[News] World’s happiest countries

[Westdene Seagull]

It’s not even worth replying to your post because it’s so factually incorrect .

You keep with your mantra that Israel is the root of all evil as it clearly makes you happy , however shamefully unbalanced your views are to most fair minded people .

He's right though - modern day Israel was carved out of Arab lands known as British Palestine. It was stitch up of the Arabs by the British and Americans. Swanny should have made the comparison with the Romans rather than the Spanish though.

 

[BadFish]

You do realise that benefits are not really the problem? Because of my work, paid and voluntary, I know a lot of people on benefits, some quite large amounts. It's a fact, in this small sample, that all that benefit money goes back into the economy (food, fags or ecigs, taxis, charity shops etc). None of them have savings, each month it all goes back into the circular economy. It's those that spend all their efforts to avoid paying tax (individuals and large corporations), save and sit in their castles counting their money and paranoid about the poor taking it that are more of the problem. Imho.

Australia's answer to the 2008 gfc was in part an encouragement to spend and stimulate the economy. Many people were given a stimulus payment $1000 if I remember rightly. A fair cry from the austerity if the UK which still seems to be disabling the country while in Australia 2008 is a distant memory (albeit with a lingering international debt - not close to the UKs though).

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

On my second visit to Israel, I was driven through Tel Aviv by an old (former Bulgarian) Jew. Top lad. Works in my area (which is why I was there). Ferocious experimentalist.

He pointed at some buildings with what looked like pock marks on the walls......

"That's where I shot at the British in 1946" he said. And laughed*.

History. His story. Other stories are of course available.

(*I raised an eyebrow and let loose a titter. A nervous titter, while looking at my host. Who had by then subsided into a mood of relaxed complacency. And who could blame him?).

 

[BadFish]

And a lack of vision of what success would look like. Parachute in a load of diasporate, arm them and let them get on with it? Well, they will secure the territory and expand. It is what people do.

A classic bit of British 'couldn't give a fuckery' with what happens to the post colonial landscape. I also give you Rhodesia, India/Pakistan (east and west) and more recently, Hong Kong (despite Chris Patten's huffing and jolly-well puffing).

('We' owned Palestine before the creation of Israel. Not a lot of people seem tp know that)

We can agree that what we are seeing is the result of British colonial f*** ups.

I got very interested in the situation years ago after reading John Pilger's work on the subject. A highly complex situation that needs a complex solution as well as the will of the protagonists.

 

[Live by the sea]

We can agree that what we are seeing is the result of British colonial f*** ups.

I got very interested in the situation years ago after reading John Pilger's work on the subject. A highly complex situation that needs a complex solution as well as the will of the protagonists.

John pilger was famous for being very hostile in his views towards Israel , so if you looking for balance you are not likely to find it reading his articles .

 

[BadFish]

John pilger was famous for being very hostile in his views towards Israel , so if you looking for balance you are not likely to find it reading his articles .

Yep. But his work is well researched and intellectually robust. I would agree that it certainly gives a certain point of view. Very useful when balanced with other information though.

My conclusion was, and remains that it is pointless being tribal about this conflict and trying to apportion blame to one side or the other. It is the lack willingness to fix the problem on both sides that is the problem.

 

[BadFish]

Yep. But his work is well researched and intellectually robust. I would agree that it certainly gives a certain point of view. Very useful when balanced with other information though.

My conclusion was, and remains that it is pointless being tribal about this conflict and trying to apportion blame to one side or the other. It is the lack willingness to fix the problem on both sides that is the problem.

I am going to add to this: I disagree with the posters use of the word 'hostile' but if you are not critical of Israel's actions over the last 50 years then you are really not paying attention.

List of United Nations resolutions concerning Israel - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Of course these have to sit in the context of the rest of the situation and the actions of Hamas, Syria etc etc.

Pilger's work on the actions of Israel is sound (IMHO) what is lacks is context and an appetite for the condemnation of the Arab nations around Israel, or recognition of their influence on the situation.

To be clear this is not about Team Israel or Team Palestine. I am for team moderate and team living in a third world hell hole surrounded by soldiers because of the actions of extreme leadership.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

John pilger was famous for being very hostile in his views towards Israel , so if you looking for balance you are not likely to find it reading his articles .

But, apply the filter, and there is some insight. Pilger was a brilliant journalist. The reportage was top notch. You can draw your own inferences (I never let another man or woman draw my inferences for me. That sort of opinion feeding is for the brain dead Mail and New Statesman readers).

 

[Bakero]

But, apply the filter, and there is some insight. Pilger was a brilliant journalist. The reportage was top notch. You can draw your own inferences (I never let another man or woman draw my inferences for me. That sort of opinion feeding is for the brain dead Mail and New Statesman readers).

It's a a true shame that Pilger seems to have gone off the rails in recent years.

 

[jakarta]

But, apply the filter, and there is some insight. Pilger was a brilliant journalist. The reportage was top notch. You can draw your own inferences (I never let another man or woman draw my inferences for me. That sort of opinion feeding is for the brain dead Mail and New Statesman readers).

For what is is worth in my opinion the whole of the Middle East has been a shit show for years but no-one was bothered with it until oil was discovered.

 

[Weststander]

John Pilger has many strong views:

Blair is a war criminal.

The BBC was propaganda machine for Blair’s war.

Obama is an Uncle Tom.

Putin’s fighting Ukrainian Nazis.

Brexit - “The majority vote by Britons to leave the European Union was an act of raw democracy. Millions of ordinary people refused to be bullied, intimidated and dismissed with open contempt by their presumed betters in the major parties, the leaders of the business and banking oligarchy and the media”.

The Salisbury murder and poisonings - a carefully constructed drama by the UK, US and NATO.

 

[dannyboy]

You just need to be far enough away from the super volcano under Lake Taupo, which is stirring again I read recently, as that has the potential to blow good chunk of the North Island to smithereens!

I have had 3 long-ish trips to NZ. I must say I couldn’t get used to walking around even the bigger towns or cities on a Saturday afternoon and finding everything closed for the weekend and tumbleweed wafting past me. To be fair, I haven’t been there for 20 years so it may have changed.

I played cricket in Auckland for a while for a club side but for sure I wouldn’t want to play rugby there. The cricket club was aligned with a rugby club. I have never seen such enormous guys in my life. One of those running at me with a ball would have had me running for cover, a bit like England did against Jonah Lomu in 1995!

i just bought a plot of land to build a house in Taupo.... oops

 

[Live by the sea]

Yep. But his work is well researched and intellectually robust. I would agree that it certainly gives a certain point of view. Very useful when balanced with other information though.

My conclusion was, and remains that it is pointless being tribal about this conflict and trying to apportion blame to one side or the other. It is the lack willingness to fix the problem on both sides that is the problem.

Coincidentally I know his son who’s a sports journalist lives in London . He doesn’t share his fathers view on Israel .

 

[Live by the sea]

John Pilger has many strong views:

Blair is a war criminal.

The BBC was propaganda machine for Blair’s war.

Obama is an Uncle Tom.

Putin’s fighting Ukrainian Nazis.

Brexit - “The majority vote by Britons to leave the European Union was an act of raw democracy. Millions of ordinary people refused to be bullied, intimidated and dismissed with open contempt by their presumed betters in the major parties, the leaders of the business and banking oligarchy and the media”.

The Salisbury murder and poisonings - a carefully constructed drama by the UK, US and NATO.

Exactly- not a credible journalist many would take seriously except a few very lefty guardian readers !