Tuesday, May 10, 2005
The government finds itself caught in a crossfire over the Iraqi immigrants dilemma. The United Nations body that vets refugee applications says some of Saddam Hussein's former officials would have a legitimate case to be allowed to settle in New Zealand. It will be an interesting next round to see how Paul Swain copes with trying to round up all "undesirable" immigrants (a desire based on panic more than reality), and at the same time placate friends at the UN.
Winston Peters' bill to remove treaty "principles" from our laws is due back in the House tomorrow.
Enforcing the law is a right and was, only a short time ago, a responsibility of every able-bodied person. It is time we challenged the smugness of that common judicial pronouncement “I can't allow you to take the law into your own hands”. It has always been in those hands. There has never been a time when there could be enough police to protect every New Zealander in this stretched-out land. The mutual trust and security that was part of our heritage did not come from having police to watch every scumbag. It came from decent and self-reliant families who knew they shared responsibility for upholding behaviour standards and the law in their communities. Sir Robert Peel, who founded modern policing, was insistent that the police had no special privileges. They merely did full-time what all citizens could and should do when necessary. Over the past two decades citizens’ arrest has been strongly discouraged. Our police have become instead a class privileged with special rights." They are not better off for it. Strong and timely words from Stephen Franks.
NZ Herald economics editor Brian Fallow has begun a series of articles on the state of the economy as a prelude to next week's Budget. A very readable Economics 101 backgrounding key issues.
Sweden's Supreme Court has said it will review the acquittal of a Pentecostal pastor who denounced homosexuality as "a deep cancer" in a sermon. Ake Green was convicted of hate crimes in June 2004 and given a 30-day suspended prison sentence. But then an appeals court in February threw out the case, saying it was not illegal to offer an interpretation of the Bible and urge others to follow it. Sweden's chief prosecutor said that in his view, Mr Green's comments did amount to hate speech, and so he was seeking a review.
Meanwhile, in the first case of its kind to come before the Durban Equality Court in South Africa, a white woman has been found guilty of hate speech and unfair discrimination and ordered to pay financial damages to a black complainant.
Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom in the 1950s, as a counter to the rapidly rising socialist economic theories of the time (which still hold considerable sway in New Zealand). How have we developed as a society since then? Theodore Dalrymple looks at the roads that we are now following.
Winston Peters' bill to remove treaty "principles" from our laws is due back in the House tomorrow.
Enforcing the law is a right and was, only a short time ago, a responsibility of every able-bodied person. It is time we challenged the smugness of that common judicial pronouncement “I can't allow you to take the law into your own hands”. It has always been in those hands. There has never been a time when there could be enough police to protect every New Zealander in this stretched-out land. The mutual trust and security that was part of our heritage did not come from having police to watch every scumbag. It came from decent and self-reliant families who knew they shared responsibility for upholding behaviour standards and the law in their communities. Sir Robert Peel, who founded modern policing, was insistent that the police had no special privileges. They merely did full-time what all citizens could and should do when necessary. Over the past two decades citizens’ arrest has been strongly discouraged. Our police have become instead a class privileged with special rights." They are not better off for it. Strong and timely words from Stephen Franks.
NZ Herald economics editor Brian Fallow has begun a series of articles on the state of the economy as a prelude to next week's Budget. A very readable Economics 101 backgrounding key issues.
Sweden's Supreme Court has said it will review the acquittal of a Pentecostal pastor who denounced homosexuality as "a deep cancer" in a sermon. Ake Green was convicted of hate crimes in June 2004 and given a 30-day suspended prison sentence. But then an appeals court in February threw out the case, saying it was not illegal to offer an interpretation of the Bible and urge others to follow it. Sweden's chief prosecutor said that in his view, Mr Green's comments did amount to hate speech, and so he was seeking a review.
Meanwhile, in the first case of its kind to come before the Durban Equality Court in South Africa, a white woman has been found guilty of hate speech and unfair discrimination and ordered to pay financial damages to a black complainant.
Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom in the 1950s, as a counter to the rapidly rising socialist economic theories of the time (which still hold considerable sway in New Zealand). How have we developed as a society since then? Theodore Dalrymple looks at the roads that we are now following.
