Singapore over the weekend. Officials from around the region and elsewhere gathered to discuss key issues. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter attended and spoke to a room of delegates about topics from the Trans-Pacific-Partnership Agreement to increased activity in the South China Sea. Includes sound bites from Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore Prime Minister and Dr. Ashton Carter, Secretary of Defense. Also available in high definition.

This week’s TEU podcast asks how a little known international agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement or TPPA, could affect tertiary education. In particular, will stricter copyright laws restrict access to scholarship and research?

This week's TEU podcast asks how a little known international agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement or TPPA, could affect tertiary education. In particular, will stricter copyright laws restrict access to scholarship and research?

Could you imagine that any government would be stupid enough to sign an international agreement that would allow overseas corporations to sue it, in secretive offshore tribunals, claiming that new laws and regulations have seriously undermined the value of their investments? Well, that is what our New Zealand Government and eleven other countries around the Pacific Rim are negotiating right now.

Former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, Tim Stratford, discusses the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with Carnegie-Tsinghua Director Paul Haenle.

Transnational Corporations are moving in to NZ where once they were only multi national corporations.  The percentage of incursion into NZ is virtually the highest of any developed country on earth. They are dominating our country more and more as the laws of NZ are very laissez-faire and liberal, buying into established businesses that NZers have built and also buying up our land and housing as well. Generally it is open slather with very few exceptions. THe TPPA is a wolf in sheeps clothing and when you peruse:   http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/ you will get the picture. Big Time.Free trade agreements are actual investment agreements to provide the means for trans national corporations to acquire more power, profit, control and riches and wealth under the guise of Free Trade ...  NZ is being recolonised by Corporations.In NZ the banks are creaming it. Not one is suffering at present ANZ, with record profits same for Westpac.Subjects Covered:Corporate Welfare here in NZ,  namely Rio Tinto (the old Comalco) easily obtaining a $30 million dollar subsidy from the National Govt, by saying they will not close their smelter until 2017. Yet, they have a secret electric power deal that is far below the current rate for ordinary householders and ... the power that they take daily is equivalent to all the electrical power that is consumed by the city of Auckland. And they have been doing this for 50 years with every single government that has got into power. Note with no smelter, NZ would have huge amounts of excess power ...Other situations where the NZ government gave our hard earned tax dollars as enticements to, were, Skycity, Chorus, Fox Studious, Warner Bros etc. Note, Skycity's offer to build a National Convention Center as long as the Govt gives them umpteen poker machines to be unleashed on the public. And that this deal is LOCKED in for 35 years. That no Govt can ever reverse it no matter which Government gains power.Chorus who is rolling out the ultra fast broad band cable across the country was told by the NZ Government Commerce Commission that they have been overcharging all customers by $10 per month and that they had to repay their customers so instead, they cried that it would send them broke, so the government came in and helped them out.These are three examples of political interference and corporate welfare dictating how our elected Parliamentary servants represent, we the NZ citizens.Then there is corporate tax avoidance, last year it was announced a day before Xmas eve, that the NZ IRD, Inland Revenue Dept reached an 'out of court settlement' of $2.2 billion  dollars (around 80% of the total amount) with the 4 top Australian owned banks as they had previously dodged paying tax. This being the biggest tax avoidance case in NZ history. This was very hush hush, when in fact they all should have been taken to the highest court of the land. With an 'out of court settlement'they avoided penalty taxes and court costs ... very cunning.CAFCA also runs the Roger Awards for the Worst Transnational Corporation operating in NZ. The Roger award named after 'you know who' and is also represented by the pirate flag of the skull and cross bones called the unjolly Roger.  The banks are always in the finals, especially the ANZ. This year the Award was won by Rio Tinto, with Sky City 2nd and 3rd being Chorus. All 3 were judged as interfering with the Government and receiving backhanded - handouts.Note that in January 2014 in the Business Day column of the Christchurch Press it was stated that Facebook, Google and Apple made an estimated $750 million dollars in NZ  in the last tax year but only paid less than $4 million in tax. That works out as a tax rate of 0.4% yet the NZ company tax is 28%, how did they get around this?  NZ loses and CEO's and Shareholders of these transnationals win!And they are not paying their taxes in the USA either, using offshore tax havens ...In England the Tax Justice Network are looking at these deals - 'The price of offshore'. http://www.taxjustice.netThen there is the TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and the loss of NZ's sovereignty as well as a plethora of circumstances that will effect our country across the board. See   www.itsourfuture.org.nzTPPA is also means to 'contain' China from the US perspective.  As the World Bank has just in the last week stated that China will overtake the USA as the worlds largest economy this year, and this is the first time that this has happened since 1872 when Britain was surpassed by the USA. Previous predictions were thought to be 2019 for China to make this break-through.Note, if PHARMAC here in NZ is abolished it will mean huge costs for drugs in this country. PHARMAC drugs here cost 1/3 of US costs and 1/2 Australian costs.Then we have the Security Apparatus, that composes 5 of the main countries of the 5 Eyes Echelon Communication Network. USA, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ.ABC     http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/The NZ GCSB  is increasingly doing the service as the subordinate and being even servile to the corporate agenda. In March 2013 the NZ Business Review stated that 'our spies principle mission used to be the defence of the realm, todays GCSB is about the protection of Corporate property and interests.'GCSB and the Dot com saga, tells the NZ community that there is much murk behind the scenes ...You can write to the director of the NZ SIS, Security Intelligence, Box 900 in Wellington and ask them if they have a file on you and ask for a copy of your file ...Other points of interest in this information packed interview:That the US now has access to all of NZ's tax records - the Law has been passed in Parliament ... passed in the last month or so .... who of us slept though this one?That there is a direct telephone line from the US State Department to Treasury in Wellington.That Wikileaks let out information that Americans wanted to allow NZ's spys to be connected directly to the Department of Homeland Security in the USA , however the NZ director of the SIS refused to approve it - so he was pushed out until someone more 'proactive' was employed.Also, in those Wikileaks documents there was evidence that the US embassy was given all hours access by being given actual swipe cards to get into the NZ buildings of Foreign Affairs and NZ Defence HQ in Wellington so that they could come in day or night and have access to certain people and records and that sort of  ... stuff.Note that the NZ legal definition of a foreign company is anything more than 24.9 %  yet our PM in saying we are only going to sell off 49% of Meridian and Mighty river power and Genesis, this is actually double the legal definition of a foreign company.*******I encourage all listeners this morning to open up your web browser to www.cafca.org.nz and peruse this site, then tell your friends and neighbours that we are losing our country.Murray has for 45 years, been at the forefront of educating the NZ public telling them that every week large slices of New Zealand's farms and city and suburban properties are being sold off to over seas entities. And much, much more.*********In 2012, the Overseas Investment Office approved the sale of 43,080 hectares of freehold rural land and 8,554 hectares of leases and other interests in land to foreigners. About 10,000 hectares of the freehold land and almost all the leases and other interests in land were from one foreign investor to another. In the decade 2003 to 2012, the average was 133,942 hectares of freehold and 60,435 hectares of leases and other interests in land approved for sale.Statistics on sales of land to overseas interests are poorly recorded and incomplete. Our best estimate is that in 2011 at least 8.7 percent of New Zealand farmland including forestry, or 1.3 million hectares, is foreign-owned or controlled and it could have reached 10 percent.(Overseas Investment Commission and Overseas Investment Office. "Overseas Ownership Of Land: Far Greater Than The 1% The PM Claims", by Bill Rosenberg)People's Rights Before Corporate ProfitPublic Service Not Private Profit An Independent Foreign Policy No Unjust Secret TreatiesThese topics include     *    transnational corporations' tax avoidance    *    corporate welfare    *    asset sales - NZ Farmland    *    spying abuses by the GCSB/NSA     *    the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)     *    Five Eyes - Waihopai    *    plus plenty more Murray Will be speaking in AucklandFriday May 9th at:Pacific Media CentreSir Paul Reeves BuildingAuckland University of Technology4.00 p.m. Local Contact: David Robie 021 112-2079Full Itinerary here: http://2014cafcatour.blogspot.co.nz/p/blog-page.htmlWebsites of interest:http://www.celticnz.co.nz/transport/Time_Line.htmhttps://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/putting_big_brother_in _the_drivers_seat_v2v_transmitters_black_boxes_d

The highest polling Independent candidate in the previous 2011 NZ election, David stood for Parliament in Waitaki, the 2nd largest electorate in NZ and over a couple of months of electioneering, walked 1500 kilometres and put his flyers in every post box of the towns in this electorate.One of a Solar Vision of the Era and of New Zealand.There are many insights gathered when not part of the Party system.David is perplexed by the lack of involvement by the average citizen in NZ - and that we need to take a stand and say enough is enough ... because we in the Western world live in a corporatocracy and the only power we really have outside the ballot box is the power to boycott. Corporations who do not have global goodwill as their vision, should be boycotted - but we have to be organised ... To Initiate a discussion and then a action plan:Bring forth the solar age here in NZ and with innovation and tax incentives we could lead the future. Note that Germany the leading country in solar energy, is closer to the North Pole than NZ is to the South Pole.Solar collectors on every house roof, along with a small wind generator and compulsory insulation of all homes, thermo pane windows and walls with 6 inch (15 CM) insulation.NZ has become a very expensive country that is now over regulated ... plus the need to build a functional union movement in this country once again, one that works more cooperatively with possible bonus issues and even shares being offered.Also stop thinking BIG, and get back to local systems, simple and small scale individual solutions - community oriented initiatives. Where people are empowered to participate. Farmers Markets, cultural events, swap meets, localised workshops etcLocalised health, growing your own food organically and integrating more holistic health modalities into your lifestyle.Overpopulation is our planet’s largest problem, as everything stems from that, pollution, hunger, control of and lack of resources etc. However, over population is not being broached by society as a whole, because economic growth and its current unsustainable model is dependent on a continuously expanding population base.Look at extreme weather events .. this is amplifying and we need to start stratigizing solutions and actioning them. Insurance companies are realising that their losses are escalating due to increasing risks around floods, storms and hurricanes etc.That Gaia, Mother Earth is subtly and not so subtly showing us that things are out of balance and the resulting extreme events are increasing.If we could engender a mass awakening we could turn the planet around very quickly, but first we would have to turn off our TV sets and start re-engaging with each other at a localised level and build from there.Why have we become separated from nature, why are we allowing destruction of both the fauna and flora of our planet? - Having been in the Alaskan wilderness and even meditated close up with grizzly bears in the boreal forests, David senses that we need to realise our interconnection with the web of life.  Yet, people in high places are not speaking out for the biota and the biosphere as a whole. There are very few planetary champions supporting nature.Where as 40 years ago when David lived with his family on their Mid Canterbury farm and before TV came here everyone sat around the table and dialogued and debated and discoursed with each other. This was about the topics of the day, and the things we either disagreed or agreed with. To even take the other side of the debate and argue from that side, as this was the entertainment of those days.First, A coalition of left and right independents who are also unbiased, self supporting and insightful thinkers but agree to sign a contract saying that they will work for the greater good of the whole of NZ, the environment and other species and our future on behalf of our grand children.For example, retain New Zealand's Nuclear Free status.That we look to and plan towards ‘Seven Generations into the Future.’ That all independent politicians sign such an agreement as a basis for a 'unified position.'Party politics have become, that once you join a political party, you abandon your principles to your party and not to the public good and the future of NZ, because your following your parties policies which may not necessarily the best interest of the NZ. e.g the natural resource grab that is happening at this moment.Have spirited discussions that come into informed decisions, are often better than ones own individual ideas - that being an aim of an independent movement. Working and communicating within the pubic domain.What sort of vision should a leader offer their people?  How do they factor humanity into it?How is it that we in so many ways are eroding and closing down the magnificence of this jewel of a planet, when with some conscious decisions, education and policies we could turn this into a verdant garden?Davids encounter when he was with singer Judy Collins, of talking with astronaut Neil Armstrong about his perceptions of life, when viewing the earth in the depths of space ... something very special.Web search - the great american bubble machine that was in the Rolling Stone magazine,http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405No one has sued the journalist for defamation after fingering many of the money men, because his facts were correct.This is about how Goldman Sachs has engineered the recent global economic collapse and that they have been donkey deep in every collapse since the Great Depression. But, more so they have infiltrated every Western government and that our Prime Minster has been able to enable ’them’ to sell our NZ state assets and that he is implicitly implicated at the highest levels by believing in the Neo Liberal Agenda.This entails corporations taking over via unbridled capitalism with no Governmental regulations and causing the destruction of the common wheel, the natural resources of our environment, the rights of citizens to have secure futures, the rights of Unions to be involved in the mix (as they are in Germany.)See TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement as a means to this corporate end.http://www.itsourfuture.org.nzPresent day neo liberalism is Not serving the common person, the community, the environment and our planet and our children’s collective future ...This interview covers many topics:About how a Prime Minister should lead, and David mentions true blue Jim Bolger ex NZ National Party leader and NZ Prime Minister and his assessment of present day neo liberal capitalism in the USA as 'printing money and hoping!'David once sat alongside Milton Friedman in first class and intensely discussed the failure of present day economics and it is in David’s opinion that the greatest downside of todays economic system is the slavery that has come about from the debt economy.  That people who have mortgages are too afraid to stand up and be counted unless they may lose their jobs, and not get another and very possibly lose their house as a result.A mass mobilisation is needed like the ‘D Day mobilisation’ to educate ourselves on the dire consequences of leaving our common future to the 'political industrial extractive process' that is debasing our environment at a horrific pace.Where all nations, all governments, all peoples and all businesses come together to re awaken, we seed and replant, re-clean and re-heal our ecologic and environmental systems, that include where we house our communities.All the major political parties environmental policies are in the dark ages - our wetlands, being crucibles of bird and aquatic life.The urgency of planting of trees, especially natives from today onwards for the next 60 - 100 years we can stabilise,the soils, halt erosion and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, build up native bird and animal life.Starting in the school curriculum, teaching of civic responsibilities and long range thinking.Having a Lower and an Upper House in Parliament, needs discussing and debating.E col o gy    eco-logos   oikos  (Greek)  translate as house -  came well before ... eco no  MEResearch:  Soil loss and the decline of civilisation  - essentially all great civilisations in history decline because they destroy the environmenthttp://www.fao.org/docrep/t0389e/t0389e02.htmNZ’s fisheries and the many challenges around sustainability, our need to lock away many fisheries for a number of years to be able them to replenish and recover. For example Orange Roughy.What we need is 'A Collective D Day Awakening' - a collective D Day Moment where we all Mobilise for the betterment of our local and global future.And much more ...

Back in the 1940s New Zealanders were described as long, lean, ranging and resourceful. This was one of the reasons we had community and communication with each other, however over the years with the advent of electronics and changing education and household patterns, we have become more isolated and where subtle and not so subtle methods of divide and rule have become more prevalent.To choose our politicians not because they are leaders or statesmen but because they may make more money than other people, does not translate to mean that we as a country should vote for such a person thinking this politician will also make more money for the country. This is a fallacy, they only go on to set themselves up to make more money for themselves further on.In todays world, we as consumers are being targeted to consume as many material resources as can be paid for and when we purchase a bargain, usually as a ubiquitous, toxic plastic article it is very soon in a landfill somewhere and we end up poisoning our resources and our future.The loss of ethics and the understanding of what it means is being lost in our runaway consumer society.Tara states that engagement with one another was what made us a great nation and the illusion that we are all separate is more of an idea proposed by the people who want to divide us and rule. We are a fortunate country in that we can recover the environment and have clean air, water and food  chain etc. We are also, not so much in debt that if we do not sell off any more assets (the ones that make the revenue for us to pay off the debt) we may very well be able to create our way into a resilient and self reliant, sustainable country and society.It is both your fault and my fault that we have the situation that is happening in this country - why? Because we did not make the effort. Over 1 million did not vote in the last election.Do we want to be bothered? Or, do we want to become a people who think and decide to take strategic action at the polling booth? Look at the lives that have been lost over the centuries as ordinary people courageously strived under horrendous hardship to have a say in their community. To insult these pioneers, these suffragette’s by turning our backs on these hard fought rights to universal suffrage, is not an option, especially in our world of decreasing freedoms, ethics and values.In NZ it is against the law not to register to vote.  Whereas in Australia they have taken it a step further, and that it is against the law not to vote.Look at a possible tax incentive to vote and those who don't vote pay more taxes?This interview covers much subject matter:Conservatism and what it means - to Conserve. Old people planting trees, knowing that they will never walk under the shade of them. Thinking forward as to what will we bequeath to our children and grand children’s future.Learning from advanced Northern European methods.Environment - In Sweden, recycling is so efficient that now Sweden has to import other peoples recycled (rubbish) items so as to keep their industries going.  They have not turned their whole country into an economic model as we have done under the RMA the Resource Management Act. Recycling is part of the common vernacular through out Swedish business and Government.Education - In Finland, though not on the same wages scale as doctors, teachers are honoured as  professionals. The Finnish educational system caters for parental and grand parental input in their highly acclaimed educational system. Academically they have one of the highest success rates in the world.The TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is a method to outflank NZ’s sovereignty. With regard to health, the TPPA has NZ in its sights the dismantling of PHARMAC and quite possibly the taking over of our hospitals by offshore corporations.This also covers housing and overseas ownership of NZ, when we can not buy land in Fiji, China or Japan, why not instead lease this land and keep the ownership in this country?GDP and the measure of how much growth we have where as like Dr. Ron Colman’s development of the Genuine Progress Index for Nova Scotia in Canada which includes the other side of the equation where car crashes, house fires, burglaries, storm damage and accident and sickness are factored into the whole economic understanding. And the books are balanced accordingly.As a water scientist, Tara talks about:The degradation of water, rives, lakes, selling off of NZ, that large corporate farms now may have only one house on them, where once many smaller farms built up the community as there were more homes and families. The advent of the larger and larger farms, are depopulating the community of families and this trend is escalating in NZ.It’s our fault, as the government was designed to be a peoples process but now we are a people that are not engaged but instead disengaged. What can we do to reignite our interest in our own governance, be it at a local or a national level?Our country is run as a business however, it can not be run solely as a business as there lies the fundamental difference that not everything has a monetary factor attached to it. Such as what about the knowledge banks of the elderly, and their input into community and society. The elderly have much wisdom and experience to offer. Lets validate them and bring them more into community decisions.There is a way through this if we use the enlightened consciousness that we have been imbued with.We need to be more involved with each other, we need to be able to pay it forward and at the same time as talking with our neighbours engage in pulling the strings of community together.For New Zealand as a socially conscious country, we can once again be a global moral leader of how a small synergistic nation can once again be the emerging microcosm for the planetary macrocosm.Finally, Tara will also tell you the story how he has been able to secure the name of: The New Zealand Party.Contact: tara [at] NZactions.org.nz

Though environment health and consciousness runs through the program, we discuss the basic life needs of air, water and earth - soil & food.Starting with air and the particulates of matter in cities such as Auckland and that due to the smallness of both the NZ population and the country, the wind is our default air conditioner in this country. That we are indeed very fortunate in this situation (some would say lazy).However, we cannot avoid, deny or run away from what is perculating (some would say belching) out of Fukushima in Japan, and that is air born and water carried radiation from the defunct nuclear reactors that main stream media have been told to keep out of the headlines and out of the news.The fact that Japan and the nuclear industry are joined at the nucleated hip and that the countries that surround the Pacific ocean are complicit in not taking the Japanese to the World Court is a travesty.We move on to cover MSM (main stream media) and how it spins information and that our drinking water is being sanitised by chlorine (which also has a downside effect on our health) as well as we being mass medicated by fluoride. That Hamilton city ratepayers and citizens recently elected to come back into the 'fold of unknowningness' and continue to add fluoride once again to their water supply is yet another farce. So much so as to curtail their children from becoming more intellectually savvy than their parents, due to them not wanting to do any research on this subject what so ever. See Prof Paul Connett's startling fluoride research.Aspartame and its dangers in Zero Coke and sugarless drinks, the NZ All Blacks rugby team involved in its promotion.We move on to GE and GMO’s and that NZ still remains a GE Free Nation, but that Govt and Big Business are lock stepped in wanting NZ to become a GE contaminated nation as well as sabotaging our leadership role in being steadfast in the face of ethically bankrupt biotech corporations. Note that to many other small countries, NZ is, despite the current Govt, a moral force for good in the world, and by remaining resolute in not surrendering our soverienty, we give strength to other countries to stand up to corporate dominance. Thus the TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is not in the best interest of NZ citizens at all.(it never was!) It's only consolidating power for Global Corporate dominance. We also talk about other ways to use grass roots media, to bypass main stream media and the addiction of people wanting to hear that their government and their corporate sponsors will take care of us … all we have to do is acquiesce and let them get on with it. That every letter you write, every email you send, every meeting you attend that you act and speak strategically –REMEMBER; we are taking care of today’s and tomorrows children, on a planet that has increased its population by nearly another billion people since the advent of GreenplanetFM just 10 years ago. That is the equivlent of another 700 Aucklands side by side. Imagine this!We both concurred fully with doing away with political parties – vote for the person and thatwww.theawarenessparty.com that Lisa initiated is offering unique and insightful ways of self governance that is inclusive and dynamic.Also, that around 67 NZ finance companies crashed from around 2006 to around 2011. With the loss of $9 billion in savings disappearing. Yes, that's 9 billion NZ dollars from about 70,000 peoples life savings - just vanishing - and know one talks about it or even really investigates it?We also cover cycles of our great mother planet, our magnificent life support system and sustainer and I hint that within the wheels within wheels and invisible cyclic systems that it would be worthwhile reflecting on the recycling of the soul in an evolutionary context of understanding our incarnation. Many of the major religions and philosophies over time have embedded this in their cosmology however, both Christianity and Islam have shied away from the natural world of spirals and cyclic knowingness. Yet, unbeknown some Jewish sects include reincarnation into their understanding.However, this goes beyond the intellect into our intuition and more subtle frontiers of the mind and we now need to be understanding of the frequency that we oscilate too and how we can align with it.All in All, a lovely chat with Lisa, that could have gone on for many hours, but as usual we were constrained by time.Lisa Er & Tim LynchEARTH FILES FOR THIS WEEKPrana New Year Festival And Join with Maya,www.prana.co.nz/prana/new-years-festival-2014You are invited for a 5 Day celebration and the 21st Anniversary of an inspiring & delightful Family Friendly, Music, Workshop, and Art & Dance Festival!An event that hosts approx.1200 people on pristine land & access to remote and untouched Opoutere Beach, whilst keeping an intimate atmosphere with plenty of entertainment for young and old with this year's theme revolving around the 'Mystery of Life'.....Come and celebrate connection, unity consciousness, mediation natural food, juices and teas and living deeply in concord with the land and ocean shore. Prana Eco Retreat is based at Opoutere/Ohui, alongside a 5km long pristine piece of Eastern Coromandel coastline.They are a family run venue for the New Year Festival, smaller summer events, weddings, group workshops and personal retreats.Prana land is a peaceful sanctuary where people naturally move towards transformational healing, personally and universally. A place that empowers a strong sense of 'connectedness' to something great: A gathering place for kindred souls!Tickets are still available for early birds.

Ranging over a wide variety of topics, that include complimentary and alternative health, the problems with chlorinated and fluoridated water. Biological agriculture as against chemical agriculture. Corporate control of chemicals and drugs, plus the galloping increase of corporate farming.Our unhealthy common salt intake, lack of iodine is translating to global thyroid problems.That five US corporations have virtually taken control of the world food chain, and use the WTO and the TPPA as mechanisms to tighten their grip.He concludes with an overview of the USA and UK's astrological challenges that he says will become very evident over the next 18 months and how the US military appears only to go on the offensive when certain astrological configurations occur.I asked Glen at the start of this interview to hit a number of balls out of the park and possibly he went one further and hit one, possibly two into near earth orbit ... ***Glen's premise:Using bio-dyamics and agricultural impulses first introduced by Rudolf Steiner and the basic thesis of as above, so below - as per the tree of life, leaves and branches above and perennial roots and feeder roots under ground.Questioning how can we revolutionize and add to Biodynamics, because there are so many offshoots of the near religious connotations to it, that in many ways is not applicable to farmers for cultivation of the land and growing food, be it vegetable or animals. However, it is very much a science, once people learn to decipher the language of 1920's German to equate it to todays current vernacular.With Glen's impute, this translates to plants being able to be warmed up to have a 3 degree frost protection capacity that has been tested by NZ's Horticultural Research Centre as well as increase photosynthesis by 20% and an ability to stop fruit splitting.These are just a few of the new understandings of biodynamics, including highly potentized humus preparation of cow manure stored in cow horns under ground and silica sprays as well as preparations made of quartz crystals and dandelion, stinging nettle, yarrow, oak bark and chamomile, which we hear and know nothing about!This process deals in minute quantities, down to parts per million and it leads into homeopathics, which again science has huge problems with getting their head around. The reason being most tinctures are so diluted that the particles are virtually non existence, and that only the wave-form exists, (such as the ghost in the machine).Yet, we only have to look at the British Royal family, their robust health and long life and the Royal physicians who are steeped in homeopathic knowledge. Which is really a peoples medicine as it is also very cheap to produce.In an ideal world, Glen would like to have as your healers Homeopaths and Naturopaths working together, as well as other secondary modalities (like acupuncture, iridology, chiropractic and osteopathy) along with a host of other natural remedial practices.Note, that it is very difficult to make money out of homeopathy. Not like the multi billions that are channelled into pharmaceutical drugs where colossal patents and costs claw back their investment and ... then some!Then Glen reminds us that at the beginning of the 20th century the call was for 'Government for the people by the people' - the 21st century is - 'Government by the corporations for the corporations' - the manipulating 1%.With biological agriculture making inroads into dairy but even more so in the sheep and beef industry there is a rapidly increasing up-take that is two fold in nature, healthy non chemicalised soils is translating to healthy produce that is enabling a very healthy gut and alimentary canal in the human body, and a win win for all of us who are coming more conscious of holistic choices.Now in Australia, the two largest controlling supermarkets have bought up a huge number of service stations including alcohol outlets and now due to depressed pricing, they are reportedly forcing many farmers into bankruptcy and buying their land, which means corporate control, and thus control of the food supply of middle Australia.Then learn from a friend of Glen's that works at the United Nations that the worlds food supply is basically controlled by five United States corporations. Through the WTO, World Trade Organisation and now the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, the secretive TPPA.Hence the call for grass roots organizations to get savvy and organize ourselves into small dynamic cells to address these issues.From the chlorination and fluoridation of water and the direct relationship with our iodine metabolism which knocks out our thyroid gland which stuffs up our metabolism, and then as the chlorine in our water gets to our gut it sterilizes that too, hence the beneficial microbes in our intestines are under constant assault.If you are on metropolitan water … leading to the current explosion of uncertain, leaky gut and cancer of the bowel. Evidently, not too long ago 'they' increased the chlorine levels in NZ so as to sterilize the water to a greater degree …Covering liquids that we drink, Glen asks the question; how can we have a bottle of fizzy drink cheaper than a bottle of water?Then there is common salt and the lack of iodine, and that common salt is basically devoid of goodness, and that high sodium levels are supposedly replacing lithium in the brain and is causing bi polar disorders.What the latest holistic research is saying is that ailments such as cancer, bi polar, diabetes and obesity are seen to be stemming out of our excessive use of common table salt.Glens covers astrology as well, how the planetary elite use it for their own purposes, that Hitler used it, Ronald Reagan, and (the Royal Family) however the upper echelons of society do it in secret whilst publicly ridiculing it saying it is worthless rubbish. Glen mentions the physics of it, the geometry and that we live in an electro magnetic universe and that our bodies are also electro magnetic - we are energy fields oscillating in a universal energy field.Glen then covers 20 minutes on certain astrological situations that I will leave for anyone who wants to follow this up to listen to this information filled interview.A clue is that the USA and UK have major challenges for 2014 and into 2015, because of their astrological make up. USA being a Cancer country 4th of July and the UK being a Capricorn country based in the 1st of January 1801.This is a packed out information rich interview, where Glen covers the information gamut in our localized universe and basically runs short of time.Web site:  www.bdmax.co.nz     and  http://garudabd.org

Corporate control of our global food system is not in the interests of people or the environment. Fewer and fewer corporations control more and more of our food chain.Their interests are in making money, not feeding people good nourishing food. We need to establish a strong food democracy to halt the steady march of corporate agriculture.This interview includes Claire Bleakely, president of GE Free New Zealand and speaks about her trip to China where she heard world class scientists at the International Conference on Ethnic Food Cultures and Food Safety, (held in Kunming, China,) present on a broad range of topics from ethnic and cultural values of food, to the evidence of harm caused by genetically engineered (GE) foods.Claire went as a delegate from New Zealand along with Organics NZ Brendan Hoare, and Professor Jack Heinemann.Professor Jack Heinemann from Canterbury presented a 50-year comparison of agricultural methods in the US and Europe that shows the introduction of GE plants has impacted negatively on yields, diversity and pesticide use across America. HOWEVER: Tim Lynch and Lisa Er begin the programme with a discussion about the reasons for the DEMO 4 DEMOcracy this Sunday the 1st of September.Almost a dozen demonstrations from Keri Keri to Christchurch will be held this coming weekend to protest the continued loss of democracy in New Zealand.September 1st (the first day of Spring) is DEMO 4 DEMOcracy day, which will see family-friendly rallies throughout the country, inviting people to march under the banner of their choice, but in solidarity against the corporate take-over of our country, and New Zealanders’ blatant loss of sovereignty and democracy. Ten days of activities will continue the nationwide protests until September 11.This initiative was launched only a month ago by Kiwis Connect For a Positive Future and has already convinced over 760 members and a large following on Facebook that it is time for “Human Need not Corporate Greed.”  Much stress has been placed on the protests being peaceful, but not necessarily quiet: A suggestion to bang pots and pans has arisen following similar successful demonstrations in Argentina, Turkey, Canada and Iceland.The perception that this country has the least corruption and the most transparency globally, no longer rings true to many people. While voicing concerns to government, numerous issues are not being addressed – from the GCSB and asset sales to oil drilling, mining, the TPPA and GMO’s & GE to low wages. For information on the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) go to http://www.itsourfuture.org.nzKiwis Connect aims to build awareness amongst the public about these issues and it is intended to keep the Facebook main page even after the event. It is not pushing any political party but is about building awareness of the issues that are damaging this country - and looking at how to correct them.The organisers hope New Zealanders will be united in integrity and peace, holding a banner for positive change for the good of everyone.Further information can be found at;http://kiwisconnect.org.nzor https://www.facebook.com/groups/359292997530222This programme is sponsored by www.theawarenessparty.com+++++++++++++++Please join DEMO 4 DEMOcracy Sept 1st!   at 2pm, across NZWe are Rallying and Connecting Kiwis, Nation Wide with the issues affecting the future of our communities, such as the corporate control and the erosion of our democratic rights and sovereignty. We stand for the basic principles of democracy, sustainability, social justice, and environmental integrity.Nearly every sector in NZ is under intense pressure from either Government inaction or its overt and covert collusion with corporate entities, especially its dismissive attitude to a society requiring authentic leadership and statesmanship as well as a level of genuine care and concern.Our Government is shrewdly laying siege to the NZ environment and people, under the increasingly shrill mantra of 'we have to make more money' by exploiting and extracting anything and everything. The earth our great sustainer as you know is under relentless assault, even as we intuitively realize we are at multiple tipping points within the magnificence of the straining biosphere.With the state sell off of public assets, insidious security and intelligence breaches, super secret trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, corporate encroachments and lobbying, secret military accords & harmonization of Laws with the USA, we the citizens of NZ are on the back foot.Low wages for workers, corporate infiltration into city councils, pharmaceutical corporations advertising directly on TV. No labeling of food sources, ingredients & processes, plus additional chemicals in municipal drinking water, failure to keep city air clear, unsafe food (GE and GMO's) unsustainable farming, destructive mining, corporate take-over of education, health and prisons & public services and the TPPA to bind it all in, all have the common theme of locking down our collective future.And more and more issues are being thrown at 'we the citizens.' Not to mention the Fukushima radiation continuously spewing into the Pacifist ocean, our deep blue Pacific that laps our shores, with every Government acquiescing and remaining extremely silent, including No Nuke groups.If we do not come together, and intelligently organize and unite the country by calling the government to account, it will only accelerate and get far worse!We do not need prophetic statements to tell us where this is could all go.The 1st of September Nationwide rally aims to cover all of the many issues that people see as important concerns and that are both affecting their lives as well as our countries future, especially our kids.(http://kiwisconnect.org.nz) Downtown Queen St AucklandNew Zealanders Intelligently Committing to Organise for our Common Future

NZ as one of the worlds pioneering democracies has a long record of engaging in peaceful protest and dialog to bring about inspirational and social change.Recent revelations made available from Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden have brought the realization that globally and especially to those of us in the West that we are totally immersed in a matrix-like security and intelligence apparatus that has been ticking silently and secretly in the background and over our shoulder. All under the guise of Big Brother - watching us.Other than the French saboteurs and the Israeli passport spies, we in NZ have fortunately had no terrorist incursions. Thus the premise is put forward that with no external threat to Nuclear Free NZ, that the NZ intelligence community can, and is being used to spy on NZ radicals by the SIS. The Security Intelligence Services.What is a NZ radical, and what threat if any are they to the State apparatus? Keith Locke who recently was able to view a copy of his NZ security files was spied on by NZ Government agencies since the age of 11 years. Now with invasive electronic means what is the future of NZers going to be like in NZ with the passing of the GCSB Bill? (Government Communications Security Bureau). Connecting the:      DOTS  … _ _ _ …In 2011 Kim Dotcom, a German was living in NZ as a new resident (in the Prime Ministers own electorate) and was running his Megaupload Internet company that was alleged to be illegal pirating copyrighted digital media, globally etc.On information from the US authorities and the FBI, NZ Police made a spectacular raid on Dotcom's home in January 2012 and arrested him.The NZ courts ruled that the raid was illegal due to the fact that it was unlawful for the GCSB to spy on a NZ resident, especially as correct protocols were not being observed by the police.The fall out resulted in the director of the GCSB being replaced by a new recruit.Ian Fletcher was appointed as director of the GCSB in February 2012. Mr Fletcher is a former diplomat. Fletcher was interviewed by the appointment panel after an earlier short-list of four candidates had been rejected by the Prime Minister on the recommendation of the State Services Commissioner. In March 2013, Mr Key admitted he had known Mr Fletcher since they were in school, but denied they were friends.Answering questions in Parliament about Mr Fletcher's appointment, Key said he hadn't 'seen the guy in a long time' and hadn't mentioned he had made a phone call to Mr Fletcher when the question first came up in Parliament because he had 'forgotten' about it. Former GCSB director Sir Bruce Ferguson said the way Key had intervened in the selection process was 'disturbing'.In December 2012, the NZ High Court ruled Kim Dotcom could sue the GCSB for damages.Hence Dotcom is in the forefront of the NZers wanting far more transparency in how the government oversee security and intelligence in this country.This GCSB Bill is opposed by the opposition Labour and the Green party, the NZ First Party and several left-wing groups, ESPECIALLY the NZ Law Society, and the Human Rights Tribunal, plus NZer of the year Dame Anne Salmond and ex Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer.NOTE:As the Prime Minister appoints both the director of the GCSB and the Inspector General. Associate Professor of law at Auckland University, Bill Hodge, says the watchdog should be appointed by Parliament rather than by the Prime Minister. Former prime minister, Sir Geoffrey Palmer agrees: 'There needs to be some separation between the inspector and the agency he overseas'.With this legislation being put through under urgency, WHY is there such urgency?Some important clues come through in this interview.Evidence is also available that if one had too left wing a viewpoint your career would be affected by information collected by the SIS. Promotion would not come and visas may not be forthcoming from the USA for instance.We learn how innocent people can be affected by spying, that spirals out of control due to a certain mind set of biases and prejudices and the urgency of checks and balances from a judiciary that administer the law of the land in an enlightened manner - is a must!On another issue, it is important for NZers to also realize that Parliament basically has no say in Treaties. Governments and bureaucrats make treaties, but Members of Parliament basically have no say hence the TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement if signed of will be done only by Cabinet, who are hand picked by the Prime Minister.(Authors statement. Personally as a NZer I am not an illegal downloader of copyrighted media and definitely do not make money out of it. I as a person on the sidelines saw Dotcom as milking the system in huge terms and living high on the hog whilst half the world starved.  The macabre in this saga is; from being an outlaw, Dotcom (with his money) has now been cast as the savior of the public good from the oppressive hand of local and global surveillance systems).

Nearly every sector in NZ is under intense pressure from either Government inaction or its overt and covert collusion with corporate entities, especially its dismissive attitude to a society requiring authentic leadership and statesmanship as well as a level of genuine care and concern.Our Government is shrewdly laying siege to the NZ environment and people, under the increasingly shrill mantra of, 'we have to make more money' by exploiting and extracting anything and everything. The earth our great sustainer as you know is under relentless assault, even as we intuitively realize we are at multiple tipping points within the magnificence of the straining biosphere.With the state sell off of public assets, insidious security and intelligence breaches, super secret trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, corporate encroachments and lobbying, secret military accords & harmonization of Laws with the USA, we the citizens of NZ are on the back foot.Low wages for workers, corporate infiltration into city councils, pharmaceutical corporations advertising directly on TV. No labeling of food sources, ingredients & processes, GE and GMO's, additional chemicals in municipal drinking water, failure to keep city air clear, unsafe food and water, unsustainable farming, destructive mining, corporate take-over of education, health and prisons & public services and the TPPA to bind it all in, all have the common theme of locking down our collective future.And more and more issues are being thrown at 'we the citizens.'  If we do not come together, and intelligently organize and unite the country by calling the government to account, it will only accelerate and get far worse!  We do not need prophetic statements to tell us where this could all go.The 1st of September Nationwide rally aims to cover all of the many issues that people see as important concerns and that are both affecting their lives as well as our countries future, especially our kids. * THIS IS THE BIG PUSH BACK TO UNBRIDLED UNCONSCIOUS GOVERNANCE *DEMO 4 DEMOCracy http://kiwisconnect.org.nzHighlighting: Government –  professional corporate lobbying denies us of our democratic voice The TPPA a vehicle for corporate control of NZ's Sovereignty and Laws Banks and unequal wealth - compound interest - rate fluctuations Media – Censoring by omission  - low level intellectual content - we need the truth! Food, Seeds, and Pesticides, Healthy affordable food : Prefer organic : No GMOs & GE Mining – corporate interest over local interest - no insurance to cover disasters? Climate, fossil fuel pollution,  and environmental issues no dialogue with public Health – Big Pharmaceutical controls, and loss of PHARMAC Fluoride – doesn’t just affect the teeth, effects the thyroid, brain and bones Education – privatising schools – bulk funding  – Charter  – schools Justice and prisons – privatised to overseas corporations Arms Industry promotes war – Strongly keep NZ Nuclear Free Our Countries high level of debt. To Kiwi Saver not being invested within NZ Laws being pushed through under urgency - No boat protests at sea. Warner Bros. GCSB Bill. Fukushima radiation in Japan getting worse - yet all countries remaining deadly silent! And more ... much more … We peace-loving New Zealanders are challenging the status quo from the outside, and are up against a combination of the existing system and a whole host of full time professional corporate and governmental insiders  - who are hell bent on maintaining their power base, pay packets and superannuation at whatever the cost!What we ask of you, is can you assist to make this important event happen? Can you with a small nucleus of people help organize your local town or city, or be put in touch with the volunteers already doing their best to make this happen?http://kiwisconnect.org.nz/get-involvedThis may be the most critical choice and tipping point in NZ of the 21st Century.As all the issues that concern us are integrated, we have to now take back our country.Because …While we are busy watching telly, we're losing the country to outside entities!  With so many people who were able to vote last election, less than 75% of the country actually voted.YES!, Our future especially our children and grandchildren's is at stake. NZer's have become far too complacent, docile and distracted whilst being self absorbed in 'other things' that we have found that our sovereignty has been eroded and our democracy sabotaged. Yet not only that, every move and utterance is being electronically tracked or recorded, by (an eye at the key hole) a gigantic global security apparatus - that whilst the lights were on, nobody was alert or home.This is correct, main stream media and worse, the Parliamentary press gallery have been caught with their pants down because they have got too cosy and lazy to do their due diligence.We have all been conned!Should the Govt pass the GCSB Bill over the next 10 days this rally could be the best time for us to let the Govt know that they have lost the faith of 'We The People'. We do not want to be spied on!

Would you imagine that any government would be stupid enough to sign an international agreement that would allow overseas corporations to sue it, in secretive offshore tribunals claiming that new laws and regulations (for example a ban on fracking, GE, smoking control laws or a cap on electricity prices) have seriously undermined the value of their investments?Well, that is what the New Zealand Government and ten other countries around the Pacific Rim are negotiating right now under the TPPA, the secret Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, and President Obama wants it signed by October of this year. Of course the country that has the most to gain will be the US and their corporations!And do you really think the US needs our dairy products – the sale of which is the supposed benefit for NZ by joining the TPPA?From what has been gleaned so far, if the negotiations are completed it will make it much harder for governments to pass new laws, to look after the environment, promote health,  protect workers (from longer hours, less pay and possibly shorter holidays) and consumers, less stringent quality control, and very importantly not promote the public interest as it defers to lobbyists and private privileged interests. Labeling of GE foods, for example, would be banned in the interest of the harmonization of laws between countries. The same for labeling country of origin of food. Present tobacco and cigarette rulings could be overridden and the same for alcohol.We may have to compromise PHARMAC if restrictions are placed on generic medicines, thus making medicine more expensive.Copyright laws will be toughened and more harshly enforced, restricting internet freedom and access to information.Foreign banks, insurance companies and money traders will gain more powers to challenge laws designed to prevent another financial crisis.If and when this secret Agreement is signed, it will not be debated in Parliament here in New Zealand, but will only need to be OK'd by the Cabinet thus short circuiting democracy in this country.The list goes on.“The TPPA could also be looked as a way of containing China in the Pacific”, Dr Kelsey says.Professor of Law, Dr Jane Kelsey has been at the forefront of the opposition to the TPPA and she speaks candidly about the information that has been obtained through leaked documents, and the possible scenarios if it is signed.Jane Kelsey has an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from the University of Auckland. She has worked at the University of Auckland since 1979 and was appointed to a personal Chair in Law in 1997.She a key member of the Action Resource Education Network of Aotearoa (Arena), and is actively involved in researching and speaking out against the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, free trade and corporate-led globalisation.She is also actively involved in campaigning for the New Zealand Government's full recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi and opposed the controversial seabed and foreshore legislation.She has been an activist academic and public intellectual for more than 30 years.http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz

Dr Christoph Schumacher: Professor of Innovation and Economics, Massey University Auckland, posits the question from his recent exceptionally well attended public lecture."I saw this professorial lecture as a chance to say what I’ve really wanted to say for years, that our current economic mantra is always about growth, but continuous economic growth is not environmentally sustainable, and it is not making us happy."Should we be aiming for continual economic growth within a finite environment?"In other words, are we New Zealanders becoming more happier and less stressed with our current economic system of unrelenting economic growth that consumes resources and pollutes our planet?‘There’s not a single country (other than possibly Bhutan) on this planet that doesn’t have economic growth as one of its key targets. But we have to stop and ask ourselves why?'The drive for greater growth and productivity is depleting our resources without satisfying our material desires. He has linked current GDP growth with various happiness surveys and found the more we grow our national wealth, the less happy we become.'This interview covers areas of where innovation needs to be encouraged with more readily available financial resources, tax incentives (and disincentives) as well as better planning and know how. Also, the perceived leadership especially from the higher echelons of Government needing to language far more of the basic attributes of community and what we are leaving for our children's future.For example, NZers are working longer and harder than we were 6 years ago but in Germany there are laws keeping work to 35 to 37 hours a week, and yet their profitability is better and according to Christoph, a German worker works about 400 hours a year less than NZ. That equals 50 days, and as Germany is doing economically very well, where is NZ putting its focus and what is it that we want to ‘grow?'Is over arching media, a big intrusive programming machine, telling us to buy this, think that, go there, try these, making NZers spend beyond their means? Like; Buying Now, to Save?  ‘And New Zealanders are right at the top of that list – our credit card debt is one of the highest in the OECD.’We are being manipulated by TV, yet in Northern Europe there are laws outlawing certain types of TV advertising in front of children of a certain age.Subjects this interview covers, our Government instead of being servants of the people, are pushing other agendas? Being business friendly at the expense of the environment, and sustainability, not encouraging organics, a cleaner and greener country and that the TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is not being looked at or even acknowledged within the academic arena?Christoph’s favourite quote comes from British ecological economist Tim Jackson: "Our problem is we are persuaded to buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to make impressions that won’t last, on people we don’t care about." That’s it in a nutshell.An interesting insight to how universities in NZ are positioning themselves in the narrative of commerce and community and how humans should live in these very rapidly changing of times. Especially, with increasing corporate dominance of our country and what this may mean for our common future.

Robina McCurdy: Community development facilitator, Organic gardener, Permaculture Educator, Land-use designer and Food localiser.One of the best known permaculture teachers in NZ, Robina has taken her innovative approach to South Africa and into their schools the 'Permaculture curriculum' and assisted large numbers of people to become more self reliant and sustainable in growing of gardens and food production.  Especially in squatter settlements, which have been funded by the NZ High Commission, where she trained up teams so as to make herself redundant, which is totally in opposition to todays economic ways which wants you to become 'dependent on the system.’Starting young on an organic market garden in Christchurch, in an extended family in Harewood planting and harvesting was a joyful thing with aunties and uncles and cousins and the experiencing and knowing of community and connection with the land, and in particular the feeling that this was perfectly normal and not a rare event, and this 'connection' never left her.Robina, has for the last 30 years lived in the Tui Community, a land co-op and charitable trust next to the Able Tasman National Park in Golden Bay, growing their own food and that, by extension the land has become embodied within her, and at very deep levels. To co-exist with wild life as well, all within an overarching cosmology that is embedded in Permaculture. Being a true marriage of the environment and the needs of the people.Working in co operation with nature … then once nestled in, can start with growing food, then shelter and housing, community etc  … a food forest. She is now touring NZ with Earth Care Education Aotearoa where she is finding many gardens and groups across the land doing superbly and quietly working with the earth which she enthusiastically calls our taonga.Working with Susie Lees and Politics of food securityhttp://localisingfood.weebly.com - they are assisting with understanding rights and responsibilities and ‘No to GE’ and what laws and legislation we need, to keep the community and grass roots organizations growing etc. Plus, being aware of the TPPA the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and what impact it would have on this country as a top down agenda …She uses the metaphor that NZ farming has at present diverged into two differing streams running down different sides of the mountain. One is organic, dynamic, free flow, non chemically driven, smaller families, nature friendly, soft on the earth and giving back to the environment, whilst the other is top down management, big business, exploitative, industrial, chemically driven, profit at all costs, energy and resources intensive that pollutes degrades and denatures the country.   Exporting … our soils, our water …our natural resources … our taonga …This signals the dichotomy of what we as a nation are doing with big money as the driver of the latter, and though bringing in huge monetary volume, is very short term thinking with no long term sustainable outlook.Topics also covered: Insect bank, a deep ecology method of having insects preying on insect pests. Organic milk dispensing at farm gates. The great turning that Joanna Macy calls where ethical consumption, the slow food movement,  calculation of food miles, our ecological planetary footprint  and the other … based on both fear and disconnect from Papatuanuku, our physical sustainer (no blame or no judgement) where everything is seen as up for grabs to pillage and take, and giving nothing really back being just a gigantic resource snatch.Also covering the spiritual dimension in how we live and be and do in the moment trusting in living in the now, that what we manifest for the betterment of the whole takes us forward into the new paradigm in hand with how our ancestors and how our tipuna would like to see, being a natural and more cohesive world that comes into being.This inspirational interview covers a wide realm of what is happening across the land of NZ at a grass roots level, and will leave you in a very optimistic frame of mind to get out and work the soil and grow both yourself and your community, your own healthy sustenance.http://www.earthcare-education.org

Patricia Ranald, PhD of Sydney, Australian spokesperson for the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network.Interviewed on the underlying challenges of the secret TPPA, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and how it could adversely affect Australia.(And NZ). The TPPA originally started with NZ, Brunei, Singapore and Chile, but they have since been joined by the US and Australia and five other countries. US corporations are  setting the agenda. Australian civil society groups want the TPPA text to be made public and debated in Parliament before Government signs any agreement. Why? Because they already have a Free Trade deal with the USA. They have had no economic benefit and are importing more from America than they export. For example, Australian sugar farmers did not get any additional access to US markets. The US wants to include in the TPPA special rights for foreign investors to sue governments for damages in international tribunals if a law or policy harms their investment. This can undermine democratic health or other regulation by governments. For example, Philip Morris the tobacco corporation is using an obscure 1993 Hong Kong-Australia investment agreement to sue the Australian  Government for damages over its plain packaging legislation. They are persisting with the case despite the fact that the Australian High Court found that tobacco companies were not entitled to compensation for legitimate public health legislation. These tribunals do not have the safeguards of national systems. The proceedings are secret, arbitrators can be an arbitrator one week and an advocate the next, and there are no precedents or appeals, leading to inconsistent decisions.The general consensus is that these tribunals are biased in favour of corporate investors. The US corporate agenda is seen by a growing number of Australians as tying the hands of Government. This can prevent  present and future governments to regulate in many important matters, like access to medicine, keeping current environmental laws in place, health regulations, having 'No GE' labelling on food and not opening up essential services to international investors. The Australian slogan is “Fair Deal or No Deal for the TPPA” So far, there is no agreement that fundamental labour rights will be included and enforced  in the TPPA. These are  the freedom of association, the right to form unions, the right to collective bargaining, no forced labour, no child labour and no discrimination in the workplace. Without enforceable labour rights, increased trade can lead to a race to the bottom on working conditions. Finally, we see that the Australians are fighting the same battle for their sovereignty as we are here in NZ http://aftinet.org.auhttp://www.itsourfuture.org.nzhttp://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1303/S00033/tppa-academic-slams-report-pm-used-to-claim-35bn-gains .htm

Susan Chalmers from the non-profit organisation InternetNZ talks about possible changes the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement could bring to NZ copyright law, with a focus on the arts and creative industries.

Ulf Buermeyer und Anne Roth sind mit einigen anderen Internet-Experten auf Einladung der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung eine Woche durch die USA gereist, um den netzpolitischen Austausch voran zu bringen. In Boston, Washington und San Francisco haben sich sie sich mit vielen interessanten Leuten getroffen und über Datenschutz, Urheberrecht und Bradley Manning unterhalten. Im Medienradio berichten Anne und Ulf über ihre Erkenntnisse und atmosphärischen Eindrücke: Wie EU-Recht den US-Datenschutz beeinflusst; warum die Amis uns für das ACTA-Aus bewundern; warum wirkt Google aus der Nähe wie eine Sekte? Tactical Tech Malte Spitz Reise-Meldung der Böll-Stiftung MIT Media Lab Flickr-Stream von Anne Roth Tumblr von Markus Beckedahl Berkman Center Obama mit Baseballschläger Dan Weitzner SOPA (WP) PIPA (WP) SOPA-Initiative der Wikipedia Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Netzpolitik.org EDRI Wikimedia Foundation Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, TPP (WP) EFF zum Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, TPP Mozilla Persona Christian Stöcker auf Spiegel Online zu Mozilla-Besuch Matthias Kolb auf sueddeutsche.de zu Mozilla Barbara van Schewick Annes Tweet mit David Drummond-Zitat zu Leistungsschutzrecht Google Transparency Report Creative Commons: "Open Text Books" TED-Talk: Malte Spitz: Ihre Telefongesellschaft beobachtet Sie

The 'SECRET' Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, what is it? Do we want it, and who is pushing it?Is the TPPA a deliberate attempt at integrating the NZ economy to be basically absorbed into the larger American dominated economy?When signed … the NZ Parliament, the House of Representatives will not be passing the TPPA into law, but only Cabinet … and the Cabinet is picked solely by the Prime Minister.At the highest level, Cabinet decisions are in reality that of the PM, if the Prime Minister says Yes, then the PM's decision prevails.Because these negotiations are in secret, no one knows the true agenda, however a recently leaked document showed that only two of the TPPA’s 26 chapters were to do with trade. The rest were focused on new corporate rights, privileges and tools to override local government interests. Items supposedly covered were about how secretive tribunals in other countries may/will decide on laws of this country. This then puts our NZ sovereignty at risk?But the Australians are fighting back, especially the Australian Labour Party who need our support!Find out why the TPPA is about keeping 'democracy out' of the equation.Listen to an exceptionally erudite and down to earth interview with a highly articulate NZer on how NZ, as a country is giving its power and future away, due to 'we' the electorate, collectively abrogating our responsibility to become informed and act wisely.A riveting insight to the machinations of trade and economics.www.bryangould.net

This weeks interview is very disturbing and it will alarm you. Little do we know the extent of what is happening as rapacious big business, with industry insiders, compliant and or silent media and gagged politicians see off New Zealands assets and sovereignty in what is a shocking expose of corporate takeover in this country.   It’s unprecedented!Huge areas of land are being sold off to overseas interests, businesses too, and the NZ public is completely unaware.Representatives of Government are secretly negotiating agreements and treaties, that do not have to be ratified by Parliament, (unlike America, where they have to go before Congress) that when signed, locks NZ into contracts that will be impossible to withdraw from.As for our military relationship with the USA, listen for some very secretive info that we know nothing about. And what wiki links says about insiders in NZ, who are working against our sovereignty and security and not in the interests of our people as a whole.Why the secrecy? Listen to Murray’s passionate overview of what is happening right at this very moment on: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the dangers it poses to the NZ economy and to our very democracy. The National government if it remains in power have stated it will continue to Privatise our Public Assets. The relentless takeover of NZ businesses and land by transnational corporations. The re-absorption of NZ into the US Empire. And, most, importantly, how the New Zealand people can fight back; it's too crucial to be left up to the politicians. Note that the TPPA   - is called TAKING PEOPLES POWER AWAY!    IT’S NOT A TRADE AGREEMENTOF INTEREST: Since the devastating Christchurch Earthquake, community groups from the grass roots up are making a very significant impact by working with locals to support them with repairs, food, health, energy and general goodwill.  It is grass roots organizations that are the essential key to community coming together.http://www.cafca.org.nzhttp://www.tppwatch.orghttp://www.nznotforsale.org  

This agreement if signed will affect virtually every New Zealander for the rest of this century. It basically takes away our sovereignty and we become pawns in a globalist corporate agenda. What are its affects?The TPPA would be an agreement that guarantees special rights to foreign investors. If these negotiations succeed they will create a mega-treaty across 9 countries that will put a straight jacket around what policies and laws [NZ] governments can adopt for the next century – think no GM labelling, overriding our Laws on foreign investment, shackling PHARMAC, increasing price of medicines, no regulating info on cigarette packs,  and not regulating dodgy finance firms, less NZ content on TV, private prisons, privatising education, land acquisitions, mining, fishing, high rise hotels at NZ beaches? … As the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations have been completed in Auckland, an alliance of civil society groups in participating countries have announced a “release the text” campaign ahead of the next round of talks in February 2011 in Chile.The co-ordinated campaign aims to mobilise central and local government lawmakers, civil society organisations and ordinary citizens to demand an end to the shroud of secrecy around the negotiations.“The negotiators themselves say this is not an ordinary free trade agreement. It would reach deep behind the border into the realm of domestic policy and regulation, super-imposing enforceable constraints over decisions for which our elected parliaments and local councils are currently responsible.”If this TPPA really is so good for us, why are they scared to release the draft text and open it to scrutiny?There are now draft texts on the table on financial services and investment, and possibly more. Negotiators have flatly refused to release them at any stage in the negotiations, claiming there is no precedent in a free trade negotiation.It is nonsense to claim that releasing draft texts is unprecedented. All nine countries are Members of the WTO, which now routinely posts country position papers and draft texts in progress on its website.The New Zealand government itself recognised in its paper on IP, leaked earlier in the negotiations, that “groups are acutely aware of what they see as ‘secret’ negotiations to strengthen IP rights under FTAs and other international instruments.” After repeated leaks of the draft texts, the parties to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations eventually released them for public scrutiny.“We are repeatedly told this is a 21st century agreement; yet the secrecy that surrounds it is redolent of the Star Chamber. We would never tolerate such a blatant rejection of transparency and accountability in our domestic legislation, so why here?”“If this TPPA really is so good for us, why are they scared to release the draft text and open it to scrutiny?”, asked Professor Kelsey.“The challenge then is for Parliament to convene an inquiry before the process has reached the stage where irreversible commitments have been made where we can test out the arguments for and against a TPPA and New Zealanders, including MPs, can know what we are signing up to for the next century”. http://tppwatch.orghttp://www.nznotforsale.orgAnd digest site for researchers http://www.tppdigest.org