Net worth = assets minus liabilities; figures in $US. (Business Insider courtesy of Knight Frank)

This was an e-mail we received during the week:

this was our response:

Dear Mrs Owens

Please read the posts that your employer Mr Maxwell complains about carefully, before you send aggressive messages to people on his behalf, which we consider to be a code of conduct offence on both your and Mr Maxwell’s part.
Geoffrey did not write the “article” that you refer to.  It was received anonymously as a piece of paper mail from this person and posted in good faith.
It mentions no names and neither we nor, it seems, anyone else except Mr Maxwell know the persons involved. Neither is it clear whether the particular reference you complain about is investigation in the individual’s private capacity.  Mr Maxwell’s lawyer Power will confirm all this, or at least he should do if he is competent.
You may send a us (polite) letter if Mr Maxwell wishes to respond to the letter from your staff member, and indeed we would welcome comment by him on it.  We will then add it. When we invited Maxwell in February to comment he failed to do so.

Yours sincerely

Eva Churchman

We received nothing

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Comment by John Vickerman

It seems that the anonymous letter comes from an employee concerned about what they see as serious wrongdoing in the workplace.  There is an element of frustration that the situation continues and they want the wrongdoing to be investigated.  Frustration perhaps also arises from a bullying control mentality that continues to cast a veil over it all.  Whistle blowing protection applies if the informant reasonably believes the information is true or likely to be true and WW is providing a service of disclosure where the main papers have been bought off, and no one else is taking the informant seriously.  As Margaret says the recalcitrant child response without any genuine attempt to identify all the “factually incorrect claims about our staff” makes one suspicious that the Owens response is one of bullying and control, not clarification of fact.

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Comment by Margaret Stevenson-Wright

I have encountered Susan Owens in a couple of settings – and would not have attributed the style in which her email is written to what I have seen of her to date.

Her response in my view reflects an increasing and totally unacceptable trend where ‘appointed staff’ (along with those elected) are encouraged to treat ratepaying members of the public who articulate a view like recalcitrant children.

Additionally, it can be seen as an indictment on internal HR processes — when a staff member seeks redress for his/her unaddressed concerns – from an external party.

You are right to challenge her tone.

Margaret

from Graeme Carter

I set out to get some of my vaccine questions answered this morning. Here’s how it went.

ME: CDC, should I get vaccinated if I already had Covid?

CDC: “Yes, you should be vaccinated regardless of whether you already had Covid-19. That’s because experts do not yet know how long you are protected from getting sick again after recovering from Covid-19.”

Me: Oh, okay, we don’t know how long natural immunity lasts. Got it. So, how long does vaccine-induced immunity last?

ANSWER: “There is still a lot we are learning about Covid-19 vaccines and CDC is constantly reviewing evidence and updating guidance. We don’t know how long protection lasts for those who are vaccinated.”

QUESTION: Okay … but wait a second. I thought you said the reason I need the vaccine was because we don’t know how long my natural immunity lasts, but it seems like you’re saying we also don’t know how long vaccine immunity lasts either. So, how exactly is the vaccine immunity better than my natural immunity?

CDC: …

QUESTION: Uh … alright. But, haven’t there been a bunch of studies suggesting that natural immunity could last for years or decades?

CDC: Yes. New York Times: “Years, maybe even decades, according to a new study.”

ME: Ah. So natural immunity might last longer than vaccine immunity?

CDC: Possibly. You never know.

ME: Okay. If I get the vaccine, does that mean I won’t get sick?

BRITAIN: Nope. We are just now entering a seasonal spike and about half of our infections and hospital admissions are vaccinated people.

ME: CDC, is this true? Are there a lot of people in the U.S. catching Covid after getting the jab?

CDC: We stopped tracking breakthrough cases. We accept voluntary reports of breakthroughs but aren’t out there looking for them.

ME: Does that mean that if someone comes in the hospital with Covid, you don’t track them because they’ve been vaccinated? You only track the un-vaccinated Covid cases?

CDC: That’s right.

ME: Oh, okay. Hmm. Well, if I can still get sick after I get the vaccine, how is it helping me?

CDC: We never said you wouldn’t get sick. We said it would reduce your chances of serious illness or death.

ME: Oh, sorry. Alright, exactly how much does it reduce my chance of serious illness or death.

CDC: We don’t know “exactly.”

ME: Oh. Then what’s your best estimate for how much risk reduction there is?

CDC: We don’t know, okay? Next question.

ME: Um, if I’m healthy and don’t want the vaccine, is there any reason I should get it?

CDC: Yes, for the collective.

ME: How does the collective benefit from me getting vaccinated?

CDC: Because you could spread the virus to someone else who might get sick and die.

ME: Can a vaccinated person spread the virus to someone else?

CDC: Yes.

ME: So if I get vaccinated, I could still spread the virus to someone else?

CDC: Yes.

ME: But I thought you just said, the reason I should get vaccinated was to prevent me spreading the virus? How does that make sense if I can still catch Covid and spread it after getting the vaccine?

CDC: Never mind that. The other thing is, if you stay unvaccinated, there’s a chance the virus could possibly mutate into a strain that escapes the vaccine’s protection, putting all vaccinated people at risk.

ME: So the vaccine stops the virus from mutating?

CDC: No.

ME: So it can still mutate in vaccinated people?

CDC: Yes.

ME: This seems confusing. If the vaccine doesn’t stop mutations, and it doesn’t stop infections, then how does me getting vaccinated help prevent a more deadly strain from evolving to escape the vaccine?

CDC: You aren’t listening, okay? The bottom line is: as long as you are unvaccinated, you pose a threat to vaccinated people.

ME: But what kind of threat??

CDC: The threat that they could get a serious case of Covid and possibly die.

ME: My brain hurts. Didn’t you just say that the vaccine doesn’t keep people from catching Covid, but prevents a serious case or dying? Now it seems like you’re saying vaccinated people can still easily die from Covid even after they got the vaccine just by running into an unvaccinated person! Which is it??

CDC: That’s it, we’re hanging up now.

ME: Wait! I just want to make sure I understand all this. So, even if I already had Covid, I should still get vaccinated, because we don’t know how long natural immunity lasts, and we also don’t know how long vaccine immunity lasts. And I should get the vaccine to keep a vaccinated person from catching Covid from me, but even if I get the vaccine, I can give it to the vaccinated person anyway. And, the other vaccinated person can still easily catch a serious case of Covid from me and die. Do I have all that right?

from the FACT CHECK: fake news and our lying media website

The left-wing blog site newsroom has just received another $50,000 of taxpayer funding from Jacinda Ardern even though newsroom has had numerous complaints laid against it to the Broadcasting Standards Authority, including a complaint that one of its journalists was linked to the suicide of a young Auckland man, Jesse Anderson.

Marc Daalder is a far-left extremist who writes for the Tim Murphy-and-Mark Jennings-run newsroom. The blog site states on Mr Daalder’s profile that he writes about people who he perceives to be far-right. The far-right happens to be anyone who disagrees with Mr Daalder’s far-left view of the world and in 2019 this led to the persecution of a young Auckland man, Jesse Anderson who tragically took his own life.

Mr Daalder, an immigrant to New Zealand who calls himself a journalist, took exception to Mr Anderson after he spoke out against Jacinda Ardern signing the UN Migration pact in the face of the greatest housing crisis in New Zealand history.

Jacinda Ardern along with John Key, has created the greatest number of homeless Kiwis in history. It’s a multi-billion dollar problem that Ardern has no money to fix.

Daalder wrote an article in another far-left blog site, The Spinoff, where he made a number of unfounded allegations that were again the subject of complaints to the BSA. Mr Anderson shortly after took his own life.

Tim Murphy the editor of newsroom was unavailable for comment when contacted regarding the article on Mr Anderson.

Newsroom appears to be uninterested, and in fact, allows Mr Daalder to pick out people whose view of the world he dislikes and use the newsroom platform to attack them.

It also appears (somewhat unsurprisingly) that the Jacinda Ardern led Labour party has no issue with newsroom picking out people who have a different opinion and using the government-funded platform to defame them.

by Geoffrey Churchman

Yesterday’s council meeting began (after the formalities) with the presentation of the petition against closure of the Waikanae Recycling Facility this coming Sunday — a total of 1,122 people signed this, which from what we can tell, makes it the most supported Waikanae petition to the council to date.

Petition organiser Michelle Lewis spoke first, followed by Edwina Allen and Marie O’Sullivan. I wasn’t in the audience, but watched the live-stream and spoke to one informed person later. Even with the fuzzy picture you get on the live stream it was apparent that the present mayor and the council boss Mr Maxwell were extremely uncomfortable and both responded aggressively to comments that were made. This only made clear that the two are in cahoots, with Mr Maxwell telling the mayor what to say. When Marie O’Sullivan started mentioning the three resolutions that were passed unanimously by the public meeting in Waikanae, after the first — “This meeting calls upon CE Mr W Maxwell to resign” — the mayor said angrily: “don’t go there.”

Then when she had stated the widely-held belief about what the real reason for the closure was — a secret MOU for sale to Summerset of the driveway so it can be extended for construction traffic into the development, and there had been horsetrading — the present mayor again angrily retorted that this was an accusation of corruption on the part of the top council people and “that is defamatory”.

The big problem for the mayor and his puppet master, however, is that none of the reasons given by the pair (and deputy mayor Cr Holborow) for the closure make any sense — see the previous lengthy posts analysing these explanations.

Actually, selling the driveway to Summerset does make sense, and Ferndale people have said this, so why these denials? The main thing for Waikanae people is that the Recycling Facility stays, although not necessarily in the same place. Summerset have bought the property at 28 Park Avenue — that could be an alternative location, as the space required isn’t great.

But Mr Maxwell doubled down. “We will not allow the use of [this driveway] for construction traffic into the Summerset development” he declared. In fact, being a Reserve, a change to the district plan to allow it would be needed, but that’s not difficult. And then, astonishingly, he claimed it could not be used from an engineering viewpoint because it was a former tip site.

The latter statement is simply nonsense: there are examples in the Wellington region where roads have been built over former tip sites. One I am very familiar with is Wilton Road which was realigned to go over part of the tip in 1969 in conjunction with the construction of the Marist Brothers School on part of the existing alignment of the road that year. The rest of the tip site is now Ian Galloway Park. A chunk of Porirua East was built over a former tip site.

As a measure to fob off the objectors, Mr Maxwell said that staff would be instructed to produce a report on the general recycling issue in Kapiti to address the concerns. Hmm.

Note the flag of the United Tribes from 1834 which is often used by Maori who have no time for the Globalists and communists, and now He Puapua, which they see as a cynical attempt by the Jacinda government to divide and conquer.

This backs up what the UK health official says: they are just useless ‘comfort blankets’ (see earlier post). Read the whole CDC article

by Kevin Ramshaw

Writing books about a wide range of art-related subjects got Waikanae writer, photographer and poet Paul Thompson thinking about books as an art form in their own right.

A result of that thinking is Asemica, artist’s books, an exhibition of 12 books, all with identical covers but individual and different content, in newSPACE at Mahara Gallery.

“I am excited and stimulated by the idea and importance of the book as an artistic entity in itself and I’m driven by a creative response to express that fascination,” he says.

“I’ve produced many well-designed and interesting standard trade books on a wide range of art-related subjects.  Extending this experience and interest into artist’s books was a natural progression.”

Paul Thompson said it was his last commercial book, Shards of Silver about the connection between photography and poetry, that got him started.

With his existing interest in graphic design, materials and books, the field and the possibilities of the artist’s book proved irresistible. He began creating artist’s books both by himself and in collaboration with Wai-te-ata Press.

Artist’s books can range from finely crafted works with exquisite materials to compilations of collaged pages run through a photocopier and stapled. 

“They are similar to abstract art in that they are not about anything,” he says. “The viewer constructs their own meanings. 

“In the case of Asemica, the starting points are the ideas of language, writing and books themselves. ‘Asemic writing’ thus means writing that doesn’t make conventional sense – like music, it is indecipherable.

“Some may describe my interest in Artist’s books as an obsession. I see myself as a creative bibliophile or perhaps a biblio-artist exploring the tremendous range of possibilities the field of the artist’s book opens.”

Paul Thompson’s artist’s books have been exhibited both in Aotearoa New Zealand and overseas and been a finalist in the prestigious Australian Manly Artist’s Book Awards. His books are held in several collections overseas. 

The exhibition can be viewed at Mahara Gallery from 27 July until 18 September, 2021, alongside Dr Rangihīroa Panoho, ĀTĀROA, ‘the long shadow’ of the New Zealand Land Wars, before the gallery moves off-site for a multi-million dollar building upgrade.

N.B.: There is an Artist’s Workshop with Paul Thompson, Saturday 28 August, 12:30–3:30pm. Limited to 8 participants. To book, email info@maharagallery.org.nz

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A passion for books is shared by our editorial group. Mahara Gallery say this is “one of the final duo of exhibitions at Mahara Gallery before we move off-site to allow building redevelopment — exciting times!” —Eds