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Feedback: Kicked Around By Oz & More
In this issue: Why continue to be kicked around by Australia et al? – Memo To Firas Al Atraqchi – Who is Right?
Why continue to be
kicked around by Australia et al?
Today Prime Minister Clark takes a New Zealand business delegation to an Australia that I wish well, but it is to an Australia that we want far more than it wants us. This reflects a continuing poverty of thought that has afflicted decision-makers of all political persuasions on this side of the ditch ever since we depended on Britain as its colony. Dependence on large, self-interested powers does not work in the long term, be they Britain, Australia, or the United States. It only leaves us vulnerable to being kicked around whenever the power concerned wishes to do so. That should now be obvious enough.
There is another option that a few have proposed for some decades, but it requires thought and planning. That is to develop international leverage as a diplomatic and economic, knowledge-age intermediary. A now wealthy Singapore learned these lessons decades ago, when it began working assiduously to develop as an international information hub. That has paid off handsomely.
New Zealand could also strategise to build up successful international brokerage roles. They would build on our success as a diplomatic intermediary (something that Australia itself has needed, over Bougainville, for instance), and prioritise plans to develop international information and storage and processing services in a remote, independent New Zealand.
Yours sincerely
John
Gallagher
Re: Freedom for All, Except Arabs and Muslims
Memo to
Firas Al-Atraqchi
Dear Firas,
Surely in the context of the current round of violence in Israel, the statement from CAIR that the Memorial Day protest in SF was anti-war AND pro-Palestinian can only be taken to mean that those at the rally - irrespective of age - support the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent Israeli civilians by the most gruesome and inhuman means that are being employed by the Palestinians and their backers and supporters.
As Arlo Guthrie asks, "Which side are you on, boys?" Otherwise, yes the arrest of an 11-year-old is a little over the top.
Yours in the service of peace and democracy.
David Harris.
Who is right?
Sir
Two headlines today:
Grey Forecast For Farmers and PM Says Grass Is Greener in NZ
Who is not telling whom what?
Mirek Marcanik
Scoop
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