Sunday 29 December 2019

Tony Blair Faith Foundation (Aug. 24, 2012)

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/08/24/august-24-2012-tony-blair-faith-foundation/12529/

LUCKY SEVERSON, correspondent: He was to the United Kingdom what John Kennedy was to many in the United States: a dashing, young, urbane leader who embodied hope and change and who could put words together like no other politician of his time.
Prime Minister Tony Blair speaking in Parliament: And I may say if we take the whole period of this government, we have spent far more on our national health service than the Liberal Democrats ever asked us to.
HUGH O’SHAUGHNESSY (Author): He is a master of rhetoric and the spoken word, and he uses that for his own very prosperous interests.
SEVERSON: When Blair left office five years ago, after serving longer than any other Labor prime minister, he was almost as out of favor as he had been popular when he was elected, largely because of the Iraq war. But his name could open doors and pocketbooks around the world—and has.
Blair moved from Number 10 Downing Street to this mansion in central London, where John Adams once resided as U.S. ambassador. Now this place doesn’t have enough space to house Blair’s multiple endeavors and charities. But none seems more important to Blair than the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
His business ventures and philanthropy range from consulting with developing countries about how to improve systems of government to programs designed to get more young people involved in sports. But Blair appears especially energized by what he calls his “counter-attack” against religious radicalism.
TONY BLAIR: The big issue of our time actually is this, is trying to deal with this extremism based on a perversion of religion and how you get peaceful coexistence between people of different faiths and cultures.
SEVERSON: How do you?
BLAIR: Well, I think by establishing platforms of understanding between people of different faiths and cultures so that they learn more about each other and through knowledge I think, comes the possibility of peaceful coexistence. I think where there is ignorance there’s usually fear, and where there’s fear there could be conflict.
SEVERSON: Blair serves as the international community’s envoy to the Middle East, a place divided by, among other things, religious extremism.
BLAIR: Now some people take the view, including many people I know, that, well, the best thing is take religion out of everything. But you won’t take religion out of everything. Religion’s there. It’s a fact. Faith is a fact. And many people are motivated to do immense good by their faith.
SEVERSON: The Faith Foundation in central London is fairly buzzing with young do-gooders out to save the world. One program they’re coordinating here is called Face-to-Faith. It’s now in 400 schools around the globe, connecting high school kids of different faiths by video conferencing. Face-to-Faith is now in 20 countries, including the U.S.
Ruth Turner, CEO of Tony Blair Faith FoundationRUTH TURNER (CEO of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation): Some of our schools in Utah have had incredibly meaningful encounters talking to young people, for example, in San Francisco, and even within the same country there’s such a diverse set of views about religion.
SEVERSON: Blair has a connection with the poverty stricken nation of Sierra Leone dating back over a decade to the horrible bloodshed of that country’s civil war. He sent in British troops who were successful in quelling the violence but not ending the poverty, the misery, or the death rate from the plague of malaria.
Dr. Josephine Muhairwe is a team leader for another branch of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation operating in third world countries like Sierra Leone.
Dr. Josephine MuhairweDR. JOSEPHINE MUHAIRWE: Every third child who dies dies of malaria, and for every four adults who are admitted one of them is admitted because of malaria.
TURNER: So we decided to put together a program that could literally save lives so that religion was saving lives rather than taking them. We train imams and pastors and priests. They give sermons on Friday or Sunday to their congregations, they pick key people from their congregations, we train them, they train others, so it’s a cascade training program, and these multifaith teams of Muslims and Christians go door-to-door in their local communities teaching the families as to how they can protect their children from malaria.
SEVERSON: Sierra Leone has a population of about eight million with only about a hundred doctors to treat them all. But many thousands could be saved with something as simple as a malaria retardant net to cover their beds at night.
It takes more than just specialized nets to beat malaria. It’s education in their proper use and other basic health measures like getting rid of stagnant water. That education now begins with pastors and imams. To back up their message, the Blair teams rely on passages from the Quran and the Bible.
DR. MUHAIRWE: Over 95 percent of people in Sierra Leone are affiliated with either church or mosque. So the networks are wide and they are people of authority within their community, so the people listen to them, so that in itself, the model in itself is quite sustainable.
SEVERSON: Blair says so far the program has reached over 800,000 people in Sierra Leone.
BLAIR: This is not just about promoting action on the anti-malaria front. It’s also about trying to give a sense of faith as something that motivates people to acts of compassion rather than acts of conflict.
SEVERSON: Blair raises money for his foundations through fundraisers like this event in New York. It was organized by Blair team members who are Jewish and Christian. In this case they’re working with Sikhs as well in support of a Sikh-based project in Africa. But most foundation funds come from direct contributions small and large and from himself. He collects huge fees as a consultant to corporations and to countries and can command $200,000 for a speech. Blair’s name has cache, although perhaps not what he imaged as a guitar-playing student who modeled himself after Mick Jagger.
As prime minister his duties included participating in the appointment of Anglican bishops and archbishops. Six months after he left office, Blair converted to Catholicism, his wife’s lifelong religion. He says during his 10 years in office, he prayed about decisions and found solace in church.
(to Tony Blair): I’ve always been fascinated by yours and President Bush’s relationship, and I’ve always had the impression that faith had a lot to do with it, that the two of you were both men of faith, and that that in many ways drove you in your decisions.
BLAIR: We are both people of faith. But your faith can give strength when you’re taking a very difficult decision to try and do what you think is right. In that sense it can be of assistance to you. But it can’t tell you what is right, unfortunately.
SEVERSON: Did you ever talk about your faith, or did you ever pray together when you were making these decisions?
BLAIR: No. No, we didn’t. I mean, we talked about faith more generally, just as two people who know each other well, but no, not in relation to the decisions.
SEVERSON: He says he holds former President George W. Bush in very high regard.
BLAIR: Whether people agree or disagree with him, or with me indeed, is another matter, but as a leader to deal with, and I think you’d find most of the leaders who dealt with president Bush at this time, again, whether they agree with him or disagree with him, found him to be someone of genuine integrity.
SEVERSON: Unfortunately for the former prime minister, many in his own country would not say the same of him. It’s been almost ten years since the Iraq invasion, and still there are newspaper stories with negative headlines about Blair’s role in the Iraq war.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: I will never forget what he’s done, and you would have to hold me over hot coals several times before you get me to vote for him again.
Hugh O’ShaughnessySEVERSON: Hugh O’Shaughnessy is a noted British author on developing-world issues who, like many, felt betrayed when Blair led the country into war.
O’SHAUGHNESSY: People still keep in their minds the way he treated public opinion. He brushed public opinion aside and launched into this illegal, cruel and lawless war.
SEVERSON: Blair continues to believe that history will vindicate him on Iraq and is convinced that his Faith Foundation will help calm a troubled world.
BLAIR: It’s not political ideology that‘s going to disrupt us, but it could well be religious or cultural ideology. And that’s why the concept of people across the faiths working together is so vital and so fundamental to a peaceful and successful twenty-first century.
SEVERSON: And that’s what you mean by religious “counter-attack”?
BLAIR: Correct.
SEVERSON: Whatever his critics say of him, the former prime minister hopes his legacy overall will be that he contributed to world peace, not war.
For Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, I’m Lucky Severson in London.

Wednesday 25 December 2019

The compassion of Paul Holmes: "They blew half his face off!" (May 7, 2011)

Radio Transcripts Ltd 
1/25/13
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10723905

Paul Holmes: Daring raid brightens May's beauty 
By Paul Holmes Email Paul 5:30 AM Saturday May 7, 2011

Hawkes Bay's had some bad weather lately. The parts affected were
mainly on the coast, from Haumoana, round Cape Kidnappers and places
south, a wild salt-sprayed coast of wild romance.

I see the camping ground at Te Awanga was flooded. It was always the
place for our annual primary school picnic.
If my memory is correct, only twice was the camping ground not flooded
on picnic day and the picnic not cancelled. I can never understand why
they persist with it.

This week's weather has been more than splendid. I don't recall a
first week of May in Hawkes Bay every being as red and golden, green
and yellow, as sunny and blue and still and calm and warm, as this has
been. This may be the loveliest autumn I can remember.

Years ago, I planted a non-fruiting grape over our old shed. This week
in the late afternoon sun it is a lurid, breathtaking mass of red,
purple and yellow.

Plus they got bin Laden, Hone Harawira's freedom fighter. They blew
half his face off.

In what will become a commando raid of legend, the Americans, having
figured out through brilliant analysis of intelligence that he was
holed up in a huge compound in a town nestled under the hills north of
Islamabad, flew in and killed him. Just like that. Took the mass
killer out.

The Pakistanis are indignant at not being trusted with information
about the operation by the Americans. Well, the stakes were too high
for the Americans to tell the Pakistanis. Heaven knows who the
Pakistani Intelligence Service works for.

As Leon Panetta, the CIA boss says, the Pakistanis either knew bin
Laden was there or they are incompetent. Abbottabad is a military
town, after all. They knew, all right.

And should the Americans have gone in to kill him? Of course they
should have. Should they have executed him summarily, in the way they
did? Of course, yes.

Or should they have arrested him and brought him out alive and sent
him to the States for a fair trial? Of course not. Where would you
have held him? What would the cost of security have been? Where would
you try him? 

No, the Americans wanted him dead. They were always going to get him
and they were always going to kill him. An eye for an eye is a strong
motif in the American narrative.

And, as I've written before, you don't organise the theft of giant,
paid-for American jet airliners full of American people, loaded up
with paid-for fuel and fly them into two of the greatest buildings in
the world and cause them to melt and collapse killing 3000 hard
working American people inside them.

Because if you do, America is going to hunt you down and kill you.

Bin Laden was psycho. He was described this week as a "raging
narcissist." He was an evil murderer. His theology was full of hatred.
There was none of the tolerance which Muslims tell us is part of
Islam. He had within him only blissful hatred. Everything about the
West was contemptible filth.

Never mind Christ and Einstein and Shakespeare and Western charity and
goodness; never mind the Eiffel Tower, or Frank Lloyd Wright and
television and radio and cellphones.

No, all that mattered to bin Laden was hatred. I'm not sure he ever
proposed anything. He was someone who opposed and destroyed and tore
down and murdered and massacred.

There are certain people to whom the rules of law and life do not
apply. There are certain people who simply have to be killed and
thrown to the sharks, as the Americans did to bin Laden this week.
People who organise such horrific massacres as the World Trade Centre
was, have to be hunted down like rats and killed.

I was wondering how they were able to make an assessment about bin
Laden's DNA. Here's how. Last year bin Laden's sister died in a New
York hospital.

The Americans simply took her body. They simply compared his DNA to
hers. They were determined, those Yanks, weren't they, to get him.

Obama showed strong, resolute leadership. He had the guts to take the
punt, to order one of the riskiest and most daring military operations
since Entebbe, when the Israelis rescued their hijacked people from
the airport at Kampala, Uganda.

He had the courage that history demands presidents display from time
to time. He made Donald Trump look like a chump with the silliest comb-
over the world has ever seen. Obama showed his seriousness, this week.
Obama certainly isn't agonising over the killing of the beast.

Getting bin Laden, killing him on the spot, executing him in his own
bedroom, has probably guaranteed Obama a second term. Even Republicans
were applauding him this week.

So a beautiful royal wedding one day, bin Laden dead the next. Not a
bad few days.

By Paul Holmes Email Paul
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerard Otto (Remuera) | 01:05PM Sunday, 08 May 2011
This is a distasteful episode involving killing Bin Laden's son and
others as well. Rejoicing over this is below a civilized society and
the hallmark of people caught up in good sides versus evil sides. When
that is an obvious myth.
The whole thing is also without any shred of evidence that Bin Laden
was responsible for 911. Nothing has altered the foreign policies of
Western Countries that consistently invade and support brutal
dictators in the middle east when it suits them. So this act signifies
more violence to come. You rejoice and celebrate that. But I think
it's all a huge disgrace and a big propaganda show for the masses.

Penny Bright (Kingsland) | 01:05PM Sunday, 08 May 2011 So Paul - you
don't believe in the 'Rule of Law'?
If not - what is the difference between Osama and Obama?
matt edwords (New Zealand) | 01:06PM Sunday, 08 May 2011 I do worry
about you Mr Holmes, as it seems you have become yet another
journalistic dung beetle, with
the in defatigable ability to lap up American propaganda bullsh!t.
Yes, bin Laden was most of the things you say he was, but the United
States is hardly the altruistic & benevolent outfit that their
government, Fox 'news' & yourself would have us believe.
In reality they're more like a de-facto empire of immense military
might, who have controlled much of the world for the last half century
with their subversive foreign policy and c******, shadowy government
agencies such as the CIA and NSA.
In many ways bin Laden was another one of Americas pets that turned
feral. He & his small band of extremists did however provide the U.S
with an excuse to wage war on an entire nation and install yet another
puppet government.
Bin Laden & those 'weapons of mass destruction', somewhat conveniently
also provided previous president George W with the perfect excuse to
carry out daddy's unfinished work in Iraq, with that other ally turned
feral ingrate, Saddam.
But don't worry about balance or dispassionate reporting of the facts,
as your weekly works of fiction are always so much more entertaining.
Copyright ©2013, APN Holdings NZ Limited 


Kevin Roberts’ performance on TV3 chat show The Panel, late 2001 (Dec. 4, 2016)

  1. Morrissey6
    Great Moments in Broadcasting. NOT.
    No. 3: Kevin Roberts’ performance on TV3 chat show The Panel, late 2001.
    Anyone with a taste for the absurd, the creepy and the pretentious should check out the “inspirational” website of Saatchi advertising supremo “Doctor” Kevin Roberts. The man who has, to this writer’s knowledge, never uttered a sentence that is not complete and unmitigated bullshit, offers up, for our edification, the complete list of his public speeches and his exciting, radical and deep personal philosophy, which can be summed up thusly: New Zealand is “on the edge”, and we’re all CRA-A-A-A-A-A-AZY, ma-a-a-a-a-aan, and that’s COOL. That, and something even dopier, about “love brands”.
    In 1999, Roberts attracted almost universal condemnation and ridicule by somehow persuading Air New Zealand to have one of its jumbo jets painted with a huge, grotesque, distorted mural of the All Black front row. This mortified, shamed and humiliated the players, angered the All Black coach John Hart, and disgusted the fans. However, Roberts, having clout because of his inordinate influence and power on the NZRFU board, forced it through, and the jet was daubed with the atrocity.
    Two years after that, on September 11, 2001, Roberts watched the WTC collapse from the Saatchi offices, in a nearby building. Undaunted by any notions of common sense or legality, he then wrote an open letter to the New York Times urging the governor George Pataki to suspend the law and extend the reign of the criminal, Mafia-connected mayorRudolf Giuliani. Of course, Governor Pataki ignored the inane petition.
    Shortly after that embarrassment, Roberts was back in New Zealand, appearing as a guest on the dismal TV3 chat show, The Panel. Even his half-drunken fellow-panelists were visibly shocked by Roberts’ performance that night: putting aside such troublesome notions as restraint, sensitivity or decency, Roberts said this:
    “You know what New Zealand should have done after September 11? We should have sent a planeload of soldiers in an Air New Zealand jumbo jet, all dressed in black bomber jackets with a silver fern on them, and taken them to Ground Zero, because we’re good at urban disasters. And they would have danced a haka on the site and then started digging. The WORLD’S MEDIA would have filmed this, and the publicity would have been absolutely PRICELESS.”
    At this point, there was utter silence on the set. The usual guffawing and chuckling had stopped. You could truly have heard a pin drop. Every panelist, including the inebriatedPam Corkery, was struck dumb.
    Eventually one female panellist spoke up: “Isn’t that…. isn’t that a bit…..cynical?”
    The normally smiling Roberts mien clouded over wrathfully: “No, it’s not cynical,” he snarled, clearly angry that anyone had had the temerity to question his brilliance. “It would have been a massive gesture of LOVE.”
    Read more, if you can bear Kevin Roberts a second longer…
    Great Moments in Broadcasting. NOT is an occasional series highlighting some of the worst moments in our pretty shameful history of broadcasting mediocrity and downright failure.
    N.B. Loath as I am to advertise anything on TV1, keen Roberts-watchers will be eagerly awaiting tonight’s edition of Sunday at 7 p.m. It is billed thusly: “Advertising guru Kevin Roberts on the scandal that brought him down. Dying prisoner Vicky Letele on how she was really treated in prison.” So that’s two fraudsters in half an hour—good value, kind of.
  2. AsleepWhileWalking7
    A look at things to come Nationwide? Or just a precursor to the privatisation of our police force? Either way pretty disturbing stuff going on in our Far North.
    • Rosemary McDonald7.1
      Yep. Kaitaia has this….http://www.kaitaia.net.nz/bid.htm
      “The BID is designed to improve CBD business and amenity through agreed regular improvements to the town’s physical, operational or security infrastructure within the town centre. The BID is a partnership between local government (mainly through regular liaison with the Community Board) and local businesses funded through a quarterly levy, by way of an FNDC targeted rate.
      Local businesses within the BID area (or those outside the area who choose to join) contribute an amount of money each year through a proportional system which is determined by BID regulations via their rateable property value. The average BID levy for a Kaitaia CBD business is about $200 per annum; but smaller businesses may only be levied a $100 (or so) rise in rates, larger businesses (such as the JNL mill) have proportionately higher levies.
      Projects currently undertaken by the KBA are:
      Community Patrol New Zealand – Working in conjunction with the Neighbourhood Policing team Kaitaia to improve the safety and security of our town. There is currently a Community Patrol vehicle which is policing our CBD, with a rotating roster of volunteers;
      Kaitaia CCTV Cameras and monitoring upgrade – The previous CCTV system funded and installed by the KBA 10 years ago at a cost of $140,000 has become outdated and nearly unusable. The KBA, in partnership the Kaitaia Police, are looking to increase the system’s coverage to eventually include the entire BID area, with upgrades to newer technology, which are anticipated to cost in excess of $250,000.00;
      Hasn’t been altogether successful…
      But a number of locals who struggle to get full time work have been employed by a local security firm…
      ..although, I hear that wages are low and hours are long, often in areas with poor cellphone cover…..

Thursday 19 December 2019

Confession Time: I was caught by the P.M. making love to his wife. (Apr. 13, 2013)

Confession Time: I was caught by the Prime Minister making love to his wife.
10 posts by 8 authors
 
Morrissey Breen 
4/13/13
PUBLIC CONFESSION

This writer, i.e. moi, was caught by the Prime Minister making love to
his wife. We were on the Speaker's Chair at the time. I withdrew and
apologized, then scarpered.

Luckily for moi, the Prime Minister "does not recall" this incident at
all.

In deepest shame and repentance,

Morrissey Breen. 
Click here to Reply
4/13/13
 geopelia "Morrissey Breen" <morriss...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:80af6755-ff65-4c62-a746-f0d5caa416a2@hc4g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...
Radio Transcripts Ltd 
4/13/13
On Apr 13, 6:22 pm, "geopelia" <geope...@nowhere.com> wrote:
> "Morrissey Breen" <morrisseybr...@gmail.com> wrote in message
- show quoted text -
Key can't remember anything, and I think that's all that Breen would
be worried about. 
anon...@anon.com 
4/13/13
- show quoted text -
I should think that Breen would do well to worry about the fact that wit
depends upon at least part-believability.  On that score his attempt is no
better than odorous muck. Much better that he leaves the satire to those who
better understand the genre.   
4/14/13
 Pooh "geopelia" <geop...@nowhere.com> wrote in message news:kkateh$rc2$1@dont-email.me...
Enkidu 
4/14/13
- show quoted text -
No, it has to do damage and if no one believed him, it wouldn't be slander.

Cheers,

Cliff
Enkidu 
4/14/13
- show quoted text -
I saw a cartoon of John and Branagh in bed. She is saying to him "It's
'Branagh'". He does seem to have a memory problem, though I suspect that
it is purely a convenience thing.

Cheers,

Cliff
Rich80105 
4/14/13
- show quoted text -
I can accept that Key is stupid, but not even his strongest opponents
would call him a half-wit, Pooh. The satire clearly went right over
your head - Key's convenient memory appears to have a remarkable
correlation with self-interest. Morrissey is not alone in seeing the
funny side of Key's dishonesty:
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2013/04/images-of-the-gcsb-scandal.html 
Pooh 
4/14/13

"Rich80105" <rich...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:80vjm85nvsvmgqvsh7psrht75evlg5oe6n@4ax.com...
- show quoted text -
I had a good laugh when I first saw the cartoon Dickie. As my reply was so
far over your head you couldn't even see a vapour trail I'll explain it in
simple words for you. The comment was aimed at Morrisy Breen (who is
slightly dumber than you Dickhead) not the cartoon which could be very well
aimed at both you and your glorious leader Shearer who also admits to memory
fades.

Pooh

Pooh

peterwn 
4/14/13
On Apr 14, 10:55 am, Enkidu <enk...@cliffp.com.cliffp.com> wrote:
> On 14/04/13 09:36, Pooh wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > "geopelia" <geope...@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> >news:kkateh$rc2$1@dont-email.me...
>
> >> "Morrissey Breen" <morrisseybr...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> >>news:80af6755-ff65-4c62-a746-f0d5caa416a2@hc4g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...
>
> PUBLIC CONFESSION
>
> >>> This writer, i.e. moi, was caught by the Prime Minister making
> >>> love to his wife. We were on the Speaker's Chair at the time. I
> >>> withdrew and apologized, then scarpered.
>
> >>> Luckily for moi, the Prime Minister "does not recall" this
> >>> incident at all.
>
> >>> In deepest shame and repentance,
>
> >>> Morrissey Breen.
>
> >> That's libel, or slander. Nobody would believe you anyway.
>
> > Nah. No libel or slander Geo. Just more of the halfwits stupidity.
>
> I saw a cartoon of John and Branagh in bed. She is saying to him "It's
> 'Branagh'". He does seem to have a memory problem, though I suspect that
> it is purely a convenience thing.
I missed a dental appointment the other week. I needed an excuse -
told the dentist I had 'brain fade' just like his neighbour is accused
of. The surgery is next door to Premier House.