Acquitting Themselves to Perfection: The Real Heroes - and Heroines - of New Zealand's 'Darkest Day'

You doubtless need not be told who these noble/gallant folk are...

-yes, the survivors and surviving family of those so ruthlessly gunned down two Fridays (16 days/half a month) ago...who've displayed a degree and depth of forgiveness - arguably not just sublime but well-nigh divine - almost unheard of amidst modern 'humanity's' seemingly endless litany of horror sufferers and survivors...

...as well as their various fellow Muslim 'spokespeople'/representatives, such as an eminent Imam who appeared on last Sunday's (22/3) Newshub Nation, who declared that it's extremism of all sorts, shapes and sizes, flavours and configurations, that's the real problem...not only the new ideological demon of the month, white supremacy and/or Islamophobia...

...and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, now justly globally acclaimed for her deft, adroit - but, far more importantly, duly sensitive and empathetic - 'handling' of the whole sordid ordeal, or, more aptly, the immediate (and short-term) aftermath thereof...

Though there are ever those determined to find a convenient scapegoat - *cf Professor Paul Spoonley on Friday last's 'The Project', vis-a-vis the role of politicians such as (present-day, and oftentimes) deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, 'the Right Honourable' - in helping create an atmosphere conducive to/that allowed the Christchurch massacre to occur...

...whilst others, in the mainstream media, appear equally ever ready to conflate any and every semblance of contrariness and even sheer **'orneryness' in the body politic - however further afield (such as the U K ***'Brexit' or the phenomenon of President Donald Trump) - into similar instances or parallels of the virus that so demonstrably affected - infected - New Zealand's latest mass murderer.

What has been particularly heartening and even refreshing about the response of New Zealand's Muslim ****community-at-large has been their astonishing readiness, not to mention ability - seemingly to a man or woman - to apparently forgive such diabolical evil and evildoer from the heart ...quite irrespective, obviously, of his own (highly likely) unwillingness to ever seek such...

...simply because, as *****that great 20th-Century prophet of the United States of America was wont to say/express things...one can only ever really expel darkness, not with more darkness, but with light...and likewise, one cannot get rid of hate with more hate, but only with love...

...and as his own Supreme Master so beautifully taught and moreover wonderfully exemplified throughout His own tragically-shortened earthly sojourn...

*Who indeed put a good case thereabouts, but he's not only going out upon somewhat of a limb, knowing Mr Peters' penchant for withering counterattack and holding a grudge till kingdom come  Spoonley may well have bitten off far more than he can chew...

**As my Mum's late mother might well have deemed it...

***As 'the Bard' (i.e. William Shakespeare), no less, might well have mused: 'To B(r)e(xit) or Not to B(r)e(xit), That is the Question...'

****Evidently 50,000-strong, a little over 1% of the population.

*****Did you guess who I'm referring to? Yep, Dr Martin Luther King...

Mea Culpa...vis-a-vis my own (however inadvertent) role in (however unwittingly), if not exactly disseminating, not properly discerning and 'calling out' some 'stuff' and individuals and movements of recent times...

Naturally enough - see tail-end of previous blogpost - to be continued...

Sunday eve (March 31st):

To wit, that Queensland (federal) senator 'Anning', whose *true nature has well and truly come to the surface over recent weeks, i.e. since NZ's 'darkest day' of March 15th...

And all (if a rather belated) **kudos to his young 'egg-sailant', whose brave antics have surely earned him a place in the New Zealand hall of fame for time immemorial...

But as for my own 'credentials' upon the matter of white supremacy/nationalism and/or Islamophobia ...I personally strongly doubt whether there would be very many people who've not only befriended (and been befriended by) people of as many races, nationalities and ethnicities as myself...let alone gone out of their way as much to at times stand up for such individually when treated at all unfairly/in an unfriendly fashion (by other people/******outfits)...

*Yes, I cannot deny giving the fellow 'the benefit of the doubt', as I wrote at the time, and that simply because I've become increasingly unable to trust the mainstream (Western) media's 'ganging up upon' certain public menaces/the monthly 'Public Enemy #1 over recent weeks and months... especially vis-a-vis the ongoing - and ***seemingly never-ending - fallout from the Me Too Movement's public outing of various and sundry high-profile personas/personae...

**'Credit, fame, renown, prestige' (Gr[eek] kydos, glory), according to my ever trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary (1988/1989 edition).

***And in case yet another 'case in point' were needed, what is 'headlined' upon tonight's TV1 News but an accusation - of 'inappropriate [Oval Office] conduct' by/against (presumptive) Democratic Presidential Nominee, President Obama's ****Veep *****Joe Biden no less...

****Of course, American shorthand for Vice-President...

*****Which this punter, anyhow, finds especially *******galling...subject to further clarification, elaboration and (even half-pie) convincing 'evidence'...when set in stark relief against [said media's] determination at all costs to resist - to the death, seemingly - any and every instance of serious allegation against a certain former President, whose 'high crimes and misdemeanours' were such that he was ultimately one of only two sitting American presidents to be impeached...

 ******Specifically recalling just now a local bus driver who, one or two years back, treated an Indian guy and gal in a particularly cold and unfriendly way...to whom, when I got to the seat next theirs, I gave the great reassurance that that particular dude was unpleasant to one and all - including Yours Truly - so not to take it at all personally (or as expressing some kind of anti-Asian ill-will)...

*******Yes, I didn't come down on the last cloud, either, and am only too well aware that with the advent of (and backwash from) MeToo, a person's status before the law is evidently now 'guilty till proven innocent'...and yet am equally aware that out present-day, westernwide 'trial by media' is not faultless, and hence a number of even high-profilers (f'r'instance British singer-songwriter Sir Cliff Richards) have since been found not guilty, or at least not 'guilty beyond reasonable doubt'...

Conflating Great Britain's Brexit - or More Precisely, Brexiters...with Aotearoa-New Zealand's 'Darkest Day' ...is one Step way too far by Kiwi Broadcasters...and then some...

As I mentioned at the conclusion of 'yesterday's' blogpost (i.e. the second half or so of my last one), it's extremely bad form...slanderous even...to in any way, shape or form seek to somehow (or other) - even if only by clear as mud, blimin' obvious implication - link or connect or even associate the awful tragedy our nation experienced/sustained upon the now ever memorable afternoon of March 15th with the referendum result in the United Kingdom upon June 23rd, 2016...

Yes, to even make such an attempt is to cast a base and vile, equally *'unforgivable' slur upon each and every person who voted for the U K to leave the European Union...whether that ever in fact takes place now or not...a likelihood now very much, as they say, **'in the lap of the gods'...

*Though no sin is ultimately unpardonable in a precise, absolute sense of the term...except that of the sin against the Holy Spirit, as Jesus so meticulously pointed out...

**Or rather, in the lap of the One True God...

To Be Continued (after sufficient shuteye)...
-3 days on-

There's probably not all that much really to add to this particular blogpost, actually, except to say that this is one particular 'bugbear' I intend taking all the way to the BSA (the New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority) - some things are really that important (in the overall scheme of things)...

...but, as per usual - especially over the last few weeks and months, anyway - 'other things' have once again intervened/thrown ye proverbial fly in the ointment/spoke in the wheel...and so, since - somehow or other, sooner rather than later - inadvertently being effectively knocked off the bloggersphere by Blogger.com is not exactly a prospect I particularly relish...

...I'm afraid to say that attending to some rather basic 'housekeeping' (blog-safekeeping) appears the preeminent order of the day...so, without further ado, pardon me if I do just that, i.e. momentarily skedaddle...to put out any potential fires before they inadvertently engulf and consume the best laid plans of this particular individual (and the rodents presently seeking to find a home in our ceiling as autumn finally arrives and temps start dropping of an evening especially)...

"This is not who we are"...This is/was (in fact) us: The Understandable Schizophrenia following our Unheard of Tragedy

Ruminations on the eve of March 21st, 2019

So which is it? Is our now internationally-acclaimed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern absolutely spot-on - in saying the former...or are the nay-sayers correct? How about this self-contradictory conclusion: neither...or rather, both. And at the very same time...

Technically, the guy was an Aussie...who, moreover, came over here with the express purpose of 'proving' that this kind of massacre/atrocity/tragedy could actually happen anywhere...
(Or at least once he'd arrived here he gestated/germinated just such a fiendish objective.)

So - strictly-speaking - he really, actually, isn't 'one of us', all the more ironic because that of course was why he targeted the Muslim folk he did; in his own mind, 'they' were not truly 'us'. Although it could equally well be the case that, egged on by endless *talkback radio discussion and the like, he simply didn't trust Muslims; supposing that, even if they'd happened to have been living in New Zealand for a long time, generations even, they were potential jihadists: Sissii Internationale sympathisers, even terrorists, in his own (very twisted) mind...

All fair enough suspicions, seeing as - surprise, surprise - we can't actually read his mind...nor would very many of us even care to, truth be told...-subterranean, cavernous sewers and cesspits never really being particularly inviting places to visit, even on a nice day...

*But so as no-one gets the wrong idea here, it's exceedingly rare, virtually never that I at least - and as an avid consumer of NZ's major talkback radio station, Newstalk ZB (in addition to 'Government Radio' or 'Radio Stalingrad', as some of its noteworthy detractors have ever referred to RNZ National), I happen to know whereof I speak - have ever heard what is in standard lingo referred to as (either) 'xenophobia' or 'hate speech'...though one (wo)man's hate speech or xenophobia ain't necessarily the next person's...

Indeed, whenever I've heard someone (usually a fellow) evidently about to launch out upon such a diatribe of dangerous 'drivel', the particular host invariably pushes the 'cutoff' button...something incidentally that usually doesn't happen whenever folk (including some hosts) on RNZ spout their typical anti-Christian, as in (arguably) blasphemous, 'Christ this or that or the other' abusive speech...but of course anti-Christian language doesn't apparently amount to such intolerable 'stuff'.

But having said that, my conscience reminded me, a little while post-our **9/11, that a number of months back I'd meant to - and indeed I might well have, but I don't believe I actually got round to it - 'inform' a particular talkback host that he ought to take note that certain statements either he or certain guests had made (around that time) ***could possibly be taken - by unstable 'minds', that is - and used for malicious purposes...but naturally nothing - remotely - of the magnitude, let alone kind, of what occurred in Christchurch upon March 15th was upon my mind when I planned doing such...

**As someone has stated, including on a (hitchhike) ride the other day when said driver mentioned how someone had calculated that if the kiwi tragedy had occurred in the U S of A the equivalent death toll would've been 3,200 or so (I believe, based upon my now calculating that 50 people out of a population of 4.75 million or so NZers is around about 1 in every 100,000 people...and so we come to America's own 9/11 itself, whereupon 3,000-some folk died. So if anything - and of course only in sheer numerical terms - NZ's 50 murdered equates to 3,500 or so in the United States)...

***Indeed, though the ****BBC item gave every appearance the other day of tying any and every instance, presumably, of low-level racist talk as indicative of the potential for NZ's recent massacre - obviously problematic in the extreme as such a thing, thereby implicating large proportions of populations in nations all around the world and moreover from time immemorial, as potential mass murderers, is obviously not only far-fetched but really rather slanderous/libellous and over-the-top to the nth degree - was soon enough countered by this particular former kiwi (now residing in Texas) herself...when she included this all so important caveat: that the individual concerned had first been radicalized...

****But in the (necessary) defence of the particular BBC journalist concerned, he was only making reference to how NZers themselves, or rather their media - had discussed the atrocity...i.e. in terms of such even low-level racism being suggestive of the possibility of such awful events. But insofar as kiwi media have themselves been only too eager to fall over themselves in thus conflating any and every such incidence of 'Islamophobia' into a potential massacre scenario, I'll have more to say both here and elsewhere in the not too distant...including a complaint I intend lodging with our Broadcasting Standards Authority following the (ongoing) implied association of not only the Trump victory and administration with such 'white supremacy', but - as often as not - the United Kingdom's Brexit...and that, to this fair-minded individual, is quite simply a step way too far...and then some...

Rising to the Most Difficult Occasion Imaginable: Profuse Plaudits to those most unlikely of worthy recipients: our (New Zealand) Members of Parliament - especially our Christchurch-based ones

Listening in to parliamentary broadcasts (radio and TV) does have its benefits...chiefly upon those reasonably rare occasions when a disaster (whether manmade or natural) occurs...

And so I dedicate this blogpost to a plethora of (individually) unlikely recipients...who have indeed risen to the occasion in this most unpleasant of times...

But first, let me suggest that the folk who've shown the most sterling quality throughout this entire sorry saga...which seems to be universally agreed upon, in fact...are

the members of the New Zealand Muslim community, or more precisely, those in Christchurch who either lost relatives or were injured or miraculously survived the ordeal but witnessed others not as blessed...for the degree of forgiveness, mercy and love shown has been exemplary, worthy indeed of the very best traditions of my own, i.e. the Christian religion...whose adherents, not excluding myself at times I must concede, have fallen far short of the superlative example set by our Model and Mentor....

Followed by the nation's 'first responders', i.e. our police, hospital and ambulance staff...who have  conducted themselves admirably - with flying colours - going way beyond the ordinary call of duty...

And among those may I single out Police Commissioner Mike Bush himself...someone who has shown his own quality at this most difficult of times...fronting press conferences on an ongoing fashion in a totally undefensive way, explicating in great detail each and every possible nuance of concern or detail and doing so invariably with great panache, grace and the utmost sensitivity...

Among parliamentarians during yesterday's 'Motion of Condolence', following the previous afternoon's equally solemn and sobering initial parliamentary mention and discussion thereof - which included the reflections and heartfelt feelings of the leaders of all our elected representatives - I at least was especially touched and moved by a number of National Party MPs, and more specifically ones hailing from that most tragic of New Zealand cities, Christchurch (my birthplace).

And that makes perfect sense, as Christchurch- (and Canterbury-) based members of Parliament obviously have a lot more experience than most other MPs in living and surviving through what would now have to be deemed our nation's two worst 'disasters' (at least in terms of numbers of people killed, injured and otherwise affected) - this recent atrocity and of course the earthquakes (both initial and unrelenting, successive aftershocks) that began/reached crescendo proportions on September 4th, 2010 and February 22nd, 2011...(along with the Kaikoura Earthquake a few years on).

And so naturally these folk have some on-the-ground understanding for what their fellow Christchurchers (and Cantabrians) have been going through - many themselves going through similar stuff (though oftentimes keeping fairly mum thereabouts, rather than selfishly draw peoples' attention
to their own very real sufferings). And so it's hardly totally unexpected that the likes of (former Earthquake Recovery Minister) Gerry Brownlie, (former Speaker) David Carter, the longserving Ruth Dyson, or the (relative newbie M.P.) Matt Doucie, among others, might have something more than worthwhile to say when Parliament set aside two hours yesterday (for 24 speakers) to address a 'motion of condolence' thereabouts...

I suppose I could quote various lines of special note - if I'd managed to jot them down (but in this instance, and despite viewing said debate twice yesterday, I was too gripped by the various speeches to (properly) do so)...but hey, you yourselves can (try to) access the on-line parliamentary Hansard, which I believe is ever available, hopefully at no cost, to any comers...

...but nevertheless, may I simply shower profuse praise upon these four speakers in particular, and Judith Collins - as well as David Seymour, but for different reasons (to be cited on another occasion) - and say that their emotions came over as raw and thoroughly genuine (though initially with one person I was a bit suspect till I saw her on TV later on)...right from the (very bottom/s of) their hearts...with no needless airs and graces (except admittedly Ms Collins to begin with)...

...revealing their unforgettable interactions with individual Muslims in particular in the immediate aftermath of the massacre and/or their utter amazement at the level and depth of forgiveness shown by those deeply affected by those tragic events...

Yes, as Samwise Gamgee might have put it, you (all) showed your quality, Messrs and Madames...

Granted, We're only just emerging from New Zealand's '9/11', But speaking of - and to - political double-standards, it's hard to go past these (all too flagrant) examples/illustrations thereof...

...of one M.P. who (not that long ago) told a male colleague - and one, moreover, who'd been undergoing major mental health issues for some considerable time - he ought to go kill himself...

...of another - anecdotally, and quite credibly - considered to have been majorly bullying staff...

...and of a third, now shown to have not acted, when given an altogether opportune time to do so less than two years back, to ban semi-automatic weapons from the length and breadth of - what was then still - 'God's Own' nation...

And what, prithee, happens to connect all these individuals - the first an up-and-coming backbencher, the second a former minister of the Crown, the third a former (and present) deputy leader of one of New Zealand's two main political parties? They share this common trait: they're all female National Party M.P.s...

...only apparently not subject to the kinds of stringent standards ever applied - without a qualm or moment's hesitation, much less a blush or batting of the eye - to their male counterparts...

...and that's before/not even giving due time and attention to the Green Party's ever outspoken 'human rights' spokesperson who just so happens to have been a high-profile lawyer in both Serbia and Rwanda back in the 1990s evidently... And doing precisely what, you quite rightly ask? Why, only defending the indefensible, to wit various and sundry instigators of the ethnic cleansing then taking place in those parts...or, to use common vernacular...a practising, on-the-ground, representative of and for people who had been promoting the genocide then taking place in each respective jurisdiction....

So for the likes of Greens' co-leader Marama Davidson, in her rant and rave (as opposed to gracious, considered and measured speech) in our Parliament today in the aftermath of the dreadful events that occurred here in NZ last Friday...to use it as an excuse for having a serve at colonialism and those who attack people of different religions...without - oh so predictably - ever mentioning the subtle but strong anti-Christian thread now running rampant not only throughout the Middle East (where it's far more explicit and more akin to the sort of anti-semitism once witnessed in the Third Reich and its sister (European) Axis nations), but even showing up more and more prominently throughout Western lands, promoted unapologetically by its mainstream media...while carefully singling out each and every other creed she could think of...when, on a global level, it is hardly arguable whether those of a Christian faith aren't being treated every bit as appallingly as those of the various other faiths she referred to...

...and to then lecture us all about dealing with our own biases and prejudices to rid our world of the awful scourge of so-called 'hate speech' which she and others generally employ for any and every viewpoint that so happens to be at all uncomfortable for her and co...

is just a little bit rich, and then some...

...just for starters, you understand... 

Postscript - upon further reflection...

Having just re-listened to Ms Davidson's parliamentary speech this afternoon (on the relevant TV channel), I must admit the need to temper my comments somewhat majorly...insofar as her speech was - on the whole, by-and-large - actually quite a measured, considered and even gracious one after all...albeit with the selfsame major caveats afore-mentioned...chiefly the double-standards ever applied without a moment's hesitation even to those of a major world religion...though the actual numbers of adherents thereof really oughtn't to make a dime of difference, it's the principle of the matter that does indeed matter - and greatly - to thinking men and women everywhere...

You see, said mainstream media itself this very eve has lost no time at all in getting stuck in boots and high heels and all in slamming the National Party (under its present leader in particular) for allowing the party's (then, but now evidently rescinded) opposition to a major United Nations treaty on immigration NZ had (not quite yet) signed up to...to remain upon the party's website...

...as if each and every viewpoint which could possibly be construed as anti-Muslim (even if only by implication - as if any and every potential immigrant here is of that particular religious persuasion) has now become, ipso facto, like ye proverbial persona non grata...

...which is why I simply have to say that a morning radio talk host, to wit the infamous Mike Hosking himself, is 'right on the money' in this regard...when he stated, in an incisively argued and articulate editorial this morning, that we'll need - *going forward - to be exceedingly careful that we don't use the tragic events of last Friday to shut down legitimate debate and criticism of say party policies upon that (**ever-contentious) matter of immigration...

But sadly, unfortunately, tragically even, I do detect folk going exactly to that particular place already...

*Yes, I hate - detest - that newspeak as well, probably even more than you do, to be honest...

**My phraseology just there, not Mike's.

Post-Postscript:

As far as Facebook's thus far limp-wristed attempts to suggest it was just altogether way too difficult by half to deal with all the inherent issues involved in preventing the ghastly live on-line screening of last Friday's massacre - or rather, to run for cover and not even seek to explicate the inexplicable, or excuse the patently inexcusable...

...as Newstalk ZB host Chris Lynch (and many others) have thus far stated, that's just a little too much to credit...seeing as apparently whenever one seeks to download (or upload - whatever) music one is instantly prevented doing so...without further ado...

...and/or as regular RNZ National panellist Bernard Hickey/Hickie said today, if it's possible to create AI (i.e. artificial intelligence)...then - by logical implication - this should be as well...

...just as (on an altogether mundane level) I'm always intrigued/baffled/dumbfounded/p...ed off, quite frankly...and altogether incredulous moreover,  that in a day and age of the most sophisticated technology imaginable it still takes five-some days to clear ye ole-fashioned cheque...

And in a similar vein, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly today with someone I've had my issues with in times past. Yet in this case - and admittedly I've ever found the 'honourable gentleman' an honest parliamentary broker (which is reasonably high praise from me, anyhow) whatever my disagreements on a sheer policy level - Gerry Brownlie's own criticism thereabouts on Larry Williams' Drive (Show) late this afternoon (not only vis-a-vis, as per Mr Hickie/Hickey, the non-show of Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg a full four days already post the Christchurch massacre, but moreover) vis-a-vis the utter failure of New Zealand's intelligence agencies - after substantial contributions at the end of the last Government's tenure - and with all the means at their disposal, and this dude's apparent high-profile movements (around the world to highly suspect places and moreover upon the internet over preceding months) to even notice him evidently...

...were right on...and yes, nothing less, as he carefully and ably articulated, than a full 'royal commission of inquiry' thereabouts will now suffice to get to the bottom of the intelligence agencies' complete and utter failure to get onto this fellow before he wrought his irrevocable damage...

Post-Post-Postscript:

As to Simon Bridges' (parliamentary contribution today) - and someone on RNZ National's Panel discussion yesterday aft - paraphrasing the late great Dr Martin Luther King...it'd be difficult and I'd be hard pressed to go better than myself re-quoting their comments thereabouts...to wit:

the only way to expel darkness is not with more darkness, but to let in light...

the only way to expel hate is not with more hate, but through love...

After all (is said and done), it was the Master's method...and as such it can't fail...ever...

As might be expected, every last (wo)man and her/his pet canine is getting in on the act...

Yes, I'm *not at all surprised - who would or could be? - and it *doesn't upset me (far from it)...

...but, following New Zealand's "own 9/11", as someone (perfectly understandably) a few minutes ago so aptly described/depicted it...

...and with major connections to my own beloved hometown of Dunedin, NZ, no less...

may I simply say/express the following thoughts...as succinctly (and clearly/understandably) as I know how...

Good on our local Quakers/'Religious Society of Friends' (as the Christian sect in which I was - intermittently and rather sporadically, but let's add 'seminally' - raised/brought up, is officially/formally known)...for - alongside the local Police...who've moreover been earning special plaudits, even brownie points if you will, from one and all for the expeditious, effective and comprehensive manner in which they've dealt with and to what has been generally viewed as our biggest crisis ever - at the very least one of if not our darkest day/s ever...

...in (wo)manning the local Dunedin mosque...to protect 'parishioners' there yesterday seeking to come together to process Friday's 'event', i.e. wholescale massacre of their (one-time, now - for possibly the majority) Christchurch-based fellow worshippers...against any interlopers...and from the woman who regularly drives my Mum to and from the local (Quaker) 'Meeting House', herself involved off and on in this cordon/vigil, evidently a number of honking, or rather passing vehicles with folk shouting out, drove by...hardly an edifying prospect in the circumstances...

However, for the likes of...

#Turkey's President Erdogan to weigh in on the matter is somewhat obscene...as is

#the twitter, evidently, of one of my all-time favourite singer-songwriters...i.e. Yusuf Islam, better known as Cat Stevens...who apparently - and he's never denied doing so or resiled from the 'remark' - suggested that the well-known and ghastly (Islamic) fatwa against the British writer Salman Rushdie
...is perfectly valid...i.e. any self-respecting Muslim is quite in his or her 'rights'....to 'take him out'!

#And on that score, some of the British protesters marching over the weekend (thereabouts), I'd strongly suspect, are doubtless conspicuously and oh so conveniently silent as a woodmouse whenever it comes to expressing equally vehement sentiments vis-a-vis the bombings and cold-blooded **(group) murders of Christians (and Jews in France in particular) over recent years...mere mention (let alone significant discussion) thereof is seldom made, much less given the due attention and equal footing/condemnation these so obviously deserve/warrant...

...but (my reasonably regular sub-theme these days of) addressing media double-standards is for another day...

On the other hand, full plaudits to former Australian deputy Premier, ***Tim Fischer...for, back in 1997 or 1998, a ****short while following the Tasmanian 'Port Arthur massacre', I believe Aussie's worst ever, alongside then Prime Minister John Howard, moreover, greatly tightening their gun laws...with the incredible result that *****no such mass killings have transpired there since.

*In case of any confusion/misunderstanding, however - admittedly quite possible (upon re-reading my introduction above) - Friday's massacre/cold-blooded murder of 50 Muslims, with, thus far, 50 other fellow-believers injured, while at Friday prayers in two Christchurch mosques - was not only a literal bolt from the blue in what I and many others oftentimes have referred to as "God's Own" [nation] - if, sadly, no longer - but a 'thing' that has upset, even traumatized, kiwis in the extreme...

*For those still dissatisfied with that explanation, my lack of surprise and upset is re people veritably emerging out of the figurative woodwork to put their own oar or two cents' worth in thereabouts...

But being 'not upset', as in not distressed thereabouts, is an altogether different matter than being able to abide fools lightly or gladly...or, as the infamous CJ might have put it in that inimitable British sitcom of yesteryear, 'The Rise and Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'..."I didn't get where I am today by not knowing utter balderdash and uninformed BS when I hear it"...especially from those least - or should that be most? - qualified to give it...no indeed (thus see the various ignoramuses referred to herein.)

**By which I refer to events in Egypt and Indonesia especially, but many and various other jurisdictions could well be included...such as (northern) India and Pakistan - yes, the sheer gall of street protesting Pakistanis lecturing us kiwis about human rights and the like is somewhat rich (to greatly understate matters)...

***Full credit to RNZ National (Radio) here in New Zealand for interviewing him thereabouts (both briefly this very morning, and much more comprehensively a few years back - following yet another American shooting).

****Indeed Yours Truly happened around the selfsame time to move temporarily to Kingston/ Huonville, Tasmania...and later Pelverata, Hobart and Geeveston (while I sojourned just 13 months there all up) - curiously enough, on my previous Australian sojourn (for a year-and-a-half in Brisbane in 1990/1991), while away from home (Dunedin, God's Own)...David Gray down the bay at Aramoana likewise 'let 'er all rip' (with equally devastating consequences)...

*****Though please don't quote me on the technicalities of that claim, for I'd tend to agree with you if, in your own considered view, you seriously queried as to what actually constituted a mass killing (thus implying that even two folk thus murdered in cold blood was such), or even that there's no real qualitative - if not quantitative - difference between one person thus butchered...and a score.

Postscript [Personal Explanation]:

My own apologies are also warranted...and there's no time like the present, as they say - vis-a-vis naively being willing/prepared to give that Aussie 'nut-case' Senator Anning 'the benefit of the doubt' awhile ago...in a moment of fair gullibility on my part...though even so, I did qualify said commendation, or rather hesitant support, significantly at the time...

Suffice for now to say that his immediate response post-Friday was unbefitting - even for a politician (which is surely saying something...though, as I indicate above, a ******few true gems do emerge from that cesspit occasionally). And while I haven't an *******issue/real problem with a (physically) cornered politico responding in kind i.e. defending himself...Anning surely went to the nth degree, and then some, in trying to crack ye ole acorn with a sledgehammer...and really taking to that young 'un who had the gall - nous and aplomb rather! - to crack a couple well-aimed eggs over his head...

And good on that 'kid' for utilizing such a tactic in the best traditions of democratic protest...

 ******By which (whom) I refer to Tim Fischer in particular...

*******Such as Aotearoa-New Zealand's dear old Sir Robert ('Piggy') Muldoon in decades gone by.

Friday March 15th, 2019: The Afternoon (Day) Aotearoa-New Zealand - Unwittingly - Lost Its Innocence...Rest In Peace, 'God's Own'

Back...Back...Back...-No 'Stopping' Allowed-...to the Brits' Interminable Brexit: A Few Penultimate Ruminations Thereabouts

My personal - and that doubtless of many U K 'brexiteers' - hope and ideal? A clean break from Europe...no ifs, buts or maybes considered. Fulfil the sacredly-entrusted mandate bequeathed by the people of the United Kingdom...and get on with it - like yesterday, i.e. two years, eight-and-two-thirds months ago now... Nuff said!

For the British to unilaterally leave the European Union without any deal whatsoever...which, with the ever-prescient benefit of hindsight, some (such as Yours Truly - and the 'hard Brexiteers') had not only fervently wished and even hoped against hope they'd do, but moreover believed they ought to have done...at the very outset...i.e. immediately post-referendum 2016...

I.e. as - quite arguably - the British/United Kingdom public, 'declared' (as per the June 23rd referendum result they delivered their politicians)...thus leaving the EU with absolutely no strings attached...

*But she don't look like happening anytime soon...least of all today, more's the pity...- and thus and so, as Prime Minister Teresa May (and others) have well said, **''without [TM's) deal there may well [ultimately] be no deal and no Brexit whatsoever"... -but more upon that (sorry, sad and supremely sordid) state of affairs shortly...

Nevertheless, as I blogged on December 13th last...precisely three months ago (and may well also have done two months ago as well - sorry, I've simply lost count (of the sheer number much less timing of all such posts), but that seems a reasonable enough likelihood)...one cannot but admire Ms May for her dogged determination, come what may - be that hell, high water or ye proverbial tsunami even - to see this through to (what increasingly appears) the bitter end...to secure some/a/any sort of deal...with the ever-irascible, eminently unreasonable and downright intransigent leaders of the European Union - in particular Messrs Juncker and Tusk (and their assorted 'negotiating' team) ...

Yes, P. M. May has been making an ****all-out, Herculean effort - of Olympian proportions - a marathon endurance feat even, up to the very last week, day, hour, minute and even moment, quite literally down to the very wire - to get it over the line... Returning "croaky" from more last-minute EU negotiations - as fellow Conservative M.P. Nigel Evans puts it - and thereby showing she's at wit's and strength's end (even her husband is evidently in the parliamentary gallery at Westminster this very day) she's 'determined to *****get the - some - deal over the line, damn it!

As British (TV/radio?) "producer" Stuart/Stewart Hughes has just now (9.10ff NZ-time) shared with Newstalk ZB talkback host Kerre-Woodham-McIvor, Prime Minister May had [hoped - and (being a ******vicar's daughter) doubtless prayed!] "it'd reach the crunch point where people would have become so heartily sick and tired (of the whole shemozzle) that they'd simply agree to her deal." But [alas], that hasn't happened." And a later emailer"It'll never happen because it (i.e. the Brexit agreed upon at the referendum) will never happen because it'll never be allowed to happen...

For a brief (minorly diversionary) interlude upon selfsame subject - though right up to the minute, in terms of being immediately following the renewed voting down of Teresa May's 'new deal' by the British Parliament - the U K's High Commissioner to New Zealand, Laura Clark, talking with RNZ National's Suzie Ferguson, admitted "It looks *******messy, but it's a very big sovereignty and constitutional issue that the British are dealing with here."

Personally I - and I can well imagine a sizable and not inconsiderable proportion of leave voters - would have hoped that Boris Johnson, among others, would have risen to the occasion, seeing the all-too-graphic and evident writing on the wall for the utter demise of Brexit come very much more pushing and shoving, delay and delay and delay, negotiation and renegotiation seemingly ad nauseum - of the whole stinking, sordid mass and mess - and become the statesman the one-time justly named Great Britain ever seems to see rise to the surface when the occasion demands...

And accept Teresa May's admittedly extremely flawed deal...rather than hold out indefinitely, in a Custer's Last Stand sort of stance, for a 'hard', no strings attached Brexit...realizing that the ideal is ever the enemy of the real[istic]...the opposite side of the coin to the equally valid idea that the good is oftentimes the enemy of the best...  And thus and so, ever holding out - doggedly and determinedly - for dear life and for all-or-nothing, come no matter what...so that ultimately the very thing you so desired never ever even happens at all...

So what do the (other, continental) Europeans make of the whole sorry saga? According to reporters checking in with the BBC World Radio's OS Show this morning (NZ time), they're as equally ********confused by this unedifying and unprecedented spectacle (my paraphrase, even original wording)..."The technical aspects now also of interest?" asked an incredulous Nuala McGovern of the reporter there. "Indeed - yes! That's the level of interest with which Italians are following it."

'In her own words,' as a concurrent news bulletin declares, "My Government/Parliament is committed to delivering the referendum result the British people voted for...and I believe the deal I've achieved with the European Union is the best way of securing that." But this having now again been soundly rejected (by U K parliamentarians), "What's indeed the point," intoned Richard Quest with Mike Hosking around 7.10 a.m., "then of going back to the EU...and asking in reference to that [i.e. yet another additional extension, were it even approved by the UK Parliament tomorrow]? What indeed?!

Perhaps the final words should go to a tackback host whom I seldom listen in to, the aforementioned Kerre Woodham-McIvor, who, summing up the entire sorry scenario, commentated (around 10.08 a.m.), that there's "no consensus [whatsoever] between the main (U K political) parties...everybody's apparently fighting (for) their own corner...(&) there's no real way of knowing what's happening next." "Cometh the hour, cometh the (wo)man?" Apparently not, there's no-one even in sight...

But moving on from that relevant summary of the complete drama, perhaps the very last words ought to be given to a former British statesman, who - unlike his, in many respects, indomitable female carbon copy, Margaret Thatcher, approximately a half-century later - was inclined to support the 'European Project' after WW11 came to its rather ghastly, blood-soaked conclusion...yet ever opposed, incidentally, and quite significantly, the European-uniting and global designs of that aptly-designated master of Machiavellianism, or *********'Third World Antichrist', German Chancellor/ Fuhrer Adolf Hitler himself...

*And as of 6.45ish NZ-time apparently, according to Nigel Evans, himself a (now dissenting) member of the hard brexiteers' 'European Research Project', both they and the Northern Irish D(emocratic) U(nion) P(arty) have just announced against the deal...thus ensuring/guaranteeing its failure in just over an hour's time...as has, of course, now transpired...  Yes, as Mr Evans well recognizes - and his fellow Brexiteers seem to have completely forgotten - the much-coveted Brexit may now not only not occur, as - successively - one after another of P M May's parliamentary proposals are roundly voted down (today and tomorrow)...her deal, leaving without a deal, any more extension...

...and even, horror of horrors (to those who cherish participatory democracy - however much it goes against one's personal wishes/preferences; hey, it's called 'democracy, folks! - another election and/or referendum is henceforth likely to be triggered...but hey, why should that one be binding (cf to the present one)? Oh, I understand...because it'll deliver the result that suits your particular views!

Some, and I'm among them, would call that a matter of anti-democratic tendencies reigning supreme  
- not only leaving a vast swathe of Britons ultimately unhappy...who actually do believe in real-deal participatory democracy, that is... Which, as that great statesman of Great Britain's yesteryear just referred to well said...as a system of government is really awful...except for all the others. Indeed!

**Indeed, as ***Rod Little - talking with Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking just now (8.30ish, 13/3) has just declared, today's (just announced) vote (rejecting May's deal) has "effectively seen the (entire) end of Brexit altogether"...tonight's "the last nail in the coffin"...and so the U K is "now moving closer and closer to a second referendum...in which the question(s) asked will be gerrymandered" (i.e. towards a 'no brexit' result)... And as a later emailer expressed things on the Kerre McIvor show, "It (i.e. the Brexit agreed upon at the referendum)'ll never happen because it'll never be allowed to happen...the British [elites] will ensure it won't...and will [so word things] - i.e. in the oft-proposed '2nd referendum' - that it won't...

***As Mr Little so well puts it - on such matters as not only the Brexit but LGBT issues - it's not necessarily a sure/done thing (my own paraphrase) that a second referendum - properly worded (i.e. vis-a-vis leaving without any deal whatsoever etc) - would necessarily lose...but on this/these issue/s "the U K Parliament/elites has/have shown it/they is/are well out of [sync] with the British public." And as Mr Little was subsequently quoted on ZB's 10 a.m. bulletin as saying, "There's a very real possibility that it'll never even happen now...(essentially) because the British Parliament and even Government never wanted it anyway."

****Indeed, as an emailer/texter to the Mike Hosking programme just (8.30 a.m.ff NZtime) Ms May has effectively gone to the nth degree and beyond (to secure and ensure some sort of deal)...

*****To - unwittingly - paraphrase this one-time high school student newspaper editor's own predicament, or rather an oh-so-apt assessment thereof via a funny as (and wonderfully-caricatured) cartoon thereabouts...vis-a-vis Yours Truly's own (near Herculean and Olympian) 'efforts to get this paper out, damn it!' (In Mercury #102(?), my final issue, I believe.)

******As, according to that ever-popular nightly British TV quiz show, 'the Chase', evidently were likewise one or two previous U K prime ministers, I believe both Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown.

*******However eminently reasonable-sounding she was in her tone, that'd surely have to go down for the most understated, euphemistic assessment of the ongoing, seemingly never-ending constitutional crisis/fiasco which is Brexit that would even be imaginable!

********Or methinks perplexed, baffled, bamboozled, bedazzled...would likely be more apt...especially re all the ins and outs and outs and ins of the so-called Irish 'backstop'...and apparently I'm by no means alone in that...  Plus completely, frustratingly round-the-bendable...

*********As graphically depicted - with extraordinary clarity and utterly convincing prophetic insight even - in a brilliant box-set (or two) entitled: 'The Nostradamus Effect' and 'Nostradamus:2012', I happened to stumble upon back in, you guessed it, that year the world was predicted to end...(i.e.on December 21) 2012...though, curiously enough - however much asserted by critics (of 'prophecies' and the like contained therein) - not actually - necessarily - asserted therein. 

Postscript (vis-a-vis brief remarks of European Union leaders thereabouts - as reported by Cindy (?Kew) on today's midday 'World Watch' on RNZ National... "There'll be no further concessions by the EU"? Really? That's a piece of straight out fake news if I ever hear it; they've only ever given diddly squat...from the very get-go...

FANONOMEN: A Bit of Light Relief (as a needed break from el usual gloom & doom): i.e. For A Nephew Of No Mean Notoriety...on the birth of a wee bitty baby boy

I simply cannot get beyond/do better than my good ole childhood favourite, to wit The Sneetches AND OTHER STORIES...

...and in particular story #3 (of 4)...i.e. 'Too Many Daves'

As only *Dr Suess could put it - admittedly, without his equally inimitable illustrations:

Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave
Had twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave?

Well, she did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.
You see, when she wants one and calls out, "Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Dave!" she doesn't get one.
All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!"

This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves'
As you can imagine, with so many Daves.
And often she wishes that, when they were born,
She had named one of them Bodkin Van Horn
And one of them Hoos-Foos. And one of them Snimm.
And one of them Hot-Shot. And one Sunny Jim.
And one of them Shadrack. And one of them Blinkey.
And one of them Stuffy. And one of them Stinkey.
Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face.
Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face.
And one of them Ziggy. And one Soggy Muff.
One Buffalo Bill. And one Biffalo Buff.
And one of them Sneepy. And one Weepy Weed.
And one Paris Garters. And one Harris Tweed.
And one of them Sir Michael Carmichael Zutt.
And one of them Oliver Bolivar Butt
And one of them Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate...
But she didn't do it. And now it's too late.

(Italics, capitalizations and highlighted letters all Dr Suess'.)

*Theodore Geissel in real life, who died not all that long back (in his native France) at a good old age (into his 100s).

Necessary Disclaimer/Postscript:

In our oh-so-uptight era when folk are only too willing to, as (many believe) the Good Book prophesies (oh so aptly) of our last days generation, **watch for iniquity...[and]...make a man an offender for a word, I here and now apologize to anyone not so blessed...that is, by being christened Dave...or (as I at least prefer), David...

...Hey, folks, we can't all be so lucky/blessed out of our socks, can we!

**Isaiah 29:20-21.

P.P.S. As of last Friday March the 8th I understand said 'wee bitty baby boy' has at last been named... Ihaka Harry...which, transliterated, is, I understand, 'Isaac Harry'...

...after no-one/no persons in particular evidently...

When the War Arrives upon our own Precious Shores... Hey, That's When the Rubber Really Hits the Road: Returning S/I Fellow-Travellers...and What Exactly Ought any Self-Respecting Nation To Do About It?

When posting my blogpost recently upon the one-time Sissii International '*child'-bride seeking re-entry to the United Kingdom...little did I know or imagine that God's Own would shortly thereafter be facing/confronting its own version of the aforesaid...

...but truth, as they say, is ever stranger than fiction...

So let me pose the question: which trumps the other...fulfilling every last jot and tittle of the strictest letter of the law, or transgressing this where absolutely necessary in order to achieve a far greater good - i.e. safeguarding the wellbeing of the citizenry whose essential interests you have been sacredly charged with preserving and ensuring?

It's certainly a thing worth considering in this context, as **they say that the fundamental duty and responsibility of any legitimate government...when it is all boiled down...is to give its citizens proper protection and security (and thus the critical role of the police and armed forces in any civilized land).

So then, just what exactly does any self-respecting government (truly worth its weight) do (in such circumstances)? I.e. 'let 'im back' (***as much/most Western law requires) or revoke their (his or her) citizenship?

*Though methinks it a little inconsistent and quite frankly disingenuous that the very same sorts of people (some tend to label as extremely naive do-gooders) invariably use that term beseeching innate (childhood) 'rights' for such youth in the one breath, and then in the very next claim every conceivable adult privilege for the selfsame adolescents...

...like all true dreamers (and ivory castle builders), ever wanting ****'to have their cake and eat it too'... 

**Especially libertarian types, for whom I have much understanding and respect, and considerable ideological fellow-feeling...

***As per some international treaty on repatriation and the non-revokable right of citizenship.

****A lifelong motto I've ever been attached to, seeing as 'it takes one to know one'...and coming to me as it did from a great 'ole British gentleman who almost remarried my Mum after my Dad left her...

Part Two: (The Day After!) Tomorrow: My Own (not altogether surprising) Verdict Thereabouts...('coz unless I get some early shuteye during our ongoing summer heatwave - from either heaven or hell, depending upon one's perspective - I reckon I'm gonna go even crazier than some might presently regard me...and as Smeagol-Gollum might put matters, "[That] ain't a decent [prospect]!")

And yes, four days (rather than just one or two) on...

Now it simply won't do/suffice to protest/pretend - way after the fact - that one really didn't mean anything by one's actions...that one didn't actually understand quite what one was getting in to...when signing up to an outfit which has sent shivers down the spines of most ordinary folk (in media-saturated lands) across the globe (over the past half dozen or so years)...

hey, it's way to late for that kinda 'benefit of hindsight' sort of thing...

No, a much more pertinent 'thing' - that the rest of us are well entitled - to ask you, is

what the hell did you even think you were getting involved in (in the first place)...moving halfway around the world to a civil-war-wracked nation daily imploding ever further whilst seeing literally millions of refugees spilling out of its shores across the Middle East and Europe thus creating by far the worst refugee crisis to wrack our world since WW11? And please, oh please, whatever else you do, don't tell us - your erstwhile fellow countrymen and women (and kids) - that you weren't aware of, let alone personally involved with, the barbarities being daily, even hourly perpetrated by the sort of company you'd thus chosen to keep...

Sorry, it simply won't wash...for one solitary split-second even... What d'ya take us all for? And what particular shower did you come down with? No, I mean, really?

Sure, if one is kidnapped or otherwise 'taken' against one's will and forced to participate (i.e. against one's will) in savagery and barbarous acts...one then can claim some sort of 'out', so the theory goes. But sorry, even then I simply don't buy it - I just can't buy that kind of 'reasoning'...

For the selfsame 'argument' is ever used in regular cases of kidnapping and extortion and the like. You mean you're trying to tell me that if a gun was pointed at your head - either literally or 'just' metaphorically - and you were told that if you refused to follow orders your own kith and kin, your beloved parents and/or spouse, your children or close relatives or 'bosom buddies' would be simply blown to smithereens...then you'd do as you were told?

Hey, in that case you're even worse than a butcher...you're a moral coward and traitor to all those you should hold dear...and have no deep-laden, undying loyalty to them when push comes to shove.
Just as people in Nazi Germany and other Axis-sympathizing nations throughout wartime Europe either chose - at the cost of their very lives - to stand true to their persecuted Jewish relatives, friends and neighbours...or - ultimately - didn't...

No, no matter how difficult and unpleasant the choice may be, one always has a choice in times of trouble. No-one can be 'forced' to do anything...for one ever and always has the possibility to refuse ...and yes, if it eventually and ultimately comes down to it, one can even die rather than do wrong, or, far more nobly still, can give one's life to save the life or lives of those one truly loves...

And as the legendary Christian singer Keith Green once put it...I know Someone just like that...and He's your best friend, He really is...

...and unlike the afore-alluded to false friend or betrayer of sacred trusts - or lackey in a devilish drama of our times - when He sees the wolf coming (for His flock) He doesn't abandon them & flee for dear life...but stays and defends them, if necessary to the bitter end...even giving His own life if need be to save the sheep...

And as that selfsame Good Book puts it so well, greater love than that has no (mortal) man...   

Who Will Save the - as yet unborn - Children? Will it be you - me - or nobody at all, that is the ultimate question

May the Good Lord Bless You Muchly, Daryl (Davis): A True Peacemaker In Our Troubled Times...who someone by the name of Martin Luther King would be proud of...

Jesus Himself said it all, and succinctly:

*Blessed [Truly Happy] are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons [children] of God.

And so I dedicate this (for now, necessarily brief as) blogpost to a black American rhythm and blues musician named Daryl Davis, of whom I only just heard awhile ago -  all of two hours, in fact...

...who apparently has been working one-on-one with individual Ku Klux Klan members over recent years (and even decades?)...with eminent success evidently...

...reportedly based upon an honest dialogue and showing due (if completely undeserved!) respect for them on that (individual) basis...and thus far seeing 200 former Klansmen leave the organization....

Please all of you Black Lives Matter folk - justifiably angry, even incensed and all the rest, over the needless, senseless - and moreover malicious and murderous - killings of your black compatriots throughout the length and breadth of America...and moreover the systemic and systemically-sanctioned slaughter - in cold-blooded savagery - of the same, by the so-called, supposed 'enforcers of law and order' in the land...

Yes, you've more than sufficient reason and 'excuse' to feel absolutely 'ropable' thereabouts, no-one can conceivably deny...  

But please don't criticize and even condemn - if only by faint praise and thinly-veiled criticism - the efforts of one genuinely heroic individual...who being black himself is ever clearly taking his very own life in his hands...

...for the rescuing of even one Klansman is a mini-miracle and a testament to supernatural assistance - whether (explicitly) recognised and acknowledged by Davis himself, I've frankly no idea and don't even really care...

For as Daryl Davis himself says, there aren't lots of different races, there's really only one race on Earth, the human race...

...and as the ole song goes, 'it only takes a spark to get a fire going, and then all those around can warm up in its glowing...'

Sure, legislation - and all the rest - as Martin Luther King himself realized and oftentimes affirmed, is necessary in the civil rights movement...however long it ultimately lasts...

...but hey, let's each light a candle rather than simply curse the darkness...
for in the long run - as is obviously the case with Mr Davis already - it'll achieve a whole lot more.

Three Momentous 'Anniversaries' (or 'near-ones') Impacting Over-Muchly Upon Our Increasingly Fraught Day and Age

Again, these'll seem entirely unrelated...but may I respectfully suggest that

*Tomorrow's 46th anniversary of 'Roe Vs Wade' commemorates arguably the defining issue of the Western 'Culture Wars', and thus and so I understand that American Christians (in particular) intend to mark tomorrow by a day of prayer and fasting...

*The 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution likewise signposts the beginning of the Islamic Renaissance in our era...with all that that momentous development has had on the world ever since... and that does not even include the increasing and increasingly worrisome possibility, nay probability, of an all-out (at least regional) - yes, nuclear - war (between Israel and Iran) in the Middle East...

And as the 9 p.m. RNZ National News Bulletin has now once again confirmed,

*the similarly periodically waxing and waning and waxing and waning and waxing tensions between those two southern Asian nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, have ratcheted up yet again...after being effectively quelled (to a large extent) over recent days...following a renewed flare-up in the immediate aftermath of the bombing/blowing up of 40 or so Indian military folk in the border region of Kashmir just a few weeks back...

And so, folks, I suggest a day of prayer and fasting would not go amiss for any of us in the forseeable...

Fait Accompli: The Complete Coup of the Post-Modernist Double-Standard

From all accounts it would appear that inconsistency, even bare-faced contradiction is undeniably the hallmark of our post-modernist age... Yes, indeed. But guess what, folks? -"...what is highly esteemed among [humankind] is an abomination in the sight of God." Yes, 'times may change', as they say, but the great Creator God doesn't...His unchanging character being the very essence of the integrity of His being...

Applying the foregoing to the political whims and fancies, fads and fashions of modern Western political life, this blogpost will be a tying together of such a disparate 'duo' as the New Zealand National Party's backbench Invercargill M.P. Sarah Dowie on the one hand, and Scotland's former longserving First Minister Alex Salmond on the other...and (as of yesterday) throwing in National's North Shore M.P. Maggie Barry for good measure...

Which might well seem as sensible a proposition as throwing various refrigerated odds 'n sods into a pan, applying some heat and expecting a culinary miracle to eventually transpire...-like seriously, folks... Something akin/similar to the Israelite patriarch Moses' brother Aaron's ingenious attempt to explicate his fateful compromise and deflect responsibility, and so extricate himself from the resultant blame - and much worse - by claiming the people broke off their ornamental gold, handed it to him, then "I cast it into the fire, and this [golden] calf came out"!

As we'd say in kiwi-ville: "Yeah, right (Aaron)!" In other words a highly unlikely thing - any way you choose to put it. But to return to our topic, and presenting last things first...

Espying Maggie Barry yesterday aft upon parliamentary TV, for some reason I all of a sudden recalled the public revelation November last - whilst engaged in a regular housesitting job - of her psychological bullying of parliamentary staffers working in her office...and lo and behold, probably not an hour on, while listening to the 4 p.m. news bulletin on Newstalk ZB that very saga was - for the first time in almost three months - 'recalled', in respect of some investigation by parliamentary auditors or the like...

Which I mention, in this blogpost's context, as to me anyway it well illustrates - as I reflected upon recalling it yesterday, for the first time since then - how women who do bad stuff (in NZ, anyway)   seem to get away scot-free...invariably get slapped over the wrist with ye proverbial wet bus ticket... and then the entire matter is relegated to the dust-bins of forgetfulness...

To Be Continued...due to unforeseen - and frankly quite unforeseeable! - interruption, as per usual. 
(Very sorry, folks...but it looks as though I'm gonna finally have to move...if I'm ever to get proper time for this (and my other) blogsite...it's getting that problematic...I kid ya's not...

Bernie Sanders, (back) cometh the moment, (back) cometh the man: Who Else is so eminently qualified to fill the World's Most Important Political Position?

Except perhaps President Obama's Veep, Joe Biden...who is still (expected, anyhow) to announce (his candidacy for United States President)...or perhaps he could serve as (Sanders') VP once again...

It's somewhat odd to return on this my 303th blogpost (on davidedwinisms) to the Sanders name...also cited in one of my very earliest (back in mid-2012) vis-a-vis that man *with the golden recipe, Colonel Sanders himself...

...and these days we even have the spectre of Sarah Huckabee Sanders as President Trump's ever-versatile Press Secretary (I believe is the formal/official title she holds)...

But apparently Bernie Sanders has declared in this his 77th year of life, so I felt this a fitting time.

Nevertheless, despite this unequivocal as endorsement, and despite retaining my dual (kiwi-U S) citizenship thus enabling me to **cast a vote in that ***most important of all elections, my staunch, biblical stance upon ****two ever-contentious issues - abortion and same-sex marriage - would ultimately prevent my conscientiously casting a vote in his direction...for as a *****commandment-upholding Christ-follower, that must ever take precedence over any personal political preference...something that I would respectfully suggest distinguishes me from ye average ******'cultural Christian' of today...

But as the one person - by dint of his Jewish heritage - able to help bring an end to that most intractable of all global conflicts, i.e. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...he's the best choice by far: to help, as I say - under divine sovereignty alone, no doubt - to bring an ultimate end to this most insoluble of political dilemmas...

Approaching the subject as a Jew, yet from a non-pro-Israeli stance, perhaps he could succeed where all others have thus far failed...and surely that's at least worth a try...don't ya think - no, truly?

*Though not a meat-eater for well nigh a third of a century now, in my youth I simply loved the smell and taste thereof - however endlessly maligned by the hordes of food snobs out there - but even more, the childhood (early-to-mid seventies) TV ad thereabouts was - and still is - on a level all its own.

**However, even if Senator Sanders were selected as Democratic Nominee in 2020, an unfortunately rather diminishing likelihood from all accounts (for all number of reasons), my own 'state home' would be the last place I lived in the US (in the early-to-mid-nineties), i.e. my Mum's home state of Minnesota...and if Sanders proved unable to win there, he'd lose in the biggest landslide of all time.

***As they all are (alleged to be), admittedly.

****Though there are doubtless many, if not innumerable, others...such as euthanasia (just for starters).

*****Of the (true, biblical) Sabbath-keeping variety, that is - i.e. as per the fourth commandment of the Decalogue. Not just my own say-so, either, as theologians of all major Christian denominations are on record (over the decades, even centuries) as affirming as much...even the Roman Catholic Church, which ultimately *******claims authority for having made this change in the Ten Commandments

******See my 66th blogpost upon my other blogpost, http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).

*******Not that any merely earthly entity has such authority, you understand...which no doubt explains why the little horn power so vividly and graphically depicted and elaborated upon in the great beasts' prophecy of Daniel 7 asserts that this great religio-political power (only) 'thinks to change times and laws'...including incidentally the second as well...oh, and the tenth too...

Postscript: After completing this, a 'brainwave' idea came to me: that Bernie Sanders - jettisoning the previous 'burn' guff, though as a 'fellow bern-namer', I do see the value thereof - he should embrace this slogan for Campaign 2020: Embracing a 20/20 Vision of a Better World.

Though better still - than any of such political tinkering and fiddling at the edges - why doesn't he do/make a truly bipartisan thing/gesture and select, as his Vice-Presidential Nominee, a Republican of proven calibre and integrity...and political vision...such as Kentucky Senator Rand Paul...

...something that true political gentleman/potential statesman of yesteryear, Democratic Senator George McGovern, evidently considered also...in that instance choosing the (then) longtime maverick Washington (State) Senator (whose name I've temporarily forgotten!) as his own running mate...

So What is a Self-Respecting Nation to do? Vis-a-vis the 'Peoples' Republic of China: Come Cringingly Under the Dragon's Beguiling, Hypnotic Spell...or Stand Free in Our God-Given Liberty? It's a No-Brainer, Folks

There's been a plethora of commentary and speculation of late upon New Zealand's increasingly 'fraught' relationship with China - the Peoples' Republic thereof, that is, as Taiwan, last I heard, still maintains itself as the 'Democratic Republic of China' (if I've got things right), or at least effectively so...however snubbed and otherwise ignored by other nations ever seeking to cozy up to the Smiling Oriental Dragon...

Without any further ado, let's cut to the chase: yes, economist Mike Riddell is spot-on vis-a-vis China ...especially as to the barely-veiled current attempts of a craven, cowardly and increasingly cringeworthy NZ National Party to cozy on up to 'em...in an unhealthy, codependent, sycophantic fashion to boot...a line (too feeble-minded to be credited as 'reasoning') that the so-called 'peoples' radio', RNZ National, has itself tended to take up and espouse/promote (up to recent days at least)...

Indeed, Canterbury University's own Anne-Marie Brady - herself secretly subjected to surreptitious search and seizure (in the sacred precincts of her own home) awhile ago - is a perfect test case of just how dangerous a thing it really is to *snuggle up to the Chinese Dragon...a proposition indeed that makes **Bilbo Baggins' unenviable quest into Smaug the Dragon of the Lonely Mountain's deep, dark hideaway almost look a veritable piece of cake by comparison...

Yes, it's all about genuinely cherishing and honouring our own well-founded values and  longstanding traditions, and thus maintaining self-respect...and standing alongside all good folk everywhere for that rather old-fashioned but still valuable concept of ****'human rights' and freedom...

*No, she didn't so snuggle up to the PRC, but NZ already well and truly having done so under H Clark & Co back in 2008...and said process having been put into overdrive under the Key (and English) administrations...I'm merely making the (arguably self-evident) point that the closer one's relationship becomes with Beijing, the more fraught things are likely to get, and indeed have verily become...for the smaller ***'partner', in this case lil ole God's Own...

**As recounted so superbly in that masterpiece of classical epic literature, JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit.

***Of course truly a partner only in name.

****Something former U S President Jimmy Carter was so mercilessly parodied over...as the 'Otago Daily Times *****documented a few years back in what was a very revealing backgrounder to his presidency. Carter - quite justifiably in my view, anyhow - felt (immensely) proud - however much his Republican presidential opponent, the then former two-term Governor of California, Ronald Reagan (and American media generally) depicted/characterized him as effectively being the United States' 'Wimp-in-Chief' - that under his presidential tenure not one person lost ******'their' life.

*****In its well-reputed 'World Focus' Monday supplement, sadly now given ordinary, everyday status within the ODT's general pages. 

******Yes, more precisely 'his/her', but 'their' seems to have now passed into everyday vocab. As to the far more substantive point, Carter was presumably including not only the fact that America's overseas-stationed defence/defensive (though more often these days, offence/offensive) forces were not involved then in the taking of any lives, military or civilian - clearly no American-related wars were being fought - but also that nobody was put to death on federal 'death row' under his tenure... - a feat surely worth noting and for which - however completely ignored by the 'informing' media -one can surely excuse him for having been justifiably more than a little proud...

Sissii Internationale's Shamima Begum - and Shameless Hangers-On (including Oft-Lauded Former Three-Term NZ PM & UN's #3) - Simply Beggar/s Belief...

So what else is new...or even remotely surprising...in this left means right, up means down, backwards means forwards, and inside means outside, supposedly super-enlightened generation of ours? Pretty much nothing at all, evidently...

Yes, welcome back to the (soon) conclusion of the second decade of the 21st Century...a time in which the *inherent contradictions in the reality of the day could hardly be better enunciated than by that prescient translator and interpreter of the future, George Orwell, in his ever-relevant Nineteen Eighty-Four.

*Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] wrote many memorable texts, including the equally-riveting Animal Farm. 1984 gives us the unforgettable equations of

War Is Peace...Freedom is Slavery...Ignorance is Strength

whereas Animal Farm brought us the inimitable

Two Legs Bad...Four Legs Good...

& All Animals are Equal, but some animals are more equal than others

among other self-contradictory 'truisms'...

But before I get well and truly waylaid and completely off the track, the point I'm trying - in however belaboured a fashion  - to make, is simply this: the mere fact that anyone - in her or his right mind, that is - somehow or other really, truly believes that the likes of this Sissii recruit has some sort of an inherent, human right - in this case to return to the United Kingdom...despite evidencing no remorse whatsoever over the evil deeds of her fellow-travellers...is quite frankly unfathomable...

...were it not so very typical of the mindset of some these days...who, as the **Good Book has stated oh so aptly, 'put evil for good and good for evil', 'who call darkness light and light darkness'...

And how about expediting her return asap and putting her on trial for high treason...because, quite frankly, her gender, relative youth and parental status should have nothing whatsoever to do with it...

-she's patently guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours by complicity and association...and deserves the sort of 'mercy' that she and her associates were ever only so very willing to dispense to others...

Yes, the All-Merciful One - Yahweh, praise His great and glorious Name - is ever willing to forgive...the truly and genuinely repentant...yet as Israel's best ever king, David, eventually learnt (to his everlasting sorrow), sin always carries consequences and can not always be completely 'offset' in the here and now...though God ever retains the sovereign right and privilege of forgiveness...and can pardon the blackest, most heinous sins imaginable...

...yes, even those of Sissii Internationale and its ***motley crew of ragtag hangers-on...

...thank God (and God alone)...

**As indeed I blogposted about - and with such a title as well, I recall - in the not so distant past...

***But I don't describe them thus to in any way seek to downplay or excuse the deliberate, wilful 'malice of aforethought' engaged in by all those who've ever signed up with SI and/or relocated to help further their malicious designs...no way, Jose!

Footnote (following today's (February 19th) RNZ National Panel discussion):

Apparently some folk are allegedly "surprised at the [patent] lack of sympathy [for SB] among the British"...! Really? For this completely unrepentant individual who has not only steadfastly refused to condemn what her Sissii International associates got up to, but has even apparently claimed - and who can deny the validity of her assertion, having evidently been someone somewhat 'in the know' (despite an abundance of oh so convenient protestations to the contrary now it suits her self-serving purposes) - that "the Manchester bombing/s was/were retaliation for [British involvement in] Syria".

Yes, as the oft-cited (varsity professor and NZ military analyst) Al Gillespie himself then stated, such people as SB were, much like the hard core of SS troops who remained in Berlin right up to the bitter end (of WW11 and Adolf Hitler & Co), "[among] the hardest of the hardest". And so surely far less deserving of such sympathy and mercy than all others (involved), wouldn't any reasonable person agree?

And - when pointedly asked by the longtime and well-respected correspondent Quentin Somerville (both upon BBC World Radio's regular weekday/s OS programme this morning and a little later as replayed and/or relayed by RNZ National's Morning Report after 7.30 a.m. (NZ time) this morning) - "whether - as a poster child for [S/I] - you are/were sorry [re] the people killed by [S/I]?", SB matter-of-factly replied:

"Yeah, I am sorry for all the families in the UK who've lost people as a result of [S/I activities]...
[But] I think I did no wrong" - having apparently not been personally involved in the actual fighting/beheadings...

So SB was "unable to make her own decisions"? Sorry, she carefully planned and meticulously carried out her involvement with this death-cult, moving to the very centre of their global activities... marrying an [S/I] dude and thus becoming a child bride and then having kids to this fellow...

...and then having the temerity and gall to plead for mercy and understanding as if she didn't know what she was signing up for...

No, she was self-confessedly well able to make her own decisions and did just that...and is thus and so judged and condemned by her own words...

But much worse - in a way - are those who buy into her craven attempt to gain public sympathy now that, as I say, it suits her own self-serving purposes...and such folk are a perfect example and illustration of the complete double-standards such folk are ever willing to employ vis-a-vis respective male and female abusers and/or victims of stuff...

Yes, former kiwi P.M. and recent #3 (Aid and Development Head) at the UN, Helen Clark, is correct insofar as she cites international law which allows for such folk being repatriated (if that's the term) back to their country of origin (post-conflicts)...while expressing concern at SB's lack of remorse...but to this ****trooper such people have *****utterly forsaken any reasonable claim to earthly habitation or abode...- and should have to take the consequences of their malicious purposes and activities...

...though I do take on board Professor Gillespie's citing of "genuine concerns by Kurdish fighters" in the area for those fellow S/I folk in Syria who will now apparently be "scattered to [ye proverbial] winds"...for if any people group deserve our sympathies and practical (as well as prayerful) assistance at this time, it's Kurds in northern Syria and Iraq (and southern Turkey) and Iran. 

After all, who else in the region has been consistently making such a valiant stand for the right?
             
****Ever in a non-military capacity, you understand...though I was pleasantly surprised, when standing as an independent for the NZ Parliament back in the 2008 General Election (which, incidentally, saw the ultimate demise of Ms Clark's political fortunes in God's Own), to receive 2 of the 100 or 200 special votes from military serving overseas...and that despite my ever staunch stand as a committed lifelong pacifist, though upon the campaign trail I did accept that, much as every last Swiss is trained (and duty-bound) to do, if NZ Inc was ever invaded we would have the sovereign right (and indeed responsibility) to defend our precious, treasured homeland from enemy invasion.

Perhaps such hardy military folk admired my frank honesty, but much more likely, sad to say, it was the very fortuitous placement of my particular surname at the very start of the queue - and the lack of any political party name next to it - that gave some the needed incentive to tick my box...

*****Which seeming severity should not however apply to her innocent wee child, who should be sent back home asap and brought up by grandparents (etc) (if they exist) in the United Kingdom...

"a strange god...he shall acknowledge and increase with glory" (Daniel 11:39) [Blogpost # 300]

An Unusual Introduction to Arguably One of my Most Important Blogposts Yet

For this, my (personally) epochal 300th blogpost upon my second(ary), originally subsidiary blogsite ...I've been, understandably enough, majorly conflicted...so many important and weighty matters not only weighing heavily upon my spirit, but literally predominating upon the airwaves...and in the blogosphere and throughout cyberspace...

So although my - eventually (and with extreme difficulty) - chosen topic today/tonight is not the only one I've considered...indeed, only as the day's progressed and morning's become afternoon and that in turn's given way to evening have I even come to consider this particular topic...nevertheless, of the rich menu upon offer (generally of recent times) it seems to me to be the most deserving, even demanding, of imminent attention and consideration...

So, for those, like myself, increasingly exercised of late about such diverse concerns as

*an outrightly, openly - make no bones about it, in your face, "this is business as normal" (in the Trumpian, post-truth era) -  one-sided, highly partisan and even arguably ideological reportage of all matters Trump-related...c/o ye average, Western media outlet and 'journalist'...

*the peculiarly quick and bizarrely farfetched regressive 'development' of historical revisionism and outright expunction of objective, historically-documented realities, or, more precisely, the obsessive desire of so many these days to carefully airbrush things they don't happen to like or approve of...in order to make such palatable for their exquisitely, finely-nuanced grab-bag of personal sensibilities - all things needing proper vetting for the consumption of the **'up-and-coming' 'snowflake' generation...

*the absolute double-standards employed for alleged male vis-a-vis female offenders (in serious, especially sexually-related criminal investigations) - again, in ye 'enlightened West', it must be conceded...

*the control freak mentality of those seeking to engineer, define and/or predetermine the outcome of the long-contentious abortion debate (again, in Western nations), essentially by redefining the meaning/s of words and using them, not so much to enlighten and inform, but so as to bludgeon their usually quite conscientious opponents into some kind of mindless, cringing and fearful, however reluctant submission...

*the simple yet ever profound truisms epitomized and perfectly illustrated in and by my all-time favourite television film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - the original version, that is...

...please bear with me if you so can, and wait just a little longer...I hope - and sincerely believe - you won't be disappointed, whether you happen to - ultimately - disagree with my assumptions, evaluations, interpretations, and conclusions or otherwise...

But this blogpost - as with a still being completed blogpost (significantly #66) upon my initial and originally major blogsite - will bear upon the just-below-the-radar but almost-constantly-observed and well-documented actions and pronouncements, times and travels of a certain well-known personage/media star/religious personality, even celebrity upon the global stage...

...and moreover the biblically significant, even rather earth-shattering - as in historically momentous - implications of his unconventional, unorthodox - even heterodox - approach to his own highly unique position/role in global affairs and upon the world scene...

My essential reason for choosing this particular subject being that - living as we unquestionably do in an era of great change and conflict, of portentous and problematic events, and of (the resultant and quite understandable) confusion and downright perplexity in all quarters...

...it's time to cut through some of the culturally-embellished and embroidered distractions and sideshows and non-issues - if only for a mo(ment) - and focus/zero in upon some matters which, however much they are (zealously) ignored and neglected and otherwise overlooked by selfsame media...

...impact regularly upon both our present, temporal lives and potentially our ultimate, eternal future...

**As regular viewers of my blogsites would well know, the unfair and malicious aspersion thus cast upon the humble and beautiful flake of snow is something that I personally find rather hard to stomach...(and thus and so, if you've a more suitable alternative, please let me know, I'm all ears!)

Part Two: Just What are we Dealing With Here?

I'm glad - yea, overjoyed - you asked. Where do - can - I start? Well, how about with this: what, prithee, means - or more precisely portends - the curious title I've selected for this my 300th blogpost upon http://davidedwinisms.blogspot.co.nz/(or .com/)?

Just this...to wit, the unusual decision of the leader of (what I believe/understand to be) the world's (numerically) largest religious group/body - i.e. the Roman Catholic Church's papal head, Pope Francis - to make an unprecedented visit to the Saudi Peninsula, and the United Arab Emirates in particular...

...whereupon he co-signed (alongside Sheik el-Tayeb) an equally unprecedented document - known as Nostra Aetate (I believe) - on behalf of his 1.2 billion parishioners...

a document which arguably effectively yields or surrenders the gauntlet in the ages-old religious feud/rivalry/tension between Catholicism (and Christendom-at-large for that matter) and Islam(ism).

And hence has not only astonished and appalled, incensed and outraged conservative Catholic traditionalists, but moreover (has) led only yesterday/the day before to the decision of a former prefect of the modern-day incarnation/manifestation/face and embodiment of the medieval RCC Inquisition - German cardinal Gerhard Mueller of the Congregation of the Doctrine of/for the Faith -  to speak out - in a manifesto of complaint - the likes of which the Roman Catholic Church has possibly not seen since that fateful, historic moment a half-millennium previous upon which a lowly priest named Martin Luther nailed his 99 Theses to the door of his local, the Wittenberg Church. 

So let's quickly backtrack here, in view of the fact that - in the estimation of many, no doubt - such religious controversies are invariably the result of nitpicking pedantry and splitting hairs over *essentially irrelevant doctrinal abstractions and trivia...though few there would be - at least over preceding centuries, post-Reformation - who would dare to so characterize the split in the One Church that then dominated the known world (and had done so for over a millennium prior).

*Which vividly reminds me of one of my varsity lecturers here in my home town of Dunedin, New Zealand - Political Scientist William (Bill) Harris (who specialized in Mideast Politics) - who (back in 2003, 2004 or thereabouts) seemed utterly flabbergasted, but more significantly completely bemused - as indeed was this punter under his esteemed tutelage hearing thereabouts!) that during the early centuries anno Domine the Christian Church was racked and torn with division and rancour vis-a-vis such a doctrinal 'irrelevance' - to the general populace - as the doctrine of the trinity... 

Essentially fiddling while the city of Rome burned to the ground - undoubtedly the sort of charge that many would still level at the many factions of today's Christian Church...

To Be Continued...

The Agony of Africa: A Continent in Continual Crisis

This blogpost was (in the main) prepared some thirteen days ago...

Though strident - including even street - protests seem to have become the norm of late, from New Zealand's halcyonic shores through to the post-revolutionary barricades/bulwarks/bastions of France - and we won't even 'go to' the U S of A, where protest for the mere, sheer sake of protest seems to have become the norm in the Trumpian era, whether directed at Trump, his past behaviour, megalomaniacal personality and/or policies per se or just expressing the pent up faux outrage that seems to be consuming so many of the younger generation there especially...

Better media, such as *the BBC in particular, has - aside from the ongoing brouhaha over Brexit - kept an observant eye upon Africa at large...where such protests have also spread of late (or perhaps just continued is a more apt descriptor)...

...to wit good ole Zimbabwe - and Sudan (alongside South Sudan). As with Tunisia - Libya - Egypt awhile ago - esp. in the much-vaunted Arab Spring - people are quite simply 'fed up'...to the rafters; they've - long since - had enough, (subconsciously even) realized/decided 'enough is enough'... . Much as the dude upon that classic 1970s' film 'Network' succinctly put it: "We're not gonna take it anymore!" No indeed.

And though **Zimbabweans are well used to chronic food shortages and rampant, off-the-wall inflation - quite aside from the ongoing political repression and 'low-level' persecution of regime opponents - as, for that matter, are their continental compatriots in such war-ravaged and drought-stricken lands as Sudan (and South Sudan)...

...the special 'security' measures adopted by authorities in these countries have gone from plain bad to damn awful of late...and need, asap, to be called out and condemned in not only no uncertain terms, but with way more than the usual (United Nations) ***sanctions often imposed; no, let these global do-gooders for once put some actual muscle and meaning behind their oh so high-falutin' language...

But lest I be regarded as myself adopting too flippant and light-hearted an approach here, of using weak-kneed and limp-wristed vocab in championing these much-oppressed and neglected peoples ...I'm frankly deeply ashamed by the conspicuous silence, apparent condoning, even arguable complicity shown by gutless nations like my own of late vis-a-vis the serious and sickening developments in these nations since the news broke of merciless security force-imposed beatings and torture, rapes and even murders of innocent civilians by such insecure, **** 'insane' regimes... 

*Yes, let's credit them for keeping us duly and thoroughly informed of the fact that the humanitarian crises in Sudan, South Sudan and Zimbabwe have now been ratcheted up even further - pretty well to the nth degree and beyond...

**To be perfectly blunt, Zimbabwe 'under the croc(odile)' Managua is really just as opponents long predicted. His recent hall of mirrors and game of farce - dressed up as a genuine overseas "We're now open for business again!" invitation to a longtime-sceptical international community - is simply yet another act of hypocrisy played upon the global stage for all the world to see (and turn the other way, effectively giving he and his administration the green light to "Go ahead! - We're not paying proper attention, and couldn't frankly care less, anyway...do whatever you want...")...

...while underneath are - no, not 'The Everlasting Arms' of a merciful, Creator God (in this case), but the rotting carcass-filled whited sepulchres, carefully hidden from public view, of a thoroughly rotten regime...- one, as a caller to BBC's OS Conversations segment (22/1) stated, was actually starting to make (former, longtime President Robert) Mugabe's own administration look better by contrast.

The fella phoning in - adopting the pseudonym 'Jonathan' for security - mentioned that Zimbabweans were finding the security measures imposed under Managua "far worse" than those under Mugabe. The dear folk of Matabeleland slaughtered so unmercilessly three-and-a-half some decades ago under Managua's ruthless fist would hardly be all that surprised...the blessing of hindsight now revealing that Joshua Nkomo's own opposition movement would've doubtless been a much better and safer bet for the nation following their hard-won independence...

***Not that sanctions per se are necessarily lame and ineffectual - cf the likes of South Africa and Iraq - indeed they've often done substantial, including unintended and euphemistically-termed 'collateral', damage and injury to comparatively innocent populations...but they're hardly equivalent to military might (which I'd rarely recommend), and seeing that there is such a thing as United Nations peacekeepers, hey, let's get 'em to work for their keep, don't ya reckon?

****Insane as in utterly awful and outrageous, inexplicable and evil -not as in criminally un-liable.

Postscript: Additional Reflections, Ruminations and Re-balancings 

Yet, surprisingly enough, not all is going to hell in ye proverbial handbasket in the great 'ole and venerable continent of Africa... .

While - to round out the picture before visiting some more positive places and perspectives, generally wholly bypassed by a trouble and crises-obsessed Western media - an inventory of African 'trouble spots' would hardly be complete without also including the likes of one-time Ebola-infested Sierra Leone, terrorist-stricken Somalia and, at times, even the - otherwise 'progressive and 'upwardly mobile' - Kenya and Nigeria, the (geographically quite sizeable) Islamist Bloc across the vast Saharan swathes of North Africa - incorporating such nations as Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania - and the trouble-plagued Central and Southern African (geographically and strategically, anyway) 'powerhouses' of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa...plus tiny little Burundi...
(18-some individual countries so far cited, though Tunisia, Mauritania and Kenya are debatable)...

all those places notwithstanding, why do we seldom if ever hear mention made of such success stories (of recent decades) as Ghana and Tanzania...and how about 'famine-infested' Ethiopia, and even the civil war-wracked scene of blood-curdling genocide, little ole (Central African-situated) Rwanda...just for starters, you understand...

And yes, you're not asking me, but I'll proffer a fairly well-informed opinion of an interested and (I'd maintain) quite fastidious observer - of both the African continent over my lifetime, and the mainstream Western media in particular...

...as to why such significant but ever-bypassed nation-states are invariably neglected and ignored...

Hey, it occurred to me long ago that the reason we Westerners hear so little about various nations worldwide -whether throughout Africa, South America and the Caribbean in particular...

...is that, "surprise, surprise", little if anything really bad, ghastly and just plain awful seems to be happening therein...

Yep, that's pretty well 'the long and the short of it', coz if it don't bleed, it just won't and don't lead... End of story! So sorry to burst your long-maintained bubble (of polyanna-erish naivete, folks).

Part Three (to come): Some further details (both negative and positive) upon some of these other 'bit players' on the African scene...at least for the benefit of our 'well-informed' Western populaces... 

A Real Clayton's Brexit - The Brexit You Get When You're Not Really Getting a Brexit: Botching a Brexit

Did you hear the 'joke'/little ditty (I made up earlier today)? Apparently Romania's a little bit peeved off with the British (Government/people) over Brexit...in terms of its expats, I gather, now having a more difficult time staying there (or suchlike)... Anyhow, the precise details aren't all that important, but you know my instant reaction (for those who could care)?

Of course Ro-man-i-a's critical of (the whole idea of) Brexit; they're Ru-main-iers, aren't they?
(Apologies to any Romanian reading this, my clumsy attempts at doing phonetic and syntactical justice to Romania - Rumania (as I believe it was once called) - have been well-intentioned, however poorly executed...

All joking aside, and it's certainly, if ever it was, long past a joking matter...

-To Be Continued asap (2-and-a-half some hours on)-

As anyone who's seriously perused my blogsites would well know, I've - from way back when - been a supporter of the concept of a Brexit, pretty well stemming - *not from any xenophobic fear and/or loathing of immigrant ethnicities as such - though ever (as in God's Own) well aware of the impact of unlimited, unfettered migration into any land from folk who, without meaning (in the vast majority of instances) any ill-will to the local populace, inevitably end up competing for scarce resources (employment - housing - etcetera)...

...one reason I've always supported the concept (off my own bat, though others have suggested the same down through the years) of land/houses being leased to folk moving here (and essentially buying up big)...just as in fact the Chinese themselves have ever done (far as I understand)...

But back to matters specifically 'Brexit'...

Because (1) like so many Brits I've a healthy sense of well-deserved scepticism about the ongoing intentions of the bureaucrats at the heart of 'the European Project'/experiment - no slight to anyone who happens to live in the vicinity (of the European Union headquarters itself), and indeed I'm overjoyed to see two folk from the great 'ole land of Belgium viewing my blog these days - perhaps two travellers I bumped into awhile ago at a local Hospice shop in Dunedin? - and (2) I simply don't trust supranational entities whose entire purpose in being seems not only to be self-perpetuating, but moreover to impose in top-down fashion a set of elitest ideas and laws upon the 'common plebs'...

No, you can't convince this particular punter that all is well and rosy - and deserving of implicit trust and confidence - in an outfit which the biblical prophet John of Book of Revelation fame two millennia ago probably described the machinations of...when he foresaw the effective resurrection of the Unholy Roman Empire in the very last moments of human history...as a United States of Europe speedily emerges upon the world scene to exert power and influence...  

But more of and about that ultra-important subject another time - though viewers of my other, original, and now extremely lonely blogsite...i.e. http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.co.nz/(or .com/)...will be only too aware that I've written a lot of stuff around this topic (some, indeed much of which I've still to get back to and give more guff upon)...

So I'm essentially writing this to record my genuine sorrow that - not the Irish Backstop (proposal), but - the likelihood of the United Kingdom now crashing out of the European Union altogether without a deal now appears well and truly off the table/consigned to history...

Yes, the vote in the House of Commons was evidently a non-binding one, but I'm sure it was portentous (for those so exercised as myself)...and meanwhile Claude Juncker(sp?) **appears to be - furtively - wringing his hands in glee, rejoicing that he now has Theresa May Et Al precisely where he's wanted 'em...i.e. dangling off his little finger...yet withal unwilling to budge a further inch...just like the duplicitous, ravenous spider Shelob (as he entrapped Frodo in his wicked web) in JRR Tolkien's classic (and Sir Peter Jackson's & Co's animated take upon) The Lord of the Rings...

Yes, that would've been the ideal (solution) in my considered view - to 'simply' crash out of the European Union without any deal at all...to stand upon their own two feet once more, thrown back upon their own resources and all the good 'ole ingenuity of the British Bulldog...

...and the deeply thorny issue of the Irish Backstop could've been dealt with later...and surely without any hard border having to be (re)imposed between Northern Ireland and Ireland itself...

What with Remainer Young 'Un (junior MPs) now apparently dogging Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's heels, and P.M. May now having secured enough worried Tory support(ers) for her (Mark #2) renegotiated European deal with a major stipulation...the long open window of opportunity for really making a clean break from Europe now looks increasingly parlous, fraught and unlikely...

And so now, due to obfuscation, ongoing procrastination - and, more than anything else, undue self-doubt and a trapped-in-the-headlights hesitancy - all appears well and truly lost...and all that the good folk of the UK will be left with is a Clayton's Brexit...the Brexit one gets when one's not really getting a Brexit! As per the 'Dummies Guide to How to Basically Botch a Brexit Bigtime'...

*Upon this matter a little more will need to be said (ideally, in weeks to come), suffice - for now - to briefly traverse two aspects: that all (above) having been said, just like a well-known longtime far left political commentator in NZ, the inestimable Chris Trotter - who, incidentally, was instrumental alongside my own (long-deceased) Dad in the creation of the New Labour Party here (which eventually morphed into the Alliance and entered government at the outset of Helen Clark's three-term Labour Administration back in 1999) - I personally believe that Enoch Powell has been grossly misconstrued - which I simply mention as my shorthand for suggesting that not all arguments vis-a-vis the perennial bugbear of (im)migration these days are necessarily outright (or even subtly) racist...though some most assuredly are...and so that 'matter' isn't illegitimate per se in the debate.

The second is: those primarily 'exercised by' the sovereignty aspect of Brexit - though scarcely even touched upon by mainstream kiwi media - are in some pretty good company...or at least this dude considers John Cleese (aka Basil Fawlty) and the former veteran British politician Tony Benn...to be the sort of company I feel pretty comfortable being associated with (in any argument)...-if one wishes to approach the matter from a high-minded, principled basis/perspective, that is...whatever the feral outrage culture might wish to assert...

**Sure, he - and Donald Tusk - are well and truly 'over the UK', 'everyone' understands that...but what I find especially interesting/disturbing is that now they and the EU have essentially gotten their way - all (well-framed and effectively spun PR) appearances and pronouncements to the contrary - they're adamantly unprepared to move one further inch...come hell or high water...unless it's all a well-designed act (and subterfuge), and quite frankly, I wouldn't put it past any of 'em...no way, Jose!