Why are we, New Zealand, even negotiating a free trade agreement with China? We should be telling them to get fucked, not buying more of their crap. Look, I don't really need to go into the background of all this (Tibet, sweat shop labour, Indonesian rainforests), but what is in it for us? Really? What is there?
We buy their stuff to fill up the $2 Shop and The Warehouse with rubbish our kids break before they even get it home, using more resources, we tacitly support their regime, we make their rich folks richer and do nothing for the poor bastards working in the factories.
How much New Zealand made goods will they buy in return? My guess is fuck all. The government says $500 million. Now I may be an idiot, but where exactly does this come from? I guess it means they'll buy wood, ship it to China, turn it into flimsy patio furniture and then ship it back here to sell in our shops. Can't we do it here ourselves? Obviously not.
Ethics don't come into it. The loss of jobs here, exploitation of workers in China, the hidden, environmental, cost of shipping wood to China and back for what? Furniture that breaks as soon as we sit our fat arses in it? Dumb doesn't even come into it.
The Olympic organising committee (supported by the government's silence) are now telling our athletes they can't say anything even remotely seen as critical of the Chinese regime while they are at the Olympic Games. Fuck free speech, eh guys?
What are we afraid of? That they'll invade us? They won't be our friends? They'll stop sending us their plastic toys and flimsy furniture? GET REAL.
New Zealand used to stand up for itself on the world stage (remember French nuclear testing?), now it's all about money and greed, fuck the people and fuck the ethics. This is from a Labour government that now has a National opposition saying that the Prime Minister is being 'responsible' in our reaction to the repression in Tibet and not stirring things up so close to signing a Free Trade Agreement. Makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end.
On the international front: I'm disappointed Barack Obama didn't take the opportunity to say: "Yeah, well, Pastor Wright has his own way of saying things, but FUCK YOU, there are reasons why 9/11 happened, we have been pricks overseas, there has been a history of racism in America, we do have social injustice. We need to fix these things, not deny them." Instead he's disassociating himself from his spiritual mentor of two decades. The plot thins.
On the local front: How come I didn't know about the NORML bus coming to New Plymouth yesterday? Fuck.
I recently bought a huge TV and one of it's instant benefits is that I can now read all the fine print on those medicine, hair regrowth and give up smoking ads.
