Posts Tagged ‘new zealand’
Police arrest Nick Gear for suspected burglary
To New Zealand, where police have arrested a suspected burglar. Stuff reports;
Nicholas John Gear, 31, appeared at Nelson District Court on Monday on a charge of receiving stolen property.
Yep – Nick Gear.
Posted: 5th, November 2020 | In: Strange But True | Comment
After Christchurch: Don’t worry Jacinda the killer’s name will soon be forgotten
When fans of West Ham United taunt Spurs’ ‘Yid Army’ with the chant ‘He’s coming for you, he’s coming for you, we won’t say his name, but he’s coming for you’ we know they mean Hitler. At first glance that ‘he’ could refer to any number of anti-Semites, but the song often comes with a hissing sound supposed to evoke the sound of Nazi gas ovens. It’s Hitler. Move on.
And we know the name of another racist mass murderer, the man who slaughtered Muslims as they prayed in Christchurch, New Zealand. But should we say it? The country’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern told her parliament: “He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless.”
Right now the killer’s name will be familiar to more people than those of his victims. And that is both understandable and lamentable. But knowing one victim’s story can help us understand the pain of the many. Six million Jews were murdered in World War 2. That huge number of stolen lives is too vast to comprehend. But thanks to Anne Frank’s diary, we get to focus on one human life snuffed out, and we connect. We can empathise and walk in her shoes.
Fifty people were murdered at Christchurch. Mucad Ibrahim was three. What can you say about a three-year-old out with his loving family? He was “energetic, playful and liked to smile and laugh a lot” says his brother. Can you stand it?
Omar Faruk “usually worked on Fridays and always felt sorry he can’t attend the Friday prayers,” says his wife Sanjida Zaman Neha. “But last Friday he called her to say was let off work early because it was raining.”
“I want him back. I would rather that I went than him,” says Junaid Kara’s bother Ismail. “I’m the naughty twin, he’s the better one and that’s how it is. That’s all I want to say about my brother.” It’s the facts that sting. The little things make it human. It’s hard to bear. The horror becomes real through the ordinary details, painfully so.
Their killer wanted to end lives and through murder achieve fame. He live-streamed the massacre and posted his manifesto online. He craved the oxygen on publicity. He wanted his heinous crime to stand for something bigger. It doesn’t. It represents nothing but his depravity. Analysing his words for meaning invests in them a power they lack. Watching people murdered says more about you than him. And it says nothing good.
So should we say his name? Does saying it make the horror more real and more likely to reoccur? Is censorship born from fear of triggering copycat crimes – handing other inadequate bastards a ready-packaged reason to plug the moral vacuum in their lives – or respect for the dead and bereaved?
Arden shouldn’t worry. Try this: can you name any of the 19 hijackers who murdered 2,977 people in 9/11? How about the 4 bombers who murdered 56 people on 7/7? What about the man who murdered 22 people killed at the Manchester Arena? Not all names stick for long do they? The Christchurch killer’s name won’t either. You’ll remember the event but nearly all of us will forget the killer.
Posted: 21st, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
After Christchurch: Daily Mail discovers the killer’s angelic blonde roots
Did you know that the man who murdered 49 people as they prayed in a Christchurch mosque was once a blonde? You can mull over that as the Mail thought it wise to broadcast footage of the murderer’s live-streamed killing spree. The same papers that attacked Facebook for giving mass murder a platform – The Mail, The Sun and The Mirror – all ran excerpts online. In the race for web traffic, anything goes.
The videos were on the same pages as adverts for London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and Coral on The Mail and The Sun websites. The videos have now been removed.
The Mail thought it informative to allow readers to download of the attacker’s 84-page manifesto as a PDF. It’s been removed from the site.
Andy Dawson puts it well:
Oh, and it’s not about Facebook. To blame the massacre on social media is a cop out. Nazis didn’t need social media to turn an entire nation to murderous extremism. The fear is that individuals with a warped agenda based on hating a group will see themselves as part of something bigger.
Posted: 16th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment
After New Zealand: Tom Watson calls Mark Zuckerberg ‘wicked’ and blames Facebook for massacre
Forty-nine people are known to have been murdered as they prayed in a New Zealand mosque. The killer live-streamed the massacre on Facebook. On LBC Radio, Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson used his hosted show to call Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, “wicked”. Watson said he “dreams of the day” when he no longer has to use social media.
Watson sounds like the intro to 1970s TV show Why Don’t You?, which advised British children tuning in to turn the telly off and get a life – but only after they’d finished watching this show, which was more pure than all the other shows. So by all means use Twitter and Facebook, but only listen to people who advocate “decency”, like Tom Watson.
The Daily Telegraph calls the slaughter the first social media terror attack. The Sun calls the killer the ‘FACEBOOK TERRORIST”. The Mail says it’s the “MASSACRE SHAME ON FACEBOOK”. The mood is clear: more censorship is required to prevent a repeat of this. But is that how you stop a disease from spreading? And who gets to decide what we, the impressionable masses, get to see?
You can argue about what kind of person seeks out a video of people being murdered, and why anyone not involved in psychopathic studies would want to spend a muon of their time reading the killer’s long manifesto. But should things be banned?
Maybe context is key? In France, the odious Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally, is being investigated for her tweets. Her response to suggestions that the Far-Right has much in common with jihadism was to tweet the pointer “This is Daesh” and a series of gruesome photos. She thought it useful to show her followers images of a man being burned alive in a cage and decapitated US journalist James Foley. Le Pen has been charged with “circulating violent pictures liable to be seen by children”. “Sharing is caring,” says the blurb beneath social media icons. Not always it isn’t.
So, who else be blamed?
The Hill:
“New Zealand Police alerted us to a video on Facebook shortly after the livestream commenced and we quickly removed both the shooter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and the video,” Mia Garlick, Facebook’s director of policy for Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement. Facebook is “removing any praise or support for the crime and the shooter or shooters as soon as we’re aware,” Garlick added.
A caller to Watson’s show said words heard in any video can be transcribed by machine learning. If the broadcast features a word on the banned list, then the video is flagged. So, for instance, a video of Tom Watson talking about “porn” and “white supremacy” would be flagged and blocked at the gate. The problem with that approach is clear. No platforming words and ideas diminishes us all.
What to do? Well, a word from Waleed Aly is worth listening to:
Posted: 16th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians, Tabloids, Technology | Comment
David Bowie: the most ludicrous tribute of them all
This might be the most trite David Bowie tribute of the lot. In New Zealand one local paper asks ‘whose shirt are you wearing?’ #davidbowie
Next week: which tin can is your favourite?
Posted: 14th, January 2016 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment
Auckland Council erects $200,000 council-funded phallus
“Art is there to provoke the reaction and usually for the one negative comment there’s thousands of positive comments as well,” says sculptor Gregor Kregar, whose $200,000 sculpture commissioned by Auckland Council has been erected in Auckland, New Zealand.
“To be honest it’s a little bit upsetting but for me it’s almost more humorous or funny… If you look at the finished sculptures photographed in my workroom there is not a phallic form to be seen.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, February 2015 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Photo of Irish tourist’s kayak on car will make you smile
To New Zealand, where an Irish toursit is moving his kayak by car along State Highway 25A between Kopu and Hikuai.
District road policing manager Inspector Freda Grace tells us:
“To make matters worse the officer was already on her way to a vehicle crash, and this driver’s behaviour could very easily have caused another – imagine if he had encountered a cyclist driving like this.”
Yeah, imagine. That woild be, er, terrible, just terrible…
Posted: 17th, December 2014 | In: Strange But True | Comment
New Zealand parliament erupts in Maori love song as same sex marriage bill is approved
TO New Zealand for some a capella singing. The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill – Third Reading – Part 20 has been passed. A Maori love song fills the air:
Posted: 17th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment
Beach goers form human chain to save boy from drowning (video)
TO Napier, New Zealand, where Josh McQuiod, 12, has been swept into the sea at Marine Parade. He’s been in the water for eight minutes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Cats to be culled in New Zealand?
ANYONE who has ever used Instagram or Facebook, will be thoroughly sick of the sight of people’s stupid cats. They’re everywhere at the moment, with childless hipster couples treating the feline fur-gits like they’re human babies or something.
Well, someone in New Zealand hates cats more than anyone else. So much so that they want them banned from the whole of NZ, which is clearly a brilliant move.
Read the rest of this entry »
New Zealand prostitutes bend poles with their bare hands
TO New Zealand, where keen Olympians are using street furniture to pole dance on. Reports are that “dozens” of traffic sings and poles have been bent out of shape by women using them as dance partners.
Pole dancing, of course, grew out of the 1980s Handbag Movement, in which legions of women would dance about their handbags in clubs with names like Buzbees, Dicey O’Reilly’s and Boogies Brasserie while they waited for men with rhythm or a bag snatcher. The bags went, replaced by, in turn, traffic cones, men called Gary and finally poles.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 18th, July 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
TV exit of the day: As seen on New Zealand TV3’s Firstline (video)
NEW Zealand. The country that gave the world Shortland Street and Dikshit TV, has new star. Give it up for the expert on TV3’s Firstline, star of New Zealand 100 Best Exits:
Posted: 30th, June 2012 | In: TV & Radio | Comment
New Zealand wants journalists to reveal all sources to judges
JOURNALISM looks to get tougher in New Zealand.
Justice Minister Judith Collins today released a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that contains proposed amendments to the Search and Surveillance Bill, which passed its second reading last week.
[A] key change is that journalists’ claim to ‘journalistic privilege’ when protecting their sources of information will be determined by a High Court judge.
“While a claim of privilege is being decided by the Court, the information in question will be held at the High Court for safekeeping – not with the agency conducting the search.
“This change has been made in recognition of the media’s role in a free and democratic society and to preserve important principles of media freedom and a journalist’s right to protect sources,” Ms Collins said.
Read the rest of this entry »
New Zealand Trucker Impaled On Pressurised Air Hose Blows Up
STEVEN McCormack is a sort-of real life Michelin Man. McCormak is the Kiwi trucker who had fell on an air hose cauaing the brass nozzle to break and inject pressurised air at 100lb/sq in into his buttocks.
The accident occured While he was a truck stop at Opotiki on the North Island. Says McCormack, 48, from his hospital bed in Whakatane, speaking to the Whakatane Beacon:
“I felt the air rush into my body and I felt like it was going to explode from my foot. I was blowing up like a football… it felt like I had the bends, like in diving. I had no choice but just to lay there, blowing up like a balloon.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 25th, May 2011 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Horse Semen Is A Zizzy Drink In New Zealand
ANYONE who fancies a drink of stallion semen, and who doesn’t fancy another trip to a fetish farm in rural Germany, can head to New Zealand’s Hokitika Wildfoods festival for a mouthful of racehorse owner Lindsay Kerslake’s oats.
Says she:
“Horses are pure testosterone, you know. They have hardly any cholesterol, so the idea is you knock it back and feel like a stallion yourself. You’ll have as much zizz as a stallion for a week afterwards.”
Anorak guesses (and despite the rumours, it is only a guess) that it will take longer than a week to remove the taste of horse zizz. (Jeremy Paxman fanciers can write in and tell us.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 2nd, March 2011 | In: Strange But True | Comments (7)
Ahsei Sopoaga Is The Face Of The New Zealand Earthquake
THIS video of the Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquake is eerie. But while some are shocked, and others carry on, one man digs. He is Samoa-born Ahsei Sopoaga.
He tells the Star-Times:
“It was just some things that were on top of him and had to be removed… I’m really not sure how heavy it was.”
Read the rest of this entry »
How To Make Money From The New Zealand Earthquake With Ethical Forex Trading
THE New Zealand earthquake has claimed 98 bodies so far. But, on a more positive note, your life goes on and here’s a chance to make money from disaster and all that seismic volatility. Daniel Wright tells readers of PoundSterlingForecast.com:
Good morning readers,
Terrible news over in New Zealand has led to an extremely volatile market this morning, especially regarding GBP – NZD – Rates had touched 2.16 at one point however right this second appear to have stabled out.
Overnight we saw a shift of 1.6% – A difference of nearly NZD7000 on a £200,000 purchase which is huge.
Should you have NZD to purchase and want to take full advantage of this, contact us today – you can even secure a rate on a forward basis for just a small deposit should you not have full acess to your funds.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 24th, February 2011 | In: Money | Comments (2)
Habitual Panties Thief Captured At Rugby Club
WOMEN’S panties – knickers, to you – are going missing from washing lines in Dunedin, New Zealand. Nick Reeves spends a night in the bushes of his mum’s garden. (Fnar.) he’ll nab the knicker knapper when he spots them. Says he:
“It was like Murphy’s law – when I wasn’t at the house, more pairs would go missing.”
Anyhow, after a long vigil Reeves spots the man and gives chase. And where is the felon finally captured? That’s right – at the rugby club, the Green Island Rugby Football Club, to be exact.
Knickers go missing. Round up the usual suspects…
Posted: 9th, April 2010 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Man Skins And Eats His Pet Pitbull
IN New Zealand, Paea Taufa cooked his pet dog in a backyard pit. He cannot be prosecuted, because it was killed “humanely”.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says inspectors arrived at the South Auckland home to find the pitbull terrier-cross skinned, gutted, and partially charred.
The puzzled owner, Paea Taufa, says dog is a delicacy in Tonga and he had knocked it unconscious with a blow to the head before slitting its throat.
The SPCA says cultural differences aside, it is unacceptable.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 16th, August 2009 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
Man Convicted For Hitting Paedophile Seen Seducing His Child
IN Blenheim, New Zealand, a father is convicted and fined $1000 for assaulting a 23-year-old man who wanted to have sex with his 13-year-old daughter.
Defence lawyer Michael Hardy Jones tells the Blenheim District Court that the father, 43, first took the mater to the police: “They said they were not able to assist at that stage.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 29th, July 2009 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)
A Free Goat With Every Mitsubishi Ute
ONE more reason to live in New Zealander (if you know the other one, let us know) as news reaches that Mitsubishi offers free goat with every ute:
MITSUBISHI Motors in New Zealand is offering a free goat with every Triton ute sold before August in a novel effort at correcting the economy.
Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand general sales and marketing manager Peter Wilkins said the economy’s recovery was in the hands of the rural sector, and goats, like Tritons, were “hardy, versatile units which will integrate directly into existing farm operations”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Wanted Man Appears On Billboard
DO you know the man on the billboard?
Locals in Auckland are gazing upon the image of a man wanted in connection with the theft of 15 transformers, owned by the, er, advertising company OTW which owns the billboards.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 26th, November 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Russell Crowe Cures The Credit Crunch
“I WAS thinking,” Russell Crowe tells US TV host Jay Leno:
The New Zealand-born actor announced, during a US TV talkshow appearance, a plan to cure America’s financial crisis … Crowe believes the US Government should give each American $US1 million.
His reasoning was that the US has a population of about 300 million, and a $US300 million outlay was a fraction of the $US700 billion financial bailout package rejected by politicians in Washington DC yesterday.
He should have thought a little harder though—a $US1 million handout to 300 million people would cost $300 trillion.
Genius…
Posted: 1st, October 2008 | In: Celebrities, TV & Radio | Comments (24)
