I'm sorry TV3...

It would appear I was wrong in my 5 April post about the Methyl Bromide protest when I said TV3 didn't run the news story about it when they sent cameras. They did, I just couldn't find it. However, I'm still mad at the Dom Post. It was a local story to Wellington - where was the freakin' article?

By the way, I'm not one of the people in white suits - I missed out. I'm a blackish blob in the background with a gas mask on. I'm famous!

Do you support the fair trade deal with China?

Though admittedly I haven't gone through the deal (that was made public on the day of the signing) with a fine-tooth comb (who has the time to do that?), here are a few things about the deal.

China has an abysmal human rights record. They have a single party system, and voices of dissent are oppressed with Chinese efficiency. Unions are destroyed if they ever start to form, and there is widespread use of child labour. But what does opening up our trade barriers have to do with this? And we can talk to them better now that we've given them preferential trade, right? Besides, we're going to make a killing out of this deal. Local manufacturers will be hurt, but they are almost gone already anyway, and they'll be given time to "adjust" before tariffs are removed completely (ie. move their manufacturing to China). We are an exporting nation, so will benefit greatly. We should be proud that we were the first nation to stand beside the senior Chinese Party officials and put our flag up next to the Chinese one to signify a uniting of two nations under the auspices of trade.

Please vote in poll now, or before it closes if you need time to think and read about it.

PS It's a bit of a fallacy to call it a "free" trade deal. No free trade deal is truly free - otherwise it would be a very simple document. An almost free trade deal is what it really is, with a few mentions of immigration and stuff.

Do I trust internet polls?

Time for my opinion on my poll this week. The result showed that some people were trusting, and some people very paranoid. But it mainly shows not many people are visiting my blog so far...

As for me, I would go with the smallest minority (ie. I do trust people, OK?!?! Just not everyone.) Internet polls have no statistical basis whatsoever - so keep that in mind when viewing the results to my polls (as this will be especially the case for ones that have very few votes). Internet polls are not a representative sample of anything, they are just who visits the site and wants to vote. So whenever the media quotes internet polls, or txt polls, I get really frustrated. They mean nothing! And many people trust them as being accurate polls, because there is a low level of statistical literacy out there. Sure, if a few thousand people voted it might give a very rough indication of the population's feelings, but it's nothing to be reported about. The purpose internet polls serve is to raise an issue (which is what I will use mine for mainly), add an interactive aspect to the site, and to show the media outlet the opinions of their viewers. So don't trust them!

As an interesting side-note, I heard that because the "scientifically" done polls (where they try and get a representative sample of the population) only use landlines to call people, they miss a disproportionate amount of less-well off people, as many of them only have cell phones to avoid paying landline connection charges. So polls are often slightly more right-wing than the actual truth. Don't know how true this is, but it reaffirms that it is very difficult to get a truly representative sample, even when your trying to.

Watch out for my next statistically-irrelevant poll, which I will put up tomorrow.

Party time!

Last night I had my official leaving party for my trip. It was three weeks out from it, but still a good excuse to party and drink binge-ing-ly. The collection of bottles wasn't majorly impressive as you can see, but as usual some people had too much to drink. Silly kiwis.

Sorry for those of you who should have been invited but weren't - I'm only human. But there's still time to say good bye. And thanks to all that came - great to see you (slash meet you in a couple cases).

But yes, party time is such a great human invention. Connections with others are so vital to our lives, and it's fantastic to be able to talk to so many people in one night, as well as just generally have a good time and have a beer (or two...). There's so many good people in this world, and we are so lucky in New Zealand. I will miss everyone and I will miss Wellington.

For those who still aren't in the know (and for those who have never met me), here is the run-down of my trip that I published for my party's "Information Table" so that I didn't have to talk about it over and over last night:

Zack’s Trip

(So that you don’t have to ask him about the details ‘cause he’s already talked about his trip heaps).

Zack leaves on 26 April to Sao Paulo in Brazil. It is here he will be attending the second Global Green and Global Young Greens Congress. This is a body of over one hundred associated Green Parties around the world. The theme of the Congress is Climate Change, though more issues will be discussed.

He then has two weeks of freedom during which his only plans are to make it to Rio de Janeiro, which isn’t too far north of Sao Paulo. From here he will start a tour, which will take him up to the Amazon River and into Venezuela, ending up in the capital Caracas.

From Caracas he flies on 1 July to Guadalajara in Mexico where his sister currently resides. He will spend a month of QT there. From here he flies on 1 August to Ottawa. This is where most of his extended Canadian family lives, and he will spend a month of QT with these simple, friendly Canadian folk.

Finally, after spending a few days in LA with some random peeps, he will return to NZ on 5 September 2008AD, after spending over four months on the trip the that would later be regarded as the journey that made him great, and that would subsequently lead him to change the world forever. (Perhaps a wee premature, but just you wait).

Mmm... Drugs.

In my search for a source for my claim in my post last night that alcohol should be classified as a Class B drug (which I heard twice on National radio - one from a Lincoln University study, and another from an English academic who was visiting NZ and is an expert on drugs. But evidently they don't keep full archives on their website) I came across this interesting graph on the BBC website. It was from a Science Select Committee inquiry in Britain in 2006. They recommended that a more evidence-based rating system for drugs be introduced, showing the true harm rating of drugs, rather than this Class A B C system that both they and us have, which is widely off the mark. Note Class A drugs that are way down the scale, including Ecstasy (given a bad reputation because old people don't like young people staying up all night and dancing) and LSD (given a bad rep from old squares not liking hippies). Alcohol comes in the fifth most harmful drug, with BZPs close behind (which have been illegal in Britain for some time). But the colouration of the graph best sums things up about our current, dishonest and unconstructive system.

On another note, a couple of my friends who used to take BZP pills tried some of the new pills last night. At the time they said they were crap and had little effect. Don't know about all the varieties, and there are supposedly more on the way, but for those wanting energy, could be best to stick to caffeine and guarana.

Toxic gas? So?

I attended a protest yesterday outside Aotea Wharf in Wellington. The issue? Well, it seems the Wellington Regional Council is turning a blind eye to the spraying of an odourless and highly-toxic gas out in the open at the port, which it has an 85% stake in. Methyl Bromide has been linked with all sorts of horrible illnesses, and has been shown to be dispersed widely when sprayed out in the open - which is especially a problem in windy Wellington. Furthermore, it is an ozone-depleting gas - which you think New Zealand would be much tougher on given our high rate of skin cancer caused by the hole in the ozone layer. Methyl Bromide is used to fumigate logs, and I was shocked to hear it was being regularly sprayed in downtown Wellington when other parts of the country have had a guts-full of it being sprayed in their neck of the woods.

So a group of concerned young folk - including myself - and a couple of Green celebrities - Sue Kedgley and Steffan Browning - stood outside the fence around the logs yesterday to protest, and get some media coverage of the issue. We even donned white suits and gas masks to get attention. All was going well with a TV camera, and a late Dom Post photographer. So where the hell is the report and article about this issue which is incredibly important to the health and well-being of Wellingtonians? Not even a small mention, that I could find anyway.

Well at least someone's fighting the good fight, with Sue Kedgley launching a petition that same day, calling on the spraying of Methyl Bromide to be halted immediately: until such time as they have proper facilities in place to capture the gas, before it can escape into the atmosphere and the lungs of Wellington-peeps.

RIP BZP, hello... um... WTF?

Congratulations to Jim Anderton for perpetuating the "Wack-A-Mole" syndrome in the "War on Drugs". (Sorry to use such horribly American terms, but it seems, as usual, the US is at the forefront of this stupid, futile and costly war). Yes, earlier this week BZP was made illegal thanks to him, but I still can't quite figure out why. It is now a Class C drug - whereas alcohol should be a Class B drug. Yet he hasn't made that illegal (I will endeavour to find a source for that statement). In fact it has become more and more readily available in recent years, with the numbers of outlets selling alcohol increasing exponentially. And now, of course, there is a new legal drug all ready to go on the market - and we don't even know what's in it!

A couple of points. Firstly, I thought the outlawing of BZP was going to come with a change to the Misuse of Drugs Act that would make it mandatory that companies had to prove themselves that the new drug they are putting on the market is safe before it went on the market, rather than the Government having to "prove" that it is harmful enough to be illegal before making it illegal. However, I understand that the Act is going to be amended later on this year, and that is a change that will probably be put into it. However...

(Point number two before I go out and have some good sober times on a Friday night. So that I can party harder tomorrow night.) Some minor, or even major amendments to the Misuse of Drugs will not have much of an effect. Why? Because we have such an inconsistent and dishonest approach to drugs in the country (and in much of the world). Inconsistencies in Government policy, where one drug is are allowed to be sold and advertised everywhere pretty much, when it is an extremely harmful drug, and most other drugs are criminal offences even just to possess. But there are misunderstandings on both sides. Of course the law-makers want to be doing what they can to protect citizens, especially younger ones, from harm. They're not going to do that by making them criminals though. If we are ever to grow out of our binge drinking culture, and be able to move to a stage where most people can enjoy drugs safely most of the time (yes, drugs are not all bad. They are a lot of fun, mind expanding, relaxing - many things to many people. We are never going to rid our society of them, and why should we?) we need to be much more level headed and mature when talking about them, and start a dialogue between the different groups in society that have differing views. It's hard, especially when so many people have been affected adversely by drugs, but it is the only way we can move forward.

PS Alcohol is a drug!

Don't be a fossil fool: STOP COAL!

Rumour has it that some young hoodlums viciously attacked the wall outside the new Supreme Court construction site on Lambton Quay in Wellington earlier today. Of course I was not there, so I can only go on what I've heard through the grapevine, but their weapon of choice seems to have been paper, glue, and a highly topical and powerful message. The message said "Don't be a fossil fool: STOP COAL." However it was, as these pictures show, promptly torn down by the man. In bright orange. Who was yelling and stuff, from what I hear.

As to whether or not Helen Clark and friends looked out of their office windows, saw the message, and realised that they were allowing a disgusting, dirty and ultimately deadly industry to continue pillaging the environment in New Zealand, and therefore decided then and there to outlaw it completely, remains to be seen.