Local government - choosing your local petty fascists

It's a good sign that I am paying next to no attention to the NZ local government elections (a good sign that I have better things to think about in the UK). Last time I was IN NZ and I could vote.

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What is remarkable is the contrast between how enthused some people are for local government and what almost everyone else thinks about it. Even postal voting has made little difference, and what I find even more remarkable is how so many in local government DON'T understand.

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The point is simple - for most people the best they can say about local government is that it is unobtrusive and boring - you don't give a damn about what happens with most things councils do as long as the roads aren't potholed, the rubbish is collected, the water/sewers work and there isn't flooding due to incompetent management of waterways/floodbanks. Choosing people to be what are effectively board members for utility administration is uninspiring.

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Unfortunately, the worst that can be said about local government is what I see in almost all candidates for these roles. Yes, most who stand for councils are well-meaning, but they tend to hold one of two sets of political philosophies:

- Ambitious, change the world (and you) leftwing ideologues who think they can make things better (from their perspective) by force using your money, telling you what to do with your land, your business, and generally being busybodies; or

- Philosophy-less benevolent do-gooders who have a few views of how to make things better, but basically just want to "make a difference". Blank slates who don't care how big or small council is, just that it can do some good.

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In other words, hopeless. Local government is loved by the left - Labour, the Greens and the Alliance passed the current legislation governing local government, which removed almost all of the restrictions on councils that had built up over the years - you see Sandra Lee, as local government Minister, had great visions of councils enabling the welfare of communities - this was strongly supported by the Labour left, including Judith Tizard (a former petty fascist herself) and the PM. You see to the left, local government is just another level of the state - it gives a chance to develop strategies, redistribute (steal and spend) money from ratepayers, and regulate and control people at the local level. It is also a chance (when the inevitable change in central government occurs) for local government to pursue leftwing policies to counter what central government does. Plenty of those in central government cut their teeth at local government, they just about wet themselves with enthusiasm to push people about.

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You see, why would most people enter into local government if they didn't want to push people around? It pays poorly, it is interminably bureaucratic, is proscribed by government to perform a range of far reaching and intrusive activities (RMA for example), and has very little prestige outside the big city mayoralties (no this doesn't include Waitakere or Hamilton).

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So I have some advice for the local body elections where you are. Since you get a little voting guide this should help you a lot, but here are some very important points:

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1. The Mayor matters less than the media or the candidates claim. Mayors have no power beyond chairing the council, and having a casting vote in councils when they are hung. They have little budget, do not decide what roads are upgraded. Figurehead and promoter, but that is about it.

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2. Most candidates use catchphrases to attract voters. Most of these are code for "I want to tell you what to do, use more ratepayers' money, ban activities, compel activities and tinker with activities that people don't actually want to pay for". Here they are:

- Sustainability (in other words, make you pay for uneconomic recycling, projects that look environmentally friendly but have had no objective appraisal, road transport is bad, public transport is good, protect trees, tell you what to do with your land, your house, your business, all because if you don't you're contributing to armageddon, by implication);

- Communities (in other words, thinks collectively. Doesn't respect private property rights, listens to busybody groups of activists, prepared to believe in groups above individuals, tribalist. Community making decisions about your business, home, how you play, travel - great!);

- Renewable, climate change, peak oil (Green party supporter, believes in armageddon and taxing/regulating subsidising anything that environmentalists think is good for the world - regardless of the evidence, in fact resists cost/benefit analysis)

- Free (you'll be forced to pay for it, rather than pay for it if you want to use it. Anyone suggesting anything that someone has to pay for must be free, is an advocate of socialism);

- Partnership (council will get together with other councils, central government or a corrupt symbiotic relationship with businesses that want favours to disadvantage you. You are excluded from any partnerships by definition);

- Accessibility (you'll be forced to pay to make it easier for people to work with the council or move about);

- Foreign (nobody standing for local government likes foreigners or money from overseas - anyone raising this is another isolationist luddite who thinks you can keep your head in the sand and make you pay for it. Should like North Korea);

- Public ownership (you bear the costs of poor decisions through rates, the councillors who make the decisions bear none of them.).

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In essence, avoid anyone saying these things - they're after your money. When was the last time you saw a council candidate who said that if elected LESS would be done?

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Simply - Bernard Darnton for Wellington Regional Council. If elected two things would be sure, he'd oppose rates increases and any growth in council activity, and he'd be mighty pissed off that he has to do it. What could be better than someone in council who is suspicious of councils, who wishes they would disappear and wants them to do less? Remember, HE was the one who took Labour to court over spending YOUR money on the pledge card campaign out of government funds for administration.

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Besides Bernard, see if anyone else challenges the size of councils to be smaller - if so, a vote might be earned - as far as the rest? Ignore them, and think about what parties NEXT year want for local government. I wouldn't be enthused about the Nats though, Mark Blumsky is giving up, he doesn't know WHAT he could be doing - in which case we'd all be happier if he went back to shoes.

Mugabe should be no surprise

With the exception of South Africa's chief of corruption, scientific fraud and accessory to murder, Thabo Mbeki (or rather the ANC), and most other African kleptocrats political leaders, and some other gangsters (and Jacque Chirac), few disagree that Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe is a regime characterised by murder, political violence, use of starvation and theft as political tools, and must go. Few can fail to be moved by the despair of most Zimbabweans, of every colour (though many closed their eyes when only white Zimbabweans were victims of theft, assault, rape and even murder), especially now that Bulawayo now has people drinking sewer water, as Mugabe refuses to fix the water supply or assist that town - dominated by supporters of the opposition.

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Even China has been withdrawing support (if only it would do the same for Burma then it might win respect, after all a new Burmese government is not going to want to turn its back on Chinese investment).

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Setting aside the need to hold the disgraceful South African government to account (which is something the Western media and certainly few governments internationally are willing to do, as if Mbeki somehow basks in the glow of post-apartheid South Africa under Nelson Mandela) or indeed the legions of African regimes which, by and large, let their people down (not all, but many), it is worth noting that many noted right from the start that Mugabe was bad news. After all, Zimbabwe has been every bit the one-party authoritarian state since it was founded, New Zealand opened an embassy there under the Lange government, and sent the (allegedly very lazy) Chris Laidlaw to be High Commissioner. Every time I have heard him speaking about Mugabe it is as if things went wrong in the last few years, that there was so much hope - in the days when he banned political opposition and locked up and tortured opponents.

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Now before the usual childish political trick of saying that criticising one government automatically means you support the previous one, it should be clear that Ian Smith's regime had to go - disenfranchising the majority of the population and operating a "benign" version of apartheid doesn't make it right. However, my case is that Mugabe has been worse and it was clear from the very start.

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Mugabe is a Marxist-Leninist, and Marxist-Leninists have spilt the blood of over 100 million people in the last century. Mao and Stalin being by far the worst, but Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung and Mengistu did their best as well. Of course Mugabe is friends with North Korea, and Mengistu - the man responsible for converting Ethiopia from a food exporter in the 1970s to a famine ridden hell hole in the 1980s (not that you'd have learnt that from Bob Geldof) - is now one of Mugabe's chief advisors.

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As Judith Todd has said in her forthcoming book "Through the Darkness: A Life in Zimbabwe" "Torture, corruption and disregard for the rule of law were the norm right away". As the Sunday Times reports:

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"Mugabe broke all the rules – his guerrillas roamed the villages when they should have been at assembly camps, there was widespread intimidation and open violence against many opposition candidates: one such candidate was last seen pinned to the ground having red hot coals rammed down his throat. What fooled many people was that once Mugabe had forcibly incorporated Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu into his ruling Zanu-PF the country was so close to a one-party state that Mugabe simply didn’t need to show the iron fist, but it was always there. “As I try to show, there were a few people, like the guerrilla veteran, Aaron Mutiti, who understood Mugabe from the start. Aaron said in 1980, ‘Family life, religious life and economic life as we know it will progressively disappear if Mugabe gets to power’. "

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Judith Todd's father was PM of Southern Rhodesia, but would be stateless if the NZ government hadn't granted her citizenship (certainly a bouquet for the Clark government for granting this, perhaps helping to make up for the fawning the previous Labour government issued to Mugabe's dictatorship).

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What particularly grates is the likes of John Minto, who blames what Mugabe is doing on the West for "forcing" him to not implement Marxist economic policies at the time which has (get this) created the impoverishment of black Zimbabweans which is what he is responding to. However, Minto, as all members of the new left, are economic illiterates - they think Zimbabwe's economic disaster has something to do with holding onto capitalism, when the Mugabe regime has done progressively the opposite for years. Minto's Marxist credentials are well summarised by Trevor Loudon (and no, opposing apartheid is not a socialist position, it is a position of supporting individual freedom).

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Of course the Maori Party did refuse to condemn Zimbabwe two years ago, refusing to back a Parliamentary resolution damning the regime - a position it has expunged Orwellian style from its website - and which tells you a lot about the racism that lies at the heart of those who founded the Maori Party. Solidarity with a despotic, kleptocratic murderer because he is African is vile, I hope Pita Sharples flies to Zimbabwe to go tell the starving, AIDS ridden, desperate Zimbabweans that it is a "bit of rough and tumble".

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As Phil Goff has said "Zimbabwe has been independent now for 25 years, and was the richest country in Southern Africa. It has been destroyed by incompetence, greed, corruption and authoritarianism to the extent that life expectancy has dropped from 61 to 33 years."

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The only point I'd add is why should we be surprised - and watch South Africa, it could very well be next.

Bravery in Rangoon

As Burmese monks and civilians continue to protest against the bullying military dictatorship, I can only hope that troops don't turn on them. Burma has long suffered under a bizarre regime of corrupt authoritarian thugs, funding themselves through pillaging Burma's forests, oil and gas supplies and its relationship with China.

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Of course Western sanctions on Burma are increasingly weakened, thanks to China's bloodthirsty bullies cozying up to Rangoon, selling arms and investing in its client state - but then you wont see many people criticising Chinese imperialism will you?

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The BBC has reported a curfew has been called, and the regime is not shy of opening fire on civilians, having killed 3000 in 1988 during previous protests.

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Of course don't forget that if you and your friends wanted to be mercenaries to help confront Burma (or Zimbabwe or Syria) as dictatorships, Helen Clark and the Labour government banned that, supported by the Greens who always oppose violence, unless it is the state imposing its own law upon its own people. After all, the state is sovereign isn't it?

Ahmadinejad the homophobic, anti-semitic liar

There has been much criticism about allowing Iranian dictator President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia university. However, he did show his true colours. CNN broadcast the speech/question and answer session live and while trying to come across as the diplomat, he sidestepped plenty of questions, questions that were simple and to the point. I watched it, and he was sickening in his sidestepping and outright lies - lies leftwing pinups like Michael Moore and John Pilger will ignore, because it's far simpler to just demonise George Bush and consider anyone who opposes him to be better. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger rightly said "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator" - and like most dictators, Ahmadinejad denies the truth of his blood thirsty regime

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His answer to a question about why Iran executes homosexuals was simple... "In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has told you that we have it". (AFP quoted him correctly) North Korea has responded similarly to UN enquiries. Of course Iran DOES execute homosexuals, over 4000 have been murdered by the regime - but then Ahmadinejad is into denial.

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On the claim that women don't have equal rights he lied again, saying they had "absolute freedom". The blood on the hands of his murderous regime includes Atefah Sahaaleh - who was hanged by a noose at the age of 16 because she admitted to having been repeatedly raped by a married man. Yes, you read right SHE was executed because she was raped and because she removed her hijab in court and dared to say the rapist should be punished not her. Previously she had been arrested for being in the same car as her male cousin, a crime as boys and girls are not permitted to meet without an adult present - she was whipped for that offence.

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Mosleh Zamani is on death row in Iran now for having sexual relations with his girlfriend, you might care to sign the petition against his execution. It helped free Nazanin Fatehi who was sentenced to death for stabbing a rapist.

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He slithered around questions about Holocaust denial, claiming that research should never stop on anything scientific or historical and that he is an "academic" and why should people blame him for encouraging more research? There is no more need to research whether the Holocaust happened than there is need to research whether the earth is round not flat. Well, when you invite racist scum like David Duke, your claim to academic or scientific credentials holds no water. Gutless and dishonest, he deserves to meet a number of Holocaust survivors to stare into his eyes and tell him what happened to them, for the men who found the camps in 1945 to tell him what they saw.

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He also slithered around the question about whether he or the Iranian government sought the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state, claiming that the "people of Palestine should hold an election" and it should be respected, and claiming that the state of Israel was formed purely because of Jewish suffering in Europe. Gutless again. Everyone knows he has called for destruction of Israel - he couldn't even admit that he said that.

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He lied blatantly by claiming that Iran complies with all the IAEA requests. The IAEA doesn't think so itself, given it voted 27-3 to submit its concerns to the UN Security Council, which passed a resolution on this, which the IAEA has also admitted Iran has failed to comply with. The UN Security Council can't pass something solely on the votes of the US and the UK! Of course oil rich states need enriched uranium.

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He slithered out of concern for terrorism by saying Iran was a victim of terrorism, as if that justifies Iran's support for it. He also implied that 9/11 was more complicated than it first appeared, with oblique references to who was REALLY involved and why - he could have been implying the increasingly common references in the Islamic world to propaganda that 9/11 was a CIA/Jewish conspiracy - you know the same one that Robert Fisk has signed up for.

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He spoke of peace, of wanting to be friends with all nations, he spoke of being friends with the Jews (well presumably not those in Israel or those claiming to be Holocaust victims, or those wanting to promote Judaism in the religious bigot land of Islamist Iran), but I thought his statement about homosexuals said it all - they don't exist - just how chillingly Hitler liked to think of the Jews.

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I wonder if the feminists on the left, who claim to give a damn about womens' rights will ever have the courage to stage a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Roseneath, Wellington against the murder of rape victims for daring to defend themselves. They'll protest outside the US embassy like lemmings on automatic (imagine if one ever questioned being anti-American, it would be like farting in front of the Queen), but wont confront true despicable state sponsored evil - they'll use the freedoms that are taking for granted in the West but never confront the dark ages violence of Islamist Iran. They'll accuse the open Western media of being biased, but wont ever fight for ANY media plurality in Iran, where the state owns the media and punishes swiftly any freedom of speech.

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So go on, I look forward to the freedom loving left protesting outside the Iranian embassy against executions of homosexual and rape victims. No? Didn't think so. However, I bet you'll all be sheeplike at the next pro Islamisation of Iraq anti US forces in Iraq protest - mindless drones!

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UPDATE: Full transcript of Ahmadinejad's lies, denial and slithering here, the best lie has to be "Women are the best creatures created by God. They represent the kindness, the beauty that God instills in them. Women are respected in Iran. In Iran, every family who is given a girl -- is given -- in every Iranian family who has a girl, they are 10 times happier than having a son. Women are respected more than men are. They are exempt from many responsibilities. Many of the legal responsibilities rest on the shoulders of men in our society because of the respect, culturally given, to women, to the future mothers. In Iranian culture, men and sons and girls constantly kiss the hands of their mothers as a sign of respect, respect for women. And we are proud of this culture. " Respected until they are raped of course

Socialism's striving for medals

I remember well the Olympics in Seoul, one of the most competitive countries was East Germany, with an impressive medal tally - 102 - unfortunately what was also noticeable was how some of the female athletes looked little like being female. Critics at the time would be accused by leftwing feminists of being patriarchal and judgmental - the truth was bleaker, the steroid many were forced to take were changing their hormonal balance. Heidi Krieger (now Andreas Krieger), 1986 European shot put champion, had a sex change operation in 1997 directed attributable to the drugs she was forced to take to perform. She could have said no? Well of course, and no longer been an athlete and be seen to be disloyal to the great socialist state.

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Of course, the Olympic spirit was that politics and sport should not mix, but that was hardly the case for decades. Hitler ensured the 1936 Berlin Olympics were to be a triumph of Nazi glorification of order and prosperity. Certainly Moscow in 1980, LA in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 were all about thumbing noses ideologically. The Stalinist authorities of East Berlin treated it as such, as East Germany's best athletes were encouraged to perform their best for the "German Democratic Republic" - this meant being forced to take steroids. Now, as the Sunday Telegraph has revealed it included construction of an underground training facility which included a depressurised bunker designed to mimic conditions at an altitude of 4,000 metres, as athletes would have to produce more red blood cells, improving their performance.

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"Athletes were ordered to train underground for weeks on end, being sent off to big contests only when their red blood cell count was drastically raised. Because of the immense psychological strain of the hard training in an isolated subterranean environment, some considered it a form of torture"

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Only slightly amusing is how in the underground facility, banned Western songs by Bruce Springsteen and Supertramp were among those played, as a "reward", so that they could be happier while training.

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The tragedy of lives ruined by the 20th century experiment with Marxism-Leninism continues to be found. Around 2000 former athletes in the GDR had their health damaged due to Erich Honeker's enslavement of them for medals, how many in China face the same pressure today?