Investigate HIS May 2011

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HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 1

HIS/contents

April 2011 Issue 124 www.hismagazine.tv

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16 BADLANDS

A controversial new book says New Zealand has become a land of milk and honey – for criminals. We’re too soft, says author David Fraser as he reveals new insights into what’s really causing our high crime rates. Ian Wishart has the story

22 CHINA CRISIS

China’s military buildup is unprecedented, and the Aussies are now feeling very worried. Should we?

26 ROAD SNAILS

They’re the curse of holiday driving, Road Snails. Roger Marcon has a few ideas on what the police should really be targeting on the roads

features

32 MATT MCCONAUGHEY

Talks about his hit new film, The Lincoln Lawyer

16

HIS/contents 6 opinion

4 /EDITOR Speaks for itself, really 6 /COMMUNIQUES Your say 8 /EYES RIGHT Richard Prosser 10 /STEYNPOST Mark Steyn

35 action

38

38 /DRIVE The new Mini Countryman 40 /SPORT Chris Forster on World Cup 42 /INVEST Peter Hensley's money advice 44 /MONEY Gold is done and dusted

40

45 gadgets 46 The latest HTC phone 47 The Mall 48 Tech: Blu-ray’s blues 50 Online with Chillisoft

53 mindfuel

56 /ONSCREEN Cowell is back 58 /BOOKCASE Michael Morrissey's autumn picks 60 /CONSIDERTHIS Amy Brooke on memory loss 62 /THEQUESTION Matt Flannagan on getting stoned

42

00 over in HERS

14 /LABOUR’S LEADERSHIP Who can really replace Phil Goff?

22 /GM FOOD FEARS Have GM crops unleashed a new disease?

8

editor

Why are they investing in improved airports and deeper, bigger port facilities on tiny Pacific islands close to New Zealand and Australia

4 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Moments of madness

O

ne could be forgiven for t hinking the world has gone mad.

Those of us who’ve lived a few years have seen periods of collective insanity come and go before, but the current planetary mood takes some beating.

On the one hand, we have the Middle East crisis. Not just the Palestinian issue that’s been around for decades, but now the spreading protests enveloping Libya and the rest of the Arab world. Just as HIS/HERS warned a month or two back, the driving force behind most of these protests turns out not to be democracy but the sly shysters at al Qa’ida and other radical Islamic groups. The more regimes who fall, the closer their fingers get to a few nuclear buttons, and then won’t the world be an interesting, glow-in-the-dark kind of place?

On the other hand, we have the United Nations and its climate change minions who, no matter what the hard evidence is actually telling them, continue to spout the most egregious rubbish known to mankind. Trying to debate with climate believers is like trying to do the rumba with a Haitian zombie – they just keep repeating the mantra, drinking the Kool-Aid and taking the blue pill. They try so hard to convince the public that the sky is falling that climate change has become the nihilistic inevitability of a post-apocalypse future that those of us in the seventies and eighties believed nuclear war would be.

Speaking of which, that brings us to the third hand. China. It’s amping up its nuclear missile arsenal. It’s building up its military might faster than any other country on the planet. It has just commissioned ballistic missiles capable, with a tail wind, of whacking Wellington, New York

or Sydney. Are we to believe this is all for the benefit of capturing the relatively small island of Taiwan on their doorstep? If so, the Chinese have built a fair degree of overshoot capacity into their missiles.

Why are they investing in improved airports and deeper, bigger port facilities on tiny Pacific islands close to New Zealand and Australia, and why were those talks between Obama and the Chinese premier really so unbelievably tense earlier this year?

Is there something the officials know that they’re not telling the rest of us?

It’s almost as if allowing China to purchase land and businesses lock stock and barrel is seen as preferable to being beaten up by them in a skirmish which, sadly, is the elephant in the room that diplomats are discussing in hushed tones behind closed doors away from the public.

If you want to examine the fourth hand, there are the mad scientists at Monsanto whose bosses believe they have some kind of divine right to take over the gene pools of all edible crops, genetically modify them, patent them and then prevent you from being allowed to ever again grow your own food without first paying Monsanto for the right to eat. Worse, their madness which is supported by politicians in New Zealand and the US, may have created a new strain of disease – exactly what the anti-GM protestors warned us of.

On top of that, of course we’re all still cleaning up from earthquakes, tsunamis and the realisation that the planet has become much more geologically active in the past 40 years. Stay with HIS/HERS, intelligence for intelligent people. No matter what happens, you will probably have read it here first.

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Volume 10, Issue 124, ISSN 1175-1290 [Print] Chief Executive Officer Heidi Wishart Group Managing Editor Ian Wishart NZ EDITION Advertising Josephine Martin

09 373-3676 sales@investigatemagazine.com Contributing Writers: Hal Colebatch, Amy Brooke, Chris Forster, Peter Hensley, Mark Steyn, Chris Philpott, Michael Morrissey, Miranda Devine, Richard Prosser, Claire Morrow, James Morrow, Len Restall, Laura Wilson, and the worldwide resources of MCTribune Group, UPI and Newscom Art Direction Heidi Wishart Design & Layout Bozidar Jokanovic Tel: +64 9 373 3676 Fax: +64 9 373 3667 Investigate Magazine, PO Box 188, Kaukapakapa, Auckland 0843, NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIAN EDITION Editor Ian Wishart Advertising sales@investigatemagazine.com Tel/Fax: 1-800 123 983 SUBSCRIPTIONS Online: www.investigatemagazine.com

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6 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

A WAGER WITH PROSSER I enjoy reading your magazine. Most months I will find a copy somewhere and read in depth or otherwise glance over the majority of its contents. Your columnists are particularly thought-provoking and it is with sadness that I note the passing of Chris Carter.

Richard Prosser also frequently adds a refreshing angle on a variety of topics. However, his column a few months ago revealed a somewhat alarming ignorance and animosity to that divisive entity called “the free market”.

At the time, I sniffed and nibbled at the worm contained therein, but then decided that I was too busy indulging in “malevolent opportunism” - otherwise known as “selling things”. This February, sales are down, and I have given in to temptation and taken the baited hook.

The most obvious failing of his column is that it is more hypocritical than Al Gore's waterfront condo. A lengthy rant about the failings of government from national debt to education and conservation turns into an exhortation for the need of government intervention in the market.

Come again? The government is useless and so we need more government?

The reasoning seems to be this. We have regulations controlling all aspects of our lives from driving cars to dog ownership. These regulations are good because society has willed them into being. Therefore the market should also have regulations.

I’ve heard more sense from a horse. In fact, it’s quite possible that even Russel Norman could construct a more rational argument than that. Possible, mind you, although not likely.

For a start, regulations are not intrinsically good. Nor are they always a reflection of what society wants. While we’re on the subject of dog ownership... the dog microchipping law, for example, was hardly conjured up by society but probably by a bunch of apparatchiks in Wellington, most likely during a “strategic multifocus sustainability and community management meeting” complete with sweaty armpits, terrible power point presentations and stale arrowroot biscuits. The Labour government then simply rubber-stamped the most pointless law in the universe.

And even if these regulations were indeed the salvation of mankind, it does not automatically mean that they should therefore be applied to the exchange of goods between private individuals. The free market is not a slightly more civilised version of the Wild West where cowboy boots are replaced by Gucci loafers.

Regulations such as private property rights, freedom from coercion and prohibition of false information should apply. In other words, “free” does not mean that anyone can do as they please, it means that no-one can be forced to do anything. Exchange therefore is always voluntary in a free market.

To proclaim that the government should micro-manage this after maligning its fiscally irresponsible squandering of our children’s future is truly laughable. If it can’t be trusted to keep its own finances in order, why should we ask it to order our private transactions? Following that reasoning, shouldn’t we also ask DoC to manage our private gardens? “Terribly sorry Sir, but this area has a long history of chrysanthemum gardens and you are showing a complete disregard for society’s customs and values by planting these tulips. They must be removed immediately and disposed of in our approved multi-ethnic dolphin-friendly recycling facility”.

“Well, Mr DoC Ranger, why don’t you just get out of my garden and go jump in a lake”.

And just as I don’t expect the government to tell me what flowers to plant, I also don’t expect it to tell me what coffee to drink, what car to buy or where to invest my hard-earned cash.

Because you can be completely certain that the coffee will taste like dried cat faeces, the car will be a carbon-neutral wheelbarrow and my “investment” will consist of government bonds where the combined rate of tax and inflation exceeds the interest rate.

Richard Prosser would be well advised to study the writings of the French economist, Frédéric Bastiat, who was quite possibly the most logical person in the history of the world.

A man with more economic sense in his little finger than Mr Prosser has in his whole body.

And the fact that said finger has been dead for over 150 years does not alter this in the slightest.

I therefore propose a reward (it’s not really a wager since I’m not asking for anything in return). If Richard Prosser can even refute one of Bastiat’s free trade arguments, I’ll personally give him a crisp, clean NZ$100 bill. Sorry, but that’s all that I have spare after my latest GST bill. Not that I’m risking much, mind you. One – it’s unlikely that he will find one of Bastiat’s arguments which he can refute. Two – by the time he does, government-induced inflation and debt monetisation will mean that $100 can barely purchase a cup of medium-brewed cat faeces.

Vince Frank, Christchurch

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HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 7

Richard Prosser

eyes right

Given our very small population base, the independent defence of New Zealand’s undeniably large land, sea, air, and coastal territory is not realistically possible without large-scale mobilization, which conscription would provide

8 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Your country needs you

A

sk not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” So said John F Kennedy in his famous 1961 inaugural address. Kennedy’s speech was a call for strength and sacrifice from his fellow Americans, rather than a call to arms; but sometimes, sacrifice requires the strength of arms, and for a country such as New Zealand, it is perhaps only that call which ultimately makes sense.

Compulsory Military Training was last exercised in this country from 1950 until 1958, and again between 1962 and 1972.

Under its final incarnation as National Service, young men were required to register for a ballot based around birth dates, the lucky winners being rewarded with the opportunity to train and serve for a period in the Armed Forces. More than 85,000 New Zealanders were conscripted under CMT over the course of its final two decades. It is surprising how many you bump into even today, and quite telling in that not one, of the many I have met over the years, remembers it as being anything other than a positive and beneficial experience.

The enlightened scheme was brought to a premature end by the spineless peaceniks of Norman Kirk’s Labour Government, and no administration since has had the foresight or testicular fortitude to reinstate it. For this writer’s money, it is time New Zealand did just that.

Militarily, socially, and economically, there are many good solid reasons why our nation and its people would benefit greatly from bringing back the draft. I’m not talking

about a ballot, or any other selective form of National Service; rather, the universal enlistment of every capable New Zealand citizen for two years, from the age of eighteen (or at the end of their formal schooling, whichever comes first), followed by a week or two’s service a year, every year thereafter, until retirement age. A year’s basic training could be followed by a year’s service in the Army, Navy, or Air Force; or indeed a year in the Police, the Fire Service, a professional Coast Guard, or even a full-time Civil Defence Corps.

There are pros and cons with every proposal, of course; but your favourite commentator believes that in this case, the potential positives outweigh the negatives. Young people – and their parents – would have the surety of knowing that, after the end of high school, there will be two more years of certainty in life; a guaranteed job, a respectable income, a structured environment which encourages savings. On top of that, the Services promote the continuation of sport and fitness which many find it difficult to maintain when education finishes and real life begins. Along with this is the provision of medical and dental care, and perhaps most importantly, the encouragement of self-discipline to bridge the gap between the relatively cloistered and subservient existence of childhood, and the freedom of the adult world of work or varsity.

Militarily, a return to National Service would help to rescind New Zealand’s current laughing stock status, and restore us to the type of credibility enjoyed by the likes of Switzerland, Singapore, and Israel, and those other nations with comparably small

populations to our own, whose Armed Forces nonetheless enjoy genuine international respect; Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.

Given our very small population base, the independent defence of New Zealand’s undeniably large land, sea, air, and coastal territory is not realistically possible without large-scale mobilization, which conscription would provide. This is not so much from the manpower made involuntarily available by it, as from an expansion of the professional core of the military – enabled by the increased resourcing of the Armed Forces which conscription would obviously require, coupled with the increase in voluntary enlistment which would naturally result from a greater number of people experiencing a more credible Defence establishment. Singapore, with a population of five million, has a professional military numbering around 35,000, roughly three times the size of New Zealand’s, with an equivalent conscripted enlistment of about the same at any given time, and a further 350,000 trained reservists. Any potential aggressor would think twice before considering an attack on Singapore; New Zealand does not offer anything remotely like a similar capacity for resistance.

Socially, the nation would gain by instilling a sense of duty, responsibility, and patriotism in a new and disciplined generation; a respect for law, order, and the older citizenry; the promotion of a work ethic, self-respect, and the realisation that dreams and goals can be attainable through training by those who might never have managed to achieve them before. Young people given a taste of actual success are far less likely to turn to crime and dereliction, than those whose experiences serve to constantly remind them that their place is at the bottom of the heap.

Economically there are benefits too. The Forces may serve as a training establishment not only for skills and practices of warfighting, but for the trades and disciplines which support them. The Armed Services need personnel trained in mechanics, engineering, electrics and electronics, radio and communications, IT, transport logistics, and even plumbing and carpentry; as well as, of course, medicine, science, and a raft of other necessary specialties. Utilising the military for this purpose may be likened to putting an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff; but people, three decades of failed management in education and social policy has left us on the edge of that cliff, and right now, we don’t have another ambulance. Young people properly trained in all the skills which the military requires for its own purposes, can take those skills out into the workplace, to the greater benefit of the nation as a whole.

There will be naysayers, of course. There will be the pacifists, the weaklings, the other cowards and bludgers who don’t want

to fight, and who will conscientiously object. Well, I say let ‘em.

This isn’t the Soviet Union. If people really don’t want to serve in the military, they can spend a couple of years picking up rubbish off the beaches and digging out long-drops for DOC instead; though naturally, they will forego any benefits offered to those who do choose to accept their civic duty.

Some will argue that those of a criminal disposition will end up being trained in the use of weapons – yes they will, but so will everybody else, including the decent majority who vastly outnumber them.

There will be those who ask how we are going to pay for all this, to which I say we pay for it out of the savings we will make through creating a better society. We will spend less on Police, Courts, and prisons, because more of our people will eschew crime and violence, instead thriving in an environment which offers a sense of purpose and self-worth. We will spend less on health, because more people will stay fitter and healthier for longer in life, under a regime which requires and encourages it.

We will spend less on welfare, because people will learn respon-

sibility, resilience and self-reliance, and the pride and satisfaction which this brings.

The experiment with anarchic liberalism foisted on New Zealand since the 1970s has failed this country dismally, and we now lack any alternative social regimentation with which to replace it. We do not have the class structure and traditions of British society, the Bible and Constitution culture of the Americans, the unionised solidarity of Australia. But we do have the inherent fighting nature of our peoples, and the proof of its efficacy in our recent past. Maori, Saxon, Celt, Viking; we, all of us, once were warriors. I say it is time we took up arms once again, and put our troubles to the sword.

Have your say on this and any other story in HIS: letters@hismagazine.tv

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 9

Mark Steyn

steynpost

Today the delegitimization of Israel is all but universal: Indeed, these days Palestinian leaders pay more lip service to the “two-state solution” than Europeans

10 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Those noble Palestinians

O

n Friday night, March 11, twelveyear old Tamar Fogel came home to find both her parents, Ruth and Udi Fogel, two brothers Yoav (11) and Elad (four), and her three-month old sister Hadas murdered in their beds.1 They had had their throats cut and been stabbed through the heart.

That’s not shocking: There is no shortage of young Muslim men who would enjoy slitting the throat of a three-month old baby, and then head home dreaming of the town square or soccer tournament to be named in their honour.2 Back in Gaza, the citizenry celebrated the news by cheering and passing out sweets.3 That’s not shocking, either: In the broader Palestinian death cult, there are untold legions who, while disinclined to murder Jews themselves, are content to revel in the glorious victory of others.

And out in the wider world there was a marked reluctance to cover the story.

And, if not exactly shocking, that was a useful reminder of how things have changed even in a few years. On 9/11, footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets and handing out candy turned up on the world’s TV screens, and that rancid old queen Arafat immediately went into damage-control mode and hastily arranged for himself to be filmed giving blood. This time round there was no need for damage-control, because there was no damage: The western media simply averted their eyes from their Palestinian house pets’ unfortunate effusions. The Israeli Government released raw footage from the murders, but YouTube yanked the

video within two hours. The hip new “social media” are developing almost as exquisitely refined a sense of discretion as the old Social Register.

As Caroline Glick writes in the Jerusalem Post:4 People are no longer ashamed to parade negative feelings toward Jews.

Ruth Fogel was in the bathroom when the Palestinian terrorists pounced on her husband Udi and their three-month-old daughter Hadas, slitting their throats as they lay in bed on Friday night in their home in Itamar.

The terrorists stabbed Ruth to death as she came out of the bathroom. With both parents and the newborn dead, they moved on to the other children, going into a bedroom where Ruth and Udi’s sons Yoav (11) and Elad (four) were sleeping. They stabbed them through their hearts and slit their throats.

The murderers apparently missed another bedroom where the Fogels’ other sons, eightyear-old Ro’i and two-year-old Yishai were asleep because they left them alive. The boys were found by their big sister, 12-year-old Tamar, when she returned home from a friend’s house two hours after her family was massacred.

Tamar found Yishai standing over his parents’ bodies screaming for them to wake up.

In his eulogy at the family’s funeral on Sunday, former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau told Tamar that her job from now on is to be her surviving brothers’ mommy.

In a rare move, the Prime Minister’s Office released photos of the Fogel family’s blooddrenched corpses. They are shown as they were found by security forces.

There was Hadas, dead on her parents’ bed, next to her dead father Udi. There was Elad, lying on a small throw rug wearing socks. His little hands were clenched into fists. What was a four-year-old to do against two grown men with knives? He clenched his fists. So did his big brother.

A decade ago, the revelation that French ambassador to Britain Daniel Bernard referred to Israel as “that shi**y little country,” was shocking. Now it is standard fare.

Today the delegitimization of Israel is all but universal: Indeed, these days Palestinian leaders pay more lip service to the “two-state solution” than Europeans. On Israel’s national day, prominent Britons of Jewish background write to The Guardian to deplore the existence of the Jewish state. And “Israeli Apartheid Week” is multiculti Toronto’s gift to the world.

Demonstrating his uncanny ability to miss the point, the head of the Canadian Jewish Congress tweeted today: “Anonymity breeds ugliness online”.

You would think even this sad, irrelevant fool might have noticed that the striking feature of today’s “ugliness” is how non-anonymous it is. Year on year, the world is more cheerfully upfront about its anti-Semitism. Maybe he could ask John Galliano, or Julian Assange.

But sometimes, as when a baby has her throat slashed, what’s not said is just as telling. Recently I was talking to a Hungarian Jew who lived in hiding in Budapest during the Second World War: By 1944, the pro-German government was running short of ammo, so they were obliged to get a little creative. They’d handcuff Jews together in a long chain, stand them on a bridge, put a bullet in the ones at each end, and then push them into the Danube to let the dead weight drag down the ones in between.

You have to have a strong stomach for such work, perhaps almost as strong as for killing three-month olds. But, as my friend told his tale, I thought not of the monsters on the bridge, nor even those on the banks cheering, but about the far larger numbers of people scurrying about their business and rationalizing what was going on. That’s what made the difference, then as now.

Claire Berlinski, who was on the scene in Itamar, writes that Hadas was, in fact decapitated:5 “Anyone who in any way tries to rationalize or minimize this or to suggest that this is a fitting punishment for anything needs to go out and look at a three-month-old baby and ask himself what it would take to climb over a fence, climb in a window, and cut off that child’s head.”

A poll taken early April shows fully 32% of Palestinians supported beheading the baby and stabbing the children in their beds.6

References 1. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/03/028585.php 2. http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/ Spokesman/2011/03/spokeincitement130311.htm 3. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041106,00.html 4. http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle. aspx?id=212146# 5. http://ricochet.com/main-feed/ Writing-in-Cold-Blood-About-Itamar 6. http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=215385

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 11

Frida Ghitis

Iran remains a threat even without nuclear weapons. Watching the Libyan experience, it will now work more relentlessly to

infocus

acquire them

12 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

So far, Iran is winning

I

f pro-democracy activists in the Middle East have someone to thank for showing them how to challenge their oppressors, they should look to Iran. Young Iranians, who took to the streets after a stolen election in 2009, showed their neighbours how to launch a peaceful democratic uprising. Unfortunately, the regime that smashed the Iranian quest for democracy also had a lesson to teach its neighbours. The Islamic Republic’s brutality against its own people is now being replicated in much of the Arab world.

While the people of Iran have not given up hope that they will ultimately succeed in toppling a repressive regime dominated by the Republican Guard and the Shiite clerical establishment, the reality so far is quite the opposite. On balance, the seizures of instability convulsing Arab countries have strengthened the Iranian regime. So far, Iran is winning.

Instability in the heart of the oil-producing region has sent oil prices soaring, bringing money gushing into Tehran’s coffers. While the world is distracted, preoccupied with the unfolding uprisings, figuring out NATO’s role in the fight for Libya, Iran has redoubled activities in its banned nuclear program. A few days ago, Iran confirmed work on a new generation of centrifuges to enrich uranium, the key ingredient in nuclear weapons. A new nuclear reactor is slated to start up next month. Despite setbacks from the Stuxnet computer virus, scientists in many countries believe Tehran is back on track to develop all the elements needed for “breakout” capability, the power to quickly build a nuclear weapon the moment it decides to do it.

The West seems to have forgotten about Iran, at precisely the time when Tehran is in a position to become even more of a threat.

In the meantime, the anti-Iran coalition woven together by Washington and its allies is fraying. The now-deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was one of the key anti-Iran bulwarks in the Middle East. Stopping Iran’s development of nuclear weapons and its growing influence in the region is not a priority in the New Egypt.

Iran remains a threat even without nuclear weapons. Watching the Libyan experience, it will now work more relentlessly to acquire them. Once it acquires nuclear arms, this state that already funds, trains and arms terrorists will become an unthinkable threat.

At least for now, Iran has emerged stronger from the regional turmoil. Washington, meanwhile, has lost ground.

It’s not all good news for Tehran. The brutal crackdown in Syria – which has received shamefully scant attention by the media, the White House and, for that matter, the entire Western world – constitutes a real threat to Iran.

Bashar al-Assad has killed hundreds of peaceful protesters. Reports say elements of the vast security apparatus are shooting soldiers who refuse to shoot protesters.

If Syria’s Assad were to fall, Iran would lose its most important ally.

Rather than war, the answer to the Iranian threat is a successful democratic uprising.

Let’s hope the Obama administration and its allies are quietly doing all they can to help Iran’s beleaguered democrats. Let’s hope this lack of attention to Iran is just an optical illusion.

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HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 15

Arson, car conversion, theft, mugging, rape, murder, fraud – at some point in our lives all of us have experienced at least one crime or known someone who has. Now, a new book by a justice system insider is blowing open the Law ‘n’ Order debate, with a series of stunning revelations about just how much the public have been misled about our crime rate, its real costs and its causes. Whatever you think you know about crime, prepare to be shocked as we examine just some of the new information in David Fraser’s controversial book, Badlands CRIME MYTH #1: THE MURDER RATE IS FALLING

Police and the news media made a feast of recent police crime statistics that showed a drop in the homicide rate. But as former UK National Criminal Intelligence Service analyst and Probation Service advisor David Fraser points out, year on year fluctuations are nothing to crow about. Once the dust has settled, New Zealand’s murder rate is still three times higher per capita than it was in 1960. But even that is not the true figure.

“Whilst the tripling of the murder rate may seem bad enough,” writes Fraser however, “we now know it could have been far worse. A report published in the British Medical Journal in 2002 highlighted that doctors are now saving the lives of thousands of victims of violent, life threatening attacks, who four decades ago would have died and entered the murder statistics.1 “It was reporting on research from Massachusetts University and Harvard Medical School that found technological developments had helped to significantly depress today’s murder rates, converting homicides into violent assaults.”

Think about that for a moment. The suggestion is that – but for modern medical technology – New Zealand’s homicide rate would actually be far higher than triple its 1960 figure.

This, says Fraser, is a wake-up call as to what is really going wrong with our society.

What has happened between 1960 and today to cause such an explosion in violent crime?

16 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

CRIME MYTH #2: MINOR OFFENDERS SHOULD NOT BE JAILED

In the book, Fraser strongly argues that politicians and justice officials made a conscious decision back in the 1980s to try and stop sending people to jail. Perhaps it was the perceived cost of keeping offenders in prison, or the cost of building prisons, or the prevailing liberal academic view that “minor” crimes were part and parcel of everyday life and should be tolerated within the wider community. Whatever the reason, Fraser says successive governments and their advisors have spun this argument to the max to justify softer and softer court penalties.

The result, he shows in the book, has been a social disaster.

“In its increasing reliance on community penalties for offenders, the State is maintaining the pretence that there are two kinds of criminal, namely those who are violent and dangerous, and who need on occasions to be imprisoned, and others, mostly property offenders, who they regard as posing a minimal risk to the public, and therefore can be dealt with in other ways.

But they know that the evidence found in criminal records shows that many of those who commit property offences also commit violent and dangerous offences and vice versa.”

Fraser quotes extensively from the Department of Corrections’ own reports which show, for example, that nearly a third of convicted murderers go on to re-offend after their release, or that violent robbers are “highly likely” to have previously

HIS/exclusive

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 17

served a light community-based sentence prior to committing crimes further up the scale.

“What is more, in a little known Ministry of Justice document, they admit that “many offenders serving communitybased sentences have offended as seriously as many in prison, or even more so”,2 says Fraser.

“The implication of this quite extraordinary confession is that all of the justice system’s sentencing polices are wrong, based as they are on the erroneous idea that offenders on community supervision do not pose a major threat to the public.

The question this provokes is did the researchers responsible for this analysis know what they were saying or did they not realise that their findings undermine the sentencing strategy of the New Zealand criminal justice system? Or did they hope to hide their conclusions in the forest of information contained on the government web site, because they understood only too well that it undermines the very sentencing policy they continually promote?”

If the criminals serving time in the community are as dangerous as the ones behind bars, says Fraser, then it’s little wonder New Zealand’s crime rates are going through the roof, and it’s little wonder the Government doesn’t want the public to know.

CRIME MYTH #3: HOME DETENTION IS RESERVED FOR NON-VIOLENT OFFENDERS

Back in 1999 when the National Government introduced electronically-monitored Home Detention, the Corrections Department told the public they would be safe. Not only could the electronic ankle bracelets not be removed without setting off alarms everywhere, but Home Detention “will be available for people purely at the lower end of the scale of offending… no serious or violent offenders,” a Corrections spokeswoman told the New Zealand Herald.

So what’s the truth?

“In May 2008,” writes Fraser in Badlands, “figures released by the then Corrections Minister revealed that over half of the 1517 criminals placed on Home Detention in 2007 had convictions for sex crimes, violence and drug offences.

18 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

In other words the public had once again been deceived and contempt shown for its safety by those prepared to exploit yet another opportunity to avoid putting dangerous offenders in prison. The justice officials turned deaf ears to the protest this ignited because eight months later, in June 2009, the new Corrections Minister pointed out that nothing had changed and promised stricter guidelines for potential home detainees.”3 4 To make matters worse, Fraser cites research in the book showing a staggering one in four offenders sentenced to Home Detention sneak off in breach of their conditions. So much for the efficacy of electronic monitoring, and the safety of the community.

CRIME MYTH #4: OFFENDERS ON BAIL POSE LITTLE RISK TO THE COMMUNITY

The Labour Government, with the assistance of then Justice Minister Phil Goff, relaxed the bail laws in 2007 by allowing bail unless police could prove to the court there was a “real and substantial risk” of the bailed offender committing another crime. Think about that for a moment: how can anyone prove there is a “real and substantial” risk of future offending?

Short of a handwritten and signed diary note from a prisoner listing his future criminal intentions, the wording of the bail law made it much harder for judges to refuse bail.

National’s Simon Power changed it in 2008 to remove the phrase “real and substantial” but apparently the message didn’t get through to the courts.

“A man charged with drugging and raping a woman while he was out on bail has been bailed again,” reported the New Zealand Herald this month, “and yesterday his conditions of release were relaxed.”

The man in question is Paulus Nieuwenhuiysen.

“In 2009 he was charged with possession for supply of Ecstasy, methamphetamine and cocaine,” reported the Herald, “and granted electronic monitoring bail to the Waiwera Holiday Park and Thermal Pool. Police say that in February 2010 Niewenhuiysen called a prostitute to the address, spiked her drink and raped her.

“He was taken back into custody, but

in May last year was again released on electronically monitored bail,” reported the paper.

A spokesman for Justice Minister Simon Power told the newspaper the government had done all it could: “We have got tough on this stuff, we’ve made it harder. We’ve raised the threshold for bail, and in the end it is up to the judge’s discretion.”

But under New Zealand’s political system, that’s not entirely true. Parliament can remove judicial discretion if it chooses. Parliament chooses not to.

As David Fraser writes in Badlands: “Even when on remand awaiting trial or sentence for previous crimes, many persistent offenders show not the slightest inhibition about committing further crime. Nothing could make clearer their contempt for the authority of the courts and their disdain for any procedural or legal attempt to curb their criminal and often violent behaviour. A trawl of just some of New Zealand newspapers throws up scores of accounts of property and violent offences committed by those on remand.5 Figures released by the Ministry of Justice show that between 1993 and 2005 approximately 130,000 criminals offended whilst on bail6 7, which represents, in terms of the number of offences committed, a truly dramatic figure.

Neither is electronic monitoring proof against their persistence as examples of offenders removing their bracelets indicate only too well.8 CRIME MYTH #5: SUPERVISION REDUCES RE-OFFENDING

If you listen to criminologists, university academics, social workers and Justice Department officials, they’ll have you believe that community sentences of supervision vastly reduce crime because young offenders are not behind bars, learning new tricks in a so-called ‘university of crime’ from other inmates.

Fraser’s book shoots that down.

“Any hope that young persistent offenders are more able to be influenced by supervision programmes, than older, more experienced criminals, is also undermined by their continued high reconviction rates. The failure of these community sentences to have the slightest reformative effect on them was fur-

ther demonstrated by a report published by the Ministry of Social Development (Te Manatu Whakahiato) in August 2007.9 The report bent over backwards to try and present the results in as favourable light as possible, but could not escape the stark reality that the reconviction rate for the almost 2,000 young criminals was close to 80 per cent, which meant that these supervision orders, made between 2002 and 2007, were a dire failure.

“The futility of this sentencing practice can also be seen from the fact that breaches of community supervision for persistent offenders of all ages (these will be only those for which action is taken) have almost doubled since 1996. In 2005 they accounted for 11% of all convictions as opposed to 7% in 1996.”10 CRIME MYTH #6: NEW ZEALAND’S IMPRISONMENT RATE IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST IN THE WORLD

It’s a claim you hear often, from politicians, social workers and liberal talkback hosts: that New Zealand has one of the highest prison populations in the world, per capita. Expressed like that, the claim is true, but as David Fraser reveals in his book, that’s only half the story and a misleading half at best.

For a start, NZ’s prison population per capita is well behind Estonia’s, as Graph 1 shows.

Fraser discovers that while NZ has one of the highest prison populations per capita, that’s a direct result of New Zealand having a massive crime rate.

Other countries, he says, measure their prison populations against the number of offences committed, to give a truer reflection of what proportion of offenders are being jailed each year. But even though we have a very high crime rate, New Zealand imprisons very few people compared with other countries where up to 15% of offenders are jailed, as Graph 2 shows.

“Countries that lock up more offenders have demonstrably lower crime rates,” writes Fraser.

“The claim that New Zealand has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the western world is highly misleading. Nevertheless many, from different walks of life, believe it is true, making it one of the most successful of all false propaganda messages beloved by the anti-prison

Prisoners per 100.000 population

Prisoners per 100.000 recorded crimes

Estonia

Romania

Latvia

Latvia

Lithuania

Lithuania

Poland

Bulgaria

Czech Republic

Estonia

New Zealand

Slovakia

Romania

Poland

Luxembourg

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Hungary

Bulgaria

Portugal

Hungary

Ireland (Eire)

Spain

Spain

England and Wales

Luxembourg

Scotland

Greece

Netherlands

Italy

Portugal

New Zealand

Austria

Switzerland

Germany

Scotland

Belgium

France

France

Austria

Greece

England and Wales

Northern Ireland

Netherlands Slovenia

Sweden

Northern Ireland

Switzerland

Germany

Ireland(Eire)

Norway

Finland

Finland

Denmark

Belgium

Norway

Denmark

Italy

Sweden

Slovenia 0

100

200

300

400

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

Graph 1

Graph 2

factions both inside and outside of the government. In 2005 a Corrections report declared that New Zealand had a higher imprisonment rate than many other western countries such as UK, Scotland, Canada and Australia.11 In 2006 an MP declared that he was embarrassed that ‘New Zealand locks up 185 inmates per 100,000 of the population, the second highest only to the United States’.12 Earlier, in 2002 a senior theologian, during a lecture, said that ‘New Zealand boasts the second highest rate of imprisonment in the western world’13, a claim that can also be found on the government’s web-site.

“Some academics regard it as a truth written into tablets of stone, and several papers have been published spreading this widely held but distorted view.”14 15

ers, and it exceeds $300,000 a year per offender in insurance premiums and losses, police callouts and investigative time, legal work, health costs and lost wages, uninsured property losses, and personal impact on victims.

Authorities, he says, have failed to detail the real costs “of the 2.5 million crimes committed by those under supervision in the community every year (See Note 2 Chapter 7). At $4,285 per crime (See Note 3 Chapter 7) 16, this amounts to a staggering $10.7 billion, which dwarfs the $720 million running costs for prisons.

“Far from being poor value for money, prisons are a bargain that the community cannot afford to miss. Based on the 2.5 million figure quoted above, each of the 30,000 offenders under supervision in the community commits at least 83 offences every year (a wholly believable number – research from Britain found offenders entering jail had committed on average 140 offences in the previous year.”17 Fraser estimates that although it does cost taxpayers a lot to keep 8000 crimi-

CRIME MYTH #7: THE COST OF KEEPING A PRISONER JAILED IS $100,000 PER ANNUM

Well, yes it is. In Badlands, however, David Fraser reveals for the first time the cost to taxpayers of not jailing offend-

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 19

Have you been a victim of any kind of crime in your you know someo ne who has. This bo ok tells you, in language, how su ccessive governm en kept you in th ts released prisoners are reconvictedand bureau e dark aboutwho New Ze willing al an d’s crime rat over a given period of time, but not for

But why would so many people be those on parole, , and the percentto mislead the public? Like climate THE MYTH: “Hage of parolees re-imprisoned, but not ome detention will scientists looking for extra funding, en Fraser be av ai reconvicted.

Thus they avoid giving the lable fo d of the scale of off r people pu en di ng ... no public any idea how serious is the crime se rio argues keeping alive the crime myths us or – Cis vi orreall olent offende ctions Dept, 1999 problem posed by parolees in terms of the about funding and empire building THE REALITY: “O ver haoflf offences number the 1517they commit.

19 20 21

22

criminals placed on 2007 had convictio home d “Yet be nsthis forisseinformation x imes, theyenshould – BADLANDS given as of right cr cewho and drug offen because itviisolthey

nals in jail each year, it prevents each of those 8000 criminals from committing a further 83 crimes on average (around one every four days), whilst they are incarcerated. Those crimes average out at a cost of $4,285 each, or more than $355,000 a year per offender. Suddenly the $100K cost to jail a felon for a year looks cheap.

“At a cost of $4,285 per crime,” says Fraser, “this saves in money terms alone, $2.8 billion in crime costs every year, which represents a massive saving compared with prison running costs per year of just $720 million for this number of inmates.”

The more offenders we jail, he says, the more money taxpayers will actually save – even if our prison population doubles or triples – because the costs of crime in the community each year will drop by around three times more than the increased cost of incarceration.

“Almost all of the information disseminated to the New Zealand public about prisons is highly misleading and frequently incorrect. The media, some members of parliament, and government publications, often repeat the propaganda of the well-organised and vociferous antiprison lobby. This claims that there are too many people in prison, that New Zealand has the second highest imprisonment rate in the western world, that prisons fail and are colleges of crime, that prisons are ‘human dustbins’ with negative regimes, and that prisons are more expensive than the alternative of placing the offender on some form of community supervision.”

But why would so many people be willing to mislead the public? Like climate scientists looking for extra funding, Fraser argues keeping alive the crime myths is all about funding and empire building.

“By persuading many that crime is complex, the high wizards of criminology have created for themselves a rationale

20 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

bear the brunt of these offences. A senior THEwhat MYTthey for endless research to pursue official the Parole Board, in response H: “New Zealaofnd ’s murder rasaid te isinfaSeptemTHE RE define as the ‘difficult questions thrown to a request lling” – NZ Police ALITY: “Whilst th for this data, e tr ip lin g of th up by criminology’. For example, in 2004 ber 2010, that “it was not easy to get”. e murder23rate may se doctors are now savi em ng thwhen e liv es yet another study was conducted into the Similarly, recently asked this of thousandfors of who four decades ag vi ct im s of vio o wouldthe criminal behaviour of high risk offendhaMinister ve died of anJustice’s d ente – BA LANDS information, ers by a senior official in order toDdevelop reply spoke reams about how anxiousred the murde ‘more effective treatment programmes’. the government is to ensure that the THE MYTH: “A cl inpublic The real purpose of this gobbledegook never therefore how ical ps ychofind logiout, st wand ithisseinx maintainSafe,after offender treatment saidthe [only] 24 is empire building. The chase complicit the government per cent of sex offen ders reoff te was halved if ing illusory goal of ‘effective ra treatment’ a parole system that it knows, despite ended within they attended treatm en t always fails of course, but– holds out hope its claims of success, exposes the public pr ogrammes.”

NZ Herald, 2008 for budget increases, more an to great danger.

His reply was as follows: THjobs E REand ALITY: “It is now kncrime ow n increased power base forsu those working “data on committed on parole that no form of ‘triseanot ccessfully reformed a paed with offenders.”18 available, and to would be a tment’ has ophiproduce le …” –it BA D be justiNDS time-consuming task that cannot LA CRIME MYTH #8: EARLY PAROLE fied in terms of the resources required to 24 There is so muchconsolidate HELPS REHABILITATE OFFENDmore yoit”. u haven’about t been a journey of disc “What ERS BACK INTO SOCIETY is remarkable thisto is the ld, every pag overy. Written by fo Academics and social workers will tell casual dismissal of information whose rm Intelligence Servi er N at ional Crimi ce analyscould t annot you that because prisoners more d Prbeob atioobvious.

Frashave n er, BtoAbeDLANDimportance Service adviso will op released at the end of their ItSsurely cannot be ur theey case that he fails en yo es Newsentences to w Ze hat’s really c al an d’s hotorrunderstand ific crime its anyway, we are better off releasing them Then why rasignificance. te. early on parole and supervising them. prevaricate? Is it not obvious that the This argument might be true if superneed to disseminate this information ISBN 978-0-95 BAD LA vision was really effective, but it isn’t. justifies the effort spent on NDS: Thmore e mthan ostit?

Additionally, the costslatowthe community producing and order book ev controversial er publisanxiety of renewed crime when hed over this in criminals New Zare ealand “If the government’s released is far greater than the costs of matter stems from its fear it will lose keeping someone in prison full-term. public support for the parole system if the 9 780958 24 In his book, Fraser again shoots this true extent of its failure becomes known, myth down: then it has good reason to be concerned,” “Despite the favourable spin Corsays Fraser. rections want to create for them, the With his book packed full of exploparole reconviction rates, displayed [in sive information about New Zealand’s Badlands], of approximately 45 per cent crime rate, and more than 600 refermeasured over two years illustrate what ences, author David Fraser has ignited a a failure the system is. Seen through the fuse under this year’s election campaign, eyes of the public, as opposed to those by putting the law and order problem of officials, and based on the number of squarely on the political agenda. parolees released every year, this is likely Badlands, by David Fraser, Howling to represent a deluge of crime, though At The Moon Publishing, $41.90, on-sale just how much is a secret the government from April 28 is keen to keep to itself, as this figure is noticeably absent from this report.

References for this story are “Other documents also sidestep this downloadable from issue, and report the percentage of all www.investigatemagazine.com/badrefs.pdf

urely at the lower ers”

detention in nces”

t programme 15 years. That ever

Badlands

e, 2011 m bad … olent attacks er statistics”

David Fraser

r life? Maybe n ordinary ucrats have te.

ge is inal or David causing

David Fraser

with forewords b Theodore Dalr y y & Garth McVica mple r

582401-8-5

40185

HATM Publishing

BADLANDS

by David Fras er Onsale 28 April from PaperPlu s, Take Note, The Warehouse , Dymocks, Wh itcoulls, Border and all good bo s okstores, or or der direct at w w w. h o w l i n gatthemoon. cHISMAGAZINE.TV om May 2011

21

22 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

HIS/analysis

The COMING

STORM

CHINA EMERGING AS MILITARY THREAT IN PACIFIC

F

ormer Prime Minister Helen Clark once said New Zealand lived in “a benign strategic environment”. On the strength of that claim she disbanded the strike arm of the Royal New Zealand Air Force – a fleet of Skyhawk jets carrying stateof-the-art avionics and weapons – that last month were consigned to museums.

Ironically, that’s because the Government couldn’t get US approval to sell them, as the jets were modern enough to pose a threat to US forces or for enemies to make use of their technology.

But now a new defence research study in Australia raises crucial questions about the kind of ‘benign environment’ this part of the world really faces in the next two decades, and it’s a report raising hairs on the back of the neck for analysts.

“The security environment is likely to be markedly different,” warns Australian defence anaylyst Dr Ross Babbage in the new report.1 “This will largely be a consequence of the very rapid rise of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and China’s more assertive behaviour which directly challenges United States and allied forces in the Western Pacific.”

What Babbage is referring to is China’s massive military spend – effectively the largest re-armament and expansion taking place anywhere on the planet. Fleets

WORDS BY IAN WISHART of warships, aircraft carriers, submarines, fighter jets and new missile systems are being developed or rolling off the production lines, often in secrecy, thanks to the industrialisation coming online as a result of a new power station being built every couple of weeks.

The sleeping giant of Asia is stirring, and ironically its Mordor-like furnaces and factories are being fuelled by uranium and steel out of Australia and coal from New Zealand.

Where is it all heading? If you listen to the politicians putting a brave face on Chinese expansion, it’s about “free trade” and “access to the world’s largest emerging market”. Privately, in meetings that never get brought to the attention of the news media, there is concern about China’s growing reach and its apparently imperial ambitions. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has raised the issue with Prime Minister John Key. In his strategic analysis, the Kokoda Foundation’s Babbage warns of “an urgent need to refocus ADO (Australian Defence Organisation) development for the next two decades on the direct defence of Australia to offset and deter the rapidly-expanding PLA in Australia’s approaches.”

With a population of 1.5 billion, China has the capacity to throw more men into its armed forces than any other nation on the planet. And with its “one child”

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 23

policy and preference for aborting girl children, there’s a surplus of military age single men who may never find a mate or have a family. Their energies will be channelled into whatever China wants them to do.

Even so, despite its huge population, up until now China has not had the capacity to throw vast armies into the field, because it doesn’t have the logistical capacity to extend its military power offshore. It’s all very well having access to a hundred million troops, but if you don’t have enough planes and ships to transport or protect them then your army is mostly for show. Until now.

“The scale, pattern and speed of the PLA’s development is altering security in the Western Pacific,” writes Babbage.

“This rapidly shifting strategic balance has profound consequences for Australia’s security priorities and also for those of the United States and other allies and friends in this theatre [code for New Zealand].

“It is the contention of this paper that Australia and its close allies should not seek to confront China unless forced to do so by extreme PLA actions. Rather, the intent should be to offset and balance the PLA’s more threatening force developments and operations, deter adventurism and work to restore regional confidence.”

The US Secretary of Defense has made pretty much the same observations in his report to Congress last year, noting many

24 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

of the Chinese moves appear “designed to improve the PLA’s ability for extendedrange power projection, although China’s ability to sustain military power at a distance, today, remains limited.”

C

hina might have a large army, but it could not currently successfully invade New Zealand, for example. The distance from their home bases makes it impossible for the Chinese air force to hit New Zealand, and at 10000km to 11000km we are currently on the absolute range limits of Chinese strategic missiles. China does not have enough troop ships, or aircraft carriers to protect them, to strike meaningfully this far from home. New Zealand’s Skyhawks, had they been retained, would have been capable of seeing off any naval invasion force (the RNZAF Skyhawks were able to penetrate US and British naval air defences in joint military exercises and ‘sink’ incoming warships).

But that benign state of affairs is about to change.

America’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review Report notes, “China is developing and fielding large numbers of advanced medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles, new attack submarines equipped with advanced weapons, increasingly capable long-range air defense systems, electronic warfare and computer network attack capabilities,

advanced fighter aircraft, and counterspace systems.”

But perhaps the Americans were putting it mildly. In the just released Babbage report, he writes: “The PLA capabilities of concern to Australia’s national security planners are: 00 The fielding of highly sophisticated wide-area surveillance and targeting systems that are designed to give senior commanders of the PLA the capacity to monitor in real-time and, if desired, strike adversary spacecraft, aircraft, ships and submarines across large expanses of the Western Pacific.

00 The deployment of modern cruise and ballistic missile systems with the capability to attack both fixed and mobile targets in large parts of the Western Pacific.

00 New classes of both nuclear and conventionally-powered submarines with over 40 new boats being commissioned since 1995.

00 The commissioning of several new classes of surface combatants armed with exceptionally capable stealthy, supersonic cruise missiles and other advanced weaponry.

00 The modernisation and expansion of China’s fighter-bomber and airborne strike capabilities.

00 The substantial modernisation, expansion and hardening of China’s missile and fighter air defences.

00 Growing capabilities for space warfare,

including those for the interception and destruction of satellites.

00 Exceptionally strong investments being made in cyber capabilities.

00 A sophisticated, modern and well protected command and control network.

00 The modernisation, expansion and protection of strategic nuclear forces.

“The trajectory of these PLA developments suggests that many of the fundamental assumptions on which Australia’s and our Western allies’ security planning have been based since the Second World War are now being challenged,” warns Babbage.

With American bases in Guam, Japan and elsewhere now within range of Chinese attack capability, Babbage says there’s no guarantee that at some point China won’t stage a Pearl Harbour style strike that devastates US capacity in the Pacific, and that has immediate flow-on implications for Australia and New Zealand.

“The assumption that in the event of a major security crisis in the Pacific Australia could rely on speedy and tailored military resupply from the United States is also almost certainly invalid. These developments have fundamental implications for Australia’s defence strategy, planning and priorities.”

Babbage’s report lists four options for Australia, which range from relying on the status quo (unsafe for the reasons

stated above) through to effectively going it alone with sufficient military expansion to keep China off Australian soil.

Babbage favours development toward the latter, because of America’s dwindling strength and the danger of its Pacific bases being over-run. To achieve selfdefence capability against a major power, Babbage says Australia would have to expand (not scrap) its air combat and air defence systems, invest in cyber-warfare strategies capable of hitting Chinese communication and logistics, and invest in a fleet of possibly nuclear powered attack submarines. But he argues the best of both worlds is to offer the United States permanent bases on Australian soil. Not only would that strengthen Australia’s northern defences, he says, but it would also give the US military capacity in areas harder for the Chinese to hit and with more time for advance warning of any missile attack.

China’s preparations for some kind of future event appear to be well underway.

The nation has been almost unstoppable in its diplomatic outreach to tiny Pacific island states, paying for extended airports and bigger, deeper port facilities, and setting up satellite stations on some islands.

Ostensibly, such gifts have been packaged as “aid” for tourism and economic development purposes to tiny states like Tonga, Niue, Fiji or others, but cynics have noted the synergies that might flow

from better airport or port facilities on islands within striking distance of New Zealand or Australia.

W

ith opinion polls showing growing resentment in New Zealand at Chinese purchases of New Zealand businesses, and particularly farmland – especially when New Zealanders do not have the reciprocal right to set up their own wholly-owned companies in China or the right to buy farmland in China (it all has to be joint venture with a majority Chinese partner or leased) – the Government is walking a tightrope in how it sells our relationship with that country: will China be permitted to take economic control of New Zealand over the next couple of decades in the hope it avoids military action, or are New Zealanders happy to pay the price for a much bigger military budget than we currently allow?

As more than one US media commentator has noted in the past two years, America is now so indebted to China that the interest payments from America are effectively funding the new military equipment that China may eventually use against America – the ultimate irony of the uneasy boundary between freemarket capitalism and imperialism.

References 1. http://www.kokodafoundation.org/ Resources/Documents/KP15StrategicEdge.pdf

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 25

Road Snails & Other Menaces

Have Police Become Distracted

By Easy Targets?

A former school principal turned education consultant questions road-policing strategies

I

WORDS BY ROGER MARCON

t’s a funny thing. Despite the pre holiday media hype from the Police about their increased presence on our roads, I saw only five police cars outside built up areas on the entire journey – three being driven, and two parked alongside the road. In addition I passed one strategically parked blue van containing a camera and operator. It is possible of course, that I missed others. While I appreciate that Police resources are thinly spread at peak holiday times around a range of additional duties, I found this tiny presence on our roads, which were all busy with holiday traffic, somewhat remarkable, since I was driving mainly on major highways.

Then there’s the issue of road snails. Despite the annual Police rhetoric about getting tough on slow drivers holding up holiday traffic, I encountered literally dozens of these drivers doing exactly that. Somewhat surprisingly, they were not the typical camper van and caravan drivers, who on this trip were, with one notable exception, mainly courteous and considerate. The slow drivers represented the single most obvious and significant driving hazard I encountered, and my observations and conversations with others confirm that I was not alone in that experience. These are not just slow drivers; many are clearly incompetent drivers who are incapable of handling a vehicle at open road speeds. They are inconsiderate drivers who despite the presence on their vehicles of two exterior rear view mirrors, and an internal one, either do not use them, or choose to ignore what they see. I imagine that these drivers actually believe they are driving safely because they are driving slowly. I base this hypothesis upon the outraged or disapproving looks (or tooted horns) in my direction whenever I was fortunate enough to overtake them.

26 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

HIS/essay

HISMAGAZINE.TV May Mar 2011 27

Then there’s the issue of speeding.

Problem? Or not?

Over the holiday period, statistics were published about speed camera infringements and other convictions for speeding. I found the enormous numbers barely believable. The siting of many cameras seems designed to trick drivers in order to gain revenue. I know this is not a new thought – but just look at the compelling evidence of these numbers. I simply do not believe that any more than a handful of these convicted drivers were driving dangerously, thoughtlessly or recklessly. Some of the camera sites are familiar to me and the revenue gathered by them seems to be so large as to be blatant extortion. Some questions pose themselves here and I wish to see some credible answers rather than pathetic mantras paraded constantly to the driving public about speed. In some cases the camera placement alone, articulates the intention most clearly.

00 How many of those drivers were

Their behaviour is categorised by the following: 00 Travelling on the open road at 60-90

km/h with lines of traffic behind them

00 Slowing down or braking for every

corner in the road and more so where the corner is speed signed 00 Riding the white line, thus preventing any driver behind them having a clear view of the road ahead or making a safe overtaking manoeuvre 00 Often engaged in animated conversation with other passengers as evidenced by gesticulations 00 Encountering a passing lane, these drivers feel confident with the extra width of the road and immediately attain the speed limit, thus effectively ensuring that all drivers behind them remain there or break the speed limit to overtake 00 Ignoring slow lanes and places to safely pull off the road to allow traffic to pass 00 At night these behaviours are exaggerated further to include driving with lights permanently on dipped position to ensure that no following driver

28 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

can see beyond the range of offending driver’s lights 00 A sub-group also exists; the timid drivers who sit behind the slow driver and are afraid to overtake because of either a lack of skills or the fear of being caught for speeding, consequently making the problem more difficult for following vehicles by extending the overtaking hazard Such drivers are I suspect, only occasional open road users and more comfortable with the under 50 km/h speeds within city limits. They are without doubt the least considerate group of drivers on our roads.

What are the Police really doing about this group who are the cause of anger, resentment, frustration, and whose actions lead at times lead to poor overtaking decisions by other drivers? If they are doing anything at all there will be evidence in the form of convictions!

Is it time to consider city limits licence restrictions for some drivers? Or is it time such identified drivers were compelled to undertake open road driver training?

endangering others when snapped by cameras?

00 Where is the evidence which demonstrates a relationship between minor speeding infringements such as a camera infringement and serious or accident inducing behaviour?

00 Where are the statistics for convicted slow drivers? How many have been convicted?

00 And critically, how are driver’s attitudes and respect for the Police affected by – 1. The placement and operation of cameras? The ever increasing speed restrictions, overtaking restrictions and endless double yellow lines?

2. The lack of any real intention to deal with the“boy racer” problem at one end of the spectrum and the inconsiderate slow drivers at the other end?

3. The fact that most drivers caught speeding by cameras or by Patrol officers, are in fact endangering noone; they have been giving attention to the road and momentarily not had their eyes on the speedometer.

4. The fact that the vast majority of drivers just wish to complete their journey safely, have driven with due regard for the rules of the road and

other road users, and have no significant convictions but are justifiably angry when caught and convicted by Police for a minor speeding infringement with its attendant fine and demerit points.

I would particularly like to see published evidence of slow driver convictions for comparative purposes and to see proof that the Police are as serious about this problem as they regularly claim to be. I suspect the comparison would odious in the extreme, and particularly for anyone who has experienced lengthy queues of traffic behind such a driver. I further suspect that there are no convictions or a tiny number only. I imagine we would hear much about warnings given to such drivers. Warnings however, don’t count, since warnings are not included in the speeding statistics, nor do they represent a serious intent on the part of Police to address the issue.

What Police are doing is bringing in stopwatches to time motorists.

I

n a recent newspaper report, the Police indicated that they are considering introducing average speed cameras on a number of roads in NZ. If we needed any further proof that our Police have no original ideas about road policing, this must surely be just that.

This idea comes from the UK where there are more than 7000 fixed speed cameras making driving an utter misery for all, and where an overwhelming set of data shows clearly that cameras have not impacted on safety, but have raised billions of pounds in revenue. In recent years, average speed cameras (a group of cameras which measure a vehicle’s speed on entry to the road, record it at several stages along the route and at the exit, then compute whether a driver has exceeded the limit at any point of the journey) have been introduced. Drivers who have exceeded the limit are sent an infringement notice and an instant payment demand. Having regularly driven on a road in the UK where average speed cameras are in use, I can say they are effective in reducing speeds since every driver is petrified of an infringement but at the same time, everyone drives with eyes constantly on the speedometer

instead of the road, and the raised tension for all drivers is palpable. Intriguingly, the accident statistics for these roads remain the same as before the installation. In many cases the accidents at or near fixed speed camera sites have increased! Is this really something any of us wants in NZ? This is yet another one of those “it sounds like a good idea so it must be” scenarios which have become common in the road policing.

There is such an obsession with speed by our Police that we have already become speedo-watchers, and thus we are endangering everyone else on the road through our lack of attention to the road and the conditions. We have become afraid to overtake slow vehicles lest we nudge our vehicle over 100km/h while doing so. This situation is utterly absurd since the safest form of overtaking is to spend as little time on the other side of the road as is possible. I was taught as a young driver to overtake quickly and return to the left and assume normal speed. It always was, and it remains, good safe advice, and I still attempt to do it, but these days with the hope that I will not be caught speeding. We have a common situation now where on a long passing lane only one or two vehicles are able to pass slower traffic. It has never been stated to my knowledge but I suspect that the Police are working towards a no overtaking regime (apart from passing lanes) in NZ. There is so much yellow paint on our roads now that overtaking is simply not possible in many places for kilometres at a time (example – the first 100 km north of Wellington) and are often in places where it would be safe for a competent driver to do so. We are being treated by enforcement authorities as incompetent fools who must be constantly guided or restricted.

I believe New Zealanders accept this constant emphasis on speed far too willingly.

Modern vehicles have much better handling, have many electronic safety aides, our roads are constantly being improved, and we have very modest speed limits

by world standards. The vast majority of us are not criminally inclined or incompetent in our driving judgements, yet we suffer interminable pompous harping from Police about speed and we pay for and are criminalised by infringements which endanger no-one. We have all experienced situations where we waited patiently behind a slower vehicle until a passing lane, then had it speed up in front of us, but passed it anyway to prevent being held up further along the road, only to find a Police patrol car further ahead on the passing lane. In such instances we were patient, made a safe decision in a safe place, only to be caught and fined as a consequence of that safe decision. The Police do their image and respect no favours in those situations.

They deserve our contempt rather than our respect when ordinary law abiding citizens are treated with such callous disregard. There would be few drivers who have never experienced or witnessed such occurrences.

I formed another theory as I drove this holiday break. I believe the Police focus so much upon speeding and alcohol as the causes of accidents – not because they are the main causes, (a comprehensive analysis of statistics shows multiple causes) but because they are the two aspects which are easiest to measure.

Measuring speed is a relatively simple matter of calibrated speed detectors and GPS devices make that

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 29

truly accurate at last. Measuring alcohol is also a cut and dried affair with roadside detectors followed up by blood tests which we all accept as accurate.

I am not arguing here that speed and alcohol are not important causes, and I believe strongly that they should receive due attention, but I am arguing that other causes may be of at least similar or perhaps of greater significance, but are largely ignored because they are less easy to address.

Aspects such as the following: 00 Driving age. There is huge evidence

to support a driving age of 17 years or above since brain functions and ability to make prudent judgements are not fully formed at younger ages, yet our government compromised this when it had the opportunity to change it in 2010. The Gov’t feared that its rural support base would be unhappy with the change that was really necessary.

00 Driver education. How much emphasis is given to open road instruction and practice, or to driving etiquette? What screening is done to

30 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

ensure those who should never drive, cannot drive, or those who should not drive until they mature fully are given additional tuition and time? Driving was never a right, but it is now seems to be regarded as such.

00 Driver competence. How good are our instructors? Who monitors them and their pupils? Once driving, a young person is simply assumed to become competent over time. Perhaps the most effective system in ensuring safer young drivers would be a graduated testing regime. Since many of our road deaths occur on rural roads there should be a much greater emphasis upon open road skills for young drivers.

00 Vehicle power restrictions. We have had this for many years for motorcyclists. It must be easily possible for car drivers. Why not restrict the engine capacity for a beginner driver to less than 1000cc for the first three years?

00 Car crushing. We have a history in NZ of our politicians talking tough about the law, but the experience of perforated wet bus tickets being the

reality. Car crushing? So how many cars have you crushed Minister? You put in place legislation with so many “buts” that it is unlikely anyone will lose their car. And how many young people in high powered cars have died, or killed others since this legislation was ushered in with a great deal of noise? Let us have the statistics please.

It is clear that this was nothing but a “make the voters feel good” piece of fluffy nonsense. If we are going to threaten tough action then we need to see it and its effects being felt, with the messages being very clear to all, if the desired change is to occur.

00 High quality research into the real and actual causes of accidents.

With current technology it is possible to measure more than just the old favourites. What about the impact of fatigue, of drugs, driver competence and experience levels, driving in inclement weather, road quality issues, distractions… for a start?

00 Driver lifestyle impact. Driver profiles. It is known that some driver profiles (foolhardy risk takers as demonstrated by other lifestyle choices) are very much over represented in accident statistics. Let us see some greater effort to identify these demographics and even the individuals.

00 Signs. There are so many signs, lights, signals, advertising hoardings, and endless paint spayed over the roads and their environment that it is often difficult to take so much information in while driving. European research from the Netherlands shows that drivers respect each other, and allow greater tolerance for all road users where there are only essential signs and a centre line on the road. We do not need all the “nanny state” directions, instructions and exhortations; they constitute a greater danger than a safeguard.

Let’s have some research instead of the “it looks/sounds good so it must be” approach.

00 Variable speeds for different roads. The blunt instrument of a single speed limit for all roads is utterly insulting to a majority of competent drivers. It would be sensible to set lower limits for some roads or sections of road. There are already examples

of this where 80 or 90 km/h limits are in place. Equally, there are sections of roads where higher limits of say 120km/h would be safe. Drivers are perfectly capable of managing such matters, and particularly if some of the totally unnecessary signs are eliminated.

00 The presence of large numbers of drivers trained (to varying standards) in other countries. We are a tourism destination, and have hundreds of thousands of recent immigrants. We therefore have significant numbers of drivers who are unfamiliar with our roads, our vehicles, our rules, and our weather conditions. There are large numbers of drivers who are controlling vehicles travelling on the left hand side of the road for the first time in their lives. Where are the statistics for foreign trained drivers having, or being the cause of accidents? Who ensures that training or re-training of such drivers has taken place?

Finally, I appreciate that the Police have a difficult and at times dangerous role in the management of roads in NZ. Like most others, I wish to respect the Police in carrying out this role, and I support many of their initiatives. However Police leadership has remained stubbornly focussed upon two major themes in the past ten years and it is clear to everyone that this approach is not working very well. There has been some laudable reduction in fatalities despite the increasing number of vehicles, but that has not come about with any sense of partnership from the driving public [and arguably has more to do with soaring petrol prices, fewer kilometres travelled and better safety features on newer Japanese imports – Ed.]. Drivers feel strongly that they are pawns in a revenue game, or of punitive petty regimes, or of quota systems and that they are too often treated as targets by Police enforcement officers.

Evidence in the form of tickets handed out to the driving public is not evidence of improvements in driving safety. It is more likely that such evidence is evidence of public frustration and anger directed at the Police. At present Police efforts are undermined by the narrow focus, by a failure to understand that some

of their existing strategies alienate the very people they need to influence, and seemingly by a failure to understand that every driver has a genuine desire to reach a destination safely and drives sensibly to achieve that.

If we are to make serious inroads into the fatalities and serious accidents situation we need a real spirit of cooperation and shared responsibility. Police must lead this responsibly and develop a variety of strategies to engage the driving public. Future strategies need to fundamentally change the relationship from “cat and mouse” to a more cooperative model which builds respect and maintains dignity for both sectors.

That will mean some fundamental changes for Police, and a willingness to be engaged by the public. It will need some Government involvement in policy and legislation to facilitate the process. It will also need the support of the judiciary who seem at times to support the convicted driver’s right to drive ahead of the rights of all other road users to be safe.

Such measures alongside some really effective screening, training, and monitoring of emerging drivers, quality research into the multiple causes of accidents, and a serious targeting of incompetence,

would lead to a lower toll on the roads.

For most New Zealanders driving is a necessary part of our social and working lives, and is likely to remain so. I believe it is time to see some new thinking about the old challenges, some truly cooperative attitude changes between Police and the driving public, and some strong measures which address the most dangerous individuals on our roads instead of criminalising those who drive safely and to the conditions, using experience and wisdom to reach our destinations safely.

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 31

dancing between the raindrops

THE MATT MCCONAUGHEY INTERVIEW WORDS BY STEVEN ZEITCHIK/LATIMES

M

atthew McConaughey has just cracked open his second Corona when the man wearing Mardi Gras beads and a Village People policeman’s cap approaches his car.

“Do you know Duane?” the inebriatedlooking man asks with suspicion, poking his head inside the window and gesturing to the house the car happens to be parked in front of. “Because I’m just giving you a word to the wise. He’s hypersensitive about security and things like that.

He’ll have his people come and shake you down.”

It’s 9:30 on a Tuesday night, and McConaughey is sitting in the back of a black SUV with crime novelist Michael Connelly.

They’re high above the lights of Los Angeles on a twisty and noiseless street in Laurel Canyon, nursing beers and reflecting on the actor’s role as on-the-make attorney Mickey Haller in the adaptation of Connelly’s “The Lincoln Lawyer.”

Parked down the street from Connelly’s onetime residence – which served as inspiration for Haller’s home – they discuss the building’s remove from the city and how it symbolizes Haller’s status as a legal-system outsider. Neither of them know Duane.

“You like Mardi Gras?” Connelly deadpans to the 50-ish interloper, who has emerged from a home nearby to offer his unsolicited warning. The man begins an enthusiastic affirmative answer, and Connelly further defuses a fraught situation, saying he used to live up the street, and downshifts to small talk about Beverly D’Angelo, who lives here too. Growing excited, the stranger responds with a semi-coherent story about how D’Angelo has been engaged in a rivalry with actress Carrie Fisher over a role. Then he walks away.

“Well, daa-yam,” McConaughey says in his Texas drawl, laughing as he turns to Connelly. “You could have written a whole novel right there. The Croatian gangsters come, Mickey Haller sorts it all out. Beverly D’Angelo is saved.”

It’s a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in McConaughey’s new legal thriller, where Haller, a small-time lawyer who instead of an office works from a Lincoln Town Car, offering backseat banter and attitude to clients and antagonists alike.

Brad Furman’s Los Angeles-shot and -set film examines what happens when Haller is called upon to defend Louis Roulet

32 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

(Ryan Phillippe), scion of a wealthy Beverly Hills family who’s accused of attempted rape and attempted murder.

It’s less a victim tale than a chess match; Roulet is not as innocent as he appears, and Haller soon finds himself in a legal and moral quagmire.

But if McConaughey’s rakish playfulness is evident as he talks about the movie, the part – his first dramatic role after five years of romantic comedies – also has him in a philosophical mood. “With a romantic comedy, the goal is not to hit too hard. It’s a jab. It’s a spar,” McConaughey says. “This is like a Frazier-Ali fight. Ali could have his best day and still lose. This is basic survival.”

It’s also the actor’s first role as a lawyer since his turn as Jake Brigance in A Time to Kill vaulted him to stardom 15 years ago, and McConaughey says the onscreen job suits him.

“I always thought I was going to do criminal defense law for a living,” he says. “It’s actually close to the job of an actor or an artist. The defense attorney is a storyteller. He has to weave the web of reasonable doubt, tell the story that could” – he puts his hands together and snakes them through the air – “have happened like this, or could have happened like that.”

As McConaughey has his driver take him and Connelly to the author’s former home, the actor pulling Coronas from a cooler next to his seat and offering bottles and limes to his ride mates, he says the experience of shooting across the city was an education. “We’d go to neighbourhoods I’d never been to, that many people in L.A. have never seen, areas where you can feel a sense of desperation. Mothers and kids are walking in the park in the same square footage as the guys from the gang,” he says.

Connelly has written more than two dozen crime-fiction bestsellers, most of them set in Los Angeles. But Lincoln Lawyer, which features his best-known character after Det. Harry Bosch (not yet seen on screen), marks only his second book to be filmed. (The Clint Eastwood-directed Blood Work came out in 2002.) Connelly is poised to win a long legal battle with

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 33

Paramount over Bosch rights .

A former Los Angeles Times reporter, the novelist had little input on “Blood Work,” which proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment. But on this one he met with McConaughey before production and came to the set to talk to Furman, who directed from a script by John Romano. Months before McConaughey was cast, Connelly recalls watching the actor in Tropic Thunder and telling his wife he thought McConaughey would make a good Mickey Haller.

“Really? I didn’t know that was my audition tape,” McConaughey says, chuckling.

“This story requires constant momentum,” Connelly replies. “Things are always in motion. And Matthew looks like he’s in motion even when he’s standing still.”

McConaughey nods his head in agreement. “Momentum and hunger are baseline components of that character.

He’s always running to something ... even if he’s not sure where he’s going.”

T

he 41-year-old has just flown in from Toronto and, though he lives with his girlfriend, Brazilian TV personality Camila Alves, and their two young children in Malibu, he’s staying in LA city this night ahead of promotional appearances the next morning.

“Movement is something I instinctually really like. Even if you’re standing still,” he says. “It’s part of what gets me turned on. I have some sense of movement in every relationship – to my work, to my life, to my own happiness.” He turns reflective, his voice taking on a certain musicality. “Sitting still does not mean you’re not moving. Sometimes you go backward. In youth you go and head butt certain things, and you stop and you bang ‘em and you bang ‘em and you bang ‘em. As you get older you realize – just dance on around it. Slide on by. Dance between the raindrops.”

But when asked what specific hurdles he’s learned to sidestep, the actor keeps it abstract. “I love sports, spatial sense, athleticism,” he answers. “You bob and you weave, and you dance and you move and you roll and you come out the other side dry as a bone.”

Raised in Longview, Texas, McCo-

34 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

naughey spent many years as a favourite of the celebrity media, a poster child for the bachelor life. That changed when he got together with Alves. But McConaughey says that it hasn’t been that dramatic a switch. “For me it was a bit of a myth where people go ‘You have kids and your life screeches to a halt,’” he says.

“You just recalibrate certain things.”

McConaughey took two years off for his family after Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and now wants to delve more into dramas like Lawyer and the movies of his early career. (Furman thinks the actor here “gets back to his early signature roles like Dazed and Confused and Lone Star where he was like Marlon Brando; he was roughneck but he was cool.”)

“I’m more inspired by what I get to do

an as actor than I’ve ever been,” McConaughey says. He’s trying to develop several passion projects, including The Dallas Buyer’s Club a 1980s drama about an AIDS patient that several stars have tried to get off the ground.

As the car wends its way down Laurel Canyon and across Sunset Boulevard, the conversation turns to Lincoln Lawyer themes. “I like promoting it because there’s something to engage with and talk about. It’s life and death,” McConaughey says.

As for his desire for more dramatic roles, McConaughey takes an Eastern approach. “I think it comes down to that Confucius line: Change the things you can,” he says. “Don’t worry about the things you can’t.”

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36 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

HIS action /DRIVE 38 The new MINI Damien O’Carroll puts the MINI Countryman to the test

/SPORT 40 Cup buildup Chris Forster looks at the last minute prep

/INVEST 42 Bad deals There are wide boys who’ll rob you at the point of a pen, writes Peter Hensley

/MONEY 44 Gold is peaking If you’ve been thinking about gold investment, you are probably too late

Highway robbery >>

Be careful which investment offers you take up – some can be robbery by another name

42

HIS/INVEST

drive

mini goes MINI WORDS BY DAMIEN O’CARROLL

M

y first ever Mini experience was in particularly unpleasant example owned by a school mate. It was painted that nasty shade of brown that British Leyland reserved especially to make the few good-looking cars they produced look as awful as the rest of them and it boasted a primitive form of air conditioning in the form of a massive hole in the passenger’s side footwell. It

38 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

was awful, but Dear Lord it was fun.

Next came one of my own – a slightly more road-worthy 1974 Mini 1000, resplendent in a sickly shade of blue.

Apart from a bastard bit of oil line that would constantly let go, squirting oil everywhere, and the brakes disappearing one day, necessitating the use of one of my mother’s favourite trees to stop it, it would serve me almost faultlessly for a

number of years, despite its age and the appalling treatment it received…

The abuse that both those cars took, and the massive amounts of fun they gave in return, convinced me now and forever that Minis are awesome.

The relentless march of time would eventually see the original Mini transform from a cleverly packaged, massively fun original idea into a tiny, cramped, massively fun death-trap without any effort from the car or those who made it.

Attempts were made by various owners of the brand to replace it, but nothing worked until BMW came along.

Salvaging only Mini from its disastrous attempt at running Rover, BMW developed a replacement for the long-running original, jumping several generations – and a number of sizes – in one go to give us the new Mini. Or MINI, as BMW insist it be written, one would like to think in a wry nod to the fact that the new Mini was anything but mini anymore…

And now they have gone one up on themselves with the new Countryman by making it even bigger again.

Conceived for the sort of person who

HIS/action

liked the idea of a new Mini, but needed something with four doors and a usable boot, the Countryman was born with the justification of 4WD for its increase in size. I assume the thinking went a little like this: we need an even bigger Mini with four doors. If we make it 4WD then we can pretend it is a small SUV. Except it’s not. It’s just a larger Mini with two extra doors, more rear legroom and a bigger boot. But needless justification aside, the Countryman does actually work. And quite well too, it has to be said.

Thrashing a Countryman along a winding road is not as frenetic an exercise as doing it in a Mini (either upper- or lower-case), yet is still a lot of fun. The 4WD system – All4 in MINI-speak – works brilliantly to counter any expected handling issues potentially created from making the Mini bigger and taller and yet retains a nice amount of feel and feedback through the steering wheel. The ride is firm, yet civilised and while it lacks the smaller Mini’s tenacious grip, it also lacks its uncompromising ride. Basically the Countryman comes across as a bigger, more relaxed, grown-up Mini, which is

exactly what it is supposed to be.

Visually, the Countryman in dressedup Cooper S guise looks a little too much like a running shoe for my tastes, especially in the white of our test car.

The Cooper S-specific droopy mouth grille doesn’t work quite as well as the ordinary Countryman more traditionally Mini-shaped grille, yet adds a touch of aggression.

Inside is an ergonomic nightmare of retro-inspired dials and switches, the locations of which have only a nodding acquaintance with logic, yet still manages – in a self-consciously over-styled way – to be cool like its smaller sibling.

However, there is a more extensive use of plastic and a number of small rattles and creaks just waiting to get worse, which you wouldn’t necessarily expect on a car costing as much as the Countryman…

Which leads us to the biggest sticking point I have with the Countryman – the price. With the manual 2WD Cooper starting at $46,900, the positioning of the Countryman is playing a lot on the idea that people will fall in love with the stylish image and be happy to pay a premium

for the badge-cred, as happened with the smaller BMW Mini and probably will here too. But go up through the model range and that love will be sorely tested.

The top-of-the-range 4WD Cooper S stretches credibility by landing at $58,900 for the manual ($61,900 for the auto) – slightly dearer than the entry level petrol BMW X1 sDrive18i. But start ticking the options boxes and you can easily get it close to xDrive23d money.

In fact the model we tested was loaded with nearly $14,000 worth of options and consequently weighed in at a truly horrific $75,000, which seems like you are paying a heavy premium indeed for all the badge-cred and stylishness BMW has built up in the Mini brand…

But it is exactly that badge-cred and stylishness that will sell the Countryman and luckily, monetary irritations aside, it is still an extremely likeable and extraordinarily capable car. If you ignore the options list and are happy having a (better looking) Cooper model over the full-fat Cooper S, then you could do a lot worse than the little big Mini Countryman.

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 39

sport

chris forster

The problem with predictions in a World Cup year is that current form is misleading, and a tad erratic

40 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Calm before the storm It’s four months until the All Blacks kick-start their bid to satisfy a national – and international – obsession to lift the World Cup, on home soil. So how are the key players and the opposition travelling for rugby’s greatest challenge?

R

ecent form in the rugby world is a tricky book to read. If you go by the two biggest indicators – international results and rankings – the World Cup will be a Tri Nations trifecta. And the All Blacks will beat the Wallabies in the Eden Park trophy match on October the 23rd.

The Springboks and Six Nations champions England will be beaten semi-finalists, and the Boks will win the consolation final.

Ireland, France, Wales, Argentina, Scotland, Samoa and Fiji will be squabbling for the other places in the quarterfinals, but won’t advance any further.

But as tournament history and endless New Zealand heartache have proven – once the Group formalities are over and done with, knockout rugby can rattle the greatest talents and the steadiest nerves.

Sydney-based New Zealand rugby journalist Spiro Zavos has tried to get ahead of the journo pack, with an ambitious paperback called How to Watch the RUGBY World Cup 2011.

For 94 pages the venerable veteran mulls over past histories, current and recent form, rivalries and the philosophies of self-belief and winning.

It’s a surprisingly entertaining read, for a fact-based, historical book. Zavos inserts philosophical insights from the likes of Jean Paul Sartre. Welsh antagonist Stephen Jones,

and Aussie sports satirist Peter Fitzsimons to bind together his theories and trends.

He questions whether “the enigma” of coach Graham Henry has learned from the flawed campaign of four years ago, which culminated in the quarterfinal calamity in Cardiff.

Zavos also notes a wind change in attitude, when it’s alright for this bunch of All Blacks to talk about the desire to win the Cup. He veers into the psychological mindset.

“In a sports practice called visualisation, fear of failure is diminished – rather than increased – by the acknowledgement that winning is a distinct possibility”.

It’s a bit like the classic self-help book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway – except these guys have the ability and home ground advantage.

After a lot informed reasoning, Zavos reaches the same conclusions the rugby rankings and recent form suggest – then for the rest of his book runs through what happened in the 7 tournaments between 1987 and 2007.

The problem with predictions in a World Cup year is that current form is misleading, and a tad erratic. The last test rugby the Tri Nations’ favoured three played was in the November tests in the Northern Hemisphere.

HIS/action England won the 6 Nations in March, in less than convincing fashion, while France suffered the ignominy of losing to Italy. The array of club competitions in the UK and France are hard to read from these shores, because of the domination of imported players from the Southern Hemisphere, many of them former top players in the twilights of their careers.

The best gauge we’ve got until a few warm-up tests in July and August, and the truncated Tri Nations – is the Super 15. It’s a long haul under the new format and 9 weekends of inter-franchise action between the 5 teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa is only halfway through the round robin.

The Highlanders have been the big improvers under new coach Jamie Joseph, with 6 wins from their first eight matches.

That’s allowed the likes of livewire flanker Adam Thomson to shine, after falling out of flavour with Henry and his co-selectors.

The Crusaders have been typically awesome, seemingly inspired by their loss of quake damaged AMI Stadium, and the burden of extra travel to satellite home games in Nelson and Timaru.

Athletic centre Robbie Fruean was the Provincial Player of the Year in 2010, and his midfield partnership with giant drawcard Sonny Bill Williams has advanced them past incumbents Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu in the All Blacks’ pecking order.

Nonu’s been off well off the pace for the dysfunctional Hurricanes; while Smith’s miserable start to the year was compounded by a nasty facial injury.

The Blues have been building nicely, but leaking plenty of points.

The much-maligned Luke McAlister and Isaia Toeava have been standouts and rocketed back into the Cup reckoning.

The Chiefs’ legion of All Blacks, like fullback Mils Muliaina, are virtually out of the playoff hunt and left hoping for better form during the second of the competition.

For a hint of the attacking threats across the Tasman, you only have to look at the Queensland Reds for some of the options for Wallabies coach Robbie Deans to unleash on New Zealand soil during the Cup. Most of them are in the backline, although their forward pack’s as competitive as any. Quade Cooper’s been awesome at first five, outside ace halfback Will Genia.

The Waratahs are there or thereabouts at the midway stage too, with their explosive talents Kurtley Beale and Drew Mitchell.

South African sides have been less enterprising but typically pugnacious – led by the methodical Stormers of Cape Town.

The Bulls had mixed fortunes on the road, but Victor Matfield, Pierre Spies, Fourie du Preez and co – are sure to be key parts of the Boks’ attempt to become the first side in World Cup history to defend their title.

There are nine more weeks of bone-crunching action before the Super Rugby playoffs, and that’s a long time in rugby parlance.

There will be injuries, there will be form fluctuations.

Stamina is a key for coaches and the players who are trying to stay on the radar of the coaches. The two best players in the world, are both approaching veteran status and have suffered worrying injury setbacks for the All Blacks selection panel.

First five Dan Carter’s hamstring problem flared up during the Crusaders trek to Twickenham. He aggravated it during a training session and missed another couple of weekends of Super Rugby action. Colin Slade was sizing-up the vacancy as back-up first five for Carter – until he broke his jaw for the second time this year during a Highlanders match.

Richie McCaw eased his way back from a foot fracture that delayed his start to a long year, with a cameo appearance in week 9 of the competition.

The absence of either of those gentlemen in September and October is enough to send heart palpitations through the most ardent of New Zealand rugby fans – and throw those World Cup predictions and rankings out of kilter.

There is at least back-up for McCaw as openside flanker, with fellow Crusader Mat Todd poised for international stardom, alongside Thomson’s brilliance and versatility.

It is the Australians who loom as the biggest threat to redemption from the ill-fated campaign of four years ago. Robbie Deans was appointed late in 2007, and seems to have timed his run with typical precision.

The only All Blacks defeat in 2010, was to an inspired performance from the Wallabies in Hong Kong, who went on to obliterate France 59-16 on their northern tour. There’s been nothing since then to gauge their collective progress.

The South Africans title defence looks shaky, with an ageing forward pack – and erratic results including a defeat in Scotland last November.

France are in the same pool as the All Blacks this time. Les Tricolores always rise to the big occasions, but their woeful recent form suggests otherwise.

Ireland would have gained heart from the Six Nations thumping of England, who had been building pretty nicely under the tutorship of Martin Johnson seem to be the best hope of a Northern Hemisphere side triumphing Down Under.

The Pacific Nations of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga always have an upset or three between them. Who will ever forget the Tongan side who almost toppled the Springboks during their march to the crown in France.

There are so many gifted players of Island origin making a rugby living in New Zealand and Australia these days.

The early to mid-term manoeuvres in a 9-month haul to World Cup glory are looking positive for the All Blacks, if they can swing fate their way this time.

Uncertainty and the Australians will be their enemies.

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 41

invest

peter hensley

The buyer has ten years to pay us and during that time he retains all the dividends.

He is using the dividends from our shares to pay us for our own shares

42 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Burglars of a different kind

T

he lonely cry of the sole seagull flying overhead jolted Jim back to the moment at hand. He was part way through his daily walk along the foreshore. He often used the time to think through the projects he was working on.

Prior to retirement he used to long for the carefree days of not having to go to work.

Now that he is retired, he doesn’t know how he used to fit work in, his days are so full.

He was conscious of the time as they were expecting guests for lunch. He and Moira entertained most days, the majority of the visits were social, however they had gathered a reputation in the neighbourhood of being very helpful to those in need of a friendly ear when it came to things financial.

Their long time friends, George and Mildred were due to arrive in two hours time.

Jim especially was keen to catch up with George as he wanted to swap notes about their survival kits. The recent natural disasters around the world had prompted him into action and he had commandeered an old wood-box in the garage for his latest project.

Jim shivered a little as daylight saving was a distant memory and autumn was giving way to winter, the temperature had certainly dropped a couple of degrees. The days were noticeably shorter and long sleeved tops were replacing light clothing normally associated with summer. The change in the weather was influencing Jim’s decisions as to what to include in their survival kit.

He thought he would raise that issue with George over a sandwich.

George and Mildred were punctual and

Jim shuffled them directly to the conservatory that overlooked the sea. Moira quickly told him not to fuss as their guests knew perfectly well where to go, as she said they had been here often enough. Jim had prepared the table earlier and now disappeared into the kitchen to put the kettle on.

Even before they had settled at the table Moira commented loudly on how focused Jim had become over these natural disasters. He had been around the house taking pictures of everything, even their passports.

Inside, outside, every wall, painting and Moira’s jewellery, he was driving her mad and she was looking for support to try and make him stop.

Mildred surprised her by speaking up on Jim’s behalf. She had heard from friends in Christchurch whose house had been red stickered and they had been told they were unlikely to regain access. This friend’s husband had done exactly the same thing following the first earthquake. “Well” said Moira refusing to give up, “and I supposed the camera was inside the house at the time of the second quake. What use would it be then?”

“No” Mildred said quietly. “Her friend’s husband had thought through that issue and he had uploaded the album of pictures to his Facebook account which meant they were available for the insurers to view.”

“Well, then, that would cost money and I am certainly not letting Jim spend money on a kid’s Facebook account” Moira said almost defiantly.

Now George and Mildred had been friends of Jim and Moira’s since the very beginning

HIS/action and Mildred maintained her quiet tone, suggesting to Moira that she should let this matter go. Facebook was free and provided an excellent although totally unintended platform for this purpose. She had heard first hand of the physical stress and mental trauma that the affected people had gone through and if Jim was willing to make the effort to potentially offset this anguish, then she should be supporting him, not having a go at him.

Mildred was a true friend and knew that this time Moira was in the wrong. She had put her straight and now she deftly changed the topic to the real reason for their visit.

They had received more than several unsolicited letters from companies wishing to buy their shares in Vector, Contact Energy, GPG and Fletcher Building. The organisations were offering what appeared to be above market prices and whilst the offer looked good Mildred thought something was not right.

Why would someone be willing to pay $11.50 for a Fletcher Building share which was trading on the open market at $8.75.

Moira’s attitude changed in a nanosecond. She went from a topic that she knew very little about to one that she was most knowledgeable. Mildred’s diversion tactic worked and she quickly flicked a sly smile to Jim and gave him a wink.

Moira asked Mildred if she had read the terms and conditions relating to payment.

Mildred replied that of course she had.

The companying buying the shares would make 10 equal instalments commencing in 14 days.

Moira said that was partly right. And she went off to the office to find one of the same letters they had received. When she returned, she asked Mildred to read the conditions of payments again.

Mildred was a little miffed in being asked to do so again, however she thought she had better humour Moira as she has just put her in her place five minutes ago.

Mildred read out loud, “The total amount payable to you is shown on the Acceptance Form. Payment of the offer price will be made in ten (10) equal annual instalments commencing in 14 days after receipt by “ and her voice trailed off.

“I never saw the word “annual” there before. That means the buyer has ten years to pay us and during that time he retains all the dividends. He is using the dividends from our shares to pay us for our own shares. That is misleading”.

George spoke for the first time that day and said “I told you

so”. Mildred looked at him and said incredulously “you were the one who wanted to sign, you wait until we get home.”

George thought it was time to change the subject again and asked Jim how his survival kit was going. With a sigh of relief Jim spoke about a wonderful bargain he found at Mega Mitre 10, a saw set which would help in cutting firewood. He found it in the bargain bin when he was out looking at tomahawks.

Despite what Moira said, he was determined to be ready should they suffer a local natural disaster.

A copy of Peter J Hensley’s disclosure statement is available on request and is free of charge.

Copyright © Peter J Hensley 2011.

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 43

HIS/money

Thinking gold?

TOO LATE WORDS BY ROBERT POWELL/MARKETWATCH

N

o one is questioning whether investors have made money by investing in gold over the past decade, but it’s fair to ask whether it’s time to start taking some profits. And it’s certainly more than fair to question whether gold and silver are the new currency for retaining wealth, as some have suggested.

Yes, gold is up more than fivefold over the past 10 years, a period in which the stock market crashed twice and the global economy experienced tremendous instability, but “investors should not forget that the 10, 20 years before that, gold generated very poor returns,” says Pauline Shum, an associate professor of finance at York University in Toronto. “It is unrealistic to expect gold to repeat its performance in the next 10 years.”

That said, gold has traditionally had a low correlation with equities, so it definitely provides diversification benefits to investors’ portfolios, Shum says. “But given its current level, I think there is significant downside risk, because once the current political uncertainty is resolved, demand will drop.”

44 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Others agree. There’s some potential upside over the next 12 months, says Steven Cunningham, director of research and education at the American Institute for Economic Research.

But, he said, we’ve witnessed the biggest part of the run-up in gold.

“It’s overpriced and overbought,” says Cunningham, who advises taking profits and reducing to 10 percent one’s overall exposure to gold, and maintaining that fixed percentage.

His rationale? Gold production is rising mostly because demand for “investment” gold – not jewellery gold – is rising.

Gold production was up about 3 percent over 2010, he says.

Meanwhile, demand for jewellery gold is falling because of the rise in the price of gold.

Yes, investors are bidding up the prices of gold because of the turmoil in the Middle East, the increase in food prices, and the fact that banks are awash in cash. And all that suggests that gold will keep on rising. But given the rapid increase in gold prices, Cunningham doesn’t expect the price of gold will rise much beyond $1,500 an ounce in the next 12 months.

“Remember, small investors tend to get in too late and hold on for too long,” Cunningham says. “It’s important to lock in profits and be conservative at this point. We tend to think that trading in and out is a dangerous game.”

Not surprisingly, some are bullish on gold. Mark Johnson, the co-manager of the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund, is of the opinion that gold might be overpriced a tad because of the turmoil in the Middle East. However, in an interview, he says there are plenty of reasons why the price of gold will be higher a year from now.

For one, interest rates on a real basis are negative. “Gold likes negative interest rates and steep yield curves, which is what we have right now,” Johnson says.

Secondly, structural issues, such as the U.S. federal deficit – now at 11.5 percent of GDP – plus a weak dollar against the euro and yuan, and sovereign debt problems, are all positive for gold.

“Investors need to protect themselves, and one way to protect themselves is by investing in gold,” says Johnson. “A small amount of gold – because of its negative correlation with other assets – is a great risk-reducing tool.”

For his part, Johnson recommends investing 5 percent of

And should the day ever come where national currencies are no longer reliable or accepted as means of payment – well, investors will be better off with remote farmland, guns and canned goods

one’s portfolio into gold, and warns that investing 10 percent or more would lessen the risk-reducing features of the precious metal.

Johnson’s fund is largely invested in gold (86 percent) and specifically gold-mining stocks; platinum (5 percent) and silver (4 percent). He said the fund has cut its exposure to silver by half in recent months given what’s happened to the gold-tosilver ratio.

“The real risk (is) that ratio could retrace itself, so we’re more inclined to emphasize gold than silver right now,” Johnson says.

Meanwhile, about those who suggest that gold and silver are the new currency? “They are nuts. Gold and silver will never again be used as currency or to back currencies,” says Michael Dooley, an economics professor at the University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz and a partner at Cabezon Capital Markets LLC. Gold and silver “are a way to store wealth but one that, unlike trees and other forms of capital, (does) not generate any internal rate of return,” he says.

And should the day ever come where national currencies are no longer reliable or accepted as means of payment – well, Dooley warns, “investors will be better off with remote farmland, guns and canned goods.”

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 45

HIS gadgets /GADGETS 48 New Releases The latest in tech toys, including HTC’s new ChaCha

/TECH 50 The blu-ray blues Is blu-ray viable?

Experts say yes

/ONLINE 52 One password It might sound like a good idea, but one password has big risks

Blu-ray blues >> Why the new format is finding it hard

50 HIS/TECH

HIS/gadgets Epson WorkForce 840 The Epson WorkForce 840 is a fast, versatile and highvolume multifunction printer for busy small offices where high quality output, reliable performance and value for money are daily requirements. With the full range of time-saving, productivity-enhancing document capture, handling and sharing features, the WorkForce 840 is precision engineered to provide full support for the most demanding business. It prints fast, high quality documents, exceptional photos and, for multitasking in every small office, has easy to use document sharing choices through scanning, copying and faxing. The integrated scanner, with up to 2400 dpi resolution, facilitates fast and accurate document and photo sharing by copying or scans to PDF, image or email, and allows editing and printing of amended documents with the included OCR software. Built-in multi-format memory card slots and a USB port allow easy storage and movement of large files and fast high quality printing of captured documents and images.The WorkForce 840 is available now from consumer electronics retailers at $499 RRP. www.epson.co.nz

Samsung BD – D7000 Although barely the size of an external DVD drive, the BD-D7000 is big on performance. With a full HD 3D feature and 1080p upscaling for 2D media, it delivers an exciting viewing experience. Features such as the Smart Hub and 2D to 3D video processing will enhance your experience on the player. Along with an extensive line-up of features, loading times have also improved significantly from previous models. Arguably one of the smallest in the market, the Samsung BD-D7000 looks nothing like your conventional blu-ray players. With such a small footprint it is easily stackable. Samsung is also releasing matching bookshelf speakers and an amplifier unit, so you can even turn it into a decent mini-system for audio playback. www.samsung.com

Arc Touch Mouse Experience the ArcTouch Mouse: there is no equal in look, feel, and performance. With a dramatic design and easy elegance, this stylish mouse is a perfect fit for your lifestyle.

Flick to zip down the page. Tap to stay at your destination. Feel the speed and responsiveness to your touch. www.microsoft.com

48 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

HTC ChaCha HTC ChaCha has a Facebook button that lets you share just about anything with just one touch. Take a photo – straight to Facebook. Make a video – straight to Facebook. Show whatever, whenever, at the touch of a button. Chat with all your friends on the world’s biggest social networking site. HTC ChaCha’s Facebook chat widget means you can group all your friends together, and see when anyone is online. Start a live instant chat, and juggle between as many private conversations as you want. The conversation never ends with HTC ChaCha. www.htc.com

HIS/mall WD TV Live WD TV Live HD media player supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats. No need to spend time transcoding. Play YouTube videos, access Facebook, see your photos on Flickr and other online content. Play content from most popular USB drives and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.

Optimized for My Passport portable hard drives. This is the real thing; Full-HD 1080p playback. Sit back and enjoy the spectacular picture quality of brilliant high definition video and the crystal clear sound of digital audio. Use the included remote control to make your entertainment choices using our crisp, animated navigation menus. www. www.wdc.com Leica M9 Titanium The exclusive special edition Leica M9 Titanium is the result of a collaboration with Walter de’Silva, the prominent automobile designer. Responsible for groundbreaking design concepts for the latest models from the Volkswagen Group, the chief designer and his Audi Design Team have re-interpreted the design of the LEICA M9 just as he envisaged it. The outcome is a unique camera with a new interpretation of the characteristic features of Leica rangefinder cameras, which lends precision engineering, unique style and solid titanium to extraordinary formal design. As a result, the LEICA M9 Titanium is an especially desirable object for both Leica connoisseurs and aficionados of outstanding design. This special edition is strictly limited to just 500 cameras worldwide and is offered as a set together with a LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH. http://en.leica-camera.com/

Corel VideoStudio Pro X4 Corel VideoStudio Pro X4 is the powerful, creative and easy way to take your video footage from shoot to show—fast.

Quickly load, organize and trim SD or HD video clips. Fix common video problems and easily cut together your production using integrated movie templates. Get creative with amazing effects, music, titles, transitions, including new Stop Motion animation and Time-Lapse tools, then even export to 3D! And because VideoStudio Pro X4 is optimized for the latest hardware from Intel and AMD, you see the results on screen faster than ever. Share anywhere – on iPhone, mobile device, disc, your favourite website or your TV. www.mistralsoftware.co.nz

The one gentleman Matt McConaughey’s new movie reminded us that he’s recently been pitching a fragrance as well. Quite catchy, from Dolce & Gabbana, it describes itself as “a spirit of dashing masculinity…for the man who is courteous, considered…with an instinctive feel for chivalry”. It seems to have worked for McConaughey – his new movie has earned some of his best-ever reviews. Available at leading pharmacies and department stores.

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 49

tech

BLU-RAY’S BLUES

B

lu-ray Disc may have estab lished itself as a film medium, but it has so far failed to emulate or supersede the success enjoyed by the DVD format, and is being punished by many DVD manufacturers offering HDMI upscaling.

Although it has taken Blu-ray time to establish itself against DVD in the marketplace, the technology still struggles in its battle against terabyte hard discs for PCs. Only a few notebook manufacturers support the format.

Despite the competition, Ralf Wolf, marketing director of Sony Optiarc Europe, believes Blu-ray’s many strengths will still see it enjoy longevity, especially when it comes to its use in film archives.

Blu-ray was initially intended to follow in the footsteps of the success of the DVD, which replaced the CD format within a short period. But the dynamics of the market have changed with a universal format for storing data no longer what people are looking for, feels Wolf.

“The world today can best be described as hybrid,” he explains.

One of Blu-ray’s greatest advantages is that it is far more durable than DVD. The format also differs from a hard disc in that it has no optical elements, so it won’t wear out.

50 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Recent consumer tests have shown that Blu-ray discs last a minimum of 15 years and can even store data for up to 30 years.

However, last year, another consumer survey indicated that DVD was the more reliable medium with just three of 11 Bluray discs saving the data satisfactorily.

“Over the years, consumers have been conditioned to use optical storage,” says Wolf. Not every technology is immediately accepted by the general public, even though Blu-ray offers increased storage capacity and an ideal method for archiving.

But now many customers are looking to Blu-ray in the same way that they previously favoured DVD. The industry possibly has to accept some responsibility for Blu-ray’s development and market growth. “Although Bluray is better than DVD, it came five years too late,” says technology writer Hartmut Gieselmann.

Too much time was spent investigating the issue of copy protection, which seriously hampered the medium’s development. A multi-year battle against the HD-DVD format also had its effect.

Blu-ray burners for notebooks were also too expensive for too long, with prices only dropping below the 200-dollar mark recently, Gieselmann says.

Despite the lower prices, the Blu-ray format still can’t compete with the evercheaper terabyte hard discs. It is still far cheaper and faster to buy two hard discs.

Meanwhile, Apple boss Steve Jobs has declared the world is in the post-PC era.

Small, slimline notebooks are increasingly dispensing with optical drives altogether.

“Large data files are swapped by means of uploading these days,” says Gieselmann, adding that Blu-ray might not even survive as an archiving medium.

“Optical media will be as out in 20 years as diskettes are today,” he believes.

“Nobody can say what the situation will be like in 15 years,” says Wolf, in contrast. “We have just arrived in the era of HD.” Wolf is certain that there is a place in the future for Blu-ray. The industry is currently working hard on developing the technology further with, for example, data-rich 3D films in BDXL format, capable of holding up to 128GB (writeonce) or 100GB (rewriteable).

The film industry is expected to be the new format’s biggest customer.

“But Blu-ray XL could also enjoy a breakthrough with users of 3D camcorders,” believes Wolf.

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HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 51

online

CONVENIENT, BUT INSECURE WORDS BY DPA

O

ne single password for the whole internet? It’s a dream many have.

But reality looks quite different. Usually, every new registration requires a new login and password. Before long, half the time one spends online is used up remembering passwords.

But now, systems like OpenID, Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect have been created to provide a little help and do away with the never-ending registrations. To do so, they’ve presented themselves as kinds of skeleton keys for the web.

But there is good and bad to these systems.

All the systems are based on the same idea: making sure users no longer have to register a new account for each online service.

Instead, these connection services operate on a single sign-on principle, with only one logon needed.

“The idea is to bring your own identity along with you,” says Axel Nennker, member of the directorate of the OpenID Foundation, whose day job is with Deutsche Telekom.

It’s not just a memory aid, it also boosts security. If a person only needs to remember one password, it can be made more complicated, thus enhancing security.

Amongst the various single sign-on initiatives, OpenID has long been considered the industry standard. Giants like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Paypal

52 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

use the protocol, which was developed in 2005, as do a series of smaller companies.

The true number of users is unknown, but likely very large.

The system is designed to be decentralized. Users can set up their OpenID account with a number of sites, whether Google, Yahoo or specialist sites like MyOpenID. Indeed, anyone interested can register on any website that supports the standard. According to numbers released by the OpenID Foundation in 2009, that includes 9 million sites worldwide.

Small users overwhelmingly allow access via OpenID, while most larger entities limit themselves to distributing IDs. Members have to look for the OpenID logo, a gray half-circle with a pointer at one end. When registering, they are asked to enter their OpenID URL. Here, it’s best to enter the web address of the entity where the OpenID account was created: yahoo.com, for example.

This opens a window, where access data is entered, as usual – in this case, that for the Yahoo account. The server generates an internet address, or URL and sends it to the destination website, where registration then occurs automatically.

Some websites ask for some basic data, like name and mailing address. Some forums allow anonymous registration.

“Providers like Google only confirm that ‘An OpenID user is registering now,’” says Nennker.

Having one identity for multiple websites may sound great, but the system still hasn’t made the breakthrough to mainstream use. One problem is that the service remains relatively unknown.

“A lot of users don’t even know that they have an OpenID,” says Nennker.

Google, Yahoo and the others only passively direct users – if they do so at all – to the option. If you don’t look for it, you won’t find it.

The OpenID Foundation hopes to overhaul the standard. OpenID Connect should be easier to integrate for developers and also provide some improvements for users – such a logins with basic email addresses. There are also plans to expand the service to other technical platforms, like mobile phone apps.

But the competition is picking up, especially since Facebook Connect is coming online.

“Everyone knows what Facebook is.

And it’s a lot easier to understand that Facebook can manage your identity than it is to believe the same of an unknown entity named OpenID,” noted US magazine Wired recently.

Superficially, Facebook Connect and OpenID resemble one another.

Clicking on either’s icon opens a new window where data is to be entered.

But the US company goes further.

Unlike OpenID, as soon as they register – in a discussion forum for example – users can see who else from their social network is already there. Additionally, comments about activities elsewhere can be posted on one’s Facebook page for friends to see.

That’s one reason why a lot of groups are leaning toward Facebook Connect: “They get a piece of the user pie.”

Regardless of Facebook Connect or OpenID, data privacy experts advise using caution.

“Services like Facebook Connect that offer a single sign-on solution can help users save time. But a successful attack on a user account makes the potential of these attacks that much more dangerous and allows the misuse of all data that the user has saved with various services,” says Johannes Caspar, data security commissioner for the German city-state of Hamburg. Just looking at some of that access data could open the door for identity theft.

we protect your digital worlds HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 53

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HIS mindfuel /ONSCREEN 56 The Grinch is Back Simon Cowell takes on his idols

/BOOKCASE 58 Michael Morrissey Western civilisation

/CONSIDER THIS 60 Amy Brooke The dangers of memory loss

/THE QUESTION 62 Matthew Flannagan Should we stone adulterers?

He’s back >>

Cowell’s X-factor hits US screens, expect the fur to fly

56 HIS/ONSCREEN

onscreen simon cowell | by chuck barney/mct

The Grinch Is Back

S

imon Cowell is on the phone and I can’t believe my ears.

American Idol’s former king of mean is not hissing and seething and spewing snarky insults. He’s not telling me that my questions are boring him to tears.

No, just the opposite. He’s polite. Charming. A real pussycat.

Could it be that he’s more relaxed now that he’s not in the constant company of Ryan Seacrest? Has the time away from the Idol judges table mellowed him? Perhaps. But more likely, he knows he needs to sell a glitzy new show – The X Factor – and that the stakes are very high.

It’s time to be ultra accommodating. Time to suck up to the media.

“I missed dealing with you guys,” he says. “Really, I have.”

Say what? I was totally expecting him to mutter, “Your voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.”

Simon has been fervently hitting the phones and pounding the pavement to pump up The X Factor. This month, he even did a live Twitter chat. The musical talent show doesn’t start until next quarter on Fox, but auditions are about to get under way across the US, and he’s doing his best to ensure that interest is high.

“I haven’t got a clue how it will go and that’s somewhat distressing,” he says. “We could have one person show up or 10,000. And unless you’ve got great contestants, you haven’t got anything. It’s the one thing out of my control.”

The X Factor, a British import on which Simon is a judge and executive producer, has already seized some attention with the news that it will offer television’s biggest prize ever – a $5 million recording contract – to its winner. And the show made a high-profile hiring when music mogul Antonio “L.A.” Reid signed on as a judge.

Asked if Reid will make for better television than the bland

56 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Jimmy Iovine, this season’s “in-house mentor” on American Idol, Simon replies, “In a word, ‘yes.’ ... He has a great personality, a great sense of humour.”

As of this writing, no other X Factor judges had been announced, but the names being dropped included George Michael, Mariah Carey, Nicole Scherzinger and, yes, Simon’s old sparring partner, Paula Abdul. On this subject, Simon plays coy, only saying that an announcement would be forthcoming.

Addressing his role on The X Factor, Simon insists that fans will see a much more driven judge than the one who essentially phoned it in last season on Idol.

“I admit it, I was bored and that wasn’t fair to the contestants, the show or the audience,” he says. “I had lost Paula and I was trying to fit in with something that didn’t feel right. I found it really difficult to hide my feelings.”

As for the new-look Idol, with judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, Simon says television’s most popular show made the moves it needed to.

“They’ve got judges who are engaged and who want to be there,” he says. “They’re bringing a new energy that’s good for the show.”

And Simon made it clear that he’s pleased not to be on the same show with Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, with whom he often butted heads over the years. It was Lythgoe who repeatedly emphasized that Idol would take a kindergentler approach in the post-Simon era.

“It’s definitely a dig at me when he says that kind of stuff,” he insists. “But I never thought of myself as being mean. I was just trying to bring an honesty and a sense of humour to the show. ... As for Nigel, both of us are obviously real happy not to be working with each other anymore.”

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HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 57 publiceye_3204_INVEST

bookcase BOOKS EDITOR | michael morrissey

The history of the West CIVILIZATION: The West and the Rest

By Niall Ferguson Allen Lane, $60

I am very partial to books that give us an overview of world history and culture It saves lazy half-baked intellectuals like myself from doing all the reading required to make my own overview. This is a stupendously learned well-written book that will alter your view of history. And this is what an ambitious history book should do.

The dazzlingly learned Professor Ferguson who improbably holds five academic posts, has previously published eight books, fronted several documentary series for Channel Four (this one has just been added to the list) and published numerous articles in newspapers and journals. To top it all off, Ferguson is only in his forties and good looking.

In contrast to Jared Diamond’s well-circulated view that European domination was due mainly to gun, germs and steel, Ferguson has constructed a more complex picture. He identifies six factors, each given a chapter – Competition, Science, Property, Medicine, Consumption and Work.

Competition, the first chapter is one of the most compelling and focused. Ferguson compares the vast extent of the Chinese Grand Canal and its enormous business with the dirty backwater of the Thames in 1420. Nanking had over half a million inhabitants while London had not much over 40,000. The Chinese were both inventive and curious – they sent Zheng Ho on a grand mission of exploration with junks that dwarfed English ships. But the Great Ming civilization under the Emperor Yongle was to turn inward and weaken whereas European explorers like the viciously ruthless and competitive Vasco da Gama began opening up eastern ports. Apart from technological prowess and superior cannon and clocks, Ferguson attributes much of European aggression to the fact that in the fourteenth century, Europe had a thousand polities – creating a situation of intense political competition. Rivalry between the Portuguese and the Spanish pushed them into world domination. They were followed by the Dutch, French and the English extending empires over Africa and Asia.

Ferguson loves both lists and statistics and under Science, he itemises the impressive accomplishments of Europe over two centuries (1530-1789). He places much importance on the advance of printing which encouraged rapid promulgation of

58 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

learning and therefore stimulated more scientific ideas. The Turks banned printing and the Chinese reprinted Confucius.

But why tell us about the siege of Vienna by the Turks?

Ferguson therefore sometimes prefers an indirect, even eccentric, approach. Under Medicine, he starts with Edmond Burke who was a political philosopher, then moves to war (artillery and so forth and much praise for Frederick the Great for embodying the Enlightenment). He is half way through the chapter before he gets to the hub of the matter and focuses on medicinal impact on Africa – though not on Europe. Here the French are seen in a reasonably favourable light and express attitudes not so different from Kipling – the philosophy of the White Man’s Burden is impliedly given respect rather than derision. As the twentieth century arrived, it was Germany who dominated Nobel prizes for science, particularly chemistry and biochemistry while the Muslim world fared poorly in science, in comparison with their dominance in the Middle Ages.

In Property, the South American system of concentrated ownership is contrasted with the more individualist North American style bequeathed by the pilgrims. The Work chapter penetratingly examines the Protestant work ethic. Ferguson concludes with a stunning chapter on the present. Like so many commentators, he cannot avoid the topic of the Chinese meteoric rise, but on a more sober note, lists several reasons why the Chinese bubble may burst – social unrest due to poverty, pollution and gender imbalance, a rising middle class demanding greater political say and the threat of alienated neighbours forming a coalition with the United States. The next thirty years will reveal more fully the direction of the present situation. Professor Ferguson may still be around to analyse, elucidate and slip in the occasional witty wisecrack.

ZEITOUN

By David Eggers Penguin Books, $32

The watery ruin that New Orleans became in the wake Hurricane Katrina is yet another example of how humanity or city/government authorities do not adequately prepare for nature’s wrath. Like its dark cousin War, catastrophe may bring out the worst in some e.g. looters and over zealous law enforcers but can bring out the best in others.

Zeitoun is a Syrian property developer and family man who responded

HIS/mindfuel Disasters often do not initially display their full power, or conversely, people have an ostrich-headed approach and stick their heads in the sand (or water) failing to fully face the imminent peril. So it was with Hurricane Katrina. The levees had held before, so why not this time? to the hurricane’s devastation in a courageous and humane way. His story is expertly told by well-known contemporary novelist David Eggers. The gripping narration can give us all hope for the better impulses of people in times of stress. This genre of book belongs to the non-fictional novel, the invention of which is usually credited to Truman Capote with roots going back to novelists like Daniel Defoe.

The onset of the deadly hurricane is gradual and suspenseful.

Disasters often do not initially display their full power, or conversely, people have an ostrich-headed approach and stick their heads in the sand (or water) failing to fully face the imminent peril. So it was with Hurricane Katrina. The levees had held before, so why not this time? However, they were only designed to hold back a force 3 hurricane and Katrina reached force 5.

The flood waters affected 80 per cent of the city and caused over 4000 deaths. While this is a lot, bear in mind the Bhola Cyclone (same phenomenon as a hurricane) killed over 300,000 in East Pakistan in 1970.

While Zeitoun stuck with his house and used a canoe to get around, others put their faith in the Superdome which proved inadequate. The atmosphere is a bit like an end of the world movie where one man stays behind to face almost certain doom. Zeitoun, however, is not alone. Apart from other intrepid (or stubborn) souls that he rescues or feeds, there are abandoned dogs, that Zeitoun also nourishes. Just when he ought to be close to earning a medal for kindly services rendered, he is arrested as a looter. Worse, he is accused of belonging to al Qa’ida and denied the right to a phone call.

Competing authority groups – New Orleans police, National Guard Soldiers and prison guards – are all mixed up together.

Bunches of squashed sandwiches are thrown over a barbed wire fence for the prisoners to fight over. Pepper spray is liberally and indiscriminately fired.

Though we know Zeitoun is innocent, the situation looks suspicious. His companions are carrying maps and lots of money and are in a drowned city when people were asked to evacuate.

And they are all Muslims from the Middle East. Suspicion, however ill-founded, was understandable. But after much red tape, they are released and the story ends happily.

Eggers makes a novelist’s use of flashbacks and suspense techniques to keep us reading and the book is masterful in its descriptions of havoc and human interaction, both benign and less so. This is a riveting story, well told.

THE BUSINESS Reviewed by Richard Pachter The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

By Josh Kaufma Portfolio/Penguin (416 pages.)

No disrespect intended to any person or institution, but is an MBA really necessary? Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak never got theirs and many, many other successful business people (and book reviewers) lack that degree and seem none the worse for it.

In his new book, author and consultant Josh Kaufman not only explains the reasons he chose not to pursue his MBA, but does a rather masterful job of eviscerating the program in general and, more specifically, the reasons people seek it and why they needn’t and shouldn’t; in his not-so-humble opinion: Money.

Spending around $250,000 or more, says Kaufman, to get an MBA from a top business school is a lousy investment and completely unnecessary. In fact, the whole biz school deal is essentially a money-making enterprise for educational institutions who profit mightily from teaching mostly ancient, arcane, academic approaches to business that track very little with the actual world and the ways it really operates. Further, says Kaufman, there’s no assurance that the instructors are qualified beyond possessing the skills required to teach (if that) and are usually bereft of the experience and achievements that would confirm the efficacy of their instruction.

Young Kaufman had an undergrad degree and a great job at Procter & Gamble when he was urged to continue his education, which meant going after the inevitable MBA. Instead, he did a quick cost-benefit analysis and decided to read and study on his own. He blogged about his decision and posted a preliminary reading list, which was subsequently picked up by inveterate anti-MBA advocate and uber-blogger Seth Godin. From there, it spread. This book continues Kaufman’s mission.

He’s canny enough to know that just reading this book in a linear fashion – one chapter after another – is not necessarily the best way to go, so he encourages browsing, skimming and skipping around. I’d add, in fact, that reading it sequentially is downright boring, so after about 125 pages, I abandoned the effort and skipped around, as suggested. Kaufman isn’t a horrible writer, so that wasn’t the problem. I’d decided that the abrupt shift after a couple of pages on each subject might have been intended to accommodate our increasingly short attention spans, but it wasn’t working for me. True, each little chapter had an online component, but when I’m reading a book I don’t necessarily want to bounce on and off the Net to enlarge the experience or whatever the intended effect was supposed to be. Sometimes, a little concentrated depth is where it’s at.

In all fairness, I think I’ll hold onto Josh Kaufman’s book and keep it handy as a reference, since he really covers just about every aspect of business in an intelligent and no-nonsense way.

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 59

consider this

Multiculturalism has been too late

amy brooke

recognized as the Trojan horse inside our walls allowing the aggressive doctrines of Islam, fundamentally deeply hostile to the West, to flood into Europe

60 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Our greatest threat: memory loss “I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea, naught for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher.”

– G.K. Chesterton

O

ne of the last great epic poems in English, Chesterton’s The Ballad of the White Horse, tells a story of King Alfred’s battle against the Danes in May 878 AD when England was in deep peril. With Norsemen occupying most of the country, only Essex remained in English hands. Holding the high ground under their King Guthrum, the Norsemen – raiders and professional soldiers – were winning.

The English were no soldiers, mainly men of the land armed with the tools of their trade.

Alfred knew that this final desperate battle facing them was their very last chance to save their England.

Chesterton’s great poem immortalizes how, when everything seemed hopeless, the intelligence and courage of this one man (subsequently called Alfred the Great), in response to a vision of Our Lady (envisaged by Chesterton as speaking the words above), rallied the inhabitants of their tiny island to fight the encroaching dark. After the battle, Chesterton has King Alfred ordering the scouring of the nearly 400 feet long White Horse in the chalk hills of the Berkshire Downs, in order for its whiteness to show more clearly. High above the valley below, the Neolithic track called the Ridgeway, from Dorset to Lincolnshire, has been tramped for 5000 years, centuries before the birth of Christ, even.

The land endures. It is civilisations that rise and fall. In this magnificent ballad Chesterton warns us – as Alfred warned after that last battle – that the fate of all the West hangs in the balance -the barbarians will be back. “Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.”

This outstanding writer was foreseeing the collapse of societies and the gradual enslavement of their people when the bottom-up concept of common law, ratified and agreed upon by Everyman, would be replaced by the top-down law-making of political oligarchies changing their form, but essentially the same – distinguished only by the extent to which they control or depress the lives and liberty of ordinary people.

Communism, fascism, Nazism, neoMarxism go hand in hand with the quasidictatorship of the European Union at present hijacking the parliaments of its member countries by engulfing their constitutions in its widening maw, constricting peoples’ freedoms by its edicts. The bureaucracy of Brussels, essentially “the ruling of functionaries who dictate that people in once far freer countries should be jailed for selling fruit by pounds and ounces, instead of kilos”, is an example of the sheer pettiness and mean-mindedness of those wielding an unrepresentative power with a federal Europe in their sights. We are seeing in our own time the gradual extinguishing of the light of what are meant to be the representative democracies of the West.

The barbarians are back, only, this time, no longer at our gates but having tunnelled under the walls. Their ideological hatred of

HIS/mindfuel the West has seen to it that, infiltrating our institutions, especially our universities and schools to propagandize and capture the minds of the young, they have undermined our civilization by ensuring that the great battles for its survival are no longer taught. Nor are the lessons each generation must take on board to ensure this. They have concentrated their attack on Western culture, its thinking, literature and learning with their promotion of ethnocentricity, the quite wrong claim that no culture is better than any other and that in fact primitive cultures are superior – conveniently overlooking their widely prevalent barbarous treatment of women and children – and, equally, their mores promoting corruption and oppression.

Multiculturalism has been too late recognized as the Trojan horse inside our walls allowing the aggressive doctrines of Islam, fundamentally deeply hostile to the West, to flood into Europe. The dubious, EU-inspired removing of the barriers between countries and peoples with their own proud and independent histories, guarantees social unrest.

Another great fight for survival, when it was a near thing indeed for Christian civilization to withstand the sophisticated barbarism of a powerful Islam, took place at the crucial battle of Lepanto in 1571. Chesterton’s instinctive understanding of the times when the very survival of the West was most threatened has left us with another great poem called simply, Lepanto, describing a great victory over a superior Ottoman fleet, won by the Holy League under the military hero, Don Juan of Austria, the illegitimate half-brother of Queen Elizabeth’s Armada enemy, Phillip II of Spain. Don Juan’s prevailing over the squabbling Christian factions is immortalized in: “Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard, Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred, Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall, The last night of Europe takes weapons from the wall…”

Lepanto was the last battle at sea between oared, Muslim ships of the most powerful navy in the world. Between 12,000 to 15,000 of largely captured Christian slaves rowed them.

Chesterton’s Lepanto was described by Hilaire Belloc as not only Chesterton’s greatest, but the greatest poem of his generation. It is naturally, therefore, never offered to English classes in our schools, for obvious reasons – for the same reasons that this fine writer is steered well clear of in our heavily propagandized curricula. Very few of our children will have heard of him, nor of any of our other great poets, nor have had the chance to reflect on the importance of what they had to teach us in beautifully crafted language, its musical cadences of rhythm and rhyme captivating readers and listeners, and fostering a

love and appreciation of great language. On the contrary, the poetry offered to our children in recent decades is that which contributes to the subversive undermining of the West by the concentration on either the past’s war-weary poets or today’s technically challenged and supremely unimportant “poets” of a generation of literary “intelligentsia” with little, if anything, really worthwhile to say.

Yet there is no doubt that once again the West is at the crossroads, not only because of the threat from an Islam once again militant; a destabilized Middle East; the overweening ambition concealed behind the smiling face of tigerish China; and now the iron-fisted Brussels bureaucracy joining with Germany and France, the power brokers of Europe, to establish that Europe federation whose member “states” will be further manipulated and gradually compelled to surrender even more sovereignty than they already have. The real crisis worldwide is the perennial one, that those who aspire to and finally win, or even seize, power, never change their spots.

We have been warned again and again that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We in New Zealand are no more able to opt out of paying that price than any other country.

Throughout the world today, it is arguably only the recognition and resolve of so-called ordinary people, now beginning to call their governments to account, which can, at this late hour, rally our now barely democratic countries to fight perhaps these greatest and greatest of all challenges to their, and our, very survival. With the crumbling of the West, the sky again is indeed growing darker. © Copyright Amy Brooke www.amybrooke.co.nz www.100days.co.nz www.summersounds..co.nz http://www.livejournal.com/users/brookeonline/

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 61

the question

matt flannagan

That most capital sanctions functioned as a kind of rhetorical denunciation which expressed, in vivid form, a moral ideal.

Further, in practice, a ransom was paid and the punishment was not literally carried out

62 HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011

Stoning adulterers?

B

ack in 2005 there was a minor f urore when Labour MP Ashraf Choudhary stated he agreed with the Koran’s teaching that people who engaged in homosexual conduct or who committed adultery should be stoned to death. In the media spiral that followed, some commentators pointed out that it was not just Islam that held this view; Christians are committed to the same conclusion. Consider Deuteronomy 22:22 “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel” or Leviticus 20:10 “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbour—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.

Often passages like this motivate a rhetorical question “why don’t Christians today stone to death women who commit adultery? After all, this is what the Bible commands isn’t it?”

I’ll make two points in response to this.

First, those who press this line of argument assume that these commands are addressed to contemporary Christians. This is a dubious assumption; the laws occur as part of a covenant or vassal treaty between the tribes of Israel and God. While some of the laws expounded in this treaty reflect rules of justice and equity applicable to all people, Gentiles were not parties to this treaty nor were gentile Christians required to be – something the New Testament spends a lot of time elaborating on.

Second, and this will be my main focus, this line of argument assumes that these apparent laws function like modern statute

law; the assumption is that they are literal and binding commands to kill people who had committed certain crimes. It is also assumed that the author of these laws expected them to be carried out. Interestingly, it is precisely this assumption which many scholars of these laws have questioned.

Here I will spell out some reasons why they do so.

Comparisons between Leviticus and Deuteronomy and other ancient Near Eastern (“ANE”) law codes suggest they are the same genre. One feature of such codes is seemingly harsh penalties. In old Babylonian law, the hand that assaults was severed; a man who kissed another’s wife was to have his lips cut off; a person who stole bees was to be stung by bees; a man who raped another’s wife would be sentenced to having his own wife or daughter raped; a negligent builder whose house collapsed and killed another’s son would be sentenced to having his own son killed, and so on.

ANE expert Raymond Westbrook notes that these prescribed punishments are both inconsistent with the actual legal practice known to have occurred in these cultures and are often inconsistent with themselves.

He notes, “some law codes impose physical punishments and others payments for the same offenses, while some codes have a mixture of the two.” The contradiction is only apparent because, “in highlighting one or the other alternative, the codes are making a statement as to their view of the gravity of the offence.” He argues that the laws “reflect the scribal compilers’ concern for perfect symmetry and delicious irony rather than

HIS/mindfuel the pragmatic experience of the law courts.” Westbrook concludes that the method used in ANE legal texts was “to set out principles by the use of often extreme examples.”

A similar point is made by Old Testament scholar John Goldingay who suggests that many of these laws “were not intended to be enforced” but rather were “promulgated to indicate the moral and social priorities of the law giver.” They functioned to express certain ideals of behaviour, to denounce actions like adultery as really bad and intolerable rather than to define precise penalties for these actions.

Westbrook points to the practice of “ransoming” an explanation of how this worked in application. In ANE legal practice a person who committed a serious crime would be considered to have forfeited their life or limb but this did not mean they were executed or mutilated. Instead, they could “ransom” their life or limb by making a monetary payment and/or agreeing to some lesser penalty usually set by the courts. These texts were written and read with the background assumption that penalties would often be ransomed and not literally carried out.

Westbrook is not alone in this view. In a study of ANE laws JJ Finkelstein notes the absurdity and impossibility of putting many of these laws into practice. One Babylonian law, for example, stated that a physician whose patient died in surgery or was blinded by treatment was to have his hand cut off. Finkelstein remarks that “it is inconceivable that any sane person in ancient Mesopotamia would have been willing to enter the surgeon’s profession if such a law were literally enforced.” On the other hand, “if a system of ransom were assumed where the life of the builder or his son could be redeemed and the hand of the physician could be redeemed by pecuniary ransom, these laws would not only have an admonitory function (for which the more graphic statement of the penalty–execution or mutilation–is more effective), but would also be practical as law.”

He concludes that the laws, “were not meant to be complied with literally even when they were first drawn up, [but rather they] serve an admonitory function. If one would be bold enough to restate Hammurabi’s 230 as a direct admonition it might run to this effect: “woe to the contractor who undertakes construction and in his greed cuts corners.”

Right back to early rabbinical times, commentators of The Torah have noted it appears to operate with the same assumption. For example, Exodus 21: 29-32 deals with a case where if an ox gored another person to death due to negligence on the part of the owner “the owner also must be put to death” but the very next verse states “if payment is demanded of him, he may ransom his life by paying whatever is demanded.” The text literally demanded a person be put to death but assumed the punishment would be substituted for a fine set by the courts.

This is borne out with other examples. Not only is ransoming implicitly assumed in many of the Old Testament laws about homicide but reading the text this way explains many features of the text which otherwise appear inexplicable.

Gordon Wenham notes that “according to Deut xix19 false witnesses were punished with the punishment the accused

would have suffered if substantiated”. However, the penalty for falsely accusing a woman of adultery was not execution but an unspecified punishment alongside a monetary fine. Wenham concludes that a monetary substitution must have been envisaged in this text if it was to be read as coherent and consistent.

This conclusion seems to be strengthened by the fact that only a few chapters later Deuteronomy 24:1-5 deals with a case where a woman was divorced for committing adultery; the woman was clearly not executed as she married another man in verse 2.

This makes sense if the capital sanctions for adultery functioned as admonitory devices and in practice a ransom was made as a substitute, but it does not make sense if the woman was required to be executed.

A further example occurs in the book of Kings where a person had committed a capital crime. The sentence was announced as “a life for a life”; however, the immediate context shows what this sentence was: “It will be your life for his life or you must weigh out a talent of silver.” Old Testament scholar Joe Sprinkle notes that “‘life for life,’ in the sense of capital punishment, has an explicit alternative of monetary substitution.”

Perhaps the clearest example is in Numbers 35. At least seven times in close succession the text states, “the murderer shall be put to death”; however, the text proceeds to state ”‘Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die.

He must surely be put to death.” Here the text assumes the existence of a practice of substituting capital punishment for a fine exists that there is a risk it might be applied in this instance and so it explicitly forbids it in this circumstance. Sprinkle contends “The availability of ransom seems to have been so prevalent that when biblical law wants to exclude it, as in the case of intentional murder, it must specifically prohibit it”. Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser draws the same conclusion, “The key text in this discussion is Num 35:31: “Do not accept a ransom [or substitute] for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die. He must surely be put to death.” There were some sixteen crimes that called for the death penalty in the OT. ... Only in the case of premeditated murder did the text say that the officials in Israel were forbidden to take a “ransom” or a “substitute”. This has widely been interpreted to imply that in all the other fifteen cases the judges could commute the crimes deserving of capital punishment by designating a “ransom” or “substitute”. In that case the death penalty served to mark the seriousness of the crime.”

So, it is not at all clear that the Old Testament ever commanded Christians to stone to death women who commit adultery. As useful a rhetorical club for contemporary secularists as this claim might be, it involves transposing modern assumptions about law back onto an ancient literary genre and practice. The genre of the passages, in light of the common ANE legal practices and customs, suggests that most capital sanctions functioned as a kind of rhetorical denunciation which expressed, in vivid form, a moral ideal. Further, in practice, a ransom was paid and the punishment was not literally carried out; it was not statute law demanding the killing of adulterers.

Dr Matthew Flannagan is an Auckland based philosopher/ theologian who researches and publishes in the area of Philosophy of Religion, Theology and Ethics. He blogs at www.mandm.org.nz.

HISMAGAZINE.TV May 2011 63

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