Time to reflect

The timing of today’s memorial service in Christchurch has been criticised as being too soon and some want to wait until the Febraury 22 next year, the first anniversary of the earthquake.

It would be appropriate to mark the first anniversary in some way but today provides a much-needed opportunity for people in Christchurch, throughout New Zealand and further afield to remember and reflect.

More than 160 people from some 20 countries lost their lives, others were injured and a great many more have lost homes, jobs and businesses.

Today’s service will be ecumenical, multi-faith and multi-cultural.

It will not be the end of the grief.

It will be a stage on the road to recovery for those directly affected and be an opportunity for the rest of us to think of the city, its people, the people from other countries who died, their family and friends and also the people of Japan still dealing with their post-quake crisis.

It will be a time for tears but also for hope such as that expressed in this message from Rev Geoff and Gillian King of Knox Church.

The shell of their church building on the corner of Victoria Street and Bealey Avenue was often in the background of news broadcasts but they say the destruction of buildings doesn’t imply the demise of communities or faith.

On return from a morning walk Geoff wrote:

The birds were back this morning.
I could hear one or two of them singing,
As silt-laden wind chased the dog and me around our broken streets.
The birds were back, and with them the song of something other than sirens,
Or the low-pitched rumble of an earthquake,
Or the terrified screams of fleeing lunchtime shoppers
Or the muffled sobs of brave and bewildered men, women and children
Trying unsuccessfully to fight back tears.
The birds were back,
and as the sun strove vainly to pierce the swirling cloud of pulverised
masonry and liquefaction
their song sounded
a
bit
like
“Hope”

Today’s service will provide the opportunity to express sorrow. May it also give comfort and hope.

March 18 in history

On March 18:

37 The Roman Senate annulled Tiberius‘ will and proclaimed Caligula emperor.

1229 Frederick II,  Holy Roman Emperor declared himself King of Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade.

1241 Kraków was ravaged by Mongols.

1314 Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake.

1438 Albert II of Habsburg became King of Germany.

1608 Susenyos was formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.

1766 The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, which had been very unpopular in the British colonies.

 American newspapers reacted to the Stamp Act with anger and predictions of the demise of journalism.

1781 Charles Messier rediscovered global cluster M92.

1834  Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle were sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.

1837 Grover Cleveland, 22^nd and 24^th President of the United States, was born (d. 1908).

1850 American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.

1858 Rudolf Diesel, German inventor, was born  (d. 1913).

1865 The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.

1869 Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born  (d. 1940).

1871 Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, ordered evacuation of Paris.

 

1893 Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledged to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada - the Stanley Cup.

1893 Wilfred Owen, British poet, was born (d 1918).

1906 Traian Vuia flew the first self-propelled heavier-than-air aircraft in Europe.

 

1913  King George I of Greece was assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.

1915 Richard Condon, American novelist, was born (d. 1996).

1915 Three battleships were sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.

1921  The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union.

1922 Mohandas Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience. He would serve only 2 years.

 

1922 – The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, was held in New York City.

1923 Mathrubhumi one of the largest Malayalam daily started to publish from Kozhikode in Kerala.

1925 The Tri-State Tornado hit the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, killing 695 people.

1928 Fidel V. Ramos, 12^th President of the Philippines, was born.

1932 John Updike, American author, was born (d. 2009).

1936 Frederik Willem de Klerk, President of South Africa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was born.

1937 The New London School explosion killed three hundred, mostly children.

 

1937 –  Spanish Republican forces defeated the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.

1937 – The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flew1 kilometre (0.62 mi) outside Milan.

 

1938 Charley Pride, American musician, was born.

1938  Mexico nationalised all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.

1940 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass and agreed to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.

1941 New Zealand troops arrived in Greece to bolster Allied defences.

1944 Dick Smith, Australian Adventurer and Businessman, was born.

 

1944 The eruption of Mount Vesuvius  killed 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.

1945 Joy Fielding, Canadian novelist and actress, was born.

 

1945 World War II: 1,250 American bombers attacked Berlin.

1947 Patrick Barlow, English actor, comedian and playwright, was born.

1949 Alex Higgins, Northern Irish snooker player, was born  (d. 2010).

1950 John Hartman, American drummer (Doobie Brothers), was born.

1951  Ben Cohen, American co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, was born.

1953 An earthquake hit western Turkey, killing 250.

1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood.

1960 James MacPherson, Scottish actor, was born.

1962 The Evian Accords put an end to the Algerian War of Independence.

1965 Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonovleft his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes to become the first person to walk in space.

 

1967 The supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground off the Cornish coast.

1968  Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.

1970 Lon Nol ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

1971 A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashed into Lake Yanahuani killing 200.

1974 Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations ended a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.

 

1980 At Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, 50 people were killed by an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.

1989 A 4,400-year-old mummy was found near the Pyramid of Cheops.

 

1990  In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

1996 A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines killed 162.

1997  The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 on board and leading to the grounding of all An-24s.

2003 – British Sign Language was recognised as an official British language.

 

2006 – Mike Rann secured the first Labor majority government in South Australia since 1985 by winning the state election.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Sláinte – cheers.

Still seeking support for two good causes

David Farrar and Cameron Slater are still seeking support for their bid to bid for the No sign which a failed politician used to confirm answers to such questions as could he be trusted? and was he telling the truth?.

Helping them will support two good causes:

 The more we get, the more likely it is we will win – plus the more money gets raised for families of those who died in Christchurch. It’s a win-win.

As I originally said, if the framed sign is won by Whale and me, we will ensure it turns up to as many of Winston’s meetings as possible. It will be wonderful. We’ll just have someone silently holding it up at the wave back of the room – no need to heckle or interject – it will be a silent reminder to people about how he lied to the media and the public repeatedly.

After the election, our intention is to then permanently loan it to the Backbencher pub opposite Parliament, where it can be displayed permanently – along with a statement providing context for it.

If you’re willing to help,  e-mail David with your pledge.

While on the subject of fundraisers, the $33,000 bid from  the AllFlex Platinum Primary Producers Group was topped up to $40,000 and won Colin Meads’ No 8 jersey which was auctioned on the Farming Show.

Jamie Mackay interviewed Sir Colin about that on Tuesday and Allflex CE Shane McManaway yesterday.

The APPPG intend to auction the jersey again next year and use the proceeds for charity.

Thursday’s quiz

1. Who said: “And I promise I’ll never do it again. That’s the one good thing about me. I never do the same wrong thing twice.”?

2. What does pachyglossal mean?

3. It’s mensonge in French,  mentira in Spanish and teka in Maori, what is it in English?

4. Instruments which are struck, shaken or plucked belong in which section of an orchestra?

5. Which husband and wife edited Metro and North and South respectively in the 1980s?

Cars stuck in insurance limbo

Now that the immediate crisis of the Christchurch earthquake is over the city is facing the frustration of trying to get back to normal life when life is anything but normal.

Given the devastation the progress made on restoring power, water and sewerage has been impressive, although that won’t be any consolation to those still without services.

Although the initial inspection of houses has been fast tracked a lot of people are left in limbo not knowing if they will be able to return to their homes and if they can when that will be.

Businesses face similar frustrations and so do car owners.

Three parking buildings have been declared too unsafe for vehicle retrieval:

• Smiths City (Columbo Street/Dundas Street)
• Lichfield Street car park (33 Lichfield Street, near Oxford Terrace, adjacent Ballantynes)
• Farmers car park on at 194 Oxford Terrace

Engineering assessments will continue regularly to assess if and when access can be made safe.

This means it is also not possible to update owners of the condition of individual vehicles at these locations.

Supt Sam Hoyle said: “We fully appreciate it makes lives very difficult for some people not knowing when, or even if, they will get their vehicle back, or whether it is in a driveable condition. Be assured that if we can retrieve a vehicle we will, but the advice of the engineers is that some buildings are just too unsafe at this stage.”

 This puts the cars in insurance limbo.

Insurance companies won’t pay out until the cars are written off and that can’t happen until they’re retrieved.

Safety of people must come before the retrieval of vehicles and insurance companies can’t pay out on vehicles if they aren’t certain of their state.

This leaves a lot of people without their cars for an unknown time and without the resources to replace them.

“Triangle of life” advice disputed

An email doing the rounds advises people not to get under a desk or other furniture for protection during an earthquake but to curl up beside it in the triangle of life.

The email quotes Doug Copp of American Rescue Team International (ARTI) has other advice, including that it’s better to get out of a car and lie down beside it than stay in it.

But if you Google triangle of life you find the advice is disputed.

Urban legends and several other sites say that rather than saving lives, following the suggestions made in the email could endanger them.

Drop, cover and hold on is generally regarded as the best way to protect yourself during an earthquake.

What is it about the Irish?

Lots of countries have saints, but most saints’ days pass unnoticed by the rest of the world.

What is it about the Irish which means St Patrick’s Day makes such an impact, even on those who haven’t kissed the Blarney Stone, drunk Guinness, read James Joyce and/or can’t pronounce begorra correctly?

March 17 in history

On March 17:

45 BC Julius Caesar defeated the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.

180 Marcus Aurelius died leaving Commodus as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.

624 Led by Muhammad, the Muslims of Medina defeated the Quraysh of Mecca in the Battle of Badr.

 

1337 Edward, the Black Prince was made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy made in England.

1473 King James IV of Scotland was born (d. 1513).

1756 Saint Patrick’s Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).

 

1776 American Revolution: British forces evacuated Boston, Massachusetts after George Washington and Henry Knox placed artillery overlooking the city.

1780 American Revolution: George Washington granted the Continental Army a holiday “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence”.

1805 The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, became the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King.

1834 Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and inventor was born (d. 1900).

 

1845 The rubber band was patented.

 

1846 Kate Greenaway, English children’s author and illustrator, was born (d. 1901).

 

1860 The opening shots of the first Taranaki War were fired when imperial troops attacked a pa built by the Te Ati Awa chief Te Rangitake at Te Kohia.

1861 The Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) was proclaimed.

1864 Joseph Baptista Indian Home Rule founder was born  (d. 1930).

1880 Lawrence Oates, English army officer and Antarctic explorer, was born (d. 1912).

1919 Nat King Cole, American singer, was born (d. 1965).

1920 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Founding Leader of Bangladesh, was born (d. 1975).

1938 Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer and choreographer, was born (d. 1993).

1938 Zola Taylor, American singer (The Platters), was born  (d. 2007).

1939 Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and Japan started.

1941 The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC was officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1941 Paul Kantner, American musician (Jefferson Airplane) was born.

1942 The first Jews from the Lviv Ghetto were gassed at the Belzec death camp (eastern Poland).

1945 The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany collapsed, ten days after its capture.

1947 First flight of the B-45 Tornado strategic bomber.

1948 Benelux, France and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Brussels.

1950  Researchers at the University of California announced the creation of element 98, which they named “Californium.”

1951 Scott Gorham, American musician (Thin Lizzy) was born.

1954 Lesley-Anne Down, English actress, was born.

1957 A plane crash in Cebu killed Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.

1958 The United States launched the Vanguard 1 satellite.

1959 Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled Tibet for India.

1960 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action programme that led to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

1966  Off the coast of Spain, the Alvin submarine found a missing American hydrogen bomb.

 

1967 Billy Corgan, American musician (Smashing Pumpkins), was born.

1969 Alexander McQueen, British fashion designer, was born (d. 2010).

1969 Golda Meir became the first female Prime Minister of Israel.

1970 My Lai Massacre: The United States Army charged 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.

1973 The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy was taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family.

 The photograph Burst of Joy. From left to right, Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm, Lorrie Stirm, Bo Stirm, Cindy Stirm, Loretta Stirm, and Roger Stirm. (© Slava Veder / Associated Press)

1976 Stephen Gately, Irish singer, musician, and actor (Boyzone) was born (d. 2009).

1979 The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapsed during engineering works, killing two workers.

1988 A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashed into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.

1988 Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, was attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet.

1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires: Suicide car bomb attack killed 29 and injured 242.

2000 More than 800 members of the Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God died in a mass murder and suicide orchestrated by leaders of the cult.

2003 Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Robin Cook, resigned from the British Cabinet over his disagreement with government plans for the war with Iraq.

2004 –  Unrest in Kosovo: More than 22 killed, 200 wounded, and the destruction of 35 Serbian Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Belgrade and Nis.

2008 – Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer resigned after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute. Lieutenant Governor David Paterson became New York State governor.

Sourced from NZ History and Wikipedia.

Typewriter talent

Happy birthday Jerry Lewis, 85 today.

That’s very funny to someone like me who learned to type on a portable typewriter and battled with an ancient monstrosity when I first started work. It was a well known brand, familiar in newspaper offices but I’ve forgotten what it was.

People younger than mid 20s may not understand what he’s doing.

Chch loses RWC games

Christchurch will not be hosting any Rugby World Cup Games.

Had it been safe and practical to hold the games at Jade Stadium as scheduled it would have been a symbol that the city was up and running again.

But earthquake damage not only to the stadium building and field, but also the city’s infrastructure and buildings are too great to cope with the tens of thousands of people the games would have attracted.

The quarter finals are going to Auckland but RWC Minister Murray McCully said it is hoped pool games will stay in the South Island.

Dunedin was keen to host a quarter final but doesn’t have enough accommodation. The city was often full for big events, the new stadium will increase demand and also provide an opportunity for those willing and able to increase supply.

Word of the day

Odditorium - place for displaying oddities; a miscellaneous collection.

The worst job in the world

Leading the Opposition is never an easy job.

It’s even harder when your party lost power after nine years and the Prime Minister’s popularity is at record levels.

You can see just how difficult it is when you look at Phil Goff – last month his hair was brownish-red.

 Check out the YouTube vidoe at Kiwiblog showing him on Monday  - just five weeks later he’s gone grey.

globalDairyTrade auction price down 8.2%

The globalDairy Trade trade weighted index dropped 8.2% in Fonterra’s fortnightly auction this morning.

The price paid for anhydrous milk fat went down 4.5%; skim milk powder was down 4.6% and whole milk powder dropped 11.4%.

The fall is the first drop for three months and follows several consecutive increases. Prices are still well above the long term average.

Take market approach to green issues

Don Nicolson, Federated Farmers national president, said in his address to the Act conference:

. . . Some believe we ought to be the Rolls-Royce of agriculture. But having been on farms around the world, these artisan like Rolls-Royce’s already exist.

We should instead be the Toyota of agriculture. Trusted food and fibre with an integrity built from excellent animal health delivering safe, reliable and wholesome products. . .

. . . Let’s find out what truly motivates our consumers instead of overlaying the desires of local policy analysts upon them . .

This is why I believe there is scope for a political movement to tackle green issues from a disciplined market approach.

Do you know that led by farmers, 111,000 hectares have been voluntarily protected under QEII National Trust covenants since 1977. If that was a country, it’d be the 184th largest on earth. Who started it? Among others, Federated Farmers.

Being a Scot by descent I can’t abide waste. I know market principles and farming can vastly improve environmental and biodiversity outcomes.

Look at Roger Beattie, Mr Weka Weka Woo.

His weka programme massively out performs DoC’s because he uses farming principles. No farmed species I should add has ever become extinct.

You’d think he would get a trial license to sell weka to high end restaurants or at this weekend’s Hokitika Wildfoods Festival. No siree. Weka could be our turkey but is DoC interested in increasing its numbers by way of commercial farming? No siree.

How about trout? Sanfords has said to us that if the ban on commercial trout farming was lifted Monday, they’d start farming trout on Tuesday.

At US$5.00 a kilogram exported, it could be a US$50 million export within five or so seasons but are we farming trout? No siree, because the funding for a certain lobby group comes from a license ticket. Is its Chief Executive interested in exports? No siree.

This is despite faring would lead to much larger and exciting wild trout under catch and release. Farming salmon hasn’t stopped people from buying licenses to catch a wild one.

While trout is largely farmed in sea cages, it being a member of the salmon family, it can be farmed in artificial ponds that in turns demands water with nutrients. It’s about integrated farm management because our food export potential is vast. . .

Green initiatives and economic progress aren’t mutually exclusive. In general wealthier countries have better environmental standards.

Providing it’s done carefully, lifting the prohibition on farming some native species and introduced ones like trout could create jobs and contribute to economic growth without harming the environment.

Most parties support most clauses of MaCA

 Politics is usually reported as black and white with differences highlighted and areas of agreement ignored.

If you’d listened to yesterday’s debate on the Marine and Coastal Areas legislation and read stories about it you’d think that only National and the Maori Party supported any of it.  But Audrey Young reports that most parties support most of the bill’s clauses:

 

All parties, and Hone Harawira support the repeal of Labour’s Foreshore and Seabed 2004 Act.

All parties support the right of Iwi to go to court – Harawira doesn’t because he thinks they already own the area in contention.

National and United Future support the proposed test; the Maori Party thinks the test should be easier; Labour thinks the test should be left to courts; Act and Green want it left to the courts and Harawira opposes this clause.

National, the Maori Party and UF, support allowing Iwi to negotiate directly with government instead of going to court; Labour agrees but want the decision ratified by the courts not parliament; the Green Party supports this but under tests outlined by the courts and Harawira opposes it.

All parties and Harawiara support the ban of sales of areas under customary title.

All agree that public access to these areas should be guaranteed.

National, the Maori Party, UF, Act and Labour don’t want to do anything about the 12,500 private titles that include parts of the foreshore and seabed. The Greens want these titles treated the same way as customary title (ie public access and no sale) and Harawira wants them all under Maori title.

National, the Maori Party and UF support the MaCA Bill, the other three parties and Harawira oppose it.

The most vehement opposition from outside parliament is from people who think they’ll lose access to beaches.

Legislation doesn’t apply to beaches – it applies to the foreshore and seabed, the bit from the high tide mark to the 12 mile limit – and everyone in parliament agrees that public access should be guaranteed.

So why all the fuss when most parties agree on most clauses and public access will be guaranteed by all of them?



March 16 in history

On March 16:

597 BC – Babylonians captured Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.

 

37 Caligula became Roman Emperor after the death of his great uncle, Tiberius.

1190 Massacre of Jews at Clifford’s Tower, York.

1322 The Battle of Boroughbridge took place in the First War of Scottish Independence.

 

1521 Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines.

1621 Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greeted them, “Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.”

1660 The Long Parliament disbanded.

1689 The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers was founded.

1774 Captain Matthew Flinders, English explorer, was born (d. 1814).

1789 Georg Simon Ohm, German physicist, was born (d. 1854).

1792 King Gustav III of Sweden was shot. He died on March 29. 

1802  The Army Corps of Engineers was established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.

1812  Battle of Badajoz (March 16 – April 6) – British and Portuguese forces besieged and defeated French garrison during Peninsular War.

1815 Prince Willem of the House of Orange-Nassau proclaimed himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.

1818 Second Battle of Cancha Rayada – Spanish forced defeat Chileans under José de San Martín.

1839 – John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (d. 1922).

1865 The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the American Civil War.

1872 The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington , London.

1900  Sir Arthur Evans purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.

1912 Lawrence Oates, an ill member of Scott’s South Pole expedition left the tent saying, “I am just going outside and may be some time.”

1920 Leo McKern, Australian actor, was born (d. 2002).

1924 In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume became annexed as part of Italy.

1926  Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

1926 Jerry Lewis, American comedian, was born.

1935 Adolf Hitler ordered Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Conscription was reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

1939 Hitler proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.

1939 Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.

1940 Jockey Y-fronts were first sold in New Zealand shops.

1942 The first V-2 rocket test launched. It exploded at lift-off.

1945 The Battle of Iwo Jima ended but small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.

1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany was destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers. 5,000 were killed.

1948 Michael Bruce, American musician (Alice Cooper), was born.

1950   Czechoslovakia‘s ministry of foreign affairs asks nuncios of Vatican to leave the country.

1952  In Cilaos, Réunion, 1,870 millimetres (74 in) of rain fell in one day, setting a new world record.

1958  The Ford Motor Company produced its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company’s founding.

1959 EUROAVIA, the European Association of Aerospace students was founded, the first initiative towards European cooperation in Aerospace.

1962 A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappeared in the western Pacific Ocean, with 107 missing.

1963 Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor, was born.

1963  Mount Agung erupted on Bali killing 11,000.

1966 Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.

1968 Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers were killed by American troops.

1968 – General Motors produced its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.

1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned, citing personal reasons.

1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.

1978  Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped and is later killed by his captors.

1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz split in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history.

1983 Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.

1984 William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later died in captivity.

1985 Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson was taken hostage in Beirut.

1988  Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter were indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

1995 Mississippi formally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.

1997 Sandline affair: On Bougainville Island, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrested Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International.

1998  Pope John Paul II asked God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.

1999 – NZHistory.net.nz was launched.

2003 - The largest coordinated worldwide vigil took place, as part of the global protests against Iraq war.

 

2005 -  Israel officially handed over Jericho to Palestinian control.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Nigroglobulate – to exclude someone by a negative vote or veto; to blackball.

Spot the contradiction

When John Key ruled out working with Winston Peters, Phil Goff said:

Mr Key was arrogant for ruling out NZ First prior to voters having their say.

“I’m going to let the voters make the decision.”

That was in February. Now, just a little more than a month later he’s saying he won’t work with Hone Harawira:

If the MP is re-elected in November this year, Labour leader Phil Goff says his party would not enter talks with him on forming a Government.

Mr Goff says Mr Harawira would not be a reliable coalition partner.

However, he is not ruling out working with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters if he returns to Parliament.

It’s not just the contradiction between last month’s “I’m going to the voters make the decision” and this month’s refusal to consider working with Hrawira, it’s also his willingness to work with Peters when he’s been kicked out of three coalitions – including one in which Goff was a senior minister.

I could almost feel sorry for Labour supporters like Imperator Fish who posts:

I’m willing to cut the new leader of a political party a bit of slack. Even if they have been around the political scene for years.

But I can barely listen to or read a thing Phil Goff says without groaning. He really needs to be taken aside and given the hard word about gun safety. How can anyone shoot themselves in the foot so many times?

. . . But Goff’s happy to work with Winston Peters, despite Peters being at least as widely reviled as Harawira. The main difference between the two is that Harawira speaks from the heart. He may be unreliable and unstable, but you know where you stand with Hone.

Apropos of  where Peters stands, his infamous NO sign is being auctioned at a Press Gallery fundraiser at the Backbenchers.

John Key says he’ll bid $5,000 for it and David Farrar and Cameron Slater are asking for contributions so they can bid for it.

If we win it, we guarantee it will turn up to most of the public meetings that Winston attends during the campaign. E-mail me if you are willing to contribute towards buying it at the auction, and how much you are able to contribute. If we get it for less than the amount pledged, we’ll divide it up pro-rata. And remember it is all for a good cause – money for Christchurch relief.

Two good causes – the earthquake relief and the fun they’ll have with it at election meetings.

Alone but not lonely

Paul Tillich said language . . .  has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.”

Jim Mora and I discuss the difference between being alone and lonely on Critical Mass prompted by Leon Neyfakh’s the power of lonely in the Boston Globe.

Tina Coleman wrote on the same theme in solitude: alone but not lonely.

We finished with a story from the Australian in which Rebecca turner looked at depression, the dark side of mining boom.