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Walter — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:51:36 +0000

http://www.stuff.co.nz/

TAKING BACK THE HEART: Sam Crofskey, of C1 Espresso, and Jeremy Jon Stewart, of Alice in Videoland, will be teaming up in the undamaged Alice building.

Christchurch Earthquake 2011 Through the looking glass for a flat white

Alice in Videoland will reopen by the end of next month and will share its High St premises with C1 Coffee.

The cafe’s former premises across the road from Alice were badly damaged in the February earthquake and are being demolished.

Alice will move into new space at the back of its undamaged building, while C1 Coffee will refurbish the ground-floor space formerly taken by the video store and reopen in March.

C1 co-owner Sam Crofskey said: “When we first set up on High St there was nothing else around, so we have done this before.

“It was empty shops and offices, so we have turned back the clock 15 years, but this time we have well-established brands.

“We will be one of the first new, permanent businesses setting up in the central city. This is not us waiting and seeing what will happen, but it is us putting a line in the sand and saying this is what we are doing.

“Our challenge is we are in the city centre, but it is not in the heart of anything. That is our challenge â€“ to create a vibrant place where people want to be.

“There is a real opportunity for us to really get it right this time and give the people of Christchurch something really special.”

Alice’s spokesman Paul Stewart said a 42-seat arthouse cinema would be built in the new premises and open in March or April as a further drawcard for the city centre.

“We want to be able to blow you away. We could be the only arthouse screen in town,” he said.

“There were festival films that were great but didn’t get much of a showing here. They would be perfect for our little theatre.” The Alice building was behind the cordon, which is scheduled to be raised at the end of next month.

Crofskey said the premises would be restored, revealing historic ceilings and floors in the former government building.

* The Press apolgises for an earlier typo in the number of seats the arthouse cinema will have. Owing to proximity of the 0 and – keys, it accidentally read “420-seat arthouse cinema”, when in fact it will be a 42-seat theatre. Sorry about that.

Hand signals

Walter — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 02:29:16 +0000

Hand signals have come into their own more than ever before, thanks to the prohibition of megaphones. Human megaphones must have been in use in ancient times, but they are back! Its wonderful how every act of the old system is back firing right now. Police brutality is bringing more people into the movement. Creating a puppet like Obama is driving class consciousness forward, banning megaphones creates simpler and more effective communication, just whats needed to augment mobile phones!

The Most Popular Hand Signal at Occupy Wall Street

Oct 12, 2011 J. Webster

Sure, at Occupy Wall Street, protesters are forced to use some complicated hand signals and tricky ways of getting their message across since theyâ€™re not allowed to use mics, but thereâ€™s one simple gesture that seems to be the most popular: the middle finger aimed at the financial elite. Yes, itâ€™s a very good gesture, since everyone understands it right away and thereâ€™s no need for a megaphone.

Why does the occupy movement work?

Walter — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:54:13 +0000

Various reasons have been put forward for the success of the occupy movement around the world, and one in this article seems to be on the mark. Essentially Obama’s slogans of change and message of hope, though coming from the mouth of someone bought by Wall Street, are bigger than the man. He did not invent the lines, “Yes we can!” “Be the change” and while those words were effectively stolen, the sentiment was not.

The article also reports some interesting material on a survey of attiude towards capitalism.

Naked Capitalism

David Graeber: On Playing By The Rules â€“ The Strange Success Of #OccupyWallStreet

So the social scientist in me has to ask: Why? Why now? Why did it actually work?

Again, I think the answer is generational. In politics, too, as in education, we are looking at a generation of young people who played by the rules, and have seen their efforts prove absolutely fruitless. We must remember that in 2008, the youth vote went overwhelmingly to Barrack Obama and the Democrats. We also have to remember that Obama was running, then, as a candidate of â€œChangeâ€, using a campaign language that drew liberally from that of radical social movements (â€œyes we can!â€, â€œbe the change!â€), and that as a former community organizer, he was one of the few candidates in recent memory who could be said to have emerged from a social movement background rather than from smoke-filled rooms. This, combined with the fact that Obama was Black, gave young people a sense that they were experiencing a genuinely transformative moment in American politics.

All this happened in a country where there was such a straightjacket on acceptable political discourse in the USâ€”what a politician or media pundit can say, without being immediately written off as lunatic fringeâ€”that the views of very large segments of the American public simply are never voiced at all. To give a sense of how radical is the disconnect between acceptable opinion, and the actual feelings of American voters, consider a pair of polls conducted by Rasmussen, the first in December 2008, right after Obama was elected, the second in April 2011. A broad sampling of Americans were asked which economic system they preferred: capitalism, or socialism? In 2008, 15% felt the USA would be better off adopting a socialist system; now, three years later, the number has gone up, to one in five. Even more striking was the breakdown by age: the younger the respondent, the more likely they were to reject a capitalist system. Among Americans between 15 and 25, a thin plurality still preferred capitalism: 37%, as opposed to 33% in favor of socialism (the rest were unsure). But think about what this means here. It means that almost two thirds of Americaâ€™s youth think it might be a good idea to jettison the capitalist system entirely! This in a country where most have never seen a single politician, TV pundit, or mainstream â€œexpertâ€ use the term â€œsocialismâ€ as anything but a term of condescension and abuse. Granted, for that very reason, itâ€™s hard to know exactly what young people who say they prefer â€œsocialismâ€ actually think theyâ€™re embracing. Presumably not an economic system modeled on that of North Korea. What then? Sweden? Canada? Itâ€™s impossible to say. But in a way itâ€™s also beside the point. Most Americans might not be sure what socialism is supposed to be, but they do know a great deal about capitalism, and if â€œsocialismâ€ means anything to them, it means â€œsomething, pretty much anything, other than that!â€

In 2008, young Americans preferred Obama to McCain by a rate 68% to 30[4]â€”again, an approximately 2/3 margin.

How, then, do you expect a young American voter to feel, after casting a vote for a fundamental change to our political and economic system, on discovering that in fact, they have elected a man who twenty years ago would have been considered a moderate conservative?

I mean that word, â€œconservative,â€ in its literal sense by the way. This literal sense is now rarely used. Nowadays, in the US, â€œconservativeâ€ has come to mean â€œright-wing radical,â€ but it used to mean someone whose main political imperative is to conserve existing institutions, more or less exactly as they areâ€”and this is precisely what Obama has turned out to be. Almost all his greatest political efforts have been aimed in one way or another at preserving some institutional structure under threat of radical transformation: the banking system, the auto industry, even the health insurance industry, since Obamaâ€™s main argument in pushing for health care reform was that the US health care system, based on for-profit, private insurers, was not economically viable over the long term, and indeed, what he ended up doing was preserving exactly that for-profit system in a way that it might endure for at least another generation. Considering the state of the US economy in 2008, it required genuinely heroic efforts not to change anything. Yet Obama did expend those heroic efforts, and the result was no structural change in existing institutions of any kind at all.

Occupy London

Walter — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:25:20 +0000

From Lenin’s Tomb

Readable & interesting report & comment here on Occupy London. While it may be a “punctuating moment” iI seems a very important one as the whole theme of this is like no other demonstrations I have seen, it is against capitalism, like the ones at the global summits, but this time there is no global summit, it global capitalism full stop. The slogan of the 99% is also very unifying, and makes a potent point.

This isn’t a revolutionary situation, but merely a punctuating moment in the temporal flow of class struggle. But the purpose of slogans mentioning ‘Tahrir Square’ is to accentuate the internationalism of the movement, to point to its deep systemic roots, to express solidarity with the Arab Spring, to hope that this is the beginning of our own Spring, and to identify the commune as the political form of these aspirations. At the most prosaic level, it expresses the movement against austerity in its most ‘political’ moment, complementing the ‘economic corporatist’ moment of trade union struggle. It identifies the political class rule of the 1% as the key problem; the colonization of the representative state by big capital. And it proposes its own direct democratic answer.

Don’t live life in the sewer of injustice

Walter — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:26:13 +0000

Wallace Shawn (My diner with Andre) at occupy Wall Street

Jesus the man, Jobs the man

Walter — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:40:03 +0000

To make sense of this post you may need to read my last entry.

Also you may need to know who Barnum was:

And read: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/theater/mike-daisey-discusses-the-agony-and-ecstasy-of-steve-jobs.html?src=dayp that my friend Amy just sent me.

Jobs may well be a Barnum, and like Barnum he creates a new medium for communication, but it is not just the man. It is as if humanity is ready for a jump and it finds a vehicle to make it happen. Unfortunately it has to make in the capitalist context, given the failure of the German revolution after World War one. While Jobs is a creative guy, no doubt, and while he is enough of a Barnum to pull it all off in the world as it is, the world was ripe for a new leap in communication, to go beyond printing presses and beyond tele type machines. It took someone to make the next leap actual. Zuckerberg is another such. These steps in the evolution of the psyche are all distorted by the fucked up relations of production. The agony is to live in a sick social system, the actual agony of children in chinese factories and the agony of collusion, alienation and powerlessness for many others of us.

The leap in relations of production that we were on the edge of in capitalist countries at the start of the last century did not happen, history missed its natural turning. If we were in an era of new social relations of production the miserable state of psychological developments would not be the context for these technical innovations leading to huge cultural global shifts sweeping the world. However Rosa Luxembourg was assassinated, the social democrats subverted the revolution, industrial revolutions happens in the name of socialism and distorted the history of possible new relations of production. But that is how it is.

So what of new developments? Everything we create or do is in a backward social system. Creativity is social and public, but ownership lags behind, it is private and coercive and seeks out Dickensian situations such as china to maximize profits and to avoid failure in the market. I don’t think Jobs sold out on his vision, I imagine there was agony in making it happen.

Should he not have made the mouse, the first personal pc? Should we not use the technology? It is tempting as every object contains the labour power of the poor and exploited. I don’t think it it’s the answer to smash the tools, unless there was a mass movement of boycott. Even then the much needed jump is nothing to do with the tools, but in the relations of production, and this not because “we” collude with Chinese fascism, as Mike Daisey implies in the NYT interview. It is more that capitalism went global, that it is alive and well as a system. Not so well actually, perhaps in its vicious death trows. Who will lead that transition we are now on the edge of? We are ripe for another leap.

The revolution, innovation, the next big thing will not be technological but social and political. People who lead this next leap forward won’t be just great writers like Marx or orators like Lenin and Trotsky but people able to lead using the new orality of the Internet, even though its built with an unjust system of production. The screens are not the same thing as the humans who communicate via those screens. Revolution won’t be be because of the the Internet, but it can’t happen if people throw away their telephones and everything made in China, we live in this world.

The reflection I’m making, if it is not obvious, is that there are mighty forces at work, and that no one man Jesus or Jobs is really the cause of them. There is always someone who gives expression most fully and effectively to a collective urge. The power of leaders is not only because of what they do or say, but because of the ripeness of the culture they speak to. The culture chooses leaders.

Nz in tranzit

Walter — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:03:43 +0000

Dave Welch, former bus driver and political activist has researched christchurch public transport options for decades. He told me today the proposed light rail system is nonsense. This proposal, creating a loop by extending existing rail, makes far more sense. Following is an item from his blog: http://buswatchnz.blogspot.com/O

click on images to enlarge

If the city is going to build rail infra-structure into the hundreds of millions, blogster David Welch argues that money would be better spent on creating a Western Rail Corridor creating a circular route with several spurs.

Building a rail link between Styx and Islington via the Airport would create a commuter rail loop, by linking up the existing single track northern line [blue above] with an added grade separated (no level crossings) double track from Styx [red above] across to the Airport industrial zone continuing south and rejoining the main trunk line with a similar three way junction at Islington.

This adds circa 10 km to those services, feight or passenger entering the city (from either direction, north or south) using the “Via Airport” route but would save much shunting time and complications, link many industrial areas, and put tens of thousands of people within relatively fast rail access of thousands of jobs, even far from home, such as at Rangiora or Rolleston. The lack of level crossings (the rail always passes over or under roads) on this new link would allow both freight and commuter trains relatively fast access, despite the added city access distance, whilst offering an important and valuable chance to keep passenger and freight (which move at different speeds and in different movement patterns) running separately even in peak hours.

Much of the cost of the cost of this extra 10 km track – if found viable by profesional investigation - would presumably be met by Government/KiwiRail as part of the planned ”Auckland-Christchurch rail freight corridor”, not for the most part out of local rates. This would bring Christchurch into line with Government investment in Wellington and Auckland.

The map above – the grey areas are still fields, undeveloped yet designated future housing zones; the boxed in bold area to the left already a partly developed industrial zone, make it clear UNLESS THE FOCUS OF THIS CITY is on planning and setting aside land for this corridor NOW whilst the Government is developing and funding the Auckland-Christchurch rail corridor, opportunity will be lost or built out. Many advantages of the present situation could be very difficult to retrospectively regain. Indeed even in the scenario above, land best for a rail corridor beside or near Johns Road industrial area may be already partly foreclosed by large new factories and warehouses etc.

Anyone with a good familiarity with Christchurch will recognise the design below as hugely resilient (system itself can not close due to derailment on any one line etc) and one that can advance various spurs (or not) according to future growth (or not) as long as land corridors are identified early and protected.

This pattern below is hugely multi-faceted in its value and service potential not least it could cushion and protect many of the city and metropolitan area’s outer growth zones, existing or planned, against loss in property values/greatly increased travel costs in the event of expected future oil price increases. Having a work force that can easily and rapidly access (in relative comfort) diverse work places, from Rangiora to Rolleston to City and Woolston and everywhere between, maintains quality of life; it also allows businesses to access appropriate personnel, and suitably skilled or experienced staff more easily, a core foundation of prosperity.

Click on image to enlarge

With spurs to Rolleston (and Ashburton/Timaru); a spur to Ensors Road (peak hours to Woolston industrial area); and the existing main line to Kaiapoi, Rangiora this would create a hugely versatile circular route that could be grown and expanded over time. This includes possibly a spur across from Belfast through East Belfast the top of a major new subdivision proposed, Highfield, then into the heart of Prestons. Or and perhaps one day a loop from Sefton incorporating Woodend/Pegasus and back to Kaiapoi; or a spur to Halswell. Perhaps even 50 years hence – commuter services tofro a busy town of Darfield grown to Ashburton size. The “ring of steel rail” at the centre, acts as “round-about” to which growth can be attached and services can run in multiple patterns; equally it echoes Christchurch’s most successful bus route (albeit further west) The Orbiter.

I believe hundreds of millions of long term potential cost-benefit returns in freight and passenger services could be lost if the city continues to live in the vague and fluffy rail dreams typical of the last decade and does not do the hard miles of research and strategic planning.

Presumably regardless of what happens Christchurch will grow and this includes rail freight – eventually leading to the inescapable need to double track the current (and only) single main line from Belfast through Bryndwr and Fendalton to Christchurch station. Without added options such as the western rail corridor this may become a necessity, even if still years away. Then again rapid growth in bulk wine exports, milk or milk products, timber etc or other yet unforseen factors could force this need ahead of natural incremental growth. The current line, as is, offers no future proofing of rapid unimpeded freight (or passenger) movements.

Double tracking and increased freight on the Belfast-Addington line is likely to will be hugely disruptive and politically costly, provoking great resident resistence (not least possible decline in property values as the line gets busier). It will also destroy a much used marvellous bike and pedestrian “highway”, Addington to Northcote. In contrast, in conjunction with building a double track western link, this line becomes one of threelines accessing Christchurch or Canterbury beyond, maximum flexibility and security. And the line least likely to be used for heavy night freight!

The suggested Islington Junction, indicative only [it is impossible for me to calculate rail curvatures needed] incorporating access to new housing areas around Hei Hei and Masham and the huge new Islington Park industrial area (which could benefit from or compromise the possibility of future rail). In this map – Hornby (in green) reflects how large this area is, how effective rail could be in offering city residents easy access to this workzone.

Further west – to the left off the map above - Rolleston’s IZone, the largest industrial estate in NZ is being created. Also of course Rolleston town building towards circa 15,000 residents.

In general rail services running direct to the city centre and Woolston, with others looping around through Airport and Northern industrial areas, would ensure wide coverage tofro multiple employment zones in a city, where even pre-quake (PQ) less than a third of the work force was employed in the CBD. One of the great modern criticisms levelled at public transport; it is still too tied to the central city commuter and not versatile enough to serve multiple dispersed workzones (including commercial hubs and suburban malls) – hugely answered in the strategy employed in this proposa.

AIRPORT STATION “UNDERGROUND” AND BUS SUBWAY AT ADDINGTON?

Other major associated infrastructure possible includes building an Airport station in an underground trench (Under Orchard Road) as with the $160 million New Lynne Rail/Bus centre in Auckland [photo of trench being built below]. In this case twin tunnels would ensure freight segregation (during commuter rail operation) and and a 10 minute shuttle bus service linked to each commuter train arrival would link tofro Dakota Park, the airport terminal entrances, the Antarctic Centre, Orchard Road and Sheffield Park industrial areas.

Building the New Lynne rail trench in 2010 Photo NZ in Tranzit

Further infrastructure might include a sensible cut and cover tunnel under the present rail station in Addington with escalators and lifts to rail platforms. This would involve redeveloping Clarence Street in Addington (Woods Mill) to increase width perhaps with three or four storey live work type apartment buildings. Buses, taxis, cyclists, pedestrians only would be able to travel under the railway line, completely bypassing the congestion associated with Whiteleigh Avenue and the rail crossing. Segregated lanes through the Tower Junction area (as below) and priority bus signsls for northbound buses exiting this scentre would guarantee continuous flow and reliable journey times.

Green = exclusive bus lanes with signal priority (including Orbiter route and services from city to Riccarton and University) on bus subway near current station. Pink = station platforms possible.

This would not only serve the booming office parks (and likely intensified housing) around Addington and the Woods Mill site, particularly the huge triangle of land, empty sites or with derelict buildings or older single unit housing now in L3 zone and ripe for redevelopment between the railway, Whiteleigh Avenue and Lincoln Road.

The railway link could also serve a sports and events centre – a virtual recreational city as suggested by Architectural designer Ken Taylor in The Press this morning, on the other side of Whiteleigh Avenue. This concept builds on an established tradition including sports venues already well established on the site of the former showgrounds. This area includes the CCC owned rugby league grounds, race course and the CBS Events stadium. Huge crowds from across the whole province could be brought in and out of this area by rail – with all the carparks in the outer suburbs. Possibly a “new Lancaster Park” could be created here - it would be an excellent synthesis of infrastructure – the more or less continuous events at the race course, sports ground and events centre (indoor sports, concerts and expos etc) and would boost weekend and evening rail use considerably, lifting the patronage closer to that needed to support rail.

A further useful move would be widening Lincoln Road opposite Clarence Road, creating traffic signals and a suitable centre lane turning bay for buses (including articulated buses) from the city while allowing cars and bike lanes up the inside. The opportunity for this post quake is huge due to earthquake demolitions [see photo below] - in a years time the few extra metres needed to achieve such a widening may be taken by a four storey office/shop complex built to the existing boundary! Transport corridors must be identified and secured, even years ahead of project implementation – effective linear corridors only need one or two blocks to be rendered useless.

Upgrading Addington Station with a bus (etc) subway could also allow it to be used a temporary station in an embryonic commuter rail for the city until a larger more adequate rail centre is built in the city area proper.

BUS MALL IN RICCARTON

This Addington station could also be linked to a “bus mall” utilising roading on Maxwell Street near Rotheram street behind Westfield - a vastly superior bus station/corridor to bus laning/or light railing central Riccarton. With current wide ornamental berms and wide streets open to redesign this has huge potential for for a high density bus through-road and interchange, closely linked to Malls and future high density housing areas.

This “bus mall” or might not include purchasing properties to run a continuous bus link from Mandeville Street to Rattray Street, in both cases with better street management and bus priority measures (segegated lanes or lights) exiting and re-entering Riccarton Road, having avoided much of the worst current traffic bottleneck.

Click on images to enlarge

Permanent bus lanes shown in green (road widening to allow added queue jumper bus lanes at Moorhouse Avenue and Hagley Avenue [proposed five storey building set back five metres]; again at Barrington St (and Lincoln Road) and again at Whiteleigh Ave (and Blenheim Road). When will politicians in Christchurch begin to realise there is little point in spending almost $60 million a year running buses and then plonking them in traffic jams or easily invaded lanes, so they are twice as slow as private car travel!

Maxwell Street, Riccarton – with adequate protection for houses from noise and pollution (houses anyway situated opposite a busy car-park) huge potential to create an attractive bus station and free flow bus services through Riccarton at all times rather than have buses sitting in slow moving congested traffic queues on Riccarton Road, only a block north.

Rotheram Street, Riccarton viewed from close to the best site for a Riccarton bus interchange, 100 metres from a Westfield Mall entrance, adjacent to a popular bar and cafe zone and only 300 metres (2-3 minutes walk) from Riccarton Road (note bus in distance). Why congest Riccarton Rd further ?

In the bottom left hand corner of the map above another long term bus infrastructure project, previously mooted by this blog, a direct southwest area (SWAP area) link, by-passing much congestion, via a busway utilising Annex Road and travelling under the motorway and rail yards to the University, Burnside, Sheffield Park and Airport

However the MAIN commuter rail and long distance rail and bus centre for Christchurch might be better built near the heart of the city utilising the land (and possibly retrofitting) of the former goods sheds between Durham Street and Colombo Street

Photos shown there is ample area here to create (if needed) multiple platforms for commuter and regional and intercity rail whilst keeping separate and clear-run the very important through rail to Lyttelton (12 coaltrains return each day, quite apart from any other freight). Suggestions of running commuter rail to Lyttelton I see as ridiculous, the tiny populations falling so far outside any known cost-benefit ratio, as well as tying up expensive vehicles for 50 minutes per return trip and adding to the current rail tunnel bottleneck problems. However some peak hour trips might run to a station in the Woolston industrial area or terminate (and park up) at Ensors Road rail yards opposite CPIT Sullivan Avenue Campus.

Potential for higher density housing (to four or five stories) or purpose built subdivisions (including walkway access to stations) in various adjacent areas to the rail loop and the suggested spur lines would allow residents easy rail access to workplaces as diverse as Woolston; Middleton, Hornby, Islington, Rolleston, Belfast and Papanui-Belfast or even Rangiora and Kaiapoi.

Heavy freight tofro Picton-Rolleston-Ashburton etc or from northern timber and dairy industries to Lyttelton, can, respectively, completely by-pass the city OR enter the city and head straight into Lyttelton without need for switching locomotives. Not least the Western rail Corridor in association with the current North line offers three lines and two different ways of accessing the city and links multiple residential areas (built or possible) to almost all major industrial areas - a huge protection of mobility whatever the oil price and solid support system for our future economic growth and prosperity.

In Summary

The current light rail proposal appears to lack any great depth of analysis, overlaps many existing functions already well served (in most cases better served) by current through bus routes. I don’t believe it offers even a small portion of the huge environmental, social and economic levels of return of spending the same amount of focus, human energy and finance on the projects above, where much of the infrastructure (land use, zoning, roading) is not built yet and can be pre-planned to maximum effectiveness in advance.

There is is only so much money in the public kitty - even under a very generous Labour Government public transport policy and in more prosperous times Wellington has received “only” about $500 million towards public tranport. Auckland, sizewise, a roughly equivalent amount $2 billion (including rail and busways).

It is unlikely Christchurch can extract more than $500 million in funding from the Government. Even in the better small city systems in comparable countries (Cananda, Australia, NZ and USA) it is rare for public transport to win more tham 15% of all journeys, including kids and seniors, which means limited “poltical clout”.

Any funding that can be obtained from Government, ratepayers or earthquake recovery sources and fares needs to be most judiciously allocated to create real and significant economic benefits for years ahead. And politically and democratically needs to benefit ALL of the city in reducing or holding level car usage in peak hour whilst offering direct access benefits to a significant portion of residents and businesses

This blogster believes it would be EXTREMELY foolish to pour $400 million in to a 7.5 km light rail corridor benefitting probably less than 15% of the city population. In contrast commuter rail as suggested here – though shooting high for such a small city – could benefit a huge portion of greater Christchurch, stretching from Rangiora to Rolleston and much of the northwestern suburbs.

It follows if light rail as planned goes ahead it will in all likehood to cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars more than $406 million estimated in lost opportunity. Light rail will absorb most of the likely funding or ratepayer contribution into one sparse line, and much of the energy focus of the city, while not even addressing the wider transport needs of greater Christchurch .

These needs specifically include reducing longer car journeys (the ones that cause – and suffer - the greatest time waste, add the most to congestion (at multiple intersections) and generate the most pollution, and keeping the central facilities easily accessible by public transport from all corners of the city.

Nor can a single light weight rail system along congested Riccarton Road tie together the city together in an effective city wide public transport network, a system built on the primary and dynamic world-wide trend of modern public transport, uncontested road or rail space and priority signal systems for public transport vehicles.

Tariq Ali – Storified

Walter — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:05:11 +0000

Clearly I was quite impressed by Tariq Ali. And I just followed up with a bit of research on Google and indeed he gets ridiculed in the media. Paul Holms in New Zealand and reviews in the Observer.I’m gathering together what I think might be informative about the man and his views using storyify.

On the web:
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New Left Review – Tariq Ali: Re-Colonizing Iraq

newleftreview.org

The American expedition to Baghdad, and world-wide reactions to the new imperium. From mass demonstrations against the war to the diplomatic hypocrisies colluding with it. The UN as framework of blockade and intervention yesterday, and mask of reconstruction tomorrow.
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He is the author of several books, includingÂ Can Pakistan Survive? The Death of a StateÂ (1991),Â Pirates Of The Caribbean: Axis Of HopeÂ (2006),Â Conversations with Edward SaidÂ (2005),Â Bush in BabylonÂ (2003), andÂ Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and ModernityÂ (2002),Â A Banker for All SeasonsÂ (2007),Â The Duel(2008) andÂ The Obama SyndromeÂ (2010).
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Tariq Ali

tariqali.org
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Tariq Ali on “The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad”

democracynow.org

Amy’s New Book Hits NY Times Bestseller List. Buy Your Signed Copy Today! Sharif Abdel Kouddous Reports From Egypt “When one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it,” wrote Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s Reich minister of propaganda, in 1941. Former Vice President Dick Cheney seems to have taken the famous Nazi’s advice in his new book, “In My Time.”
Tariq Ali: ‘Tabloid hysteria made my name a household curse’

TheGuardian, April 6, 2011 at 23:34
Tariq Ali: What is imperialism?

counterfireorg, January 10, 2011 at 7:04
One on One – Tariq Ali

AlJazeeraEnglish, June 18, 2011 at 4:49
Tariq Ali vs. Christopher Hitchens on the Occupation of Iraq

Air420, August 28, 2011 at 14:27
Tariq Ali: Whenever West intervenes, it’s a disaster

RussiaToday, May 19, 2011 at 23:30
Tariq Ali – Obama, Pakistan and the US empire

adycousins, July 6, 2009 at 5:54
Twitter:
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@baylinveilÂ yep its tariq ali. watch the full movie here, its great:Â http://t.co/E30uliM

desmukh August 29, 2011 at 20:38
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Tariq Ali:Â #Obama‘s persecution ofÂ #WikiLeaksÂ is Nixonian;his justification ofÂ #bradleymanning‘s treatment RumsfeldianÂ http://t.co/9Efv1Xy

UKFriendsofBM August 30, 2011 at 0:15
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Tariq Ali: Truth About President Zardarihttp://t.co/5pnIgilÂ #PakistanÂ #traitorsÂ #PPP

PhoenixTwarrior August 29, 2011 at 8:23
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#MuslimÂ #Fictions:Interviews with Contemporary Writers: Tariq Ali, Aamer Hussein, Fadia Faqir and othershttp://t.co/VabjkDQ

FadiaFaqir August 28, 2011 at 5:57
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On History: Tariq Ali and Oliver Stone in Coversation: Published by Haymarket Books, 2011 In working together on…Â http://t.co/OpPQX0t

TariqAliUpdates August 26, 2011 at 17:47
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LISTEN: Marc Spitz Interviews Activist Tariq Alihttp://t.co/9d9ciyD

jaggerbiography August 26, 2011 at 16:00
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LISTEN: My Interview with Activist Tariq Ali for@JaggerBiographyÂ http://t.co/0l6zIaa

marcspitz August 27, 2011 at 0:00
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Conversations With History â€“ Tariq Alihttp://t.co/rNTJHUz

HistoryBookDeal August 27, 2011 at 10:38

Tariq Ali on Islam, the US China – Pakistan – Kim Hill interviews

Walter — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:55:38 +0000

Tariq Ali on Islam, the US China – Kim Hill interview

Very good to hear this interview today. It is incredible that a broad left perspective can be voiced so clearly but so little heeded. Listen to this interview, it is rare to get such crisp insight into world dynamics. It hard enough to understand the world, let alone when most of what we hear is designed to insulate us from insight. If people in New Zealand listened to these perspectives and engaged fully, even to challenge, then we would not be in Afganistan. No one wants a US empire and their assassinations, drones, war machine, and other antics of an empire in its death throws.

It is only a revolutionary socialist’s perspective that ever makes sense to me, but it is one that is largely invisible. Chomsky might be another speaker who has a world perspective worthy of discussion. The dominant media creates a climate where these voices are side-lined and certainly not discussed seriously. It is wonderful that this is in the public domain on New Zealand national Radio – I respect Kim Hill for at least listening without ridicule.

Right click to download, click to play:

Tariq Ali on Islam, the US China – Kim Hill interview

Also

Tariq Ali on Pakistan

Iraq Withdrawal? Don’t Take It to the Bank | MichaelMoore.com

Walter — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:10:41 +0000

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/iraq-withdrawal-dont-take-it-to-bank

quote follows

“Here at home, opinion polls have for years shown that two-thirds ofÂ Americans oppose the warÂ in Iraq. Opposition to a continued presence has also been building in Congress, always the most lagging indicator. On July 22, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and 94 other representatives sentÂ a letterÂ to President Obama urging him to bring all U.S. troops and military contractors home by the end of this year and she is introducingÂ a billÂ that would cut off funding.

As for the Iraqi opinion, anti-U.S. cleric and politician Moqtada al-Sadr put out aÂ statementÂ on August 3 saying that any foreign solider remaining in his country after 2011 would â€œbe treated as an unjust invader and should be opposed with military resistance.â€ Weâ€™ll mark him down as a â€œno thanks.â€ According to Al-Iraqiya TV, meanwhile,2.5 million of al-Sadrâ€™s compatriots have signed a petition calling for U.S. troops to get out.

â€œWe want them to leave, even before the end of this year,â€ Youseff Ahmad, a tribal sheik from the Iraqi town of Al Rufait,Â recently told one reporter. â€œTheyâ€™ve destroyed us. Theyâ€™ve only brought killing and disaster.â€ Ahmad spoke after having just witnessed U.S. troopsâ€™ â€œtrainingâ€ and â€œsupportâ€ mission in action, the consequence of which was â€œa shootout involving bullets, grenades and American Apache helicopters that left the tribal Sheik and two others dead, and several wounded, including two young girls.â€

Even top members of the Iraqi government are saying no thanks, even if their more powerful colleagues are toeing the U.S. line. On Sunday, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi saidÂ that a continued American military presence in Iraq would be â€œa problem, not a solution,â€ adding that training could be done by other countries at a cheaper price.