Investigate, December 2005

INVESTIGATE

December 2005:

Winston Peters

Fisher & Paykel

Bermuda Triangle

Issue 59

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INVESTIGATE BREAKING NEWS

DECEMBER 2005

HOME APPLIANCE HELL Ever heard the one about the fridge that melted then caught fire? What about the Italian-designed rangehood that delivers 100 volt shocks, or a personal safety device that’s potentially lethal? Thought not. As IAN WISHART discovers, electricians claim government regulators are going soft on appliance safety standards,and not telling the public about safety issues.

WINSTON’S AFFAIRS He’s New Zealand’s most seasoned political jackrabbit, down but never out. Now, freshly ensconced as Foreign Minister, WINSTON PETERS lashes out at his critics and spells out his agenda for this term, in an exclusive interview with IAN WISHART

NZ’S BERMUDA TRIANGLE It’s rough, it’s remote, and it’s fast developing a reputation as a black hole for aircraft. RICHARD WAUGH investigates the disappearance of Dragonfly ZK-AFB, and five other aircraft in Fiordland

RED DRAGON RISING China has just begun deploying nuclear missiles capable of striking Australia, NZ and the US. Now, what’s believed to be a leaked briefing by top Communist Party official CHI HAOTIAN is raising eyebrows in the west, as it talks of imminent war with the US and Australia, and China’s need to become ‘the’ superpower of the 21st century

SO LONG & THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH Recreational fishermen are complaining the fish are disappearing, and small commercial fishers claim our stocks are being depleted by the big boys. But as PAUL SALOPEK reports, the plunder of the oceans is a worldwide problem

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FOCAL POINT

EDITORIAL

The ink was barely dry on the paper...

W

e wrote this a month ago: “There is a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of western liberals about the fate that awaits them as Islamofascism spreads...As commentator Mark Steyn wrote in the Spectator a year or so back, modern western liberals do stupid things with good hearts, but in doing so they’re “sleepwalking to national suicide” because they truly cannot see what is coming over the horizon toward them. Civilisations stand or fall on Rubicons like this one. Lazy, corrupt and decadent, the West at face value stands absolutely guilty of much of what Islamofascists accuse us of. But here’s the ironic kicker – it is western liberals, not Christians, The riots in France and that Islam loathes the nearby Denmark are fuelled most.” primarily by Islam, and secondToday as I write this, Paris burns. Hundreds of arily by economic conditions cars and businesses set alight across France, hundreds arrested in two weeks of rioting caused, it would appear, by those very Islamofacist groups we warned you about last time. And here’s the quote of the day from French Muslim Ahmed Hamidi: “All the politicians care about are laws for homosexuals and all those immoral things. [Yet] They are against headscarves, against beards and against the mosques,” he told Associated Press.

According to Middle Eastern experts, the riots in France and nearby Denmark are fuelled primarily by Islam, and secondarily by economic conditions. As US Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, puts it in an interview with WND, the real issue the French “are now dealing with is that you cannot integrate some people into your society.”

The problem stems back to the importation of Islamic labour by France, Germany and other European nations after WW2, and what Islam analyst Robert Spencer calls 6, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

“sink estates” built to house these workers. In a commentary in FrontPage magazine in the US, Spencer says “Instead of planning for their integration into society, however, the French allowed these communities to grow and fester in economic and social isolation. After two generations, the sink estates have proven to be nothing more than preplanned ghettoes, and the workers have no future except as second class citizens of the nations they helped rebuild from devastation.”

It has been amusing to watch the New Zealand (and indeed the world) media try and play down the Islamic link to the rioting. A TV3 News report from one of their feeder agencies called the rioters “protestors” and didn’t once use the “M” word or the “I” word. We were supposed to believe that this unprecedented violence in liberal world HQ was simply the work of disgruntled teenagers protesting about better pay and conditions.

Oh really? That’s probably why some of the rioters in Denmark are reported as having taunted police with “This territory belongs to Islam, you don’t belong here”. It may also be why in Muslim-dominated cities in Europe, police are no longer patrolling the streets because it’s too dangerous for them.

Watch this space. It marks the beginning of a new phase of history.

Closer to home, New Zealanders have been paying tribute in recent days to Greens co-leader Rod Donald who died November 6 aged 48. Donald and I first met soon after I published The Paradise Conspiracy back in 1995, and I found him intelligent and motivated.

Although Investigate shares a lot of green sentiment on environmental issues, it would be fair to say we haven’t seen eye to eye with the Greens on constitutional niceties like their support for abolishing the Privy Council without a referendum. Regardless, Rod was an honourable man and our thoughts are with his family.

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VOX POPULI

COMMUNIQUES DIVORCING HER PARENTS I was very interested to read your article about the 14 year old who wants to divorce her parents. We too had a similar situation happen to us with our foster son who at the age of 15 was seduced by a 24 year old solo mother to basically be a sperm donor. We too went through the disgusting treatment from CYFS who virtually told us that this boy whom we loved very much was now in the care of the woman who had seduced him and that we were virtually to butt out and pretend he was some sort of distant friend, despite the fact that we were caring for three of his siblings.

We went to CYFS – who couldn’t put him on a benefit quickly enough – to tell them what was happening, only to be told that they preferred to believe the boy and his ‘lover’ – who were maintaining that the relationship was platonic and she was more like a mother figure to him. We complained to the supervisor, again only to be told that they supported the social worker involved and did not validate us or in any understand where we were coming from. We felt devastated particularly when we saw the damage that was being done to our son; it was a terrible time for us and we fully empathise with the family involved. We too were Christians and would not countenance that sort of behaviour and in trying to stop it were constantly blocked by the interference of the social worker/s involved.

Hard and all as it was we determined that we would forgive the woman involved, despite her becoming pregnant to our son during this time. The forgiveness was very powerful and allowed God to work in the situation, finally freeing our son from the ‘control’ the woman seemed to have over him. Since breaking up with her he has not been allowed to be involved in his son’s life in any way whatsoever and has reacted badly to that, in fact his son (who would be 15 now) in all probability has no idea of who his father is. This bad reaction involved drug taking, and wild living thereby virtually ensuring he was not be able to claim parent8, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

hood or build any sort of relationship with his boy. I guess one small compensation was when our son was in trouble with the law years later and had to have a probation report done on him – would you believe that the former social worker turned out to be his probation officer and in the process of getting his details she asked him if he had any children. He told her of his son and his age – she was quite shocked; shocked that the platonic relationship that CYF had given their blessing and financial support to was in fact exactly the relationship we had maintained it was and had resulted in a child!

Our only advice to the parents in this article is to always leave the door open to your daughter as she will want to rebuild the relationship with you both in time – I promise you. You see the caring social workers and counsellors are not going to be there for her throughout her life the way you are, and she will come back! Please don’t cut your daughter off though, she will need you to be forgiving and welcoming when she does make that move. You see no government department can ‘become’ parents no matter how misguided or misdirected they may be. The undermining of parents by this Government is absolutely atrocious – particularly by the heads of departments in all sorts of areas. The whole system seems geared towards this aim – state control of our children. New Zealanders need to wake up! The CYF service has a lot to answer for; but in reality is only reflecting the attitude from Government and the social engineering agenda they are following.

Name and address supplied

CHILD SEX My letter to Investigate (November) was entitled “The Ultimate Betrayal”. The editors changed my title to “Child Sex is OK”. The title does not represent my view expressed in my letter. But at least the editor’s opinion has shifted from child rape to child sex.

Sex with children is not OK. But before we condemn

or condone we should find a definition of what is child in today’s world. The point of my letter was the relationship, or lack of it, between Megan and her parents. Everything else is valid but secondary. Megan’s story is not about CYFS, counselling services, government, money, immorality, rape, statutory or otherwise, sex. It is a story of a relationship between child and its parents living in a modern world.

It is easy to blame everyone else. Instead of blaming the establishment (put there by the voters) for the victimless crime, the time would be better spent fighting real problems created by the establishment.

Joanna Sanders, Wellington

CHANGING ROOMS, & RULES The PPTA seems to be in serious danger of becoming redundant as a Union for the 15,000 (95%) of teachers on its books. Instead of upholding member’s core interests of employment agreements, conditions, and advocacy, the PPTA seems more concerned with “mixing ‘n matching” children within school toilet blocks.

I refer of course to the lunacy being trumpeted by PPTA President Debbie Te Whaiti that if a child’s sexual orientation is opposite to their gender, then the child should be permitted to change or toilet in the opposing gender’s cubicles. This is minority-sanctioned madness.

I would be interested to know if the 15,000 members of the PPTA have any idea that it is the members, not Ms Te Whaiti, that will incur the wrath and sanction of the parents of children affected by this gross abuse of trust and privacy. Might be time for the PPTA to “stick to its knitting” – serving the interests of those who pay membership fees for them to do so, rather than attempting to socially engineer the school environment.

Steve Taylor, Auckland

TEENAGERS NEED GUIDANCE New Zealand allows the right to terminate a pregnancy, even at age twelve, without parental consent, the state allows and encourages young

girls into prostitution by making it legal, but when Donna and Murray wanted help for their situation with Megan it backfired on them and they became the victims.

This whole thing is ludicrous. It seems everyone has rights except those who want to do what is right. Are there such things as parents’ rights? Surely it is acceptable to want to train your fourteen-year-old daughter in the values you consider virtuous. That is considered good parenting. A teenager’s opinions are vulnerable and it is highly important that the parents have input.

How can a child of Megan’s age make an informed decision on whether to divorce her parents? In her fragile state her counselors, and church leaders would heavily influence her. They would be making the decision, not Megan. How can anyone in their right mind counsel Megan to reject her family, the most basic cornerstone of relationships?

The fact that a school and church leaders appear to be not prepared to listen to both sides of the story and work constructively towards reconciliation means they actually fostered the breakdown in this family. Shame on you who bear Christ’s name. /Mark 9:42/ “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a large millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.??”

Arna Mountain, Auckland

A VERY ZAOUI CHRISTMAS Thank you for publishing my letter in your November issue completely unabridged or edited. This, of course, is not always the case when writing to other publications, indeed, when my letters concern Ahmed Zaoui, sometimes they don’t get published at all.

Just a couple of observations from your comments. Your position still seems to be that national security is somehow sacrosanct, and lawyers and judges can never be privy to it. Only because that right has been legislated away by politicians. Those same politicians could possibly legislate to confine Deborah Manning to her house on a certain number of days in a week. It wouldn’t make it right. Prior to

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the election, former NZ First MP Dail Jones told me that parliament “can do anything”. He is, of course, right. When might they legislate against you, me, any New Zealander on a whim, just because they can?

Both sides in the Zaoui case have “scored legal points”, to state that the Crown is fighting with one hand behind its back defies belief. The same kind of argument is often put forward, most notably Newstalk ZB’s Larry Williams, with regard to the Refugee Status Appeals Authority decision. Long after Ahmed Zaoui is released, I believe Williams will keep on complaining, maybe even on his tombstone, ”but they didn’t have all the information in front of them.” My point would be that is because the SIS wouldn’t consider supplying that information even through security cleared counsel (as will now be the case with the “special advocate” in the security risk certificate review), and as had been allowed in some national security risk cases in Canada, the UK and the US. Deborah Manning has also stated, quite correctly, that the position of special advocate adds a degree of fairness to a process which is still basically unfair – because even if he is allowed to stay, neither Ahmed Zaoui nor his defence team will ever know what the actual charges against him ever were. In most legal systems I know of, if the prosecution can’t or won’t supply the evidence against somebody, there is no case. This is exactly what happened in Zaoui’s bail application last year – the Crown could give no credible evidence that he was a threat to anyone. As the solicitor-general said to the Supreme Court, “I think that’s fair, Your Honour ...” That is why Ahmed Zaoui has a degree of freedom now. He is still not a free man.

Zaoui’s defence team is also fighting with one hand behind their back, while in my opinion the man himself has both hands tied behind his back, and is blindfolded. If that sounds grimly ironic, it should do. Deborah Manning has taken up a case that not many other lawyers would handle, at great professional and personal cost. Often painted as some kind of pariah, she is doing exactly what her profession has trained her to do – seek justice for her clients. I would suggest that one reason there was such antagonism between Deborah and Liane Dalziel is because they are both lawyers. Well, Deborah is a lawyer, Liane Dalziel is a lawyer who is also a politician. Liane Dalziel was strongly against the security risk certificate legislation when in opposition, she said she was ”frightened” that people defined as national security risks would not be able to know the charges against them, they would be “fighting windmills” in fact. Once in government, and she became the Minister of Immigration, she became “frightened” that they might actually be able to know.

Finally, I contest your assertion that the case is “less about Ahmed Zaoui the man than it is about the situation he has created.” Excuse me? Because he arrived here, radical Islam is all his fault? It has existed, at least in western consciousness, principally since September 11, 2001. In a similar vein, when the issue of the effect of the drawn out case against Zaoui was having on his family was raised by a Zaoui supporter at a pre-election foreign policy forum, former Foreign Minister Phil Goff ’s response was, “if he’d stayed in Malaysia they wouldn’t have that problem.” The case is less about Ahmed Zaoui than his right, your right, anybody’s right, to the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty, and implications of what “national security” really mean, as I alluded to in my previous letter. Of course, radical Islam is of great concern. To interlock that concern with the Zaoui case is, in my opinion, mischievous.

But all things considered, as you say, let’s bring in Ahmed’s immediate family, let them enjoy a Kiwi summer together. My guess is that they would be prepared to share part of it with you.

Richard Mayes, Auckland P.S. I’m not an Ahmed “fan” as your heading suggested, I am a supporter of his rights.

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GIVE A GUY A BREAK Recent elections have perhaps allowed a greater appreciation of what drove the desperate Mr Fawkes on that long ago November evening!

In all seriousness though, our antecedent European culture is being eroded by a variety of influences, and it’s our celebrations that help define us as a people. The perennial whiners and bleaters are given a voice by a money hungry media but they represent only a tiny percentage of opinion, confirmed by the massive sales of fireworks. Firemen too should take a positive from this event and use it as training for possible disasters to come. It’s also a simple matter to lock pets indoors. Get over it.

Nicholas Keesing, Auckland

EVOLUTIONARY FUNDAMENTALISM? You are nothing if not consistent when it comes to misunderstanding the clear distinction between religion and science (“Understanding fundamentalism”, November 2005). The former is faith-based, as you maintain, but scientific propositions, such as organic evolution, are not matters that demand ‘faith’, ‘belief ’ or ‘disbelief ’.

To say, for example, “I have faith in evolution”, “I believe in evolution” or “I believe evolution to be true” (or their opposites) is to indicate a level of commitment inappropriate in a field where propositions are based on empirical evidence and are provisional (you correctly observe that absolute proof is beyond the attainment of science).

However, this limitation still does not rule out very high levels of confidence with respect to particular propositions, Darwin’s theory of descent with modification being one of them.

To all intents and purposes, evolution itself is a fact – its denial is quixotic in its sheer futility – because, as I have pointed out on numerous occasions, the evidence for it is so overwhelming.

Hence, we do not ‘believe’ scientific theories, we accept or reject them on the basis of the empirical evidence, and on their predictive and explanatory power (how well do they explain aspects of the natural world). What is more, they must be testable. In spite of claims to the contrary, evolution is testable – it is open to disproof, but so far has not been found wanting. To find a human skeleton in a Carboniferous stratum would be to upset the geological column and its fossil record in no uncertain manner. I’m reminded of the retort by the great biologist, J.B.S. Haldane, when asked what might disprove evolution: “Fossil rabbits in the pre-Cambrian”.

Finally, I find your definition of a fundamentalist as “someone who believes in the reality of objective truth” incongruous, to say the least.

Whereas modern science strives to be totally objective (and owes much of its success to this principle), religious fundamentalism in all its manifestations typically promotes the truth of certain beliefs, irrespective of any scientific evidence to the contrary.

Warwick Don, Dunedin WISHART RESPONDS

Ah Warwick. On the one hand admitting that science cannot provide absolute proof, you then try to claim de-facto absolute proof as far as evolutionary theory goes.

You can’t do it, nor is evolutionary theory nearly as well-grounded as you would have readers believe. For example, you are prepared to accept Haldane’s ‘fossil rabbits in the pre-Cambrian’ retort as a suitable disproof of evolution, yet not the equally strong ‘outboard motor in the bacteria’ disproof.

I know for a fact that were a human skeleton to turn up in Carboniferous rock, science would quickly determine that the rock stratum cannot have been from that period. Likewise, if a fossilised rabbit turned up where it shouldn’t, science would again either go for Option A, or otherwise simply shift the starting point for evolution further back, or as a third alternative state that evolution generally must have begun much earlier and that some planet-wide catastrophe destroyed all but isolated patches of rock from the earlier period, which is why we

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didn’t find the miscreant rabbit until now.

The religious beliefs of all atheists and many scientists hinge on a continuing ability to stick the scientific finger in the hole of Darwin’s leaking evolutionary dyke. When faced with a tough scientific challenge to its comfort zones, modern biology reacts like the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, screaming ‘heresy’ and refusing to let opposing theories be debated in scientific or educational fora in the hope that they won’t take hold.

Despite all that, modern biology can feel the cold winds of change blowing and raising the hairs on their neck. Ten or 15 years from now, neo-Darwinian theory will have gone the way of the steady-state universe theory and the dinosaur.

And yes, anyone who adheres to “necessary methodological naturalism/materialism” as the basis for scientific endeavour is a fundamentalist, because it is an a priori assumption that even if supernaturalism exists that it played no part.

There is no scientific evidence to actually support this assumption, and thus the underpinning of modern science is a faith-based, or religious, belief.

As for my definition of a fundamentalist and objective truth, you misunderstand the point. Science cannot be the ultimate arbiter of objective truth, as you yourself have conceded the limitations of science in this regard. To that extent, whether one holds to a naturalistic or any other religious belief system, science is but one data stream which can add weight to the probability of a particular truth claim being really true, but that’s all. Thus scientific evidence lends weight to a religious belief in naturalism, but scientific evidence can also be used to support Christianity. This is no great surprise, as modern science owes its existence to Christianity. There is less scientific evidence in support of eastern religious beliefs, especially as most of those rely on an eternal universe, rather than a Big Bang event. Nonetheless, although you can see a sliding scale emerging, science still cannot prove or disprove the truth of any of these belief systems.

All belief systems, whether Naturalism or other religions, make truth claims upon which they hang their raison d’etre. Therefore, whether you are atheist, agnostic or theist, you believe in an objective truth existing somewhere that will

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ultimately prove your belief to be true to the exclusion of the others. And again, to that extent, we are all of us fundamentalists.

FETAL EXPERIMENT The word ‘barbaric’ stirs deep feelings in us when we consider ethnic cleansing in Rwanda, forced abortions in China, or the death penalty in Indonesia. It is only used in relation to third world countries and then with repugnant scorn. It is not a term we would use in relation to ourselves, ever. We think we are morally superior to these civilisations.

But how would we consider late term abortions (up to eight months), perhaps the baby is delivered alive but is quickly despatched. How would we consider it if these babies were dis-membered and sold in a multi- billion dollar industry for scientific experimentation. How about it if these dis-membered babies were imported from the U.S.A. to be used at Auckland University. This is no different to Rwanda, China and Indonesia, barbarism with government sanction. So much for us and our supposed moral superiority. Our justification is, all for a good cause, but so was Joseph Mengele’s justification who did similar things for Nazi Germany, the only difference being that Mengele now looks decidedly amateurish and definitely lacking entrepreneurial skills.

Hamish Denmead, Nelson

DROP US A LINE Letters to the editor can be posted to: PO Box 302-188, North Harbour, Auckland, or emailed to editorial@investigatemagazine.com

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SIMPLY DEVINE

MIRANDA DEVINE A lesson in this for NZ, too

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or some well-meaning white people, the solution to entrenched Aboriginal deprivation is more taxpayer money and some vague concept of “reconciliation” for which they will walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge at least once. But after 30 years of failed socialist welfare policies, the tide has turned. Aboriginal leaders, most notably Noel Pearson, are preaching heresy to those progressives who have laid claim to being Aborigines’ greatest champions. They are talking about concepts of mutual obligation, smashing welfare dependency, encouraging mobility of young people, land reform and, most controversially, about rebuilding Families must be supported moral capital in their broken-down communities. because the decision to climb At the Australian Stock Exchange on Bridge out of poverty and disadvanStreet this month, Peatage was a decision for indi- rson, the director of the viduals and their families Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, delivered his “inherently conservative” message in a lecture for the Centre for Independent Studies, a think tank.

He wryly used the metaphor of “stairs of social and economic improvement” rather than the discredited “ladder of opportunity”. But the very foundation of those stairs is what he says many of his well-heeled audiences around the country find “unpalatable”. It is the “re-establishment of basic social cultural norms that underpin any society”.

The expectations that any healthy community takes for granted – that children will be brought up safely and well, of mutual obligation between citizen and society, of public order and safety – have collapsed in welfaredependent indigenous communities as an epidemic of substance abuse and passivity takes hold.

Families must be supported because the decision to 14, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

climb out of poverty and disadvantage was a decision for individuals and their families.

“No one has invented a mass elevator for a community to ascend all at once,” he said. Progress is made by families investing in individual members and urging them on.

Pearson was struck by Lee Kwan Yew’s belief that Singapore’s success was “really a credit to the mothers because he got them to understand the importance of maths and science. If you can get the mothers behind the kids, and hopefully the fathers, [you have] an important resource for improvements in education”.

Pearson, 40, has talked before of his hometown of Hopevale, a former mission on the Cape that had been “poor but socially stable” when he was growing up but had since disintegrated after a generation of “progressive and small ‘l’ liberal” policies.

One of the great paradoxes he sees on the streets of his region, is how “people who have such tender love and regard and infatuation with their own children, and their own families, can then act so detrimentally in their interests, in the way they spend their money and … divert their attentions … So much love, and yet the incentives are so tragically misaligned that love does not translate into a full tummy or attending school at 8.30 when the bell rings.”

He spoke of grandmothers who can “write beautiful letters and read the bible backwards”, yet their grandchildren can barely write their own names.

“There has been some kind of collapse in teaching reading in our home region, which we are urgently setting out to resolve.” A pilot reading program employing systematic phonics instruction in a school north of Cairns is showing promising results. And it is hoped that the coming report of the Committee for the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (of which I am a member) will go some way to addressing the problem of inadequate reading instruction across the country.

Pearson is optimistic about the future for Cape York.

“One of the great paradoxes he sees on the streets of his region, is how “people who have such tender love and regard and infatuation with their own children, and their own families, can then act so detrimentally in their interests, in the way they spend their money and … divert their attentions … So much love, and yet the incentives are so tragically misaligned that love does not translate into a full tummy or attending school at 8.30 when the bell rings”

Already people have left to attend university, join rugby league teams (as his nephew has), become famous artists in Paris and New York and taken up apprenticeships in Groot Island and the Pilbara. They are not “identity-less … they have not lost their culture or their links with their homes”. They are from Cape York and always will be, just as Pearson was, standing at the stock exchange feeling “anxious”.

But the biggest opposition he faces is from “bureaucrats and people in the white community … and the ideological positions of the mainstream”. He cited the struggle Mick Mundine faced in Redfern trying to convince harm-minimisation advocates to remove a needle exchange bus that was a honey pot for Aboriginal children.

As if on cue, a white woman in the audience stood and heckled Pearson. She said she was from Mosman as, she claimed, were most of the audience, if not the eastern suburbs.

Later identified as Frennie Beytagh, she actually lives in Cremorne,

adjoining Mosman, and is active in progressive causes such as North Shore Against War and petitions to release David Hicks.

“You’re denigrating Aboriginal people,” she told Pearson. “I’m so disappointed.”

When some in the crowd told her to sit down, she said: “I have a right to speak for Aboriginal people. I’m very passionate.”

Pearson’s responded coolly: “I’d like to effuse with you about how delightful things are on the Cape York peninsula, but I go to Hopevale every weekend, and I despair sometimes.”

The exchange captured perfectly the challenge Aboriginal leaders face from their friends in white Australia. They rest on the laurels of the stable society built by the self-denial and moral capital of their forbears, with seemingly no comprehension of how destructive the progressive values of the past decades have been on the weakest communities and their most vulnerable members.

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LAURA’S WORLD

LAURA WILSON A game of two halves

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ob Jones and Brian Edwards came head to head recently during a debate on National radio regarding the National Party’s recent resurgence of popularity, particularly in respect of their racial stance. Bob and Brian’s views could hardly have been more opposite, yet as they are two of my favourite thinkers I found myself agreeing first with one, then the other.

The debate was saved from descending into a slanging match by the regard each had for his opponent.

Whilst they may loathe each other’s argument, mere opinion was not allowed to overshadow respect of mutual capacities for wit and intelligent reasoning. ReaI would love to live without soning so compelling I fear, in a society based on coopfelt increasingly schizoeration with each other and phrenic as I sympathized alternately with one then with nature, with no love of the other. warfare, of mana, of fighting, After half an hour the debate ended abruptly, of competition stranding me in the depths of a dichotomy over what is perhaps the issue in New Zealand. Voting patterns in the recent election reflected this schism nationwide as Kiwis stood up to the Race Issue, raising their hand to say “enough is enough”, or conversely, “too little, too late”!

I decided to imaginatively continue the debate, letting my inner Bob and Brian fight it out to a conclusion I could confidently repeat if confronted by either Tariana Turia or Don Brash. Here goes: BRIAN: National rose in the polls by tapping in to mainstream New Zealand’s latent anti-Maori racism.

BOB: Well that statement would include me, and I’m very offended by being called a racist. That fact that I strongly disagree with the policies of the Maori party has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with common sense versus nonsense! This business of race16, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

specific laws and entitlements is very dangerous. The only fair way is having the same rules apply to everyone.

BRIAN: That’s because you Bob, being a rich, white male belong to the breed of rule-creators! You make rules that essentially suit your ilk, then believe fair-play consists of everyone playing by your rules. This would work if everyone were equally equipped to play your game, with the same background, education and goals.

But what Maori are saying is this is not their game, not their rules to abide by, and that they want us to give them the space to create their own!

BOB: Rubbish. By it’s very nature equality encompasses differences, be they of culture, status or sex.

Equality means, if you steal cars you go to prison, regardless of whether you are white, brown, rich or poor. You are free to marry as you choose, but only one spouse at a time. Your ‘selective’ laws suit group agendas like the Mormons, who believe men are entitled to amass harems of wives to do their bidding and breeding. It is true to say that marital law discriminates against them, but it does so out of a consensus on fairness, not out of a desire to restrict. Polygamy was also part of Maori culture, so are you suggesting they should be entitled to reinstate that tradition?

BRIAN: That’s a red herring Bob, it’s not about going back to their past so much as going forward to their future as they choose it, not as Pakeha culture prescribes it. It’s about debunking the myth of a level playing field in NZ because even though laws exist to make it level, attitudes are more powerful than laws and attitudes mean a Pakeha is far more likely to be hired for a job than an equally qualified Maori.

BOB: I’m not at all sure that’s true, but if it is it’s probably because previous Maori employees have attended one too many hangi’s, tangi’s and hui’s to be considered effective by the company! If so then why shouldn’t the hirers be entitled to employ someone more likely to put work first?

BRIAN: But in Maori culture whanau obligations

come first. Why should this be seen as a bad thing? Why shouldn’t we develop a more flexible relationship between job responsibilities and family/life responsibilities?

BOB: Oh, and roast wood-pigeon for lunch followed by hangi-ed whale? The thing with culture-based rules is that cultural peculiarities are endless. Take the recent case of the African chap charged with corruption in his NZ business who used culture as his defence, saying corruption is an ancient and acceptable part of his culture and if we try and stop him from ripping people off we are being cultural bullies! Universal laws that supercede culture is the only way out of this infinite madness, or next we’ll have Graffiti-entitlements for immigrants of African-American descent because tagging is part of their heritage!

BRIAN: But democratic process is about majorities, and majorityrule is never going to be fair to Maori, who number under 20%.

What is the point in having your say if it is never going to win in a vote-based system? Democracy consigns Maori to the margins, the fate endured by colonised people all over the globe. Is this what you call a level playing field?

BOB: A level playing field means that a system is in place which benefits anyone of any background who wishes to improve the quality of their life. All you need is the desire, and you can get into any educational institution and use hard work to get you anywhere you want. This system benefits kumara growers and musicians as much as property developers and lawyers. Protecting beaches from private ownership is a good example of this universally beneficial system, and is one of the prime things Maori want to alter in their own favour with the foreshore and seabed debacle. So in the future, presuming mixed marriages will continue, we’ll have a Maori man able to walk down his tribal beach with his mixed-blood kids while his Pakeha wife stays in the car!

BRIAN: The foreshore seabed thing is not about restricting beach access, but about acknowledging cultural use. Few Pakeha rely on the sea for their survival so we have created rules that allow small amounts of recreational fishing and shellfish collection because that’s what suits us. But Maori have always used sea and seashore as primary food sources and so our rules do not suit their way of life. They signed a document 160 years ago that ensured this way of life could continue, and they want it finally to be honoured.

BOB: well now you’re at the crux of the problem. How could two men born two centuries ago in an incomparably different world bear the responsibility of writing a Treaty by which we are all expected to live in modern New Zealand? This is the very same nonsense that has mothballed Christianity. The Bible was written to suit the times, and trying to live with the same attitudes 2000 years later is about as unrealistic, not to mention unimaginative as you can get! When the Treaty was written, Maori needed protection because two completely different cultures were about to converge, and clearly the British had far greater resources. But today there are no British, only New Zealanders.

BRIAN: And amongst these New Zealanders are groups who are thriving under current conditions and groups who are not. Those not thriving are predominantly Maori. You are saying this is a fault of their own, due to a lack of ambition or a failure to use the system to their advantage. Maori are saying it is because the system was not built by them and does not suit their ways, therefore they can never prosper unless they become unrecognisable from the white man. It is only very recently, for example, that Maori faces have been used to advertise products in the media. A Maori person therefore, who used your so-called equal opportunity scheme and put themselves through media school with a view to acting in commercials, would have done so in vain, as discrimination exists amongst advertisers and consumers. No company was willing to risk using a brown face to promote their product!

BOB: You’re describing a natural, if unwelcome, aspect of consumerism that numerous groups have had to overcome, such as women. No self-respecting car manufacturer of 20 years ago would have used a female to advertise their latest model. Attitudes are indeed slower to change than laws, but change they do. So women have eventually found freedom and prospered under an annex of laws you could equally say were neither written by them nor with them in mind. It seems to me that Maori want their cake and to eat it too.

They want rights exclusive to their culture, while still benefiting from universal rights.

BRIAN: They want the right to protect their culture, which is not going to be achieved by blending in seamlessly with your formula for success Bob. For their culture to grow they need space to do things their own way, to enact their own ideas about community, justice and identity.

At about this point in my imaginary debate I realized each man was on his own infinity curve with a trajectory doomed to arrive back at his original viewpoint, convictions unchanged. Each had an answer to every criticism, and I’m sure could back them up with logic, science and statistics. This scenario defines politics, and perhaps life itself, as the war of the opposites in which nobody is ever right, or each is right at a certain time.

None of this helped me define my own position on the issue of increasing Maori separatism based on the notion they deserve reparations for historical mistreatment. So I’m deciding to relieve myself of the burden of holding an opinion, and instead will join Maori in making a claim for protection against mainstream society that discriminates against me and my ilk. Maybe this is the definition of progress, as one group after another stands up against its peers and demands changes be made.

As there is no chance for me and “my people” to escape the mainstream bias against us, I believe we should be given an area within New Zealand where we can practice our culture and exclude those who disrespect our ways, as we have over the centuries discovered that it is impossible for us to flourish under majority rule.

As yet our tribe has no name, but would be comprised primarily of women and children, with a few extremely pacifist, gentle men. As young boys grow they can decide whether they want to go and join the aggressive male culture over the fence, or stick with us and not have to lock their doors, cars, or watch their backs.

My society is founded on non-violence in all its forms, including such things as noise-assault by boy-racers and rapsters, visual assault from breast-oglers, and of course, sexual-assault from predators and rapists. It exists in recognition of the fact that upwards of 90% of this world’s violent crime derives from the male psyche.

I would love to live without fear, in a society based on cooperation with each other and with nature, with no love of warfare, of mana, of fighting, of competition. Whilst my culture has no Treaty document to refer back to, I believe we have vast proof of historical mistreatment sufficient, if we chose, to hold Macho society accountable for millennia of War Crimes against pacifist, feminine-based society. We too can claim cultural genocide, and post-traumatic patriarchy disorder.

Once we receive recognition of our right to extract ourselves from mainstream culture and exist in our peaceful enclave, our challenge then is to decide who deserves to join us, and who possesses a bit too much testosterone. A lot like the Maori situation of just how much Scottish, Irish and German blood is acceptable in the veins of Tangata Whenua, to entitle them to share in exclusive Maori gains.

Maybe the definition of ‘being Maori’ will come down to attitudinal, rather than genetic features as the concept of culture continues to evolve.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM,

17

EYES RIGHT

RICHARD PROSSER Calling Ivan

W

e have a new Government. Yawn. Pardon me for thinking the nation had voted for change; but we didn’t get it, and the juggernaut of the Sisterhood rolls on to its inevitable fiery end, supported by turncoats and weaklings, free to pursue its globalist, socialist agenda of the de-nation-isation of New Zealand, including, amongst other incomprehensibly stupid acts of treachery, a Free Trade Deal with China – perhaps the nation which, of all those who desire to consume our fertile and empty land, poses the greatest threat.

Indeed there is nothing at all benign about our strategic environment. Our reRussia has relationships with all gion is more volatile and now than it has the major nations of our region, dangerous ever been, and, as always, which are at least as old, complex, relative safety, and danger, paradoxical, and beneficially self- are inextricably intermeshed with trade. serving as were those enjoyed by China is not alone in its desire; but Indonesia, as it the British a century ago is currently constituted, does not present an immediate danger. It is too disparate and concerned with its own internal troubles. However, in eight to twelve years or so, whether Indonesia fractionates during the coming decade or not, it will be a direct threat. It is already well into the process of acquiring the necessary military hardware, and there is at least a good half century of entrenched intention – within all and any of the factions which make up the current agglomeration that is Indonesia – to expand into, and occupy, Australasia and much of the Pacific.

When the threat from Indonesia does become manifest, it may be in the form of direct military action by either Indonesia as it currently exists, or in such form and composition as it may become, against Australia, or 18, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

New Zealand, or both; or in the form of paramilitary Muslim action against, primarily, Australia; or quite possibly both the above scenarios.

The more immediate threat is posed by China, which will be in a position to challenge the US for Naval supremacy in the wider Pacific region from about 2012 onwards. And they will. (Assuming, of course, that China and the US have not annihilated each other over Taiwan or North Korea before then.)

Since the Chinese and the Indonesians share much of the same agenda and desires, it is highly unlikely that they will ever become allies. This may be able to be regarded as a good thing from Australia and New Zealand’s point of view, because it means that one of the potential enemies will almost certainly eliminate the other; but it changes little inasfar as the ultimate fate for our countries is concerned, which is that one of these large hungry dragons, almost certainly China, is going to come and try to eat us.

What we do about it depends to a large degree on which other major players are in the arena at the time, and on their various states of health and capability. The other major players include the United States, Japan, India, and Russia. They do not include Europe, which has very little future as a collective arrangement, and none as an influential force in world affairs.

Our best bet, almost certainly, is to form a strong, stable, and inclusive alliance with the United States. This will, of necessity, include the basing of US strategic assets (read: Nukes) on New Zealand and Australian soil, and in our ports.

However, even this may not guarantee our future security.

If the US is wounded, or otherwise removed from its position of global pre-eminence, either by way of limited nuclear confrontation with either China or North Korea, or simply by virtue of overwhelming increases in Chinese military capability, its ability to provide any significant degree of protection to New Zealand and Australia will be severely negated.

Countering this is the reality that a wounded China will also be less able to prosecute a direct threat; in such a case, Indonesia would become the greatest immediate danger. However, Japan has never stopped being expansionist, and whereas, in a scenario which has both China and the US in a weakened position, the best hope for salvation from either Indonesia, or Japan, may be in the form of assistance from India, such assistance will not in itself be free from military or cultural impositions.

In addition, China’s friendly relationship with nuclear Pakistan, and the latter’s acrimonious dealings with India, coupled with its Muslim ties to Indonesia, may provide the potential for an axis of these countries to stall or diminish India’s ability to project force or influence within the wider Asia-Pacific region.

Should this happen, the potential threat posed by a re-emergent Japan would rise in significance; though it must be remembered that there is no love between Japan and any of her Asian neighbours.

Because of this, one of the first acts in any major redefinition of the Asia-Pacific power balance may be an attempted negation of Japanese potential, by pre-emptive action from China. However, the Japanese are well aware of such a possibility, and even now they are talking about acquiring their own independent deterrent.

Utilised against the Chinese or not, such a capability in the hands of the Japanese poses a very direct threat to both New Zealand and Australia; admittedly, less so in any scenario where the United States still wields major influence.

What all this means, as far as New Zealand and Australia are concerned, is that whichever way you care to look at it, we are two very small and insignificant nations in a world of turmoil, completely subject to the agendas of very much larger powers; or, if you prefer, two very small and very tasty fish in a big ocean full of hungry dragons, all of whom wish to eat us in one form or another.

Being “eaten” by the US poses the least unpleasant fate of all, by a long margin; but it still requires us to accept a few of the grown-up realities of life in a brutal fishpond, one of which is that refusing to allow our friends to come visit us - and bring their weapons - is simply not sustainable in the dangerous and changing world of which we remain a part, regardless of how deep we try to stick our heads in the sand.

So where are the Russians in all of this? Probably in the box seat, in my humble estimation. Alone of the European nations, they are both vaguely united, and possessed of the ability to project influence through the Asia-Pacific region, at least to the same degree as they are able to be regarded as significant westwards and across Europe.

Russia has relationships with all the major nations of our region, which are at least as old, complex, paradoxical, and beneficially selfserving as were those enjoyed by the British a century ago.

Russia and the US are not really enemies, and both of them know it; though it serves both their purposes well to pretend that the animosity of the Cold War has not quite gone away.

Russia and China are not really friends, and both of them know it, though it serves both their purposes well to pretend that the “alliance” of the Cold War has never completely ended.

Russia and Japan are still really enemies, though it serves both of them well to pretend that they are actually friends, for trade purposes, and in Russia’s case, to gain better leverage with the US. Russia and Pakistan are not actually friends, but it serves the Russians well to pretend that they are, so they can play the Pakistanis off against the Indians and the Chinese.

Russia and India are becoming friends; in the meantime, it serves the Russians well to pretend that they already are, so they can play the Indians off against the Pakistanis and the Chinese.

Russia and the North Koreans have never been friends, but if Ivan

“Why all this focus on Russia, and what does it mean to New Zealand and Australia? Because, in my humble opinion, Russia provides the next best, and next least objectionable, potential saviour for our two countries, after the United States. If Uncle Sam were, God forbid, ever to be put in a position where he were unable to come to our aid, my preference would be to get on the phone to Ivan. The Soviets were always our enemy, but the Russian people never were” thinks that pretending they are, will allow him to play off the Yanks, the Chinks, and the Japs against each other, he will.

Russia and Indonesia are neither friends nor enemies. Indonesia is a ready market for Russian arms; but if Russia had the opportunity to squash Muslim expansionism in Indonesia at no cost to itself, it probably would.

Why all this focus on Russia, and what does it mean to New Zealand and Australia? Because, in my humble opinion, Russia provides the next best, and next least objectionable, potential saviour for our two countries, after the United States. If Uncle Sam were, God forbid, ever to be put in a position where he were unable to come to our aid, my preference would be to get on the phone to Ivan. The Soviets were always our enemy, but the Russian people never were.

They don’t speak English or spend dollars; but they do celebrate Christmas and go to the football and enjoy a drink, so they’re not a completely alien people to us, as least no more than are the Germans, or the Italians, or the Swedes, or even the French. As well as that, they’d sell us nuclear submarines faster than we could write the cheque; and whatever else happens, I’m convinced that we’re going to need a few of those before this whole business is over.

So is Prosser advocating some sort of pact with the Commies? Get serious. This is me. But I’m also a pragmatist. The Cold War is over.

We won. Communism is dying. And maybe we have a choice between free trade with either one of its two former greats: one, a people not hugely dissimilar to ourselves, in a relationship with the potential for mutual benefit; the other, a rapacious and alien nation with little regard for our values and less for our future.

In post-Soviet Russia, we have an ever-more sophisticated, industrialised, European country of 100 million people, who have put men and satellites in space, and who are embracing capitalism; whose primary industries compliment our own rather than competing with them, whose people are a ready market for our agricultural products, whose heavy industries we cannot match, and who desire to benefit from our advances in IT and other high tech fields.

In China we have an uncontrollably vast and expansionist nation whose 1300 millions want nothing from us but land and commodities, fish, timber, raw wool, offal, and milk powder; whose industries are re-creating the environmental disasters which galvanised the original green protests of the Silent Spring generation, and whose human rights record stands alongside those of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, and Nazi Germany.

In this volatile and ever less secure world, who do we really want to cuddle up to – the Dragon or the Bear?

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM,

19

DOUBLE SPEAK

IAN WISHART A cracker of a time

O

K, Guy Fawkes has been and gone but the big question remains: will the wowsers go back into hibernation for another year or will they try and find something else to ban in the meantime. Far be it from me to find myself agreeing with a Labour MP, much less David Benson-Pope, but he’s dead right: a ban on fireworks is insane.

Back in the 1970s, as a seven year old, I could buy enough explosives from my corner dairy to blow up a small car.

In those days it was perfectly legal to sell fireworks to kids, whether they were the tiny Tom Thumbs, the larger Double Happys, the Thunders or the granddaddy of all big bangmeisters, the Mighty Cannon. What 40 something male doesn’t have a fond They get paid good money memory tucked away somewhere of plugging a Mighty from insurance levies to put Cannon into one of out fires. Sure, Guy Fawkes is Mum’s old tins, and blowa carefully placed saucer a busy week. We all have busy ing to smithereens. weeks in our jobs, get over it!

Dangerous? Yes. There were kids who lost eyes, fingers and other bits of their anatomy through mishandling fireworks. Beverley Pentland, long-time campaigner for fireworks regulations, used to visit schools and warn kids of the dangers. Sensibly, the politicians listened and over the years skyrockets have disappeared along with crackers, and fireworks are restricted to purchasers aged 14 and over.

But for the two weeks leading up to Guy Fawkes all I’ve heard in the news media are endless earnest stories about how fireworks should be totally banned because they’re annoying pets and causing fires. Newstalk ZB is one of the worst offenders in this regard. Its newsroom seems obsessed with fireworks cultural cringe, wasting no opportunity to quote the local fire commander on the horrendous fact that there’ve been something like 60 Guy Fawkes related fires in the week leading 20, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

up to the event itself. Well hello, if the Newstalk ZB journalists had been out of nappies back in 1989 when I joined TV3, they’d know that fires caused by fireworks numbered in the hundreds, not dozens, back then.

Now I realize that a scrub fire in your neighbourhood is not something to be welcomed, but I also get sick of the whingeing from the Fire Service in this regard. They get paid good money from insurance levies to put out fires. Sure, Guy Fawkes is a busy week. We all have busy weeks in our jobs, get over it!

I’m sick of listening to some halfwit radio journalist with about six month’s experience in the real world (nearly all radio journalists these days are cadets), opine about the $3,000 cost of sending a fire truck out to respond to an emergency. Wake up and smell the smoke, baby! It doesn’t cost $3,000 for a fire callout. Do you seriously think it costs $3,000 to pack eight men, already on salaries, who’d otherwise be playing cards or watching TV, into a couple of fire trucks to drive four kilometres and pump $150 worth of water at a fire for half an hour? You’ve been listening to Fire Service spin for far too long! Fighting fires is what we pay these men for. That’s their job. To strip families of the right to a backyard fizz simply because 60 idiots in a population of four million caused fires is daft.

Personally, I blame the wrap-em-up-in-cotton-wool brigade who control health, safety, education and the media these days. Get real, life hurts. The sooner we realize there are risks, the better we are at avoiding those risks. By all means consider raising the age of purchase to 18, or consider prosecuting parents for negligence if their kids go out and cause merry hell with fireworks. But don’t assume you have some state-given right to ban them outright.

The late Rod Donald of the Greens was equally wise: “Are you going to ban cars because people have accidents? It gets to the point of the ridiculous. I’m more concerned about young drivers in charge of a one tonne missile than kids letting off crackers,” he told reporters.

Let’s hope some of Donald’s wisdom lingers on his colleagues.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM,

21

LINE ONE

CHRIS CARTER The horse botherer

C

entral to any truly democratic society is the absolute right of any citizen to freely express their thoughts, opinions and ideas in an atmosphere free from any kind of restriction or regulation that may in any way curtail that right. And indeed we New Zealanders enjoyed this happy state of affairs for most of this nation’s recorded history, well that is until the Trojan Horse that is Socialism, having surreptitiously gained entrance to the place where we store the keys to our basic rights and freedoms, then set about changing all of the locks!

There’s an old saying that the more things change the more in fact things remain the same. In examining the rise and rise of thought control and its handmaiden social engineering, a brief So, has socialism circa 2005 in look back over our shoulders at the great socialist any substantive way changed its parties of the past can, spots from those earlier, albeit well, give us a pretty good idea as to what to expect more murderous fellow travellers right here and now in of the thirties? New Zealand unless we begin to wake up pretty damn quickly. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, all had the one thing in common, they were Socialists...Yes I know, Hitler was a Nazi, the other two were Communists, or so we have been led to believe, but ignoring the labels and looking instead at their deeds and their philosophies, then in truth these three monsters and their State machinery were indivisible in either methodology or effect.

All three regimes peddled the dogma of division, with Hitler it was the Jews, with Stalin it was capitalism, in Mao’s case pretty well the rest of the World. To achieve the required whipping up of the ‘us and them’ beliefs of the population at large, all three embarked on the most remarkable ‘re-education’ of the masses 22, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

via state controlled propaganda where extraordinary amounts of money were spent to persuade folk along the path of ‘right think’, which in a very short space of time very successfully turned previously quite normal people into essential robots quite willing to carry out the State’s wishes more or less without question.

Thus, once achieved, it became frighteningly all too easy to commence the next logical step, with the willing cooperation of the population at large, to begin to kill other people in astronomically large numbers. It’s simply a matter of labelling the soon to be victims as being ‘Enemies of the State.’ OK, that’s extreme socialism to be sure, but in methodology and the subsequent pursuit of absolute power there is in fact enough similarity of purpose and the means to achieve that purpose, to frighten the pants off of anyone at all possessed of a brain in reasonably good working order.

Let us then endeavour to examine some of the more obvious ploys of the modern Socialist movement right here in New Zealand...that which they have already achieved, and that which they quite plainly have well and truly slotted into their control freakish agendas.

Firstly we have to consider the old truism that, not unlike the art of spying, politics well carried out is never what it actually seems. It is of course all about power, personal power, power to control, nothing more, nothing less. Certainly, enormous sums of money (our tax money of course) is spent to very successfully convince the greater number of the flock that political parties and their leaders love us all dearly, and that they spend all of their waking hours ‘working very hard’ to shepherd us through the various valleys of darkness which, in truth, are usually only there anyway because their incompetence has created them in the first place.

Which is where we seek the first clues as to how the Machiavellian modern Aotearoan socialist may well have changed its spots but certainly not its attitude, neither

its true purpose. “To achieve revolution, one first requires disorder” – a basic tenet uncle Karl Marx once laid at the feet of his red acolytes.

It’s good to see that this dictum has not been forgotten, even within this new look socialism that Helen and friends are now putting about, because it is by still following this number one ploy of the true followers of socialism that they are unmasked for what they really are! Consider the following… you want to create disorder in a previously well-ordered and happy society, where does one start?

Well, the family certainly seems to be the glue that pretty well holds everything together doesn’t it? Good place to start, begin to surreptitiously undermine the family unit, using a multi faceted appro ach, begin by undermining the place of a man in the family, in society as well for that matter, like ‘all men are rapists and potential child molesters’.

Only takes a short while and that clever little slogan begins to appear as a truth. Then encourage divorce, even say over such trivial matters as burning the toast, cemented in place of course by statefunded, hand-wringing agencies, eager to make a previous time out separation the full Monty, complete with lashings of easily obtainable benefits for those who are even just thinking about having a parting of the ways. The kids? They might not react well to mum and dad splitting up? Well an opportunity exists here for copious shedding of socialist crocodile tears as we establish state child care facilities to solve this terrible problem that of course we can easily conceal as having come about in the first place as a direct result of our attacks on the family unit!

Education also provides fallow ground for the creation of division where previously little if any existed. Re-engineer the school curriculum so that girls are advantaged and the boys quickly fall behind, this apart from reinforcing the ‘all men are beasts’ dogma with a generally held belief that now they are becoming stupid as well, can only really add to our divide and conquer techniques of control. The battle of the sexes fires are now well re-stoked and roaring away there nicely, having already very successfully divided town against country, done an absolutely fine job of selling racial understanding and harmony between Maori and Pakeha by virtue of superbly devious legislation that is now in fact not only ticking off the bulk of the population at large but showing signs of even dividing up Maori opinion as well!

Hell’s teeth, isn’t all of this preparative work for the revolution to come so very easy to set up?

These mugs don’t even realise what’s being done to them. Oh, mustn’t forget about the seemingly uncontrolled immigration caper either. Encourage, preferably large, numbers of foreign migrants to come in bulk over a very short period of time and then to gather together in large, self-sufficient suburban enclaves where they can live and trade amongst themselves without ever having the need or the opportunity to mix or socialise with ordinary New Zealanders. If that idea doesn’t inevitably create distrust and division nothing ever will! Then a side issue that comes to those who seek absolute power over the rest of us that certainly hasn’t been missed by the incredibly astute if very dangerous Chairman Clark: the need to control both the thought and speech of the masses. The dictator has yet to be born, certainly none of the three mentioned at the beginning of this wee diatribe, that does not seek to socially engineer the people of the territory that they seek to hold under absolute control.

You can take any number of pieces of legislation that have been bulldozed through parliament in recent times that have been sold to us as being necessary for the common good, but in fact, close examination tends to show us that any good that may come about is entirely secondary to the inevitable trampling of some other group’s rights, freedoms or beliefs. Legislation that in fact has but the one purpose and that to simply demonstrate that I, Helen and my fellow

socialists can do what we bloody well like and further more we intend to carry on doing just that.

As just a few examples of this we have seen the Marriage laws essentially torn up and then replaced with documentation that purports to allow legal union it would seem between a squirrel and an aardvark! Were New Zealanders ever consulted? Silly question! Madam Lash and friends may now legally ply their wares right over your family home’s back yard fence or even better an assembly of Wiccan homosexual horse botherers may choose to empathise in public view as part of a festive celebration of ‘diversity’...Be warned, let not a single word of outrage or even mild condemnation pass your weary lips for ‘Hate speech’ lingers there in the legislative wings along with the already prescribed terminology that used will have you condemned as being a ‘Racist, Sexist, Ageist, Homophobe, Red-Neck, Neo-Conservative, Christian (gulp), Chauvinist, Capitalist , etc’, just being a small sampling of the divisive name calling practiced almost entirely by card carrying socialists to denigrate any who might call into question their scrummaging the rest of us over the cliff of common morality.

So, has socialism circa 2005 in any substantive way changed its spots from those earlier, albeit more murderous fellow travellers of the thirties? In specific methodology undoubtedly yes. In overall aims and strategy, I think not. Only now, the family is the main object of attack, and the cynical creation of divisions between groups of people, either ethnically or economically based remains identical to those same teachings espoused by Marx. It’s just that now, very successful re-branding has convinced most people that Marxism no longer guides the socialist faithful, and if you believe that you truly could be persuaded, to believe anything!

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM,

23

TOUGH QUESTIONS

IAN WISHART Exorcism – when belief becomes reality

H

ollywood has a long history of milking the religious and/or supernatural veins of our culture for material, and usually it’s a blockbuster. Last season Mel Gibson’s The Passion became a worldwide hit, even in Muslim countries. Thirty years ago who can forget little Damien, his Dobermans, and a bunch of powerless priests in The Omen and its sequels? This summer’s offering to moviegoers is no different: The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

The movie tells the story of a Catholic priest facing negligent homicide charges after his exorcism of a young woman goes fatally wrong.

In the 21st century, is belief in demonic possession something we threw out with the Dark Ages, or is it part and parcel of a global If you were Satan and your job spiritual ‘quickening’ that’s manifesting itself in description was to keep people everything from terror ataway from Christianity, you’d look tacks, to the battle over Design, or at Western culture and say you’d Intelligent who should sit on the US done a pretty good job Supreme Court?

I’m arguing strongly that it’s the latter. The battle over religion may appear at first blush to be a battle of ideas. At a deeper level, however, it’s a battle for the soul of every living human on the planet.

The liberal latte set in Balmain or Ponsonby may have trouble with that particular concept, and they’ll sit there making loud scoffing noises over a panini, but those same people will then go home, read their horoscope, do a little yoga, make sure their city abodes have appropriate feng shui, and probably swap dinner party stories about things that went bump in the night at the last inner city villa they inhabited.

Intriguingly, a survey just out in Britain shows more people believe in ghosts (68%) than believe in God (55%).

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What that tells me is that a substantial portion of the British population are cretins. The moment one accepts the possibility of any supernatural, by definition one would have to accept the possibility of the existence of God. Otherwise, what created the spirits? The survey goes on to reveal that more than a quarter of Britons believe in UFOs, and almost as many in reincarnation.

The UFO bit is interesting, because it leads directly back to the exorcism issue. I remember reading about a decade ago how the head of a UFO research group in the States suddenly twigged to the fact that what we think we’re seeing in the night sky may not be what we assume, Spielberg-like, a UFO or alien actually is. This particular researcher began praying to Jesus Christ when he and his team encountered apparent UFO visitations, and the apparitions vanished. Exorcised as it were.

Think about it for a moment. Back in the Dark Ages, people, even respectable people, saw monsters. Literature and historic accounts, even from ancient historians whose work we value, abounds with tales of monsters being seen here, there and everywhere.

Culturally, we encountered demonic spirits in monster form because that was what was relevant in the day.

In modern times, we’ve explored the world, we know there are no monsters, but we’re culturally prepared to see spacecraft and aliens. There is a growing body of people who now suspect the UFO phenomenon is nothing more than the monsters of the past reappearing in modern form.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald about The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Linda Morris notes “the idea that people could be possessed by spirits predates Christianity and is found in many other religions.” Indeed it is, but only Christianity actually cures the problem. And if you go to the heart of Africa, and the spiritual battleground between Christianity, Islam and Animism (primitive spirit/witchdoctor religion), you’ll find demonic possession is not scoffed at but accepted as part of life. They don’t see UFOs, they see spirits and weird creatures.

In Mexico, recently, Indians in remote parts of the Yucatan have being going crazy over “the Wolfwoman”, a werewolf type creature they reckon has been stalking villagers and killing livestock, while in remote parts of Chile it is the “Chupacabra” they’re talking about: “It had the body of a kangaroo…deep set red eyes…and two large fangs protruding from its upper jaw,” recounted a Chilean news report quoted on a paranormal website in the US. Only in South America, perhaps. Apart from Warren Zevon, the rest of us don’t generally see werewolves in London anymore, walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.

Then, from the same paranormal website, the report of the human sacrifice of a one year old baby boy in Peru, apparently in a renewal of ancient Indian religion. The child had been beheaded, and his heart torn out on the peak of Torre Torrni in the southern Andes.

Do we really dismiss child sacrifice as just a manifestation of normal religious belief, or do we harbour a nagging suspicion that perhaps primitive religions truly were started by satanic entities, and that this evil is on the move once more?

Why does Christian prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit, break those strangleholds? I can tell you now that Christianity hasn’t become the fastest-growing religion in the world this decade because a whole bunch of liberal Unitarian ministers have convinced Africans and Asians that going to church is a good thing and George Bush is a bad person. No. Hundreds of thousands of Africans and Asians are converting to Christianity every week because they’re seeing supernatural miracles performed in front of their very eyes, just like Christ did in the New Testament. Exorcisms are not rare, they’re routine.

And let’s face it, if your religious baggage includes worshiping half man/ half beast gods, chances are you’re going to need deliverance.

In the West, our demons are not so much things that go bump in the

night as things that make us hurt others, or harm ourselves. We have a growing disbelief in the supernatural, and with it a disbelief in Jesus Christ. And if you were Satan and your job description was to keep people away from Christianity, you’d look at Western culture and say you’d done a pretty good job. You don’t actually need a Carnivorous Skippy bounding down Pitt St in search of a soul-tie. In fact, such a supernatural occurrence might actually be counterproductive in the West.

Even so, truth is, in Sydney or Auckland, far more deliverance and even exorcisms are performed than either the Herald or the Catholic Church is aware of. Mothers whose daughters cut themselves because “the blood releases my pain” have found psychiatrists a waste of time.

Christian prayer, on the other hand, coupled with a conversion to Christianity, often works where the best of western medicine and psych study draws a blank. There are diseases of the body that need medicine, and there are afflictions of the spirit and the soul that ultimately only God can heal, not man.

None of which negates the fact that in Christianity you can still get quacks like the rogue Korean pastor who killed a young Auckland woman during an exorcism four years ago by throttling her, and a similar case in the US, where those concerned felt they needed to fatally beat the proverbial out of a child during ‘deliverance’. But those cases are so rare that’s precisely why they do make headlines. You don’t see Jesus in the Bible strapping on a Ghostbuster-style vacuum cleaner, using a gun with a silver bullet or slinging some garlic around his neck, much less going 15 rounds with a possessed man. He simply ordered the spirit to leave its victim, by the authority of his name.

If you feel you need deliverance, or you’d just like someone to pray for you, ask at your local church and experience it first hand. Your head won’t swivel, you probably won’t hit the ceiling, but you might feel a weight lift off your shoulders.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM,

25

DIARY OF A CABBIE

ADRIAN NEYLAN

Nic fix

ust after dark recently I was dropping off a passenger in an Eastern Suburbs Housing Commission neighbourhood. As I slowed, a party of three hailed me.

It was obvious they were waiting for a booked cab: A young guy around 18 years old in suit pants, white shirt and tie, plus two women likewise dressed up, wearing glittery dresses.

The fella ran after the cab then stood on the roadway at my window waiting for the passenger to alight.

After which he asked, ‘Mate, are you free?’ ‘Um, did you book a cab?’, I replied. ‘Yeah but we’ve been waiting half an hour – it’s my sister’s 21st and we’re really late. Please, I know you don’t have to take us but it’s really important’.

Even though they wanted the City, which I wanted to avoid, the kid’s plaintive ap‘Mate, it’s cool’, I told him. peal struck a chord. ‘Yeah jump in’.

‘I’m a smoker too,” I handed righto, My passengers were in him a cigarette for her along good spirits as we headed with the receipt for a five star restaurant at Circular Quay. The kid earnestly engaged me in banter about cab driving whilst the two women quietly chatted in the back. When one of them requested we stop at a convenience store for cigarettes, the kid tapped me on the leg and said, ‘Mate, this cab doesn’t stop, does it?’. ‘Depends who’s paying’, I replied.

‘I am’, insisted the woman. ‘No, Mum’, the kid replied, ‘we haven’t got time – we’ll be late for the guests’.

Hearing the word ‘Mum’ surprised me. From snippets of their easy chat I’d been under the impression both women were the same age. Now I realised I was carrying a single parent and two children. ‘Mum, you can buy cigarettes when we get there’, the kid told her. ‘No, I don’t think there’s anywhere near the restaurant’, she said, ‘We’ll stop at the nearest hotel’.

At Circular Quay I pulled up at the Paragon Hotel for the mother to buy smokes in the bottle shop. However, as she only had plastic the kids told her she would need cash for the machine. ‘I don’t care, we’ve got to find another 26, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

shop’, she said tersely, ‘You know not to get between me and cigarettes’. The birthday girl chided her, ‘Mum, you’re being childish’. But the mother’s frustration was obvious she needed smokes.

Waiting at lights on Pitt Street, the kid suddenly said, ‘Hey, there’s Dad!’. Winding down the window he called to a middle aged bloke dressed in a suit and hurrying alone toward the intersection. ‘I’ll take you around to Harrington Street’, I said, ‘there’s a 7-11 there’. ‘No mate...’, said the kid, but his mother interrupted, ‘Yes Steven, we get the cigarettes first!’. Whatever, I thought; it would only take a few minutes. Unbelievably though, the store was lit up but closed! The mother stood outside its doors willing it to open, before storming back to the cab and slamming the door. ‘I told you I needed cigarettes!’, she exploded. The kid leaned over and whispered to me, ‘Mate, please take us to the restaurant now’. ‘Okay’, I said, ‘but there’s a store back where you saw your Dad on Pitt Street’. ‘We’ll go back then!’, the mother barked. ‘Mum, let’s just get to the restaurant’, the kid pleaded, ‘then I’ll run up to the store for you’. ‘Yes, you will’, she scowled.

We completed the trip in tense silence, the jovial atmosphere now gone. ‘Thanks Mum’, the daughter quietly said, ‘you’ve managed to spoil the start of my night’. Ignoring her, Mum handed over a debit card then quickly hopped out, once again slamming the door. ‘I’m really sorry about my Mum’, the kid said as he punched in the PIN. ‘Mate, it’s cool’, I told him. ‘I’m a smoker too.” I handed him a cigarette for her along with the receipt.

What I understood was the situation of divorced parents coming together to celebrate a child’s 21st birthday.

There was a good chance relations between the parents were not ideal and the pressure of such a momentous evening could be overwhelming. A child’s formal graduation to adulthood is a tough gig for parents at the best of times, full of powerful mixed emotions. And if a parent insists on cigarettes for such a night, then they must be believed. Believe me.

Read more of Adrian the Cabbie at www.cablog.com.au

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM,

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How good are NZ appliance safety standards?

A former appliance serviceman claims a bad fridge design could burn someone’s house down, another finds a string of safety faults in other brands of appliance. Is there a big problem or just a series of smaller ones? IAN WISHART investigates

J

ohn Rogers grimaces in the glow of a 60 watt tungsten bulb doing its best to illuminate a small suburban dining room, and failing miserably at the task. He pauses at the question, as if tumbling it over in his mind, glancing across at his wife Kerry. In their eyes you can see the thought writ large, as if in the neon light that decorates the home of this former appliance repairman turned neon artist: oh God, here we go again. Moments later, that unspoken thought takes wing.

“I must admit, when I got your call, Kerry and I thought, ‘do we really want to do this again?’ After all the publicity on TV four years ago when we blew the whistle on Fisher and Paykel’s dishdrawers…”

He stops for a moment, then lifts his gaze from a spot on the table to lock with mine.

“It wasn’t dealt with back then, maybe somebody will deal with it now. We don’t want to be responsible for someone losing a life because we kept quiet.”

It’s been four years this month since Rogers folded the tent on his long time company, JK Appliances, and walked away from a lucrative business as an authorized Fisher & Paykel service agent.

“I was an appliance serviceman for about 30 years, and we’ve been in business together for about 15 or 16 in West Auckland and we fixed roughly 42,000 appliances in that time. I put through seven apprentices and we did mainly F&P service work. So we did refrigeration and all types of domestic appliances.”

Rogers vividly remembers the day that changed it all, the one that tipped him off his perch.

“It was early in the morning, a job in Glen Eden. I walked into the kitchen, the family were all there in their pyjamas, the husband was

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there and there were two buckets of water beside the fridge. The front of the fridge was absolutely black from smoke and flame damage.

They’d woken up in the middle of the night and smelt the smoke, turned it off and started throwing buckets of water in there to put the flames out.”

The immediate danger having passed, Rogers regrets not dialing the Fire Service. “I wish I had, now.” In hindsight, it would have been his smoking gun, in a manner of speaking. But instead, he rang F&P who promptly sent a truck with a brand new fridge, and took the near-new burnt one away.

Rogers was mystified, but thought little more about that incident until he was called to another fridge a week or so later, and again, some evidence of fire damage.

“I saw another one which wasn’t so bad, and again they changed it over. Then I saw three in one week and two at another service company, and I thought ‘this is getting out of hand’, because there’s no way of repairing them because the whole cabinet is burnt.”

Stripping the panels away, Rogers found the evaporator and defrost elements were set too close to the internal plastic casing of the freezers and, in the right conditions, they were overheating and melting the appliances. None of which was visible to the homeowner, who’d usually called him in for something else.

“It was usually another fault – cracking noises, or noises from the fan or something like that, but it wasn’t because of the burning. They hadn’t seen it, and not until I took the whole thing apart and they saw the big holes burnt in the base of the freezers. That’s when I explained to the customers very politely that it had a fault and we’d organize a new refrigerator for them.”

It was early in the morning, a job in Glen Eden. I walked into the kitchen, the family were all there in their pyjamas, the husband was there and there were two buckets of water beside the fridge. The front of the fridge was absolutely black from smoke and flame damage Rogers decided to make a habit of checking every freezer he was working on, and reckons 20% to 30% of them showed varying signs of meltdown. In all, some 15 to 20 units in his West Auckland patch alone, over the space of three months.

It wasn’t all fridge/freezers.

“Only the electronic ones. Anything with an electronic panel on the back wall. The majority of the problems come in the ones with a bottom freezer. I have seen one top freezer one with burning but it wasn’t as bad. It was just a one-off. Whether it was going to escalate I don’t know.”

Why was the problem not appearing in fridges over the previous 20 years?

“The freezers and fridges prior to that were made of steel. This model, the interior of the freezer is made of plastic, and they’ve still got an element in there that glows red hot when it goes into defrost and it’s so close to the plastic lining that the heat transfer causes the problem.”

Rogers felt he was on to a major public safety issue, but he also knew as an authorized Fisher & Paykel repair agent that his business depended on F&P’s continued goodwill. And if John Rogers had been a cat, he probably felt he’d already used his quota of lives after months earlier spilling the beans on a major fault with F&P’s flagship range of dishdrawers. The drawers were rusting out after only a few months use.

“They were offering customers who had rusty dishdrawers a normal dish drawer plus they had to pay an extra $500. So once we blew the whistle on it, things changed and they had to replace the dishdrawers.”

But ‘blowing the whistle’ involved calling in TVNZ’s top rating consumer programme Fair Go and bringing considerable public opprobrium to bear on the corporate that employed him. So to say that John Rogers was chuffed that he was the mug to find a problem with the new fridges would also be a serious overstatement of his mood.

He says he tried to deal with it internally, alerting F&P’s technical team about the growing number of burnt or partially burnt fridges he’d discovered.

F&P tried to brush him aside, he claims, telling him to “leave it alone”. But the company’s reaction got more strident when Rogers began contacting other F&P agents to inquire about their experiences with the problem.

“I talked to another service company over the North Shore about it.

And he was concerned as well and he contacted F&P, and so at that stage F&P came storming in – there were about three of them – and they got really stuck into me.”

In Rogers’ mind, he was reporting a major safety hazard to one of New Zealand’s leading technology companies, and nothing was being done. Wondering whether he was overreacting, he sought a second

opinion from registered electrical inspector Bruce Gosling, an independent analyst who’s main investigations are on behalf of large companies and the Electrical Workers Registration Board.

Gosling drafted a one page report to the Energy Safety Service (ESS) in Wellington, the Government agency tasked with regulating electrical appliance safety for the public. His report was headed, “Potential Fire Hazard issue” with the Fisher & Paykel E402B fridge/freezer.

“JK Appliance Services (John Rogers) have located this immediate fire damage in two of the above freezers and four others have had potential fire hazards existing,” he wrote on November 11, 2001. After personally inspecting one of the units, he told EnergySafe: “This freezer unit has a potential fire hazard due to the incorrect fixing/installation of the evaporator/defrost heating assembly. This fire hazard, created by the manufacturer, breaches NZ Electricity Regulations 1997….the element touches and heats up the plastic lining until eventually catching fire.”

Under “Conclusion” he wrote: “This model of fridge/freezer needs to be modified.”

According to both Rogers and Gosling, EnergySafe never formally replied to their complaint, and no product recall of Fisher & Paykel fridges was ever made.

As part of their contract, authorized F&P agents were required to guarantee their work for 12 months, says Rogers.

“We had to guarantee these appliances once we’d repaired them and I couldn’t. I couldn’t guarantee that this wouldn’t happen two months down the road.”

“What was the newest fridge you found it on?”

“Three months old.”

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 29

After a long discussion with his business partner and wife, Kerry, Rogers decided to toss it in.

“It got pretty ugly from then on. They appointed another service company to take over from us, and we said we’d had enough and closed down. We didn’t want to work like that, we couldn’t work like that. It was at this time we got the phone call from Energy Safe in Wellington to say they couldn’t do anything. They needed proof from the Fire Service or the Insurance Council on loss of life or property before they could force F&P to make any modifications.”

As part of the process of investigating this issue, we approached EnergySafe’s senior technical advisor, operations: Bill Lowe.

Lowe admits that to some extent his hands are tied on the issue of public safety.

“We wouldn’t become involved unless there is injury or damage.”

“Isn’t that closing the door after the horse has bolted?”

“That’s the way our powers are, if they’re handling things internally.”

Fisher & Paykel, says Lowe, controls its own repair team and can control the information that gets released to government agencies like his. If the company chooses to keep a problem close to its chest, he says, it takes the commercial risk associated with that – the risk that one day a house might burn down and all hell will break loose.

But having said that, he adds, no house fire has ever been attributed to a Fisher & Paykel ActiveSmart fridge.

“Electrical fires, if they cause damage to the structure of a house, would be reported to this office. The few that we’ve had have been Westinghouse product, a bug problem literally. The defrost relay had some ventilation slots and a cockroach infestation, and the little beasties get up there and eventually get cooked. And in another one the guy poured brake fluid around to kill the roaches and it caught fire.”

L

owe concedes his agency did receive Gosling’s report on the fire hazards in November 2001, and felt it was serious enough to raise with F&P. Unfortunately, however, because the person handling the investigation left ESS soon afterwards, there’s no evidence that Fisher & Paykel ever responded to EnergySafe’s request for more information, or that ESS chased it up.

“We’ve [now] asked F&P to check their records as to what changes if any were made at the time to the design to address that potential fire risk,” Lowe told Investigate.

“So you’ve got no record in your office of anything being advised to you by F&P?” “Not that I’m aware of, a quick check hasn’t revealed that.”

For their part, Fisher & Paykel have been critical of John Rogers.

“Mate, we’re open to suggestions, but we want it supported with facts,” says general manager of Customer Services Brian Nowell down the phone. “We asked the guy for information and he just did not deliver it. It’s been high on rhetoric, short on fact, all the way through.”

And Fisher & Paykel global CEO John Bongard is equally skeptical: “We have never had a fire with the model refrigerator that he has supposedly ‘tested’ so we are at a loss as to what we can say about his ‘issue’. Perhaps you can supply some factual information that we can refer to?

“Surely if these claims are true the ESS would have been able to confirm them. Have they done this? Could you tell me what the ‘specific’ problem is?”

Over at the ESS, we threw the curly questions back at Bill Lowe: is it true that there was no incident, no information supplied?

“Well we know of the two initial problems, so the allegation is a littler higher than that. Actually in the case of the F&P fridge we did consult with their engineers, possibly two of them. There will be a record somewhere but we’ve asked F&P for that information.”

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Lowe believes his office may even have sent a formal notification to their counterparts in Australia via an electrical product safety incident report while they waited for F&P to report back, a report that apparently never came and which EnergySafe apparently failed to chase.

For their part, F&P insist that a fax from Investigate is the first time they’ve seen Gosling’s technical report to EnergySafe, despite requests in an exchange of lawyers letters in 2001 and 2002 asking Rogers for more data.

For his part, serviceman John Rogers accuses Fisher & Paykel of trying to avoid an embarrassing product recall on its ActiveSmart fridge line by “hushing up” the smouldering fridges and ensuring authorized repair agents towed the company line.

“I think the authorized service agents have been told to keep everything under wraps. I know they have.”

“Who’s told you?”

“Other service companies. They were told to keep quiet about it, and just put all the information back to F&P.” Fisher & Paykel’s Brian Nowell says suggestions that New Zealand’s leading home appliance brand, with a strong presence in Australia, the US and UK, is anything less than responsible are ridiculous.

“We take a hell of a responsible attitude to these sorts of things. We view all of these sorts of things seriously, but people’s views on potential hazards vary from individual to individual, and we try and work through them as responsibly as we can given that we have authorities involved from time to time.

“And hell, we wouldn’t have been around for 70 years if we’d been as flippant as some people would have us believe.

“It doesn’t matter what the nature is of a problem that we come across, we sit down and we work through what we should be doing about it, whether it necessitates things like recalls, whether it needs modification and if we deem it needs modification how we confront that sort of thing. So if we deemed it to be of a high risk nature, we’ve done things like product recalls in the past.”

He also points out that no house fire has been attributed to this problem in a Fisher & Paykel fridge.

“Yeah, that’s a very valuable point. We from time to time come across appliances that cause smouldering, which might generate a bit of heat. If the Fire Service is called out to an incident of any nature where they think an appliance is involved, whether it’s ours or someone else’s, they get hold of us. We treat things like that pretty seriously. We’ve had clothes dryers for example, and people who use towels with hairspray all over them and they don’t clean lint filters and things like that.”

EnergySafe’s Bill Lowe nonetheless feels the fridge issue needs a closer look.

“I would say they’ve certainly got a design problem there because it’s not failsafe, however modern product is also manufactured to fire safety requirements in terms of materials and self quenching plastic and so forth. They will burn until such time as their source of energy is removed.”

And, says Lowe, the close working relationship between EnergySafe and F&P is a bonus, not a problem.

“I won’t say we treat them any better than other suppliers because we do work with Westinghouse and some of these other suppliers whose product is not made in NZ, but the fact that they’ve been quite open with us providing information – possibly selectively – but we work closely with F&P on the standards committee and we would expect them to be a responsible company.”

Meanwhile, the electrical inspector who kicked off the bunfight claims Fisher & Paykel can’t be left to take the rap for what is increasingly an industry-wide problem as regards appliance safety. Bruce Gosling says he’s made up to twenty reports to EnergySafe about unsafe appliances, and heard diddly-squat back about any of them.

Anything above 50 volts AC becomes dangerous to humans. Yes, that was the measurement we took at the time, and the person getting the shocks had been doing cooking on the stove at the time and had wet hands, so it’s a very serious electric shock situation.

“The Energy Safety Service, as far as I’m concerned, are a law unto themselves. Rarely can I get an answer from them, and one time I recall trying to get an answer, either yes/no or just a simple written reply from the ESS over a very serious safety issue – the only way I finally got an answer from them was threatening to go and see my local MP at the time, and my local MP is Helen Clark!”

An example of safety issues, he says, is an upmarket brand of rangehood.

“We still have an ongoing problem with Tuscany rangehoods that are brought into the country by Mitre 10, and again we could only go so far and we had to hand the complaint and the hazard over to the ESS. Again, we would have thought the ESS would have taken them off the market until they’ve been improved,” Gosling told Investigate.

“What’s the problem?”

“People getting electric shocks from these new rangehoods that have been installed, due to the design faults within them. They’re Italian manufactured, a very nice looking stainless steel rangehood, but the one we investigated, I was there on behalf of the Electrical Workers Registration Board as an investigating inspector. And we totally disconnected and removed that particular rangehood from service and we wrote a report, again, to Wellington to both the EWRB and we sent a copy to the ESS. “That saga went on for well over a year for the customer, who was left without a working rangehood – he was contacting the ESS monthly because he wanted to get a new rangehood, obviously, and he was hoping Mitre 10 might supply him with one. I was totally blown away at the length of time they left that customer in limbo, but at the end of the whole thing we finally got – I’m pretty sure I’ve still got the written reply from the ESS – and they were saying again that there’s been 250,000 sold in Australia and they hadn’t had a problem over there, so why should they worry about one problem here in Ellerslie, Auckland.”

“How live were they when you measured the voltage and the current?”

“It was a hundred volts from the leakage current back to earth potential, because the stove was directly below and the person was touching it. These sort of things are a bit of a freak scenario, but in saying that it could well happen again in NZ. “Anything above 50 volts AC becomes dangerous to humans. Yes, that was the measurement we took at the time, and the person getting the shocks had been doing cooking on the stove at the time and had wet hands, so it’s a very serious electric shock situation.

“But whether the ESS have contacted the Tuscany manufacturers back in Italy and told them to improve their design, I’ve got no way of knowing. But that’s what I stated in my report: the design needs to be improved, the electrical safety leaves room for improvement. But I bet nothing’s happened.”

According to EnergySafe there has been some movement, but not much. The Tuscany rangehoods were initially approved for sale in Australia and therefore became automatically approved for sale in New Zealand. Despite the 100 volt electric shocks, EnergySafe’s Bill Lowe says he hasn’t ordered the product to be withdrawn from sale here because Mitre 10 is refusing to agree to a recall.

“No, the product recall process is not simple, it’s a complex legal and technical process and we’re working through one at the moment with another product but we have to be very careful with regard to litigation, and that only becomes a problem if it’s not done voluntarily by the supplier. 99%ON of them are voluntary recalls.”

NO PLACE TO HIDE “Did Mitre 10 voluntarily take it off sale?”

“No.” So in other words, this Investigate article is the first that most people will have heard about a possible safety fault with an Italian rangehood that’s now been on sale for more than a year in both New Zealand and Australia.

Ironically, the fact that a homeowner has been given 100 volt belts by the rangehood is not enough to force a compulsory product recall.

That can’t happen in the main unless someone is first seriously injured or killed.

Bruce Gosling says he’s found serious safety faults in other appliances as well – portable residual current devices that are supposed to protect DIYers and workmen from being electrocuted while using tools outside.

“From memory, about 10 of these brand new devices failed out of 20 that were purchased.”

“How did this come to your attention?”

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 31

And I can tell you for a fact that the guys out at Alstom were only buying one at a time, because they only wanted one, and it failed so they sent it back and swapped it with another one. Five times they did that before they got one that could be tagged as safe “From a company in Penrose, and Alstom out at the Otahuhu power station – they purchased 10 and they do ‘test and tag’, the same as this company in Penrose, a Fletcher Challenge company.

“What happens is that as soon as they buy an RCD personal protective portable device we test and tag them before they go into service, so as electrical people we take them out of their brand new packets and put them through the appropriate tests, and 10 of these devices out of 20 failed.

“And I can tell you for a fact that the guys out at Alstom were only buying one at a time, because they only wanted one, and it failed so they sent it back and swapped it with another one. Five times they did that before they got one that could be tagged as safe.

“It was just ironic that about two weeks prior to that we’d had a major problem at this factory in Penrose. They’d purchased at least 10, and five of them failed the performance test that we do. Some of them didn’t even trip at all, brand new out of the packet and wouldn’t even physically trip on the pushbutton – you know, they all have a little pushbutton that every user must test before they use them – and even that pushbutton didn’t work.

“So that was totally unsafe, and yet when we complained to HPM in Sydney they just said ‘nah, it must have happened in freight, in cargo, because we test every one before they leave the factory’. And we know for a fact that that’s B/S, absolute. But they still turn around and make those statements, and no one can prove them wrong, so in the end we dropped that issue. That’s the tactics these manufacturers are using,” says Gosling.

It is, to use a bad pun, absolutely shocking. And Investigate’s discovery of faulty RCD devices has made EnergySafe sit up and take notice.

“RCDS are on the declared article list and they require approval from this office before they go on sale in NZ,” says Bill Lowe of the ESS. “And why we get very nervous with RCDS is we specify them as a safety device and I look at them like a parachute when you jump out of a plane. Where you’ve got a device to protect a person and it doesn’t work because it’s defective we’ve really got some concerns, yeah.”

On the strength of Investigate’s information, he’s contacting HPM in Sydney to ask some hard questions. It’s not the first time the Australian company has supplied faulty RCDS. But the real question is why Australian and NZ authorities are not picking these things up before the products go on sale?

Fisher & Paykel’s Brian Nowell would like an answer to that one too.

He says there’s a big problem with imported appliances where regulators make assumptions that the product complies with safety standards, rather than force suppliers to prove it before the product goes on sale.

“Rather than showing that you do comply, the system appears to be 32, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

that if somebody comes across an incident you have to show that you are capable of complying. It’s more or less left to people to grizzle here.

Let’s put the ambulance at the top of the fence, not the bottom.”

As to the safety or otherwise of Fisher & Paykel’s fridges, the arguing continues. Investigate spoke to another appliance serviceman about his experiences.

“I can mainly only comment on the earlier ones I saw, they would catch on fire, basically. The heating systems in the back of the defrost system would not cut out on the defrost timer and so then they’d just melt out the whole inside, they’d literally have a fire in the back of them.”

“How many of those did you see?”

“Mainly when I was with John, probably upwards of eight or ten I suppose. Then when I went back out on my own again I probably saw another three or four. The last one I saw was quite recently, no more than about 12 months ago. It was well melted out inside in the freezer compartment. Just an ActiveSmart, I can’t remember which model exactly.”

“I believe John perhaps ran foul of F&P for being someone who was prepared to stand up and say something, and I really honestly admire him for doing that because all these other guys just pushed it under the rug and didn’t want to jeopardize their authorizations etc.

And he got bitten on the backside for that, big time.”

“So you were aware of other people who were aware of it?”

“Absolutely! No question, we all used to go to Service School for latest product ranges and that and we’d be talking about all kinds of stuff.”

“They talked about the fridges?”

“More the servicemen would be talking about while they’re all together at Service School. The F&P people would say ‘yeah, we’ve got a little issue and we’re sorting it out’, but in my opinion they never did.”

To which Brian Nowell’s response is, “rubbish”: “We’re obligated to provide EnergySafe with information and we certainly do. We’re pretty self conscious about those sorts of things because we’ve got authority guys working in this country that influence the thinking and safety standards not only in NZ but also Australia and around the world. We’re actively involved with those guys all the time. We certainly wouldn’t send guys off to meetings with instructions to be ‘mum’ about an event that jeopardized our reputation. We work very openly with these people.”

Fisher & Paykel’s technical team were unavailable to Investigate, and the appliance company hasn’t got any data immediately to hand on whether it has swapped any burnt out fridges for customers under warranty.

We did approach one customer whose fridge was the subject of a report to EnergySafe, and she told Investigate that after John Rogers had highlighted the problem, F&P sent a new service team out to her who reassured her Rogers and Gosling were “panicking” unnecessarily and that her fridge would be alright. That was four years ago, she still has that fridge, but its freezer she says “doesn’t defrost properly” and is leaking water. “Do you think I got fobbed off ?” she half mutters to herself.

Fisher & Paykel, meanwhile, are standing on their record. Yes, they say, there are occasionally defective units – which is why they have service agents. But the company rigorously denies that it would put public safety at risk.

In the meantime, EnergySafe and F&P are now liaising on the fridge issue again, and EnergySafe is preparing to further investigate the faulty RCD devices. And John Rogers? Well, he’s given up appliance repairs and now exhibits and sells neon art at home shows. “It’s much less stressful,” he says.

i

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 33

THE INVESTIGATE INTERVIEW

HAVING AFFAIRS Winston Peters unleashed When NZ First leader WINSTON PETERS was named Foreign Affairs minister in the new government, editorial writers were quick to condemn. Now, in a wide-ranging interview with IAN WISHART, Peters talks about the election, the media, his desire to bring more Asian students here, and his plans to re-open dialogue with President Bush about an “enhanced” relationship amid new regional security threats PETERS: It was a fascinating election, but a sad one in this sense – that the media decided they were going to turn this into a two horse race regardless, and it never was that. Not in July. But they got obsessed with the idea it would be a two horse race on one issue, and in the end it wasn’t.

INVESTIGATE: In terms of NZ First’s campaign team, did you see that coming?

PETERS: Well, we didn’t actually react with nearly enough speed to changing events. You might ask, ‘well, could one do that?’ and the answer is yes, you always can, but you’ve got to read the changing circumstances more quickly than we did. In 2002 we read it very well, we read it on a daily basis. In 2005 we couldn’t believe the media were going to pull that stunt, and we paid a price for it. And I take responsibility for that.

I thought, surely they’re not going to try and pull this off [a two party drag race to a majority win] which is never going to happen, and it didn’t happen. So we had two parties sitting on 39, 40%, yet the polls had a variability of 14% and they still won’t take responsibility for it. It’s a disgrace. I said so in a speech to the Commonwealth Press Association in Sydney and I’ve never changed my mind about the NZ media or the pollsters in this country. They’re anathema to any scientific analysis.

INVESTIGATE: What sort of internal polling was NZ First doing?

34, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

PETERS: We just did our material from April through to July so we’d have the basis for a good campaign. We were then rising on 12% and I was on 18%. Then the media took to us.

INVESTIGATE: It all turned to custard in the space of a week, after your speech about Islamic fundamentalism.

PETERS: I put it down to the belief, as I said in Sydney, that there were three major parties in the campaign: Labour, National, and the party with no candidates, no meetings, no halls and no advertising – the NZ media! They thought the campaign was about them, and hence their sense of chagrin and angst now that they’ve been proven wrong.

INVESTIGATE: The centre right came within a whisker of pulling it off, but that whisker wasn’t good enough.

PETERS: They lost the unloseable election with more money than you could throw a bank at. Some people who were doing the analysis should be coming forward and explaining to the country today why they’re still employed.

INVESTIGATE: Yeah, I want to expand on that. If you were in Brash’s shoes or Steven Joyce’s shoes in the National Party, what were their failures – what broke the camel’s back for National?

PETERS: Their Orewa speech was a straight steal, a purloining of another party’s policy without understanding. I’ve said it’s one thing to

Q: Does New Zealand need Australia and the US as defence partners?

A: Let me put it this way: There is no doubt that we need an enhanced relationship.

HERALD December November 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 35

walk out of a saloon and steal someone’s horse, it’s quite something else to stay on its back trying to ride out of town!

INVESTIGATE: So in other words they got the rhetoric, but they didn’t understand what you were actually getting at?

PETERS: No, no. And my justification for saying that is that the election was hardly over and they were going back on it.

INVESTIGATE: National failed to hit some home runs and failed to react to media games like Brethrengate. What do you think their weak points were?

PETERS: Well, look, going into a campaign promising to borrow $3.6 billion to finance your tax cuts was the absolute antithesis of everything this country has argued it was doing since 1985. And here they were prepared to make these exorbitant promises without any regard to fiscal consequences, and proudly proclaiming that this was responsible policy. A lot of people have a disquiet about that.

INVESTIGATE: Interestingly enough, after the election the Reserve Bank has suddenly come out and warned the economy’s in trouble, and raised interest rates.

PETERS: Well post election, certain people decided to be responsible, such as those columns you’re reading in the NZ Herald today about the country’s liquidity, it’s level of borrowing, its current accounts deficit, the balance of payments crisis. This is all what they’re highlighting the day after the election, when really they’re a disgrace.

INVESTIGATE: Arguably everyone’s found their cojones and they’re now prepared to talk about it, and you’re saying they should have been talking about it before the election.

PETERS: Precisely. This was a unique campaign in a democracy.

INVESTIGATE: Is there anything you can see that’s changed in economic conditions from four weeks before the election to now – PETERS: No – INVESTIGATE: - that Alan Bollard can suddenly come out now and make the claims that he’s making?

PETERS: Well, it’s not my job to comment on Alan Bollard, and it could be said that his timing is based on set dates that don’t coincide with the election date, but I’m talking about the media commentators now, those who all of a sudden realize there’s certain things about the state of the economy post election which they weren’t prepared to talk about pre-election.

INVESTIGATE: Both of the main parties went into this election promising huge spending. In your opinion can any of those promises be delivered on now?

PETERS: Well, Labour can deliver on its promises with respect to students if their objective is to ensure that students stay in New Zealand, which it is. Now that has some logic to it. And right across the political spectrum a number of people realize that the student loans scheme has to be seriously looked at, in terms of retention of skills in this country. I think they’re possibly going to reshape their promises to fit that objective, and that does make economic sense.

But National’s promises? Borrowing for tax cuts is not a viable proposition. It was the height of irresponsibility.

INVESTIGATE: What about Labour’s Working for Families extensions – is the economy in too dire a condition for that?

PETERS: No, I believe that that, and the minimum wage package, alongside corporate tax cuts by 2008 is totally viable and must happen.

INVESTIGATE: What’s going to happen economically over the next 12 months?

PETERS: Internationally it doesn’t look great, and domestically it’s going to be a tough 12 months.

INVESTIGATE: Given that the NZ economy is hurting largely because of the high kiwi dollar, how does raising home mortgage interest rates tackle that problem?

PETERS: Well, it doesn’t! (chuckles). I’m just giving my personal 36, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

view now, the dollar will fall away, it’s inevitable. The extraordinary feature of it is how long it’s stayed there.

INVESTIGATE: Well we’ve got some of the highest interest rates in the world now, surely that’s something we’ve got to address as a nation?

PETERS: Yeah, and I think to be fair to Cullen he is. Cullen’s statement about the level of the currency is a statement you would not really hear from a Treasurer or a Finance Minister before, but he’s right.

I know it’s only a cliché but a benchmark is an export-sympathetic dollar!

INVESTIGATE: Yeah, very good…how “sympathetic” would you like it to be?

PETERS: [Laughs and brushes the specifics away] We’re an export dependent nation.

INVESTIGATE: Looking at the Tauranga campaign, that was unexpected, Bob Clarkson coming in. What went wrong?

PETERS: What went wrong, you’ll find out in court on the 28th of November.

INVESTIGATE: Replay of Wyatt Creech?

PETERS: Well, we’ve filed and we’re set to go.

INVESTIGATE: Even so, is it really as simple as overspending?

Can a candidate overspending really buy that many votes or is there another aspect to this?

PETERS: There’s another aspect to it, but it’s sub judice so I can’t say too much.

INVESTIGATE: Did Tauranga suffer from the overall drop in third party support?

PETERS: Not really, no.

INVESTIGATE: Just colourful local versus colourful local?

PETERS: No, more than that, but I can’t say it. I will be saying it when the case is all over.

INVESTIGATE: Yeah, but steering clear of the sub judice bits, I guess what I’m asking is surely there must be more to it than an opponent’s alleged nefarious dealings. For it to become close enough to become an issue, what do you put that down to?

PETERS: Well there are aspects to it that I can’t really talk about yet because of the sub judice rule, seriously. All I can say on the record is that I’ve filed and I’m ready to go.

INVESTIGATE: What about the NZ First caucus, how are they feeling after the election?

PETERS: Well it was a bruising campaign for all of us and we didn’t appreciate after the election how well we’d actually survived, but on election night 58 was the magic number, not 57.

INVESTIGATE: It ended up 57/57. What made you look away from National, was it a political issue, was it simply that you couldn’t really see their coalition surviving long, what were the issues there?

PETERS: They had no intention of their “coalition” lasting more than six to eight months. It was clear that their objective was to cobble together some sort of numbers to go to the Governor-General, and get themselves set for a snap election.

INVESTIGATE: Wouldn’t that have backfired on them in the public eye?

PETERS: No. INVESTIGATE: In the sense, cobbling together a coalition only to have it fail six months later – PETERS: That’s what they did in their last outing of change in the National Party, they had a leader called Shipley who stabbed her leader in the back, with a cabal behind her, then stabbed the coalition in the back. The media don’t actually like to report the truth but it’s as plain as daylight, ask Bolger. I mean I’m not asking people to believe me, ask Bolger what happened there.

INVESTIGATE: How was that going to be good for them in the

Q: Why don’t they like Winston Peters, the brand?

A: Probably old fashioned jealousy.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 37

long run, did they think that if National put together a ridiculous coalition that the public would forgive them for that and re-elect them with a majority?

PETERS: Yeah, that’s what they thought. Isn’t the reaction since the government was formed so patently obvious? Here are people sitting – at their request – in my caucus room promising that they can deliver this, and they would have promised me and my party anything we wanted. And now they say we’re totally unfit for anything. Well I know who’s unfit, and who’s going to be there for nine years, less and less experienced as the years go by.

INVESTIGATE: In terms of compromise on National’s part, what were they prepared to compromise just to cobble this together?

PETERS: Anything. Don’t forget, they were talking to the Maori Party about reversing everything that they said at Orewa One and Two. Now, you can go from that ‘apex of deceit’ all the way down. But there’s nothing more significant than that preparedness to change their policy. Problem was we weren’t prepared to change ours. Our view of long term race relations has never changed, their view is a transient purloining of some other party’s policy.

INVESTIGATE: Could you have worked with the Maori Party in any way?

PETERS: No we couldn’t have, because we are too diametrically opposed on what, long term, is good for NZ. INVESTIGATE: Could one have put those issues, on both sides, to the side to work on other core areas?

PETERS: No you couldn’t, because that party was formed specifically to do just that, which the Maori Party was. Privately, I spoke to the Maori Party about the impossibility of this, and they privately recognized it.

INVESTIGATE: So they came to the same conclusion you did?

PETERS: On the last day, they came to the same conclusion I did.

It was a respectful conversation.

INVESTIGATE: I raise the question from the perspective of: knowing that the electorate has thrown up an inconclusive result no party can expect to get everything it wants, the Maori Party might just have to take it on the chin that they won’t get the concessions they were elected to, and say ‘put that to one side’, while at the same time NZ First puts some of its issues to one side and you work together on other issues like employment.

PETERS: I looked at the Maori Party and thought there’s no way they can be possibly contemplating going with National in any durable long term arrangement because their positions are so opposite. The fact that National is prepared to forgive and forget theirs didn’t mean that the Maori Party would, and I think in the end that’s the decision they came to. So without having that conversation with the Maori Party, me and my party tried to look at it as ‘what would we do if we were in their shoes?’.

INVESTIGATE: You’ve had Doug Woolerton resign, is the NZ First caucus back on track?

PETERS: Look, the moment it became 57/57, the position we’d taken at Rotorua became untenable. Neither side could command a majority, and neither side could guarantee that their social or economic policy initiatives could be passed through Parliament. We could not, in good conscience, continue with our policy of sitting on the crossbenches.

My team understand that now.

INVESTIGATE: Here you are, part of the Government but not in Cabinet, ostensibly free to criticize. Really?

PETERS: I’m free to agree to disagree outside of my portfolio areas, and that’s a reality.

INVESTIGATE: How public can you be in your disagreement?

PETERS: Entirely public. What’s unprecedented, when you talk about the baubles of office, is a person who was in cabinet twice and 38, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

never took a car or a house or anything. So when I say I’m not concerned about the baubles of office, I’ve got a record to back it up and a long career. And I’ve taken on big issues at enormous financial cost and time and effort, so when I look at the pygmies who criticize me and who’ve never invested five cents on anything in their whole lives, I just find it an issue of absolute mirth and comedy. When have they ever stood up for anything? These are the same people who for seven years berated me for going for the Winebox. Up hill and down dale, wrote 57 editorials in one case and 68 in another case, two major newspapers in this country and never said sorry when they were wrong. Or the Maori Loans affair or anything else for that matter. They’re just a bunch of cynics whose record in terms of being a public watchdog is a disgrace.

INVESTIGATE: Why don’t they like Winston Peters, the brand?

PETERS: Probably old fashioned jealousy. Nobody likes somebody doing the job that they should be doing. Right now you have a question about political interference with TVNZ. The last time there was political interference at TVNZ of great note was when the Board stepped in over the CEO and they both collectively colluded to shut down a major inquiry. That’s their record of June 2002.

The second highest rating in Australia that the programme Four Corners ever had, in its then 27 years, was in this country censored and Paul Norris – the man who’s commenting now – was head of TV news at the time and he told me “the issues have moved on”. Who was heading the board then? Political interference? It’s a disgrace.

Take the issue of the Holmes show and the so-called Scampi inquiry.

A half hour attack on a guy to open the news programme for that year, where the National Party – one Mr Carter – is colluding with a guy brought up from Christchurch to do the investigation. How do I know? Because that night the guy doing the investigation for TVNZ called me by mistake thinking he was talking to Carter, and said “how do you think we’re going?”

Political interference? It stinks! That’s in the news. He made a phone call that night, straight after the programme, thinking he was talking to Carter.

You know what I said to him? “Big mistake, sunshine, you got me.”

INVESTIGATE: You think TVNZ are paying the price for one too many scampi dinners themselves?

PETERS: Unlike them, I’m here to front up and have a go.

INVESTIGATE: Why Foreign Minister?

PETERS: I looked at examples abroad, and the Foreign Minister in NZ actually operates with the consent and support of parliament in the main. Hugely that’s the case. If you look at the issues of foreign policy, there’s significant unanimity in the house, with some exceptions – Act and National. But all the rest are pretty united on the issue.

So I look at it the same way as the German Foreign Minister, he believed that he was representing the will of parliament as reflected by the Government.

Here’s a contrast – the National Party floated that idea in July without even talking to me, and then the media floated the idea of Attorney-General. I mean, how stupid is that when I’m involved in so many court cases. And they even said I should be heading the Serious Fraud Office. Well they’re right about that!

INVESTIGATE: What’s your vision for this portfolio?

PETERS: I’m a passionate New Zealander and I want to image this country in the best and most positive way I can when I’m in this job.

I think it affords enormous opportunity, and I’ve got the time and freedom to do that, whereas if I was in Cabinet I would not.

INVESTIGATE: You do still have to attend Cabinet meetings don’t you?

PETERS: No. But if I’m requested to in key areas I’m happy to do it, but the reality is the key foreign minister in any country is the Prime Minister, so going to cabinet with proposals and the Prime Minister pushing for them is a very practical course of action.

INVESTIGATE: What are the areas within your department you’d like to tackle?

PETERS: Well it’s a very experienced department with very highly qualified people. But if you look at the speech made by the retiring US ambassador to NZ, there was a significant olive branch we should use to improve our relations with the United States.

INVESTIGATE: Can you pick up that olive branch?

PETERS: I believe I can, yes. I thought Charles Swindell’s speech was a benchmark of potential changed relations.

INVESTIGATE: The US fleet is no longer carrying tactical nuclear weapons, they’ve made that clear, and they can quite easily send a non nuclear powered ship here if it’s still an issue. So is there an ideological reason why this anti nuclear or anti American stand is still an issue?

PETERS: Well, I put it this way. If the US can contemplate a free trade agreement with Morocco, then there’s gotta be a chance for us.

INVESTIGATE: What do you see as the main areas we can work on there?

PETERS: Don’t forget there is a congressional senatorial licence out there with only a limited time to run and we’ve got to use every moment to ensure we advance things within that time frame, otherwise it has to be renewed with all the complications that represents.

INVESTIGATE: Helen Clark’s comments about George Bush a couple of years ago, is that still an issue do you think?

PETERS: I think they’ve moved on. Whatever Helen Clark may have said was, in the framework of the German or French comments, of no great moment. If they can move on why can’t we?

INVESTIGATE: In terms of our relationship with the US, Mark Steyn has written about the imminent collapse of Russia, you have China talking about war with the US being inevitable, so as Foreign Minister you are beginning your term in a less than benign strategic environment aren’t you?

PETERS: Two things, China’s historic experience is not one of hegemony at all, even to the Great Wall of China, so that sort of comment is at odds with that. But the second thing is that before Nixon died he made a very telling speech about the obligations of the West to Russia: now that communism has fallen the West should not stand back and cheer their triumph. They have a long term interest in ensuring Russia’s economic viability, and I still believe that. That’s our responsibility, all of us.

INVESTIGATE: But what happens if Russia does fall, what happens if the rest of the world doesn’t recognize this?

PETERS: I can’t answer that, but my personal view is that we have a collective responsibility. You cannot enjoy a changed time like the end of the Cold War and just take it for granted. There are huge ramifications domestically for Russia. It’s odd that a person like Nixon should acknowledge this when so few others do, but he did. I remember that speech and I thought ‘what an enlightening statement’. And my fear is that the West just hasn’t grasped how important his warning was.

INVESTIGATE: We have a world that is increasingly unstable, and in the Pacific rim you’ve got China, Russia, the US, Australia, all of us bordering this area which will become increasingly important to the world stage.

PETERS: I think so, and I said so the moment I got the job. I had certain media critics thinking I was misfocused on this issue, but it’s the size of the area of the world that we’re talking about, albeit that the populations are small, but it’s very significant and I think we’ve got to pick up our act in the Pacific significantly.

INVESTIGATE: What are the things happening in terms of superpower movement in the region that concern you?

PETERS: Well there’s a worrying contest going on in the Pacific at the moment. In nearly every part of it where you have governmental independence, you have a contest of influence between mainland China,

Taiwan, Japan and France. I think we’ve got to be a bit more perceptive about what’s going on here.

INVESTIGATE: What’s the danger to NZ if we don’t?

PETERS: New Zealand will lose a significant strategic position of influence, and the danger for that internationally is that one of the great attributes of New Zealand will be lost on the world. We’re still wellregarded, but we’ve got to do more work to deserve it in the long term.

INVESTIGATE: What is strategic about the Pacific Island states that these superpowers are currying favour so much, why is this important?

PETERS: They’re staging posts. They’re island states which cover virtually a quarter of the world.

INVESTIGATE: So is it economic zone, military?

PETERS: In terms of the map, it’s huge.

INVESTIGATE: So why do you think mainland China or Taiwan are scrapping over this?

PETERS: Well I have my beliefs but I don’t want to put them on record! I’m the Foreign Minister now.

INVESTIGATE: But is it something that New Zealanders need to be concerned about?

PETERS: Most certainly we need to be concerned. We need to be concerned about the level of structural preparedness of these islands and what we can do. In terms of good governance, good management, responsible government, we’ve got to do much more. We’ve got to offer much more by way of training and assistance.

INVESTIGATE: But what’s in it for us?

PETERS: The advantage for us is that an area of peaceful tranquility is changing in front of our faces. There’s an arc of uncertainty stretching all the way from New Guinea across to Tonga, and you cannot stand by and do nothing. We were engaged in Fiji, we were engaged in the Solomon Islands, we were engaged in East Timor, this is not something contemplated 20 years ago.

INVESTIGATE: Militarily we no longer have some aspects of our armed forces that we used to have. Just how much is NZ capable of doing now in terms of projecting its influence?

PETERS: First of all, our overseas aid is now going to be, by agreement, much more focused on the Pacific. Secondly, there is significant institutional capacity that NZ can afford those countries at very low cost but enormous benefit to them. There are economies there that are not viable, they need assistance. And that should be our area of influence that we focus very strongly on, a neighbourhood where we can see the benefits of what we’re doing. I’m coming to the job having worked alongside the leader of French Polynesia in the freezing works, gone to law school with a number of people who are ministers of finance and prime ministerial advisers throughout the Pacific. I look 20 years down and say to myself: ‘is that combination going to emerge again unless we do something now?’ Unless we pick their best and brightest and train them, at our cost, in the long term interests of both themselves and NZ. INVESTIGATE: You’ve got China threatening war with the West, you’ve got Russia going through what Steyn calls its death throes, you’ve got al Qa’ida training terrorists in the Philippines and Indonesia to create an Islamic superstate – does New Zealand need Australia and the US as defence partners?

PETERS: Let me put it this way: There is no doubt that we need an enhanced relationship.

INVESTIGATE: How enhanced? Realistically, what do we need, in your opinion?

PETERS: That’s what we need, an enhanced relationship with both countries. I’m not going to make foreign policy on the hoof here. My job is to represent the government’s position on foreign policy. I’m not going to put the cart before the horse here.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 39

INVESTIGATE: But you’ve allegedly said to the Australian media that we need an enhanced relationship in slightly more specific terms – PETERS: That report in the Australian media is not my quote, they’re not my sentiments, I did not say it and I demand the guy produce his tape. I know the media confronted him with the challenge to produce his tapes, but of course he hasn’t got any. And we’re not going to have that sort of abbreviated foreign policy statements. I’m denying it because I didn’t say it.

INVESTIGATE: What do we need? I’ll put it to you this way: do you disagree with the concept that I put to you that NZ’s interests in the medium term are going to require that we have some sort of official partnership with the US and Australia – if not fully what it was then at least a preparedness to go into bat together if necessary?

PETERS: Let me put it this way. Mike Moore wrote a very important article recently about the need for us to improve our relations with Australia, that the once great connection we had needs greater work and effort. I agree with him entirely.

INVESTIGATE: In what way are we drifting away from Australia that we can improve on?

PETERS: Well, whilst there’s significant alignment institutionally in nearly every area of governance, from the role of auditors in NZ to medicine, and you might say that’s an enhanced relationship, what Moore was talking about was a sentimental factor. And it might sound like it’s intangible but I think he’s right, that we need to improve our relations with Australia and be more focused on our joint needs, as difficult as things are in the last three years.

INVESTIGATE: Is the drifting away a cultural one or is it really a government one?

PETERS: Well whatever it is – INVESTIGATE: Or what has it been?

PETERS: Whatever it is, I intend to improve upon it.

INVESTIGATE: Do you see discussions with Bush or Condoleeza Rice as being on the cards?

PETERS: On the cards – when are you publishing?

INVESTIGATE: November 14. Go on, tell me.

PETERS: But you’ll print it!

INVESTIGATE: Print what?

PETERS: What I’m about to tell you. Of course I see it on the cards. Preparations for talks are underway, yes.

INVESTIGATE: At what level?

PETERS: At that level. It’ll be my first foreign engagement. I’m going to APEC where they’ll all be present.

INVESTIGATE: So your office has been in contact with your American counterparts saying ‘we’re there, we’d like to talk’. What sort of response have you had?

PETERS: A very positive one. With Australia, with Asia – all the way to India, Japan and the United States. In other words, it’s all happening.

INVESTIGATE: In terms of the strategic environment we now face, how seriously concerned do New Zealanders need to be about our current preparedness for anything?

PETERS: Since September 11, I think it’s taken us a while to grasp the changing face of international travel. But we have a full comprehensive review going on right now to do with immigration, people who visit here and the kind of border security that we need. I think it’s a very positive step. The steps which you will see throughout the rest of the world, even Mexico, we need to take. They have eye scans in Mexico at their borders, and this is a third world country. I’ve seen them. We don’t.

INVESTIGATE: The US is imposing its new E-Passport regulations at the end of 2006 and by definition that must impact on New Zealand’s foreign policy and travel documentation. Britain is looking at ID cards, although critics have made the point that most of the 40, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

terrorists in these countries are home grown, or at least bonafide people there – PETERS: Yes. INVESTIGATE: – which you’re never going to tackle with ID documents. What do we need to do here?

PETERS: Well we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, internationally enormous work is going on in that respect. But we need to look at what will work in NZ. We’re a lucky country, we’re surrounded by water. We’ve got an enormous advantage over other countries, most other countries have collective borders, we haven’t. How about starting by looking at our advantage for a kick off.

INVESTIGATE: So do we need ID cards?

PETERS: I can’t say that, but what we can do is know with absolute exhaustive precision who’s coming here. That’s the enormous benefit of an island country.

INVESTIGATE: We’re building on the worldwide database – PETERS: Yes, because it’s there. I mean, you cannot have a guy that’s just about got through the police force and suddenly turns up on a security check. What was he doing here and how did he get into the police force? You’ve got to ask yourself what’s going on, and I have. The fact that I’ve got a lot of docile media commentators who don’t know anything about immigration or worldwide security, is neither here nor there. I’ve got a duty. I spent five days with the NYPD as their guest, looking at security measures since September 11, at my expense I might add. So I’ll certainly be making submissions to this review.

INVESTIGATE: In terms of reaction from the media commentators to your appointment as Foreign Minister, they’ve been quick to give you a kick over what they see as the contrast between NZ First and your position on immigration and other matters and how can you possibly represent NZ internationally. What’s your response to that?

PETERS: Well I’ve been here a thousand years. Maybe it’s the face of New Zealand we want to see abroad. The fact that their scope and vision is so miniscule doesn’t mean it should hinder me.

INVESTIGATE: What do you put that down to, do we have a faulty liberal worldview?

PETERS: It’s a terribly shallow view. Too many commentators have a terribly shallow view which is probably born of the fact that they’re paid $45,000, so what do you expect? Maybe the media should read some of my speeches about the fact that they’re denied room, space and money to do the job properly! I’m on their side actually.

Investigative journalism in this country is almost dead. The media ownership are not prepared to finance decent quality work that takes time and research, and space and room and encouragement. I’m going to help these media people despite themselves!

INVESTIGATE: So what do you see as the short to medium term foreign policy issues that New Zealand must deal with?

PETERS: Number one, our image abroad, that’s the key. Number two, every country in Asia is different and we’ve got to see it that way.

In terms of the collective institutions operating in Asia we’ve got to play a bigger role and be more present there. In the Pacific we start with an enormous advantage, but we’ve got to work at it much harder.

Then you’ve got the European Union and the United States. And our engagement with South America – I think everyone would regard it as one of neglect these last 20 years. All of a sudden we’ve woken up to the fact that here is this huge grouping of population who all speak one language, apart from Brazil which is itself a unique country. So I don’t see it being any one focus, but doing the best you can with four million people in a country that’s had an unbroken line of democracy for more than 130 years – only nine countries in the world can make that claim now.

INVESTIGATE: Teaching Spanish in schools, we don’t do that...

PETERS: Yeah, but we should be. It’s the second most spoken language in the world.

INVESTIGATE: In terms of free trade agreements, again coming out of the speech by Chi Haotian, it admits it needs investment from the West to modernize its industrial military complex. There are those who say overseas there’s a danger that by embarking on a massive free trade and investment deal with China the West is simply writing the cheques for the bullets that’ll come back to them over the fence. Do you share that pessimism?

PETERS: No I don’t. I think that economic freedom breeds institutional freedom. Changes in China are dramatic. You might call it guided capitalism but it is still changing dramatically and in time that’ll bring fundamental change to the Chinese institutions.

INVESTIGATE: So does NZ benefit from a free trade agreement with China or do we end up with a lot of cheap frocks?

PETERS: I’m not going to comment on the role and responsibilities of the Minister of Trade.

INVESTIGATE: In terms of foreign policy then, what sort of relationship do you want to establish with China?

PETERS: I do start with an advantage. I was the guy who persuaded Cabinet to go to the China-Hong Kong handover before any other western nation, we put our hands up first. If you look at the new governorship of Hong Kong after the handover even the guestbook has New Zealand’s name in it first. I was the first foreigner to be invited.

China remembers certain things. When the West wasn’t prepared to go, we said ‘yes’ first. Within 48 hours some other countries put their hands up and they all came in the end. But I’m proud of that, and the Chinese don’t forget things like that.

I just want to remind some of my critics that I was the guy that went there to negotiate student visas, to enable export education to happen in this country. The Chinese leadership did ask me though to promise on behalf of my Government that when they graduated I’d send them home.

Well, I tried to keep my promise!

INVESTIGATE: There’s been a drop-off in student numbers from China. Is that because of the quality of the education we offer here, or is it as some suggest a result of NZ First speeches?

PETERS: That’s just humbug. We have been neglectful of our responsibilities to assure any Chinese mother and father that when students came here they’d be looked after.

There’s been far too much naked, raw irresponsible capitalism associated with export education and we’re paying the price for it, in terms of quality and in terms of care. I remember them saying to me, “we entrust these children to you”. Now we can’t say that we’ve filled our obligations in that respect, and we’ve damaged our image. And I want to change that, beginning from when we did sign the visa programme.

INVESTIGATE: So in a strange sort of irony Winston Peters is going to be bringing more Chinese students in?

PETERS: Well I believe in export education, and that’s what the Chinese want. People might have laughed when I said Maori came from China, but the DNA’s irrefutable. We have some advantages.

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LAST FLIGHT OF THE DRAGONFLY A mystery from inside NZ’s Bermuda Triangle

42, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

In February 1962, an ageing bi-plane on a scenic flight became the first victim of an area they’re calling New Zealand’s Bermuda Triangle. Six planes have vanished never to be seen again, taking with them 23 men, women and children. Now in this extract from aviation writer RICHARD WAUGH’s new book, Lost Without Trace?, comes the story of the missing Dragonfly, and details of a $4,000 reward for its discovery.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 43

F

rom a gentle idle Brian Chadwick closes down the Dragonfly engines.

The ground running warms them up before the flight and is a last check for any obvious faults. Everything is fine and there is plenty of fuel aboard. Stepping away from the Dragonfly, Chadwick looks toward the distant Alps. It’s a habit. There is total cloud cover and he can feel the southerly wind.

With the Flight Plan filed he walks into the imposing terminal building and greets two men already waiting at the Inquiry Desk.

“Hello, I’m Brian Chadwick, your pilot for today’s flight,” “Gidday mate, I’m Louis Rowan,” “And I’m Darrell Shiels.”

Elwyn Saville soon joins them and his new wife Valerie emerges from the powder room.

‘A happy young lot; they’ll love the flight,’ thinks Chadwick as they head off chatting, toward the parked Dragonfly. Louis quickly works out his older brother Bill had worked with Darrell at a Sydney brewery.

“Yes, she’s not the newest plane,” says Chadwick, “But you’ll have fantastic views and we’ll be slow enough for you to use all the film in your cameras – I guarantee it!” He soon finds out where they’re from, and puts Elwyn and Valerie together on the rear bench seat, Louis in the front seat next to him, and Darrell in the middle seat. They listen attentively as he gives the safety instructions and points out the First Aid box, barley sugars and four small blankets.

Chadwick eases into the pilot’s seat. He has just over 6,000 flying hours experience. There is friendly banter in the cabin and they all laugh when he says, “On board we have a Pom, three Aussies and a Kiwi – not a joke – but it’s going to be a memorable flight!”

The Dragonfly had been refuelled the evening before by Ken Froggatt who worked as an assistant to Chadwick. Following instructions Froggatt had filled the wing tanks to capacity (30 gallons each) and put 15 gallons in the rear fuselage tank, and the aircraft was all ready for the morning’s flight. After ground running the engines, Chadwick went to meet his passengers. The four tourists were all from New South Wales: Elwyn & Valerie Saville from Wahroonga, Louis Rowan from Granville and Darrell Shiels from Balmain. Valerie was a New Zealander who had married Elwyn in her home town of Gisborne just two months earlier.

THE SAVILLES came to the South Island as part of their extended honeymoon holiday in New Zealand, wanting to see some of the renowned scenery. They were intending to re-

Missing pilot Brian Chadwick being interviewed by Radio 2UE prior to an earlier flight. Chadwick’s alpine scenic tours were popular with Australians turn to Australia in late February. Sidney Elwyn Saville, known as ‘Elwyn’, was born on 8 October 1941 at Casino on the north coast of New South Wales where his father Roy owned and ran a dairy farm. He was the third of five children. The family were Seventh Day Adventist and Elwyn attended Casino High School and then went to work at the Wahroonga Sanitarium and Hospital in Sydney. This is now the Sydney Adventist Hospital.

Valerie Gay Bignell was born on 27 June 1939, the second youngest of twelve children of Fred and Jessie Bignell at Tokomaru Bay, north of Gisborne. Fred was a foreman and slaughterman at the local Freezing Works.

Valerie attended Tokomaru Bay School and from the age of 14, the New Zealand Missionary College (later Longburn College) near Palmerston North. She returned to Gisborne and worked in the office at Cook Hospital as a typist. Valerie’s family remember her as “a loving kind person, quiet, who loved children.”

She decided to go to Australia in 1959 as several relatives were there including a sister, Patricia. Valerie soon got a job as a secretaryclerk at the Adventist Sanatorium and this is where she met Elwyn. Engaged in the winter of 1961, they set a wedding date in New Zealand, took extended leave from their jobs and the couple left Sydney by air for New Zealand on 21 November, along with several other friends and were booked to return to Sydney by sea on the Canberra, leaving on 28 February 1962. It was a return trip they would never make.

Born at Junee in New South Wales in 1928, DARRELL STANLEY SHIELS was the youngest of Warrie and Doris Shiels’ three children. His father worked on the railway. He

44, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

attended Drummoyne Boys High School.

Darrell’s older brother, Allan Warren Shiels, aged 19, was killed in wartime England on 19 June 1944 in a plane crash whilst serving with the RAAF. Darrell was 5’11” tall of medium build and played tennis, but his favourite occupation was playing the piano. He took after his grandmother who was a very good pianist. Darrell worked in a railways office and later as a clerk in the office of Tooth & Co Brewery in Sydney. Darrell was single but had been engaged for a short time a few years earlier. While at Tooths Brewery he lived at home with his mother at Balmain, Sydney.

LOUIS ROWAN had been working in New Guinea before returning home to Australia for Christmas 1961 and then took a trip to New Zealand with the prospect of working for a while.

“Louis was a very outgoing and popular man who had close mates and a wide circle of friends,” remembers his brother John. “He was generous by nature and a willing helper to anyone who needed it. He was popular with the girls and flirting was a trademark. He played tennis regularly and kept himself very fit. Louis was 6’1” tall, lean and about 170lb.

He was a member of the Granville RSL and really enjoyed a beer and a smoke. He owned three cars, the first a Vanguard, the second an FJ Holden and the third, his pride and joy, a Dodge Kingsway. He was never short of family and friends to fill these cars for any occasion.”

Rowan’s date with destiny happened by chance: the possibility of a scenic flight to Milford Sound came up while he lingered in Christchurch awaiting a flight back to the

Louis Rowan in a New Guinea Bar, 1961. After spending Christmas with family in Sydney, his trip to NZ would be his last

Elwyn and Valerie Saville, newlyweds from NSW, still missing.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 45

departure. The aircraft left at 9.52am and was to set down at Milford at 12.37pm.”

Christchurch Airport received no further radio reports from Chadwick as the Dragonfly began the long climb toward the Southern Alps.

As expected, many other pilots were flying in the lower South Island that day. From Hokitika, Brian Waugh took off mid-morning on the scheduled West Coast Airways service to Haast. He later wrote: “Dominie ZKAKT lifted off into a light cloudy sky. It was early morning, and Hokitika looked quite sleepy beneath me. Another typical day I thought. Little did I realise that 12 February 1962 would be a day not easily forgotten. Just over an hour later I landed at Haast in sunshine, picked up six passengers and headed home on the return trip. Jim Harper was right: while the coast weather was good, it was pitch black in the ranges. I smiled smugly: ‘Chaddy will not be carrying any scenic passengers to Milford today,’ I thought.”

N Darrell Stanley Shiels North Island and thence home to Australia.

When the opportunity came to board the Dragonfly, he seized it, leaving his luggage behind in a bed and breakfast establishment he never returned to.

As the group of five boarded the Dragonfly, Don Eadie, a 24-year-old licensed aircraft engineer with Airwork, was ready to help. In 2004 he remembered: “I was on tarmac duty when Brian Chadwick loaded up AFB with the tourists for the trip to Milford. At that time, the engineering staff at Airwork wore grey overalls, and I always kept a clean pair of white ones for ‘tarmac duty’. My job was to assist the pilot ‘load up’ and having shut the door, stand by with a fire extinguisher while the engines were started. I often wondered what I would do if one caught fire! However,

I was never put to the test. The Dominie and Dragonfly engines always started and ran smoothly after a short warm up. A testimony to the care with which they were maintained.

“I seem to recall that it was a warm day at Harewood. I can still see the young couple in the Dragonfly, lightly dressed and quite excited at the prospect of flying to Milford. After a wave from Brian, I pulled away the wooden chocks and he then taxied out to the runway. That was the last I was to see of him.”

Dragonfly ZK-AFB was airborne just over 10 minutes late. George Blackett reported, “Upon Captain Chadwick’s departure from Christchurch the Control Tower sent the Flight Plan to Communications for onward transmission and sent the Control Centre a plaque to inform the Centre of the actual time of

46, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

o radio reports were received from Chadwick after the Dragonfly took off but this was quite normal as his next designated radio reporting point was the Mt. Eliede Beaumont area, assuming his “Usual Route”. While there were no radio messages there were a number of reported hearings and sightings of the blue and white Dragonfly as it droned its way over the Canterbury Plains and headed south-west. In this sense the aircraft did not disappear ‘without trace’ as these observations were made by a range of people at many different places. These reports indicate that the progress of ZK-AFB for part of its intended journey can be confirmed with reasonable certainty.

In 1987 Eric Gillum contacted the author recording his memories of 12 February 1962: “I was digging a drain with a dragline working on Mr Walter Elliot’s Omahau sheep station that day, which is about 6 miles south from Lake Pukaki Village and about half a mile from where Twizel village was later established. I had just stopped work a few minutes before midday when I heard a plane going over, it was far too low and one engine was spluttering and blowing out smoke. I thought then that if it got as far as Lake Ohau it would be as far as it would get.

“Mr Elliot came out that afternoon about 3 o’clock and told me a plane had been reported missing. I asked him if he knew what sort of plane it was and when he said it was a Dragonfly I told him it had gone over with one engine spluttering. I had met Captain Chadwick and found him a very levelheaded person. If the plane had kept on course after it flew over where I was it would have had to

gain a lot of height to get over the Ben Ohau Range, but I couldn’t see that being possible with one sick motor, he could have flown around the Ben Ohau Range at the bottom of Lake Ohau and got back on course from there.

“About 11 o’clock that same day my sister, Eileen Harrington, was at Jim O’Neil’s farm on Clayton Road, Fairlie, when that plane passed overhead, therefore he was right on course and the timing would be right too.”

One of the earliest reports received by Search and Rescue on the Monday night was relayed from deercullers at the head of Lake Ohau. This was further investigated on the Tuesday. Evan Blanch in 2004 wrote this detailed account:

A

s a 20-year-old, I was employed by the New Zealand Forest Service doing deerculling in the Hopkins River watershed. There were eight shooters covering the Hunter, Ahuriri, Hopkins and Dobson Valleys – two to each, plus a Field Officer and under the control of the Otago-Southland office in Queenstown. On the day Chadwick’s aircraft went missing we were all at the NZFS Waitaki Base Camp on Huxley Gorge Station. This camp is at the base of Ram Hill at the south end of the Hopkins Valley. We would meet up once a month to collect and send out mail, fill in our monthly report cards and have our tallies counted.

“The weather was, to say the least, terrible, with a very strong southerly coming up over Lake Ohau with low cloud and rain showers.

I don’t remember now the exact time but it was in the middle of the day. I was at the time repairing the driveshaft on my Chevrolet pickup truck and was surprised to suddenly hear an aircraft overhead in the cloud. It was clearly twin-engined and working very hard against the wind but at no time did it become visible.

I stood and listened until it could no longer be heard. It flew directly up the Hopkins Valley and my impression was that some mountain tops must have been visible to make it possible to fly up the valley. The plane sounded as if it came out of the Dobson Valley and around Mt Glenmary, when the sound of the engines ceased – they stopped very abruptly.

“Everyone at the camp heard the plane but as they were indoors they did not take a lot of notice. It was not until the 6 o’clock news came over the radio saying that a plane was missing that we realised that what we heard was probably it.

“The Hopkins River is almost North to South and has a gentle curve over most of its length. The Huxley River is quite a large valley on the west of the Hopkins with the Elcho Valley a bit smaller. These would be an absolute trap in bad weather for any plane but they

Pilot Brian Chadwick do give access to the Landsborough River, via the Brodrick Pass, which in turn gives a route to the West Coast and Haast. So we heard the plane going north away from its intended destination and into an area of high mountains and dense forest. In two years working in the area there was a lot of the area I never visited.

A blue fabric covered aircraft could easily still be there!

“The Police were interested in what I heard but I didn’t see any – but officers in charge tend to take over in these situations. I have never been asked for my story and this is the first time I have put it to paper.”

A total of 17 civilian and 17 military aircraft – including both RNZAF and USAF aircraft from Operation Deep Freeze at Christchurch – combed Fiordland for any trace of the air-

craft. All up, they logged more than 630 flying hours across more than 250 individual sorties. To this day, it remains the largest air search ever conducted in New Zealand history.

The whereabouts of Dragonfly ZK-AFB, its pilot and passengers, quickly became a persisting mystery spawning wide interest, and this has continued to the present day. Based on what many people reported seeing or hearing, the Dragonfly’s progress south west is reasonably certain but its final resting place is still elusive, despite a number of search initiatives over the years. Adding to this Dragonfly mystery is the subsequent disappearance in the same lower South Island region of five further aircraft which have never been found (see sidebar story).

With the official Dragonfly search being susDecember 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 47

pended, the families of those on board the missing aircraft were compelled to face the reality that their loved ones had died. It was a traumatic week.

Telegrams had been sent from the New Zealand Police in the late afternoon and early evening of 12 February notifying relatives in Australia that the aircraft was overdue and missing. Darrell Shiels’ mother told newspapers the following day that her husband had been put on sedatives to help cope with the shock.

For the Rowan family it was just as devastating with the family making desperate attempts to obtain more news. Every news bulletin on Sydney radio was listened to and reception of late evening radio broadcasts from New Zealand were sometimes successful. But the distance and lack of news was heartbreaking for all involved. Support for the families from relatives and friends was encouraging with care and prayers being offered all across Australia.

Elwyn Saville’s parents stayed with Valerie’s sister, Patricia King, at Cooranbong, and it was from there that Mrs Saville wrote a letter to the other bereaved families. Her heartfelt letter of 20 February to the Rowan family said: “We are writing a short note to you in hope that by being parents of the young couple in the same plane as your boy has disappeared, we may be able to offer some comfort in knowing that the one sadness covers both our homes. We do not know each other but may God bless you with his love in our sad time, it is very hard for us to understand but I do feel that God must have a purpose for it all, may we put our trust in him.

“We contacted the New Zealand Commissioner of Police asking if they considered it would be of any gain for us to go over to New Zealand or if my husband and son could be of any assistance in the search, the reply wasn’t just what we’d have liked but they have really made a wonderful effort in the search for them.

“The reply stated that they have searched 17,000 square miles six or seven times. The search has been suspended in the meantime and will be taken up immediately if information comes to hand. No point in coming to New Zealand at present. We cannot expect more of them even though we’d like them to go on searching. We can only have faith in knowing that if we should not see them again in this world we will meet our loved ones when Jesus comes on the Great Resurrection Day. May your faith, courage and health, as well as our own be built so as to face the future whatever God has in store for us.”

In Christchurch the news had filtered out more quickly. The Isles family, where Valerie

Evan Blanch was working on the driveshaft of his ’46 Chev at Huxley Gorge station when he heard a twin engine aircraft, possibly experiencing difficulties, fly over.

and Elwyn Saville had been staying, heard about the aircraft being overdue by late afternoon but Valerie’s parents, Mr and Mrs Fred Bignell and their family in Gisborne, weren’t contacted by police until later that evening.

Two weeks later Mrs Bignell and her daughter Joyce went to Christchurch, stayed with the Isles, and collected the luggage, including wedding presents, that the couple had left behind.

For Sylvia Chadwick and her two sons, the news was also unbelievable. At the naval training establishment in Auckland, Tony was convinced that his father would turn up unscathed after a couple of days, and had to be virtually ordered to go home on compassionate leave.

Then there was a sense of helplessness, as there was nothing that could be done to assist the search.

Certainly the performance of the Dragonfly in alpine flying conditions, especially at the required altitudes in the lower Southern Alps, was very poor. Not only was there an appreciable difference in the actual single engine performance of ZK-AFB when compared to

48, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

manufacturer’s claims, but by 1962, in comparison with other newer aircraft available, the veteran Dragonfly was clearly unsuitable for such trips. When the aircraft’s known poor single-engine performance and susceptibility to icing, is combined with the mountainous terrain and deteriorating weather, a whole new meaning is given to the term “margin of error”.

The reality was that the Dragonfly had little or no margin of error to cope with any major weather deterioration or mechanical failure en route to Milford Sound. Chadwick may not have originally envisaged using the Dragonfly for his Milford Sound flights, as his larger Dominie aircraft was more suitable, but in practice the aircraft regularly flew the Glacier and Milford Sound charters. With hindsight it can now be said that flying a Dragonfly aircraft on regular commercial charters over the rugged Southern Alps to Milford Sound, sometimes in deteriorating weather, was risky, if not a tragedy waiting to happen.

In spite of the passage of time, local pilots continued to keep watch for the Dragonfly,

NEW ZEALAND’S ‘BERMUDA TRIANGLE’?

S Cesna 180 ZK-BMP

Piper Cherokee Six ZK-EBU

Cessna 172K ZK-CSS

Cessna 180 ZK-FMQ

Hughes 369HS ZK-HNW

Photo: Don Noble

ince the disappearance of Dragonfly ZK-AFB on 12 February 1962, there have been five other aircraft lost without trace in the same southern region of the South Island; four fixed wing aircraft and one helicopter. In total, including those aboard ZK-AFB, 23 persons – 6 pilots and 17 passengers – have vanished!

The large area in which these aircraft and people have been lost is among the most rugged in New Zealand, with much of it having World Heritage status. Since the Dragonfly, other aircraft to disappear have been: • 16 AUGUST 1978: Cessna 180 ZK-BMP owned by Central Western Air. The pilot was Rev Cyril Francis Crosbie (aged 37) of Riversdale and the passengers were: Trevor George Collins (aged 50) of Waimea, Gordon Grant (aged 28) of Waipounamu and Peter Alexander Robertson (aged about 40) of Wendonside. The aircraft was on a flight from Big Bay, South Westland, to Riversdale, Southland. It was probably last heard at Jamestown at the northern end of Lake McKerrow and appeared to be heading towards the Jamestown Saddle.

• 29 DECEMBER 1978: Piper Cherokee Six ZK-EBU owned by the Otago Aero Club.

The pilot was Edward James Sinclair Morrison (aged 28) and the passengers were: Earl Blomfield Stewart (aged 40), his wife Elizabeth McGregor Stewart (aged 37), their son David John Stewart (aged 18), Alec Davidson Stewart (aged 38), his wife Rosie Stewart (aged 37) and David Hogg (aged 20). The elder Stewart men were brothers and all the Stewarts were from Dunedin. The aircraft was on a scenic flight from Taieri, Dunedin, to Queenstown, Milford Sound, Preservation Inlet and then back to Dunedin. It was last seen flying down Milford Sound toward the coast.

• 30 JULY 1983: Cessna 172K ZK-CSS owned by Arthur Roy Turner. The pilot was Arthur Roy Turner (aged 55) of Mt Ruapehu, National Park, and the passengers were: his wife Anne Zelda (aged 33) and children Kim Dorothy (aged 6) and Guy (aged 4). Anne was also a pilot. The aircraft was on a flight from Tekapo to Fox Glacier.

• 8 NOVEMBER 1997: Cessna 180 ZK-FMQ owned by Cascade Whitebait Ltd. The pilot was Ryan Michael Moynihan (aged 23) and he was the sole occupant. The aircraft was on a flight from West Melton Aerodrome, Canterbury to Waiatoto, South Westland.

• 3 JANUARY 2004: Hughes 369HS ZKHNW owned by Featherstone Contracting Ltd, Hamilton. The pilot was Campbell

Montgomerie (aged 27) from Hamilton and his passenger, girlfriend Hannah Rose Timings (aged 28) from Cheltenham, England.

The helicopter was on a flight from the Howden Hut, on the Routeburn Track, to Milford Sound. A total of 204 flying hours and 2300 man hours were reported as being spent searching the mountainous area for the missing helicopter, without success.

Following the Dragonfly’s disappearance, Civil Aviation officials investigated some overseas developments regarding aircraft radio beacons.

A 1962 memo entitled ‘Recommendations Arising from the Dragonfly Accident’ says in part: “Radio in the past has been out of the question, but recently appears to be becoming a distinct possibility. We are currently obtaining data on several emergency transmitters which have recently become available.”

In New Zealand, the Emergency Locator Transmitter device (ELT), to assist in locating missing aircraft, was not finally made mandatory for the general aviation fleet until 1986.

The beacon commences transmitting if a certain ‘G’ threshold is exceeded, as in a crash. It radiates on 121.5 MHz for civil or 243 MHz for military, but in the near future the standard will be 406.5 MHz. The signal can be detected aurally if a receiver is set to the appropriate frequency, so overflying aircraft are often the first to report a beacon.

Orbiting SARSAT/COSPAS satellites operated by the United States and Russia are designed to receive the signals and within 90 minutes they can typically determine the location with amazing accuracy and so greatly assist Search and Rescue personnel.

In the case of Hughes helicopter ZK-HNW, the ELT did not function correctly with no signal being transmitted; a rare failure. Phil Timings, father of Hannah Timings, was reported in the New Zealand media in March 2004 calling on the British Government to pay for high tech “Synthetic Aperture Radar” (SAR) equipment that could possibly locate the missing helicopter. He said: “It is like a giant metal detector and the Americans use them for search and rescue. If they can find downed pilots, they can find Hannah.”

Over coming years it will be interesting to see whether the six missing aircraft, Dragonfly ZK-AFB included, can be located by advancing technology.

NOTE: The author acknowledges published information regarding four of these missing aircraft from the book ‘Missing! Aircraft Missing in New Zealand 1928-2000’ by Chris Rudge (Christchurch, Adventure Air, 2001) December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 49

The Upper Hopkins Valley in 1962. Evan Blanch heard an aircraft flying up this valley in the middle of the day on 12 February 1962. PHOTO: Evan Blanch collection

looking for anything unusual in the dense bush and trees, especially in more isolated areas. Brian Waugh was prominent, but there were many others.

N

ancy Stokes, widow of Mt Cook skiplane pilot John Stokes, who was based at Fox Glacier 19611964, recently commented: “John always kept an eye out for Chadwick”. Ray Sweney from Hokitika also deliberately flew over many likely areas. The same was true for Canterbury-based pilot Jim Pavitt, who continued to fly Milford Sound charters, “After Brian Chadwick went missing, every time I flew to Milford I scrutinised the terrain for any signs. I even varied the route to cover as much as possible, but there is such an extensive wilderness it was fruitless. One day I hope a tramper or someone finds something; then we might learn what happened.”

In January 1975 a deerstalker, N.L. Duncan reported seeing what looked like aircraft debris in the headwaters of the Rangitata River.

A fully equipped six-man team, led by two

police constables, completed a search accompanied by Mr Duncan but nothing was found.

On 8 August 1980 Paul Beauchamp Legg and his wife Frances were flying with Dr Paul and Jean Monro in the Middle District’s Aero Club’s Piper Cherokee 180 ZK-ECR. Paul Monro recounts: “We were on a flight from Franz Josef to Milford Sound with Paul Legg flying. I remember us flying well round Mt. Aspiring to the south of the West Branch of the Matukituki River. We then headed for a point a few miles out to sea from the entrance to Milford Sound and flew over tall bushcovered undulating country which I assume may have been the Dart River. As we descended towards Lake Alabaster, before crossing its southern end, Jean, who was sitting in the left rear seat, saw what looked like the white tail plane of an aircraft semi-hidden in the bush.” Beauchamp Legg was quickly alerted and he recalls: “We were in a severe downdraught at the time and I was more interested in staying with the living than joining the dead and was working hard to get into an updraught. I only had time to make a quick

50, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

glance in the direction Mrs Monro indicated. I marked it on the map and passed the information to Air Department but as far as I know nothing was done about it. I was told much later, at Queenstown, that one of the helicopters had dropped a fridge in the bush somewhere about there but Mrs Monro was still adamant that it was an aeroplane she saw.”

A further on-going search initiative has been quietly undertaken by Lex Perriam, a ranger with the New Zealand Forest Service based at Omarama since 1975. Perriam remembers the Dragonfly going missing while attending high school at Mosgiel. In 1977 he discussed the mystery with Stafford Weatherall, owner of the Lake Ohau Station. Weatherall told him that on the day the Dragonfly went missing he had been mustering east of Lake Ohau on Ben Rose Station and heard, above the fog, an aircraft to the west with engines revving loudly.

This account, together with a dream Perriam had of the Dragonfly being in the South Huxley area, and Richard Waugh’s article for the 25th anniversary of the disappearance in 1987, renewed his interest and prompted him

This book documents many key and credible reports, many dating back to 12 February 1962, which provide strong evidence that the Dragonfly was flying on a southwest route down the eastern side of the Main Divide

to be deliberate about ongoing searching for wreckage in the areas for which he has Forest Service responsibility. In 2005 he reported: “I was encouraged to continue looking for the location of the plane by foot and by air.”

Mason Whaitiri of Bluff reported to the author recently: “In early 1962 I was the Skipper of the Miss Geraldine fishing boat and was working directly off the entrance to Milford Sound at the time the aircraft went missing. It was a bright sunny day and the boat was straight out from St Anne Point about a mile from the Sound mouth. The time was about midday or 1pm and the boat was picking up pots.

“I was in the wheelhouse and two crew members were at the winch – Russell Trow, my brother-in-law, and Allan Strange. In spite of the noise from the freezer and engine in the wheelhouse I heard a very loud aircraft noise which all of a sudden cut out.

“I went out on deck and asked the others who were using the winch whether they had heard the close-by aircraft but they hadn’t heard a thing over the noise of the winch and didn’t see anything. While the weather was sunny and clear it was blowing a 25-30 knot wind from south west coming up the coast.

A hard wind!

“Later that day we heard that an aircraft was missing. We also saw smoke in the bush behind Big Bay and steamed for about three hours to get closer but we determined it was Davy Gunn mustering cattle. Some weeks later it dawned on me the possible explanation for the very loud aircraft noise and its sudden end.

“I felt the aircraft would have been very near for the noise to have penetrated the wheelhouse so clearly – maybe within 200 yards. I think the missing aircraft may have been running out of fuel and the pilot had nowhere else to land and so decided to get close to the only human civilisation – the Miss Geraldine – and to ditch in the sea alongside. This was the loud noise I heard as the aircraft came up very close. But unfortunately the pilot ditched on the wrong side and was not noticed. The crew and I were not looking that way as we were concentrating on collecting the pots and were watching certain land features to help determine where the pots were. I am a friend of veteran helicopter

pilot Bill Black. On occasions Bill came up close to my boat but if I was in the wheelhouse I only heard his helicopter when he was directly overhead. This whole incident has haunted me for all these years.”

Although many years have passed it is quite likely there will be still more reports made about the Dragonfly. All deserve to be considered carefully. The reality is that the Dragonfly did not just vanish without trace. This book documents many key and credible reports, many dating back to 12 February 1962, which provide strong evidence that the Dragonfly was flying on a southwest route down the eastern side of the Main Divide. The sighting/hearing reports of an aircraft in the Lake Ohau/ Hopkins area and the Mt. Aspiring area provide important clues as to its possible final resting place.

REWARD Investigate magazine is supporting Richard Waugh’s quest to solve New Zealand’s most perplexing aviation mystery by offering a $4,000 cash reward to anyone who discovers the wreckage and reports it exclusively to Investigate in the first instance. No reward will be payable if news of any discovery is first publicized intentionally or unintentionally in any other media than Investigate. For full details of the likely route of the Dragonfly, purchase a copy of Waugh’s new book, Lost Without Trace? Available at all good booksellers.

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RED DRAGON RISING “War is not far away”

World War Three within five years? That’s the spectre raised by a confidential briefing given by China’s former Defence Minister CHI HAOTIAN to his military leadership, a transcript of which has now been leaked to Western intelligence agencies. Haotian says his country needs living space, and will take it by force from the US, Australia and Canada as part of China’s vision for a new global empire.

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Chi Haotian, left, and US Defence Secretary William Cohen in 2000. DEFENSELINK

COMRADES, I’m very excited today, because the large-scale online survey sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is quite promising and our Party’s cause will be carried on. In answering the question, “Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war,” more than 80 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations [1].

Today I’d like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time [2], during which I started with a discussion of the issue of the three islands [3], mentioned that 20 years of the idyllic theme of “peace and development” had come to an end, and concluded that modernization under the sabre is the only option for China’s next phase. I also mentioned we have a vital stake overseas. Today, I’ll speak more specifically on these two issues.

The central issue of this survey appears to be whether one should shoot at women, children and prisoners of war, but its real significance goes far beyond that. Ostensibly, our intention is mainly to figure out what the Chinese people’s attitude towards war is: If these future soldiers do not hesitate to kill even non-combatants, they’ll naturally be doubly ready and ruthless in killing combatants. Therefore, the responses to the survey questions may reflect the general attitude people have towards war.

Actually, however, this is not our genuine intention. The purpose of the CCP Central Committee in conducting this survey is to probe people’s minds. We wanted to know: If China’s global development will necessitate massive deaths in enemy countries, will our people endorse that scenario? Will they be for or against it?

As everybody knows, the essence of Comrade Xiaoping’s [4] thinking is “development is the hard truth.” And Comrade Jintao [5] has also pointed out repeatedly and empathetically that “development is our top priority,” which should not be neglected for even a moment.

But many comrades tend to understand “development” in its narrow sense, assuming it to be limited to domestic development. The fact is, our “development” refers to the great revitalization of the Chinese nation, which, of course, is not limited to the land we have now but also includes the whole world.

Why do we put it this way?

Both Comrade Liu Huaqing [6], one of the leaders of the old generation in our Party, and Comrade He Xin [7], a young strategist for our Party, have repeatedly stressed the theory regarding the shift of the center of world civilization. Our slogan of “revitalizing China” has this way of thinking as its basis. You may look into the newspapers and magazines published in recent years or go online to do some research to find out who raised the slogan of national revitalization first. It was Comrade He Xin. Do you know who He Xin is? He may look aggressive and despicable when he speaks in public, with his sleeves and pants all rolled up, but his historical vision is a treasure our Party should cherish.

In discussing this issue, let us start from the beginning.

As everybody knows, according to the views propagated by the Western scholars, humanity as a whole originated from one single mother in Africa. Therefore, no race can claim racial superiority. However, according to the research conducted by most Chinese scholars, the Chinese are different from other races on earth. We did not originate in Africa. Instead, we originated independently in the land of China. The Peking Man at Zhoukoudian that we are all familiar with represents a phase of our ancestors’ evolution. “The Project of Searching for the Origins of the Chinese Civilization” currently undertaken in our country is aimed at a more comprehensive and systematic research on the origin, process and development of the ancient Chinese civilization.

We used to say, “Chinese civilization has had a history of five thousand years.” But now, many experts engaged in research in varied fields including archeology, ethnic cultures, and regional cultures have reached consensus that the new discoveries such as the Hongshan Culture in the Northeast, the Liangzhu Culture in Zhejiang province, the Jinsha Ruins in Sichuan province, and the Yongzhou Shun Emperor Cultural Site in Human province are all compelling evidence of the existence of China’s early civilizations, and they prove that China’s ricegrowing agricultural history alone can be traced back as far as 8,000 to 10,000 years. This refutes the concept of “five thousand years of Chinese civilization.” Therefore, we can assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, an ancient nation of five thousand years, and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years. This is the Chinese nation that calls itself, “descendents of Yan and Huang,” the Chinese nation that we are so proud of. Hitler’s Germany had once December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 53

bragged that the German race was the most superior race on Earth, but the fact is, our nation is far superior to the Germans.

During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the Americas and the regions along the Pacific Rim, and they became Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups in the South Pacific.

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e all know that on account of our national superiority, during the thriving and prosperous Tang Dynasty our civilization was at the peak of the world. We were the center of the world civilization, and no other civilization in the world was comparable to ours. Later on, because of our complacency, narrow-mindedness, and the self-enclosure of our own country, we were surpassed by Western civilization, and the center of the world shifted to the West.

In reviewing history, one may ask: Will the center of the world civilization shift back to China?

If we refer to the 19th Century as the British Century, and the 20th century as the American Century, then the 21st Century will be the Chinese Century.

To understand conscientiously this historical law and to be prepared to greet the advent of the Chinese Century is the historical mission of our Party. As we all know, at the end of the last century, we built the Altar to the Chinese Century in Beijing. At the very moment of the arrival of the new millennium, the collective leadership of the Party Central Committee gathered there for a rally, upholding the torches of Zhoukoudian, to pledge themselves to get ready to greet the arrival of the Chinese Century. We were doing this to follow the historical law and setting the realization of the Chinese Century as the goal of our Party’s endeavors.

Later, in the political report of our Party’s Sixteenth National Congress, we established that the national revitalization be our great objective and explicitly specified in our new Party Constitution that our Party is the pioneer of the Chinese people. All these steps marked a major development in Marxism, reflecting our Party’s courage and wisdom. We must greet the arrival of the Chinese Century by raising high the banner of national revitalization. How should we fight for the realization of the Chinese Century? We must borrow the precious experiences in human history by taking advantage of the outstanding fruition of human civilization and drawing lessons from what happened to other ethnic groups.

The lessons include the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as the defeats of Germany and Japan in the past. Recently there has been much discussion on the lessons of the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, so I will not dwell on them here.

Today I’d like to talk about the lessons of Germany and Japan.

As we all know, Nazi Germany also placed much emphasis on the education of the people, especially the younger generation. The Nazi party and government organized and established various propaganda and educational institutions such as the “Guiding Bureau of National Propaganda,” “Department of National Education and Propaganda,” “Supervising Bureau of Worldview Study and Education,” and “Information Office,” all aimed at instilling into the people’s minds, from elementary schools to colleges, the idea that German people are superior, and convincing people that the historical mission of the Arian people is to become the “lords of earth” that “rule over the world.” Back then the German people were much more united than we are today.

Nonetheless, Germany was defeated in utter shame, along with its ally, Japan. Why? We reached some conclusions at the study meetings of the Politburo, in which we were searching for the laws that governed the vicissitudes of the big powers, and trying to analyze Germany and 54, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

New Chinese Missile Could Hit NZ and Australia

By Martin Sieff WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (UPI) — The Pentagon’s latest assessment of China’ s military power said Beijing would deploy a new mobile nuclear missile, the DF-31, in 2005-2006 and the new missile was capable of hitting Australia in an arc from Brisbane to Perth, theHerald Sun newspaper reported Sunday.

In 2007-2009, China is planning to deploy a new intercontinental ballistic missile, the DF-31A, which has a far greater range and would be able to strike any Australian city, New Zealand and most of the United States with a one megaton warhead, the report said.

At present, China’s strategic nuclear weapons have been based in silos. They are liquid-fueled, making them easier targets for satellites to pick up and to strike. But the new and mobile DF-31s are solidfueled, have a longer range and are much harder to detect…

Japan’s rapid growth. When we decide to revitalize China based on the German model, we must not repeat the mistakes they made.

Specifically, the following are the fundamental causes for the defeat of Germany and Japan: First, they had too many enemies all at once, as they did not adhere to the principle of eliminating enemies one at a time; second, they were too impetuous, lacking the patience and perseverance required for great accomplishments; third, when the time came for them to be ruthless, they turned out to be too soft, therefore leaving troubles that resurfaced later on.

Our Chinese people are wiser than the Germans because, fundamentally, our race is superior to theirs. As a result, we have a longer history, more people, and larger land area. On this basis, our ancestors left us with the two most essential heritages, which are atheism and great unity. It was Confucius, the founder of our Chinese culture, who gave us these heritages.

These two heritages determined that we have a stronger ability to survive than the West. That is why the Chinese race has been able to prosper for so long. We are destined “not to be buried by either heaven or earth” no matter how severe the natural, man-made, and national disasters. This is our advantage.

Take response to war as an example. The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its enemies aim at the mainland, the enemies would have already reached Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the president to declare war. But for us, we don’t waste time on these trivial things. Comrade Deng Xiaoping once said, “The Party’s leadership is prompt in making decisions. Once a decision is made, it is immediately implemented. There’s no wasting time on trivial things like in capitalist countries. This is our advantage.” Our Party’s democratic centralism is built on the tradition of great unity. Although fascist Germany also stressed high-level centralism, they only focused on the power of the country’s executive, but ignored the collective leadership of the central group. That’s why Hitler was betrayed by many later in his life, which fundamentally depleted the Nazis of their war capacity.

What makes us different from Germany is that we are complete

China’s new mobile missile DF-31 atheists, while Germany was primarily a Catholic and Protestant country. Hitler was only half atheist. Although Hitler also believed that ordinary citizens had low intelligence, and that leaders should therefore make decisions, and although German people worshipped Hitler back then, Germany did not have the tradition of worshipping sages on a broad basis. Our Chinese society has always worshipped sages, and that is because we don’t worship any god. Once you worship a god, you can’t worship a person at the same time, unless you recognize the person as the god’s representative like they do in Middle Eastern countries. On the other hand, once you recognize a person as a sage, of course you will want him to be your leader, instead of monitoring and choosing him. This is the foundation of our democratic centralism.

The bottom line is, only China, not Germany, is a reliable force in resisting the Western parliament-based democratic system. Hitler’s dictatorship in Germany was perhaps but a momentary mistake in history.

Maybe you have now come to understand why we recently decided to further promulgate atheism. If we let theology from the West into China and empty us from the inside, if we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us and follow us? If the common people don’t believe Comrade Hu Jintao is a qualified leader, question his authority, and want to monitor him, if the religious followers in our society question why we are leading God in churches, can our Party continue to rule China?

Germany’s dream to be the “lord of the earth” failed, because ultimately, history did not bestow this great mission upon them. But the three lessons Germany learned from experience are what we ought to remember as we complete our historic mission and revitalize our race.

The three lessons are: Firmly grasp the country’s living space, firmly grasp the Party’s control over the nation, and firmly grasp the general direction toward becoming the “lord of the earth.”

Next, I’d like to address these three issues.

The first issue is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information

age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany’s back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air.

Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then.

Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways, while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can’t be drunk without filtering.

They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast, our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room.

Many years ago, there was a book titled Yellow Catastrophes. It said that, due to our following the American style of consumption, our limited resources would no longer support the population and society would collapse, once our population reaches 1.3 billion. Now our population has already exceeded this limit, and we are now relying on imports to sustain our nation. It’s not that we haven’t paid attention to this issue.

The Ministry of Land Resources is specialized in this issue.

But the term “living space” (lebensraum) is too closely related to Nazi Germany. The reason we don’t want to discuss this too openly is to avoid the West’s association of us with Nazi Germany, which could in turn reinforce the view that China is a threat. Therefore, in our emphasis on He Xin’s new theory, “Human rights are just living rights,” we only talk about “living,” but not “space,” so as to avoid using the term “living space.” From the perspective of history, the reason that China is faced with the issue of living space is because Western countries have developed ahead of Eastern countries. Western countries established colonies all around the world, therefore giving themselves an advantage on the issue of living space. To solve this problem, we December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 55

must lead the Chinese people outside of China, so that they could develop outside of China.

The second issue is our focus on the leadership capacity of the ruling party. We’ve done better on this than their party. Although the Nazis spread their power to every aspect of the German national government, they did not stress their absolute leadership position like we have. They did not take the issue of managing the power of the party as first priority, which we have. When Comrade Mao Zedong summarized the “three treasures” of our party’s victory in conquering the country, he considered the most important “treasure” to be developing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and strengthening its leadership position.

We have to focus on two points to fortify our leadership position and improve our leadership capacity.

The first is to promote the “Three Represents” theory [8], stressing that our Party is the pioneer of the Chinese race, in addition to being the pioneer of the proletariat. Many citizens say in private, “We never voted for you, the Communist Party, to represent us. How can you claim to be our representatives?”

There’s no need to worry about this issue. Comrade Mao Zedong said that if we could lead our allies to victory and make them benefit, they would support us. Therefore, as long as we can lead the Chinese people outside of China, resolving the lack of living space in China, the Chinese people will support us. At that time, we don’t have to worry about the labels of “totalitarianism” or “dictatorship.” Whether we can forever represent the Chinese people depends on whether we can succeed in leading the Chinese people out of China.

The second point, whether we can lead the Chinese people out of China, is the most important determinant of the CCP’s leadership position.

Why do I say this?

E

veryone knows that without the leadership of our Party, China would not exist today. Therefore, our highest principle is to forever protect our Party’s leadership position. Before June 4 [Tianenmen Square], we realized vaguely that as long as China’s economy is developed, people would support and love the Communist Party. Therefore we had to use several decades of peacetime to develop China’s economy.

No matter what -isms, whether it is a white cat or a black cat, it is a good cat if it can develop China’s economy. But at that time, we did not have mature ideas about how China would deal with international disputes after its economy is developed.

Comrade Xiaoping said then that the main themes in the world were peace and development. But the June 4 riot gave our Party a warning and gave us a lesson that is still fresh. The pressure of China’s peaceful evolution makes us reconsider the main themes of our time.

We see that neither of these two issues, peace and development, have been resolved. The western oppositional forces always change the world according to their own visions; they want to change China and use peaceful evolution to overturn the leadership of our Communist Party.

Therefore, if we only develop the economy, we still face the possibility of losing control.

That June 4 riot almost succeeded in bringing a peaceful transition; if it were not for the fact that a large number of veteran comrades were still alive and at a crucial moment they removed Zhao Ziyang and his followers, then we all would have been put in prison. After death we would have been too ashamed to report to Marx. Although we have passed the test of June 4, after our group of senior comrades pass away, without our control, peaceful evolution may still come to China like it did to the former Soviet Union. In 1956, they suppressed the Hungarian Incident and defeated the attacks by Tito’s revisionists of

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Yugoslavia, but they could not withstand Gorbachev thirty some years later. Once those pioneering senior comrades died, the power of the Communist Party was taken away by peaceful evolution.

After the June 4 riot was suppressed, we have been thinking about how to prevent China from peaceful evolution and how to maintain the Communist Party’s leadership. We thought it over and over but did not come up with any good ideas. If we do not have good ideas, China will inevitably change peacefully, and we will all become criminals in history. After some deep pondering, we finally come to this conclusion: Only by turning our developed national strength into the force of a fist striking outward – only by leading people to go out – can we win forever the Chinese people’s support and love for the Communist Party. Our Party will then stand on invincible ground, and the Chinese people will have to depend on the Communist Party. They will forever

follow the Communist Party with their hearts and minds, as was written in a couplet frequently seen in the countryside some years ago: “Listen to Chairman Mao, Follow the Communist Party!” Therefore, the June 4 riot made us realize that we must combine economic development with preparation for war and leading the people to go out!

Therefore, since then, our national defense policy has taken a 180 degree turn and we have since emphasized more and more “combining peace and war.” Our economic development is all about preparing for the need of war! Publicly we still emphasize economic development as our center, but in reality, economic development has war as its center!

We have made a tremendous effort to construct “The Great Wall Project” to build up, along our coastal and land frontiers as well as around large and medium-sized cities, a solid underground “Great Wall” that can withstand a nuclear war. We are also storing all necessary war materials.

Therefore, we will not hesitate to fight a Third World War, so as to lead the people to go out and to ensure the Party’s leadership position. In any event, we, the CCP, will never step down from the stage of history!

We’d rather have the whole world, or even the entire globe, share life and death with us than step down from the stage of history!!! Isn’t there a ‘nuclear bondage’ theory? It means that since nuclear weapons have bound the security of the entire world, all will die together if death is inevitable. In my view, there is another kind of bondage, and that is, the fate our Party is tied up with that of the whole world. If we, the CCP, are finished, China will be finished, and the world will be finished.

Our Party’s historical mission is to lead the Chinese people to go out. If we take the long view, we will see that history led us on this path. First, China’s long history has resulted in the world’s largest December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 57

“Solving the “issue of America” is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the white race. We the descendents of the Chinese nation are entitled to the possession of the land! It is said that the residents of the yellow race have a very low social status in United States. We need to liberate them

”

population, including Chinese in China as well as overseas. Second, once we open our doors, the profit-seeking western capitalists will invest capital and technology in China to assist our development, so that they can occupy the biggest market in the world. Third, our numerous overseas Chinese help us create the most favorable environment for the introduction of foreign capital, foreign technology and advanced experience into China. Thus, it is guaranteed that our reform and open-door policy will achieve tremendous success. Fourth, China’s great economic expansion will inevitably lead to the shrinkage of per-capita living space for the Chinese people, and this will encourage China to turn outward in search for new living space. Fifth, China’s great economic expansion will inevitably come with a significant development in our military forces, creating conditions for our expansion overseas. Even since Napoleon’s time, the West has been has been alert for the possible awakening of the sleeping lion that is China. Now, the sleeping lion is standing up and advancing into the world, and has become unstoppable!

What is the third issue we should clinch firmly in order to accomplish our historical mission of national renaissance? It is to hold firmly onto the big “issue of America.”

Comrade Mao Zedong taught us that we must have a resolute and correct political orientation. What is our key, correct orientation? It is to solve the issue of America.

This appears to be shocking, but the logic is actually very simple.

Comrade He Xin put forward a very fundamental judgment that is very reasonable. He asserted in his report to the Party Central Committee: The renaissance of China is in fundamental conflict with the western strategic interest, and therefore will inevitably be obstructed by the western countries doing everything they can. So, only by breaking the blockade formed by the western countries headed by the United States can China grow and move towards the world!

Would the United States allow us to go out to gain new living space?

First, if the United States is firm in blocking us, it is hard for us to do anything significant to Taiwan and some other countries! Second, even if we could snatch some land from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or even 58, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

Japan, how much more living space can we get? Very trivial! Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization.

T

herefore, solving the “issue of America” is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the white race. We the descendents of the Chinese nation are entitled to the possession of the land! It is said that the residents of the yellow race have a very low social status in United States. We need to liberate them. Second, after solving the “issue of America,” the western countries in Europe would bow to us, not to mention to Taiwan, Japan and other small countries.

Therefore, solving the “issue of America” is the mission assigned to CCP members by history.

I sometimes think how cruel it is for China and the United States to be enemies that are bound to meet on a narrow road! Do you remember a movie about Liberation Army troops led by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping? The title is something like “Decisive Battle on the Central Plains.” There is a famous remark in the movie that is full of power and grandeur: “The enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road, only the brave will win!” It is this kind of fighting to win or die spirit that enabled us to seize power in Mainland China. It is historical destiny that China and United States will come into unavoidable confrontation on a narrow path and fight each other! The United States, unlike Russia and Japan, has never occupied and hurt China, and also assisted China in its battle against the Japanese. But, it will certainly be an obstruction, and the biggest obstruction! In the long run, the relationship of China and the United States is one of a life-and-death struggle.

One time, some Americans came to visit and tried to convince us that the relationship between China and United States is one of interdependence. Comrade Xiaoping replied in a polite manner: “Go tell your government, China and the United States do not have such a relationship that is interdependent and mutually reliant.” Actually, Comrade Xiaoping was being too polite, he could have been more frank, “The relationship between China and United States is one of a life-and-death struggle.” Of course, right now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology, we still need America.

Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country.

How have we managed our foreign affairs in these years? Even if we had to put on a smiling face in order to please them, even if we had to give them the right cheek after they had hit our left cheek, we still must endure in order to further our relationship with the United States. Do you remember the character of Wuxun in the movie the “Story of Wuxun”? In order to accomplish his mission, he endured so much pain and suffered so much beating and kicking! The United States is the most successful country in the world today. Only after we have learned all of its useful experiences can we replace it in the future. Even though we are presently imitating the American tone “China and United States rely on each other and share honor and disgrace,” we must not forget that the history of our civilization repeatedly has taught us that one mountain does not allow two tigers to live together.

We also must never forget what Comrade Xiaoping emphasized “refrain from revealing the ambitions and put others off the track.”

The hidden message is: we must put up with America; we must conceal our ultimate goals, hide our capabilities and await the opportunity.

In this way, our mind is clear. Why have we not updated our national

anthem with something peaceful? Why did we not change the anthem’s theme of war? Instead, when revising the Constitution this time, for the first time we clearly specified “March of the Volunteers” is our national anthem. Thus we will understand why we constantly talk loudly about the “Taiwan issue” but not the “American issue.” We all know the principle of “doing one thing under the cover of another.” If ordinary people can only see the small island of Taiwan in their eyes, then you as the elite of our country should be able to see the whole picture of our cause. Over these years, according to Comrade Xiaoping’s arrangement, a large piece of our territory in the North has been given up to Russia; do you really think our Party Central Committee is a fool?

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o resolve the issue of America we must be able to transcend conventions and restrictions. In history, when a country defeated another country or occupied another country, it could not kill all the people in the conquered land, because back then you could not kill people effectively with sabres or long spears, or even with rifles or machine guns.

Therefore, it was impossible to gain a stretch of land without keeping the people on that land. However, if we conquered America in this fashion, we would not be able to make many people migrate there.

Only by using special means to “clean up” America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. This is the only choice left for us. This is not a matter of whether we are willing to do it or not. What kind of special means is there available for us to “clean up” America? Conventional weapons such as fighters, canons, missiles and battleships won’t do; neither will highly destructive weapons such as nuclear weapons. We are not as foolish as to want to perish together with America by using nuclear weapons, despite the fact that we have been exclaiming that we will have the Taiwan issue resolved at whatever cost. Only by using nondestructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves. There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of “cleaning up” America all of a sudden.

When Comrade Xiaoping was still with us, the Party Central Committee had the perspicacity to make the right decision not to develop aircraft carrier groups and focus instead on developing lethal weapons that can eliminate mass populations of the enemy country.

From a humanitarian perspective, we should issue a warning to the American people and persuade them to leave America and leave the land they have lived in to the Chinese people. Or at least they should leave half of the United States to be China’s colony, because America was first discovered by the Chinese. But would this work? If this strategy does not work, then there is only one choice left to us. That is, use decisive means to “clean up” America, and reserve America for our use in a moment. Our historical experience has proven that as long as we make it happen, nobody in the world can do anything about us.

Furthermore, if the United States as the leader is gone, then other enemies have to surrender to us.

Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computation of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of the population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity. One day, who knows how soon it will come, the great collapse will occur any time and more than half of the population will have to go.

“Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computation of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of the population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity

”

We must prepare ourselves for two scenarios. If our biological weapons succeed in the surprise attack [on the United States, the Chinese people will be able to keep their losses at a minimum in the fight against the United States. If, however, the attack fails and triggers a nuclear retaliation from the United States, China would perhaps suffer a catastrophe in which more than half of its population would perish.

That is why we need to be ready with air defense systems for our big and medium-sized cities. Whatever the case may be, we can only move forward fearlessly for the sake of our Party and state and our nation’s future, regardless of the hardships we have to face and the sacrifices we have to make. The population, even if more than half dies, can be reproduced. But if the Party falls, everything is gone, and forever gone!

In Chinese history, in the replacement of dynasties, the ruthless have always won and the benevolent have always failed. The most typical example involved Xiang Yu the King of Chu, who, after defeating Liu Bang, failed to continue to chase after him and eliminate his forces, and this leniency resulted in Xiang Yu’s death and Liu’s victory (during the war between Chu and Han, just after the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) was overthrown). Therefore, we must emphasize the importance of adopting resolute measures. In the future, the two rivals, China and the United States, will eventually meet each other in a narrow road, and our leniency to the Americans will mean cruelty toward the Chinese people.

Old comrades like us cannot afford to wait that long, for we don’t have that much time to live. Old soldiers of my age may be able to wait for five or ten more years, but those from the period of the AntiJapanese War or the few old Red Army soldiers cannot wait any longer.

History has proved that any social turmoil is likely to involve many deaths. Maybe we can put it this way: death is the engine that moves history forward. During the period of Three Kingdoms [9], how many people died? When Genghis Khan conquered Eurasia, how many people died? When Manchu invaded the interior of China, how many people died? Not many people died during the 1911 Revolution, but when we overthrew the Three Great Mountains [10], and during the political campaigns such as “Suppression of reactionaries,” “ThreeDecember 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 59

“Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society. Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China’s century. As war approaches, I am full of hope for our next generation

”

Anti Campaign,” and “Five-Anti Campaign” at least 20 million people died. We were apprehensive that some young people today would be trembling with fear when they hear about wars or people dying. During wartime, we were used to seeing dead people. Blood and flesh were flying everywhere, corpses were lying in heaps on the fields, and blood ran like rivers. We saw it all. On the battlefields, everybody’s eyes turned red with killing because it was a life-and-death struggle and only the brave would survive.

It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans.

But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths. But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we’d have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party. That is because, after all, we are Chinese and members of the CCP. Since the day we joined the CCP, the Party’s life has always been above all else! History will prove that we made the right choice.

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ow, when I am about to finish my speech, you probably understand why we conducted this online survey. Simply put, through conducting this online survey we wanted to know whether the people would rise against us if one day we secretly adopt resolute means to “clean up” America. Would more people support us or oppose us? This is our basic judgment: if our people approve of shooting at prisoners of war, women and children, then they would approve our “cleaning up” America. For over twenty years, China has been enjoying peace, and a whole generation has not been tested by war. In particular, since the end of World War II, there have been many changes in the formats of war, the concept of war and the ethics of war. Especially since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European Communist states, the ideology of the West has come to dominate the world as a whole, and the Western theory of human nature and Western view of human rights have increasingly disseminated among the young people in China. Therefore, we were not very sure about the people’s attitude. If our people are fundamentally opposed to “cleaning up” America, we will, of course, have to adopt corresponding measures.

Why didn’t we conduct the survey through administrative means instead of through the web? We did what we did for a good reason.

First of all, we did it to reduce artificial inference and to make sure that we got the true thoughts of the people. In addition, it is more confidential and won’t reveal the true purpose of our survey. But what is most important is the fact that most of the people who are able to respond to the questions online are from social groups that are relatively well-educated and intelligent. They are the hard-core and leading groups that play a decisive role among our people. If they support us, 60, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

then the people as a whole will follow us; if they oppose us, they will play the dangerous role of inciting people and creating social disturbance.

What turned out to be very comforting is they did not turn in a blank test paper. In fact, they turned in a test paper with a score of over 80%. This is the excellent fruition of our Party’s work in propaganda and education over the past few decades.

Of course, a few people under the Western influence have objected to shooting at prisoners of war and women and children. Some of them said, “It is shocking and scary to witness so many people approving of shooting at women and children. Is everybody crazy?” Some others said, “The Chinese love to label themselves as a peace-loving people, but actually they are the most ruthless people. The comments are resonant of killing and murdering, sending chills to my heart.”

Although there are not too many people holding this kind of viewpoint and they will not affect the overall situation in any significant way, but we still need to strengthen the propaganda to respond to this kind of argument.

That is to vigorously propagate Comrade He Xin’s latest article, which has already been reported to the central government. You may look it up on the website.

If you get on the website using key words to search, you will find out that a while ago, comrade He Xin pointed out to the Hong Kong Business News during an interview that: “The US has a shocking conspiracy.” According to what he had in hand, from September 27 to October 1, 1995, the Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachëv Foundation, funded by the United States, gathered 500 of the world’s most important statesmen, economic leaders and scientists, including George W. Bush (he was not the US president at the time), the Baroness Thatcher, Tony Blair, Zbigniew Brzezinski, as well as George Soros, Bill Gates, futurist John Naisbitt, etc., all of the world’s most popular characters, in the San Francisco Fairmont hotel for a high-level round table conference, discussing problems about globalization and how to guide humanity to move forward into the 21st century. According to what He Xin had in hand, the outstanding people of the world in attendance thought that in the 21st century a mere 20% of the world’s population will be sufficient to maintain the world’s economy and prosperity, the other 80% or 4/5 of the world’s population will be human garbage unable to produce new values. The people in attendance thought that this excess 80% population would be a trash population and “high-tech” means should be used to eliminate them gradually.

Since the enemies are secretly planning to eliminate our population, we certainly cannot be infinitely merciful and compassionate to them.

Comrade He Xin’s article came out at the right time, it has proven the correctness of our tit for tat battle approach, has proven Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s great foresight to deploy against the United States military strategy.

Certainly, in spreading Comrade He Xin’s views, we cannot publish the article in the party newspapers, in order to avoid raising the enemy’s vigilance. He Xin’s conversation may remind the enemy that we have grasped the modern science and technology, including “clean” nuclear technology, gene weapons technology as well as biological weapons technology, and we can use powerful measures to eliminate their population on a large-scale.

The central committee believes, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites.

Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society. Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China’s century. As war approaches, I am full of hope for our next generation.

FROM THE EDITOR

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he preceding speech was supposed to be part of a secure briefing to Chinese military leaders, but it is understood a faction disagreeing with Haotian’s “Fourth Reich” plans were behind the leaking of the transcript to the West. Although it has only recently hit the public domain, the speech appears to suffer from assumptions made about it, such as the suggestion in internet versions that he was making the speech as Defence Minister and a vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission. Haotian vacated that role in 2002, and retired as Defence Minister in 2003. He remains to this day however a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, which appears to be the context he is speaking from when he says: “The purpose of the CCP Central Committee in conducting this survey is to probe people’s minds. We wanted to know…”

Some critics have questioned the authenticity of the document because its first public appearance was on a Falun Gong website, but this ignores the reality that the Falun Gong movement is well-entrenched in Chinese society with its own highly-placed sources.

More important, in determining authenticity, is whether the speech can be corroborated by other comments or actions of Chi Haotian or the Chinese authorities which would show the latest speech is not a radical departure but in fact a further step on a pathway China is heading down.

To that end, Chi Haotian has issued similar statements publicly in the recent past, notably in 1999: “Seen from the changes in the world situation and the United States’ hegemonic strategy for creating monopolarity, war is inevitable. We cannot avoid it. The issue is that the Chinese armed forces must control the initiative in this war. We must make sure that we win.”

In a top-level analysis of China’s military ambitions published last year (before the appearance of the Haotian speech), intelligence analysts at the Strategic Studies Institute in the US talk of new concepts emerging inside the People’s Liberation Army: “An example of this is the concept of obtaining a ‘silver bullet’ technology to make the PLA more powerful. The term shashoujian (assassin’s mace) now has currency. In classical Chinese military thought, ‘assassin’s mace’ is used to indicate a secret weapon or method used by a person or group to triumph over a stronger adversary…Whether this concept is PLA’s way of defeating a superior military force or a reference to a specific weapon or program within the Chinese military is not clear. In tactical and operational-level PLA literature, ‘assassin’s mace’ seems to refer to unconventional tactics, asymmetrical warfare and even ‘miracle weapons’ that could be used to negate the combat and technological advantages of a stronger adversary.”

The commentary goes on to note that one of the China specialists consulted for the study, Jason Bruzdzinski, “is troubled by the possibility that Chinese leaders would be more willing to risk military action due to their belief that specific advanced weapons would give them a sudden victory.

“What worries Bruzdzinski is the notion that China’s leadership could decide to order a PLA equipped with a few such advanced weapons into what would almost certainly be a disastrous conflict with the United States.

“He argues that not enough is known about the concept and possible weapons being developed to support it. Bruzdzinski says questions regarding the PLA’s approach to such ‘silver bullet’ weapons…need serious attention and further study by academic and governmental PLA watchers.”

The analysis, and remember it pre-dates the publication of Chi Haotian’s speech, also corroborates the point about China’s need for Western investment to build the military industrial complex it seeks.

“The money for PLA modernization requires continued economic growth. Were this growth to drop from its current pace, so too would the money available to the PLA.” The concept of China having to fight a major, possibly nuclear, war

with the United States is known in Chinese literature as the “People’s War” doctrine. Chi Haotian, again, has been on the record on the likelihood of this in the Liberation Army Daily newspaper in 1998, where he stated “Under high tech conditions, we still need to insist on People’s War…[which] is the product of historical and dialectical materialism.”

The view that communist control of the Chinese Army should form part of national religious significance is reinforced by comments in 1996 from President Jiang Zemin, who called on the PLA to be in the vanguard of creating a “spiritual civilization” – said by the Hoover Institute to be standard code for the imposition of socialist ethics.

In July this year, PLA Major General Zhu Chenghu threatened nuclear first strikes against the United States, a comment that captured worldwide attention but which was dismissed as mere saber-rattling. Seen in the context of the Haotian speech however, the question for New Zealand, Australia and the West is: what if it isn’t? Ian Wishart

FOOTNOTES [1] Sina.com is one of the largest on-line media corporations in China.

The on-line survey was launched by sina.com’s branch Sina Military (jczs.sina.com.cn). It started on February 2 and ended on March 1, 2004 and there were 31,872 persons who filled out the survey. The web page for this on-line survey is at “http://jczs.sina.com.cn/200402-02/1644180066.html” but this page has been removed and cannot be viewed.

The question was “If you are a soldier, and if are under the orders of your commanding officers, will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war?” 34% of the visitors answered they would shoot under any circumstances even without permission from their commanding officer. 48.6% of the visitors replied that they would shoot when the lives of themselves or their companies are threatened. Only 3.8% of the participants held they would not shoot under any circumstances. Those who agreed to shoot were mostly under the age of 25.

[2] “War Is Approaching Us”, January 2003 [3] “Three islands” refer to Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands, and Spratly Islands.

[4] Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997). Officially, Deng was the leader of the CCP and China from 1978-89. Actually, after Mao’s death in 1976 Deng became the de facto leader of China until Deng finally died in 1997.

[5] Hu Jintao (1942-). Leader of the “fourth generation” of CCP officials. In 2003, Hu became President of the People’s Republic of China.

[6] Liu Huaqing (1916-). Commander of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy from 1982 through 1988, vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission (until 1997). Liu is considered to be responsible for the PLA’s modernization efforts.

[7] He Xin (1949-). Senior Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

[8] “Three Represents” states that the CCP represents the requirement to develop advanced productive forces, an orientation towards advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China. It was put forward by Jiang Zemin, former Chinese president.

[9] Three Kingdoms refer to Wei, Shu, and Wu, three countries that overlapped the land of China during the period A.D. 220-80.

[10] “Three great mountains” were said according to the CCP to have weighed on the backs of the Chinese people – imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic-capitalism.

i December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 61

SO LONG & THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH 62, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

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IT’S HAPPENING OFF THE NEW ZEALAND COAST AND, AS PAUL SALOPEK DISCOVERS, IT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE WORLD: MASSIVE OVER-FISHING BY MAJOR COMPANIES STRIP-MINING THE SEA OF FISH, AND RAISING QUESTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY

unset, five kms off the coast of Angola – Strange blue stars are appearing in the west. False stars. They rise unnaturally, against the usual migration of the constellations, from the smooth dark skull of the Atlantic. These are the deck lights of the foreign poachers. They are Chinese boats, mostly: big diesel-powered trawlers slipping inshore to plunder Angola’s rich waters. The fish they come to steal – teeming shoals of hake, sole and grouper – are frozen and shipped to warehouses in Asia, the Pacific, Europe and the United States. If you eat packaged seafood, some will end up on your plate.

By contrast, the open boat Daniana fades into the dusk. It is an Angolan catronga, a frail, eight metre-long craft that rides the waves like a lurching coffin, and it leaks. A waterlogged Portuguese Bible is its only emergency gear. Rusty wires angle up from the rails to a tubular steel mast. Draping them, the skins of flayed moray eels flap in the salty breeze like macabre scalps.

“Whore pirates,” mutters Antonio Rodriguez, the skipper, peering through the gathering darkness at his enemy. “Taking the food right out of our mouths.”

A skinny 27-year-old Angolan fisherman, Rodriguez orders his five gristly crewmen to battle stations. He places baseball-size rocks around the greasy deck – crude artillery should the marauders draw close.

This is an act of desperation. Because in the increasingly violent struggle over the planet’s last wild fish stocks – a sprawling, global food war replete with rammed boats, frenzied nighttime chases and nameless bodies washing up on desolate beaches – the outcome is all but settled.

For more than 50 years, the motorized fishing fleets of the industrial world have scoured the wide seas, hauling up a seemingly endless bounty of seafood.

But as global fish populations shrivel – and especially since the richest nations have sealed off their coastlines inside 200-mile “exclusive economic zones” – the crews of thousands of steel-hulled trawlers from the developed world have taken to raiding or buying their way into the waters of the poor.

The result: a showdown over scarce protein in which some 20 million ragged traditional fishermen such as Rodriguez are the inevitable losers.

“We are witnessing the last buffalo hunt at sea,” says Reg Watson, a researcher at the University of British Columbia who has helped document steep declines in the world’s key seafood stocks since the 1960s.

“Our southern oceans are becoming the new Wild West.”

And so it goes tonight on the remote frontier shores of Angola. As the waves darken to matte black, an armada of international trawlers sneaks inside a four-mile coastal zone reserved exclusively for local fishermen.

Aboard the Daniana, one of Rodriguez’s crewmen staggers to the rolling bow. His job: to frantically hand-haul the anchor – a stone tied to a rope – in case a foreign ship bears down on the Angolans.

Rodriguez tosses a baited hook over the side. He wheezes a Portuguese love ballad. The others, too, begin to sing, though none sings the same song.

This is the Angolans’ secret weapon: They claim to “sing up” the fish. But as the fishless hours drag on through the night, it’s clear the old juju isn’t working. The fish are deaf. Or, more likely, the heavy nets December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 63

FLEETS OF MODERN TRAWLERS – EFFICIENT FISH-KILLING MACHINES EQUIPPED WITH HUGE NETS, ONBOARD FREEZERS AND SATELLITE GUIDANCE SYSTEMS – HAVE BEEN STAMPEDING ACROSS THE EQUATOR FOR DECADES, OF COURSE, AND EVEN MORE SO IN RECENT YEARS AS NORTHERN FISHING GROUNDS HAVE PLAYED OUT.

towed by the outsiders have dragged away the submerged rocks that have sheltered schools of fish for centuries. Rocks the Angolans locate as if by feel, using mental maps passed down from father to son.

Maps now being wiped clean by the pirates.

Dawn finds the fishermen of the Daniana sprawled in their squalid boat. They are exhausted. Bitter. Confused by the lack of fish. They bicker. One crewman hooks a razor-toothed eel. Pounding it angrily with a shark club made from a length of old water pipe, he chants, “Piratas! Piratas! Piratas!”

Rodriguez pretends not to hear. He stares numbly out to open sea, slapping the back of his head with a callused palm. As if somehow the pirates were trawling in there also, wreaking havoc on the remembered ocean.

When does a frontier vanish?

The most fabled one of all, the American West, expired in a spasm of violence known as the Range Wars more than a century ago – a vicious fight among settlers over control of the last of the unfenced prairie.

This is precisely what is happening today as the seas’ once-vast shoals of fish fade into memory.

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obody can accurately count ocean fish, but a growing body of research indicates that the world’s seafood supply peaked sometime in the late 1980s. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the agency responsible for tracking the health of the oceans, now estimates that three-quarters of the world’s fish stocks are either depleted or hunted to the brink of collapse.

This global food crisis hasn’t yet hit the display cases of First World supermarkets, U.N. analysts say, partly because fishermen are “fishing down the food chain” for smaller, less appetizing species – and because they have been dipping their nets into the marine larders of the developing world.

Roughly half of the seafood eaten in the United States today, for example, is pulled from distant oceans. Import figures show that much of this catch comes from southern waters via China, Mexico and Peru.

Fleets of modern trawlers – efficient fish-killing machines equipped with huge nets, onboard freezers and satellite guidance systems – have been stampeding across the equator for decades, of course, and even more so in recent years as northern fishing grounds have played out. Most fish legally, paying cash-starved governments for the right to harvest their coasts.

But lately, as even these end-of-the-world pockets of fish start to vanish, impoverished nations are scrambling to guard their fading riches with air patrols. And before that door closes, desperate crews are turning to what marine scientists call “illicit biomass extraction.”

In a word, piracy.

“If you buy fish in a store, do you know where it comes from?” asks

64, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

a recent U.N. report on the alarming 100 percent rise in fishing piracy over the past decade. “It might be stolen from the poor. It could even have cost lives.”

Pirate fishing has many guises: outright poaching in another nation’s territorial waters; buying local fishing rights but then flouting established catch quotas; and using prohibited gear, such as smallmesh nets, to indiscriminately vacuum the host nation’s resource.

The result is the same. The fish disappear. And the world’s remaining seafood is tainted with violence as impoverished local fishermen fight for their survival.

In Senegal, fishers in hand-dug canoes have been plowed under by European trawlers. Indonesian gunboats now protect domestic fishermen by blasting foreign poachers out of the water. And bizarre copsand-robbers chases have begun roiling even Antarctica’s remote seas: Last year, an Australian patrol boat pursued a sea bass pirate more than 4,000 miles across the bottom of the world.

But the ultimate redoubt of the fishing wars — conflicts that northern consumers benefit from but hardly know exist — is the immensely long, untamed and vulnerable shoreline of sub-Saharan Africa.

For decades, European, Russian, Japanese and Korean boats — both legal and piratical — have raked Africa’s rich continental shelves.

Now China, a powerful new player in the world’s fish race, has steamed into the African battlefield.

“It’s like the end of the world,” says Antonio Rodriguez, the bewildered Angolan skipper of the Daniana. “We don’t stand a chance.”

Angola’s wild, beautiful, 1,600-km seashore is typical of most in Africa. Three government patrol boats, often docked for lack of fuel, theoretically guard territorial waters as long as the U.S. Western Seaboard. Foreign trawlers have hammered patches of coastline so hard that fish have become locally scarce — a blow to a nation where a million people rely on U.N. food aid.

“It’s not worth going to sea,” says Jose Texeira da Cunha, an unemployed fisherman in Tombua, a forgotten port of crumbling stone houses and old fish meal factories corroding to rust. “You have to stay out for three days to get the same catches you once got in eight hours.”

A dollar a day is the best living most fishermen can hope to wring out of the ocean, da Cunha says. Now some refugees from Angola’s fishing wars are even pushing into deserted coastline, seeking more fish.

On virgin beaches, they clap together raw outposts of corrugated zinc and flotsam washed up by the Atlantic. Skinny-legged, bullchested, shouting gruffly, the men heave their plank boats through the breakers at dawn. And their wives and rag-clad children ululate and dance on the sand, wishing them luck. The seamen wave goodbye in silence. They hold up both arms in an attitude of surrender.

To understand why Angola has emerged as a hotbed of the oceanic food wars, you must rent a Jeep, load it with fuel and water, and drive south from the nation’s monumentally dilapidated capital of Luanda.

You will traverse a country almost twice the size of Texas, utterly wrecked by civil war. Though Angola’s 27-year-long fratricide finally ended in 2002, its people remain dazed and exhausted. Bullet-pocked towns still lack basic amenities such as power and water. Roads are mere smears of dirt. Indeed, past Tombua, on the remote southern coast, they disappear altogether.

This is the edge of the Namib Desert. And here the route hugs the coast. If you pass a driftwood cairn topped by a human skull, you are on the right track.

Park at roughly 17 degrees south latitude. Camp in a bay where hyenas nose the surf, digging up the eggs of sea turtles. Then climb a sand dune at first light.

There, facing the sea, you will witness one of the great natural wonders of the world: bronze sunlight glinting off countless millions of mullets, kob, sardines, garrick and elf that swim in the rollers like

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 65

SOME POLICEMEN STATIONED, FOR EXAMPLE, ON THE REMOTE ISLAND OF ILHA DOS TIGRES, ANGOLA’S ONLY OFFICIAL MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVE, DON’T PROTECT WILDLIFE; THEY TERRORIZE BIRD, SEAL AND TURTLE NESTING GROUNDS WITH THEIR DRUNKEN TARGET PRACTICE, LOCAL VILLAGERS SAY

specimens trapped inside immense, translucent aquariums. Behind these glittering clouds of fish loom the silhouettes of monstrous sharks. It is a mesmerizing scene. A glimpse of the primordial majesty of the sea. In terms of sheer fish abundance and biodiversity, no other marine ecosystem in the world – excepting Chile’s Humboldt Current – can match it.

This dazzling display of aquatic life is a rarity, one of the last unfished corners of Africa. It owes its existence to the storminess of the local seas, and to a strange dance of waters called the Angola-Benguela Frontal Zone.

Cold currents from the South Pole and warm currents from the equator collide along the lonesome beaches of Namibia and southern Angola. A comparable boundary on land would thrust together the frosty tundra of the Yukon and the sweltering grasslands of the Serengeti – a bizarre overlap of moose and zebra.

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et this is exactly what happens in the ocean off southern Africa. Scientists have compared the swarms of intermixing warm-and cool-water fishes on Angola’s seaboard to a “marine Amazon.” Meanwhile, only last year, European biologists stumbled across an even more species-rich habitat farther offshore, on the 5,000 metre deep seabed: 80 percent of the hundreds of organisms dredged up by a German-led expedition were new to science.

“Whole sections of this coast belong in marine reserves,” says Tamar Ron, an Israeli ecologist and the only environmental adviser on the staff of the U.N. Development Program in Angola. “But there is no political will to protect anything here. No baseline data exists. Nobody funds studies. So we will never know what’s being lost through overfishing.”

But noble causes such as marine sanctuaries or “no take” zones – a concept that is rapidly gaining momentum in conservation circles as global fish populations stagnate or collapse – can seem faintly absurd to the beleaguered fishermen of Africa.

Some policemen stationed, for example, on the remote island of Ilha dos Tigres, Angola’s only official marine environmental preserve, don’t protect wildlife; they terrorize bird, seal and turtle nesting grounds with their drunken target practice, local villagers say. Angolan seamen also tell stories of having their shoes and meager catches stolen by officers.

On the feral shores of Angola, even the good guys are flint-hearted.

“This is one of the last good places left on Earth,” insists Bruce Bennett, the closest thing to a conservationist on Angola’s outlaw coast. “But they’re destroying it real fast. It won’t last 10 years.”

Once an up-and-coming biologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, Bennett pioneered research on the ecological benefits of marine reserves. But he turned his back on academia a decade ago to become a fishing guide in Angola.

Sandpapery, broiled red by the tropical sun, he sports a threadbare

66, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

pair of shorts and hasn’t worn shoes for years. Local Angolans have dubbed him Tarzan. He presides over a tin-roofed fishing camp where he rails against international fishing poachers and the garbage they toss into the sea, polluting Angola’s pristine beaches.

Then, poker-faced, he tells this story: Out casting on the beach one day, he spotted four men rolling in the waves. Two were dead already – drowned – and the others were alive but ranting. They were Congolese stowaways pitched overboard by the crew of a passing cargo ship, standard practice in Angola’s cutthroat waters. Bennett dutifully covered the corpses’ gull-pecked faces and offered water to the survivors. Then he kept on angling up the shore.

Only when he had bagged his self-imposed limit of lira, a spirited surf predator, did he load the Congolese, alive and dead, into his truck and cart them off to the police.

“Fish learn,” Antonio Rodriguez is insisting.

It is the second day at sea aboard the hard-luck Daniana.

The boat creaks as if under the iron weight of the African sunlight.

The Punta Grossa lighthouse, gutted by war, stares blindly down from faraway desert cliffs. Gray and empty, the Atlantic stretches away like a fogged mirror.

Rodriguez sits on the rocking bow, his legs dangling over the side, tensing a fishing line across the pad of his left ring finger – the finger most attuned, Angolan fishermen believe, to the tremblings of the sea. He smiles dreamily into the water. He is warming to his favorite subject: his prey.

“If a hooked fish escapes, you might as well move to another bay,” Rodriguez says. “He will alert every friend within a kilometer.”

This fact applies, however, only to “heroic” fish, because fish – much like humans, Rodriguez points out – possess distinct personalities.

Hence shad: a “supremely courageous” fish because it fearlessly attacks lures nearly as big as itself.

And pungu: “lazy” because it slumbers by river deltas, waiting for its dinner, in the form of catfish, to swim past its mouth.

And peixe-voador, or four-winged flying fish, the most “confident” fish of all: It holds dead still in the water, invisible to its predators, until – pok! – it explodes into the air like a bullet.

“Don’t be fooled by fishes’ eyes,” Rodriguez says, holding up a bait sardine, its dead, lidless pupils flat as polished stones. “They can think.

They even have learned to recognize this boat. I must paint it a different color every year!”

Such folk wisdom – the vivid, personalized worldview of the true hunter-gatherer – is what irrevocably divides the lives of the antagonists in the oceans’ fishing wars.

Afloat day after day, surrounded by elemental beauty, Rodriguez and his crew know how the skin of the sea is made of light, and how you can peer into its middle depths through the mossy green shadows of every ripple. They can read the tiny bubbles of bream feeding 100 feet below. They know the fickle moods of sharks. The ocean of the industrial trawler deckhand, by contrast, is a backdrop, a dull abstraction: inert, blurred by walls of sound, steel and diesel smoke.

Surprisingly, some of the native lore of traditional fishermen is being confirmed today by science.

Gone is the conceit that fish are pin-brained drones governed by instinct – a view that has made it easier to slaughter them in untold billions.

“Now fish are regarded as steeped in social intelligence, pursuing Machiavellian strategies of manipulation, punishment and reconciliation,” say the editors of “Learning in Fishes: From Three-second Memory to Culture,” a survey of 500 scientific papers on fish behavior that was recently. “They also use tools ... build complex nests and bowers ... and can even exhibit impressive long-term memories.”

Groundbreaking studies by British biologist Dan Hoare and his German colleague Jens Krause reveal that huge fish shoals such as those

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 67

DRIVEN BY EXPLODING POPULATION GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, NEARLY 80 PERCENT OF THE WORLD’S SEAFOOD SOON WILL BE EXTRACTED FROM TROPICAL WATERS – THE SAME EMBATTLED SEAS THAT TODAY ALSO HELP SATE THE RICH WORLD’S CRAVING FOR FISH

depicted in countless television documentaries are anything but random masses of identical, robotic organisms. Instead they are complex, hierarchical communities on the move – fish cities where individuals sort themselves into subgroups defined by size, sex, kinship, age and experience.

The most recent and startling discovery of all, however, involves fish memory.

Kevin Warburton, an Australian scientist, has revealed that fish not only possess long-term recollections (and some fish live nearly a century) but are capable of lengthening or shortening their “memory windows” depending on environmental change. This is a skill most humans would envy; fish have learned when it is adaptive to forget.

“Ay!” Rodriguez cries, yanking back on his line as if it were a lawn mower cord.

Hand over hand he pulls up a slapping 20-pound grouper, or garoupa vermilion, a fish of such hallucinogenic beauty – fiery orange flecked with spots of cobalt blue – that it seems like some exotic sky beast dropped from the heavens, not something hauled from the murky Benguela Current.

It is the first sizable fish landed on the Daniana in hours.

The crew is grumbling. Cramped onto 8 pitching metres of deck, and irritable after two days of working, sleeping and defecating within elbow range of each other, they talk of returning home. The food is scarce and bad: oily moray eels. The fishing is miserable. Lino, the crew’s strongman, blames global warming – a punishment from God he overheard on Angolan national radio. But most of the older men curse the foreign trawlers that have licked the seabed clean.

Rodriguez, more guileless and cheerful, tries to raise their spirits.

Whistling, he butchers the grouper on the spot. The valuable carcass goes into the fish hold. And the guts go into a sooty pot. Boiled in seawater, they are dinner for the hungry crew.

One billion people worldwide, most of them poor, rely on fish as their main source of protein.

A disturbing study published last year by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington and the WorldFish Center in Penang, Malaysia, lays bare the sobering consequences of this massive hunger pang.

Driven by exploding population growth in developing countries, nearly 80 percent of the world’s seafood soon will be extracted from tropical waters – the same embattled seas that today also help sate the rich world’s craving for fish.

These two competing appetites are colliding brutally in Angola.

“People talk about blood diamonds!” hollers fisheries inspector Jorge Martins, referring to the shadowy trade in gemstones that has fanned Africa’s endless civil wars. “Well, here we have blood fish!”

Shaved-headed, clad in baggy hip-hop shorts and sneakers, Martins 68, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

is the unlikely defender of 500 kilometres of anarchic Angolan coastline. He steers a roaring Ministry of Fisheries and Environment patrol boat toward a nighttime ambush against fishing pirates. Eight Chinese trawlers have been spied poaching in sensitive fish nurseries near the port of Tombua. And Martins and his ragtag band of fisheries police, armed with two AK-47 assault rifles and a medium machine gun, are pounding across the Atlantic waves to confiscate the vessels.

Three hours out of port, the aging patrol boat’s steering fails. Apparently, this isn’t a surprise. Martins uses an old coffeepot to refill the boat’s leaking hydraulic fluid system. But by the time the lawmen finally reach position, dawn singes the horizon glowing orange. And the Chinese, who possess radar, are long gone.

“To do it right, you need something bigger than an AK-47,” Martins says of his underdog job as marine avenger. “The surest bet is a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.”

He isn’t joking. The fishing violence churning Angolan waters – like that in other pirate-infested fishing grounds in Africa, Southeast Asia and Oceania – is nothing short of an undeclared guerrilla war. Occasionally the nautical skirmishes resemble B-grade Hollywood action flicks. Police hurl grappling hooks onto poaching vessels. Fistfights erupt on decks. And captured skippers hide their passports down their underwear.

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ast year, one of Martins’ ill-equipped fish posses angrily fired some 300 rounds of ammunition at a pirate trawler that wouldn’t obey orders to stop. The barrage shattered the steel boat’s windows and running lights, and snapped off the radar and radio antennas, Martins recalls. Still, the sortie failed: The poacher escaped to the open sea. Other missions have ended worse.

Illegal trawlers – lately Chinese, but also Koreans, Spaniards, Namibians, Russians and others – have rammed and sunk attacking Angolan inflatable boats, Ministry of Fisheries and Environment officials say. Other pirates have hurled buckets of boiling water on Angolan boarding parties. In one case, a foreign ship ran down and killed an irate Angolan fisherman who was trying to block its way with his rickety skiff.

And at least two Angolan inspectors have vanished mysteriously while on observer duty aboard large industrial trawlers – suicides, assert the foreign skippers; pushed overboard, the fisheries police insist.

“It’s no fish ye’re buying,” Sir Walter Scott wrote of the hazards of the trade nearly two centuries ago, “it’s men’s lives.”

Clearly, little has changed. But it will. As with any frontier, the days of the world’s fishing wars are numbered.

One reason is technology.

Aquaculture is fast replacing the relentless global hunt for wild fish.

A quarter of all fish eaten today is farmed. And now even poor countries are using the same high-tech means of fencing off their seas that industrial nations pioneered a generation ago. Such tactics, called “Monitoring, Control and Surveillance,” employ aircraft and cheap satellite tracking technology to safeguard dwindling fish populations.

“It’s the beginning of the end of the cowboys,” asserts Paulo Jose Cusso, a young fisheries officer who flew with Angola’s first air patrols earlier this year. “We’re putting these guys out of business.”

And at first glance such optimism appears justified. Cusso’s shiny plane soared over Angola’s wild shoreline like the first sheriff to swagger into Dodge City. Sweaty pirate crews gaped up in amazement. In the program’s first month alone, almost 20 Chinese boats were nabbed red-handed inside protected zones closed to allow fish stocks to rebuild. Others were caught pillaging fish inside the four-mile coastal limit reserved for traditional fishermen.

But Angola’s new surveillance program completely ignores the opportunists from within.

As in other poor countries, many of Angola’s worst poachers are what one fisheries official calls “legal pirates” – that is, outsiders li-

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 69

censed to sift territorial waters for a fee, or in exchange for setting up a joint venture with local fishing companies. Ministry of Fisheries and Environment records show that many of the Angolan associates in these dubious operations are political elites – ministers, generals or the family of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. (One business partner of Chinese pirates sighted by recent air patrols was the president’s sister Marta.) Thus, the foreigners who are carting away Angola’s marine treasures are shielded from prosecution, helpless fisheries police complain.

“Politicians are using the oceans as a bank account,” Jose Goldschmidt da Silva, the commodore of Angola’s minuscule patrol boat fleet, snorts with an angry shrug. “If they keep it up, there will be nothing left worth fighting over. Nothing.”

Twelve degrees south latitude. The Atlantic is the color of wet concrete. A warm offshore breeze carries the faint tang of overripe fruit, smoke and dust – the scent of tropical Africa.

The Xangongo, a massive trawler manned by 30 Chinese and two Angolan deckhands, is busy. It drags a net half the size of a football field through Angola’s waters, snaring every fish in its wake bigger than a child’s hand.

This morning it happens to be 2,000-pound hauls of wriggling, silvery grunts – a bony reef fish of little commercial value. The helmeted crew wades knee-deep into the shuddering mass of life, picking out barely two basketfuls of prized sole, bream and skates. The rest of the dead and dying catch is scraped over the side with square-nosed shovels.

Such grotesque waste is termed “bycatch”: the modern fishing equivalent of mowing down buffalo herds for their hides and leaving the flayed carcasses on the prairie to rot. Anywhere in the maritime world, killing so many untargeted species to harvest a handful of valuable fish could be subject to prosecution. Yet so toothless are the laws of the sea in the far, tattered shores of the Earth – whether they be Angolan environmental regulations or the U.N. Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries – that captain Kim Kuang Ho’s main worry is that the “wrong fish” are clogging up his nets.

“This slows us down,” says Kim, 33, overseeing his noisy deck operation from an air-conditioned wheelhouse decorated with vases of plastic tulips. “It’s bad, bad, bad. Want a Coke?”

Kim is an affable swashbuckler in flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt.

In the typically murky and unaccountable fashion of the international fishing industry, he and his crew are overwhelmingly Chinese, his boat’s owner is listed as Angola’s own Ministry of Fisheries and Environment, and its operator is an Angolan-South Korean conglomerate appropriately named Worldwide. Such muddled lines of responsibility, U.N. fisheries experts say, only complicate law enforcement at sea.

Kim hasn’t seen home for years. A latter-day nomad, he moves from fishery to fishery, having lately chased tuna in the Indian Ocean until those stocks plummeted by more than 90 percent. He embodies the twilight of an era: perhaps the last generation of global fishermen, and part of a far-flung tide of Chinese crews and boats that is tirelessly strip-mining the oceans.

China’s fishing fleet has mushroomed sevenfold since the early 1980s, according to the U.N. Today, it is by far the largest in the world. And though European fishermen still dominate the waters of Africa, China’s eventual supremacy is a foregone conclusion: The nation’s exploding appetite for fish, like its burgeoning demand for oil, iron and other natural resources, ensures it will elbow aside all competition. The U.N. Environmental Program calculates that, at its current rate of consumption, China theoretically could swallow the world’s entire seafood catch by 2023.

Moreover, China is becoming fishmonger to the developed world; today, it is the United States’ third-largest supplier of seafood.

“They take whatever they can get, wherever they can get it,” says Jackie Alder, a researcher at the Fisheries Center at the University of British 70, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

Columbia in Vancouver. “The Europeans and Russians can be good pirates too. But the Chinese are absolutely single-minded.”

In hapless Angola, that means the superpower is leveraging its control of fishing rights with $2 billion in development aid to the Angolan government – unprecedented largesse that Angolan bureaucrats say will guarantee China’s primacy at sea over European competitors.

“We have been accused of breaking fishing laws, but our captains are simply inexperienced in these waters,” declares Antonio Bernardo, the Angolan spokesman for Dalian Yanming Enterprises, a Chinese company that has racked up $1.3 million worth of fishing fines in Angola.

“We are not pirates.”

Translating for a grim-faced company executive who would identify himself only as “Mr. Guan,” Bernardo called Angola’s fishing police “gun-happy.” Both men sat in a high-walled compound in Luanda where scores of Chinese seafarers peered warily from stark barracks.

They were fishing crews waiting to rotate to sea.

Back aboard the 140-foot Xangongo, the trawler men’s work ethic is on noisy display.

Steel cables snap taut under tons of fish, instantly vaporizing the seawater that wets them. Hydraulics whine. Captain Kim thunders orders on a public-address system. And northern Chinese seamen with weather-beaten faces sift through the mountainous bycatches day after day, night after night, sweating around the clock on backbreaking six-hour shifts.

At the end of a 60-day trip, the Xangongo’s flash freezers are expected to brim with 80 tons of seafood, the precious residue of a slaughter. On this occasion, Angola’s fish are bound for European markets. The crew of the leaky Daniana would toil more than four years to amass such a bonanza.

“Some days fishing is good, other days not,” Kim says, brushing aside any suggestion that Africa is a final enclave of plenty.

In a gesture of rebuttal, he opens his map cabinet with a flourish.

Arranged neatly inside are marine charts of his fishing grounds – the entire world.

The night sea is on fire.

A southerly breeze has stacked up waves like the wales in corduroy, and with them comes plankton, microscopic organisms that float freely in the ocean current, sparking with bioluminescence.

Pale green light smears the surface of the sea. Rodriguez recalls seeing migrating schools of sardines that thrashed the nighttime Atlantic into a weird brightness that seemed to shine from the core of the Earth. Such sights are rare these days.

It is the third day of toil for the Angolans, and finally their luck has turned. Rodriguez has maneuvered his ratty boat close under some crumbling shoreline cliffs, a treacherous place where foreign poachers will not go. The jackpot: a net bulging with 250 gasping pounds of grouper, bream, guitarfish, sharks and skates.

For a few hours it seems like old times. The boat’s rock projectiles, instruments of war, lie forgotten under masses of dying fish.

The six Angolans horse the net onboard, grunting snatches of song, clubbing netted sharks, joking about debts to be paid, or about new dresses to buy wives. All the while the shuddering fish make themselves heard as they die – a soft but unsettling medley of sighs, chirrups, clicks and grunts, one of the oldest sounds of human labor in the world, a noise that foreign trawler crews rarely hear over the thrum of their engines.

The electric sea drips from the wet net like fireflies. Drips from the men’s busy hands. Their singing dips and rises across the waves. The fish rise. And as a few squiggle away, they leave faint afterimages in the sea, like ghosts.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE/KRT

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December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 71

LIFESTYLE

MONEY

WING & A PRAYER Hear the sound of wings flapping? Peter Hensley reports the chickens are coming and it’s not bird flu you need to worry about

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ello, is anybody listening, does anyone really concept that they are but a small pawn in a huge world care? Alan Bollard the Governor of the Re- wide game of chess. serve Bank of New Zealand certainly does. He They are unable to comprehend that there are miland some of the boys and girls that work for him did lions of baby boomers around the world all doing the their sums and arrived at two inescapable conclusions. same thing. All hoping to flick their properties on when Firstly that the system simply will not allow people to they have appreciated enough to wipe out the mortgage keep spending more than they earn. Secondly, that house and put some away for retirement, which by the way is prices cannot keep going up forever. less than a decade away.

Well in Homer Simpson’s language “Doh”!

The simple fact is, it won’t work. Asset prices, be they In an unusual move the press was informed that Dr shares or property, do not go up forever. History sugBollard was due to give an important speech, however gests that they go in cycles. In the late nineties punters the topic was embargoed. This gave his address a little thought that share prices just went up. At the turn of extra attention from the media, but the content saw it the century reality hit and share prices quickly changed fall into the too hard category. He spoke of a credit from being cheap to fully valued. Punters rapidly lost account deficit which was approaching 8% of GDP. The interest, demand fell away and prices stopped going up. average New Zealander has no understanding of what They have yet to fall back to values that could be deemed this means. To put it realistic. To put this into into some sort of perperspective for readers, spective, when Argentishares are normally valWhen Argentina’s deficit reached na’s deficit reached 5%, ued by comparing the 5%, its economy self destructed, its its economy self deprice of the share to the structed, its dollar was earnings or profit that dollar was shunned by the rest of shunned by the rest of share represents. Over the world and plummeted to lows the world and plumlong periods of time a never dreamed possible meted to lows never Price to Earnings (P/E) dreamed possible. Douratio of 12 is generally ble digit inflation then accepted as fair value. ravaged the marketplace and turned it into a battlefield. When the ratio is below 12, then it is a good time to buy Dr Bollard showed how household credit has dou- and when it is above 12 it is a good time to sell, or at bled in the past decade. Again this means little to the least not to buy. average man in the street. Savvy New Zealanders have In 1982, the US share market was trading between six worked out that they are able to increase the mortgage and eight. and use that money to pay off the excess credit card In 1987 it was trading at 20. debt. In fact, it is so easy to borrow money, they have In 2000 it reached 40, it is still approximately 20. tapped into the equity of their own home and purWell hello is anybody listening? chased one or two more.

In 2000, the US authorities saw a potential disaster There are regular seminars held in flash hotels to as- and quickly moved to reduce the official cash interest rate sist those who might seem a bit timid to do this on and in 18 months moved to a 45 year low of 1%. This their own. The banks are happy to lend the money as flooded the economy with money and reduced home they have excess deposits created by a booming economy. mortgage rates to below 5%. This effectively transferred The punters taking the majority of the risk have no the demand from the share market to the housing mar-

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72, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

THE CURRENT GAME WILL END SHORTLY, ADJUSTMENTS WILL BE MADE, RULES CHANGED AND THEN A NEW GAME WILL COMMENCE. FOR THOSE WHO ARE DEBT FREE AND FOLLOW THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF SPENDING LESS THAN YOU EARN, IT WILL HARDLY CAUSE YOU TO PAUSE BETWEEN CHANGING CHANNELS. FOR THOSE WITH EXCESS DEBT, IT WILL BE THE BEGINNING OF A LONG COLD WINTER IN HELL

ket. Punters, spurred on from access to cheap money climbed into real estate thinking that prices could only go up.

In this big game of chess, the rest of the western world decided to play catch up. Share market and property prices in Australia and New Zealand have been on a tear for the past five years. Double digit returns have become commonplace. The law of supply and demand simply moved to real estate. Prices have increased not because of value, but purely because of demand.

Real investors always compare value to earnings and arrive at a price based upon sound business principles. When people buy an asset with the expectation that they will be able to sell it later at a profit they are buying into the bigger fool theory. That is, they buy something, irrespective of its true value and wait for a bigger fool than them to come along and pay them more money for it. During times of increasing demand, this happens all too often. Sooner or later reality brings people back to their senses and the concept of true value comes into the equation.

In recent months Ian McFarlane (Governor of the Australian Reserve Bank), Alan Greenspan (Governor of the US Federal Reserve) and Alan Bollard (Governor of the NZ Reserve Bank) have all come out with similar warnings. Each country has trade deficits almost twice that of Argentina before it went belly up. The USA has a fiscal deficit that dwarfs the GDP of some countries. This means that not only are they importing more than they export (ie exporting their wealth to Asia, as we are) the Government is spending more than it collects in

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taxes. In simple terms they are spending their way to bankruptcy.

Dr Bollard’s warning is that New Zealand households are doing the same. As a nation we are spending more than we earn. This is not a good thing. It is unsustainable.

The economy has been expanding for well over a decade. Companies have been able to develop, expand and grow and in most cases have taken the opportunity to restructure their balance sheets and reduce their exposure to debt. They have blatantly taken advantage of the consumer who has thoughtlessly borrowed to consume, thinking that the increased value of their home, like a band aid will make it all better.

The dumb punter has been blissfully unaware that they have been taken for a ride and used as an unwitting pawn in a much larger world wide game of chess.

Asia is currently funding the excesses of the US by buying US Treasury bills. They are closely watching each other to see who blinks first.

Some countries, such as China, have publicly stated they wish to reduce their holdings of US notes and are diversifying into Euros and other currencies. Japan is the largest holder of US Treasuries and they do not wish to be the one left holding the baby. Russia has also stated they would prefer Euros for their oil exports.

The current game will end shortly, adjustments will be made, rules changed and then a new game will commence. For those who are debt free and follow the basic principle of spending less than you earn, it will hardly cause you to pause between changing channels. For those with excess debt, it will be the beginning of a long cold winter in hell.

ing that you now have one empty cylinder.

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livered to you on your designated day.

So if you’re thinking gas, the BOC gas experts will take the hassle out of getting you connected to TWINPACK. Simply call on 0800 800 753, or email customer_services@boc.com

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 73

LIFESTYLE

EDUCATION

TIME FOR CHANGE? Educationist Dr Len Restall argues NCEA may be taking too much out of teaching

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s it absurd to think about changing something that out in the pursuit of knowledge, they are having to be is hardly working as intended, or to abandon a sys‘paper checkers’ and markers, disproportionate to the tem that is causing heavy work loads for teachers? results obtained. In many cases they are having to rely But there is a more serious problem, stated by Martin upon students purchasing their own revision booklets Hanson in a recent issue of Investigate – a lack of distin- to supplement the knowledge and experience that the guishable clear boundaries between achievement, merit, teachers would provide if they had more time. The reviand excellence grades. sion booklet market is thriving and there may well be an Beside these problems, there appears to be some dis- abdication of professional accountability to accept this illusionment among educators and some schools who condition in order for students to improve their perare wanting to choose alternative examination systems sonal results. for their schools, such as the Cambridge University There appears to be diminishing support for the exams. It has been admitted by some of the experts NCEA by parents, if the indication from this recent responsible for the implementation of the NCEA sys- survey of secondary school teachers is anything to go tem that it was an untried system, which appeared to by. The survey shows the extent of teachers’ frustration have some merit but was hurriedly introduced into the with the NCEA framework. The report based on school examination system, for reasons that are not research conducted in 2004 found that only 31 percent exactly clear but could of parents had confihave been for political dence in the value of the The heavy workload is starting to gain. The unreliability NCEA and only 27 perof the system, among cent thought that it proshow among many teachers. They other deficiencies, as obvided a clear measure of are having to spend much of their served by Professor a pupil’s abilities. time marking exams and assessPaul Black, King’s ColRecently the educalege, London, has been tion system in the UK ments and this is causing their teachconfirmed at the chalk turned about face on ing to become affected to the extent face. But most of these changes they had preconcerns have been repared and had considthat it may be well below what they lated to the assessment ered to changing to a themselves would want procedures, which are similar form of achievesuspect and need to be ment assessment incontinually examined to remove any margins for error. cluding academic and vocational assessment to replace The recent debacle over the scholarship results for 2004 their conventional GCSE ‘A’ and ‘O’ level examinations. has highlighted just one problem, which has caused a They have reversed their decision and opted to retain number of people in Government and NZQA to have the ’A’ and ‘O’ levels, but to introduce exams for vocared faces. tional subjects. This could have been done here under The heavy workload is starting to show among many the previous school certificate and university entrance teachers. They are having to spend much of their time examinations, with some modification over the scaling marking exams and assessments and this is causing their system used. teaching to become affected to the extent that it may be Len Restall has been a secondary school teacher with well below what they themselves would want. Instead B.Ed , M.Ed (hons) and a Ph.D, and now conducts of them being seen as teachers, drawing their students seminars for teachers.

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Investigate welcomes submissions from readers for our Education column. Email contributions to editorial@investigatemagazine.com, and ensure they are no more than 1400 words

74, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

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LIFESTYLE

TOYBOX

MOVE ME Photos, Ferrari and Wi-Fi

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he link between motorsport and road cars can often seem tenuous at best, but when it comes to creating the ultimate road car, the all-new Ferrari F430, there is no doubt about the link between Ferrari’s World Championship winning race cars and the design, development, testing and production of the F430. If there was one piece of technology that best demonstrates the link between Formula One and the F430 it is the electronic differential (E-Diff), initially developed by Ferrari for it’s F1 single-seaters and designed to make to make the most of the engine’s torque to optimise traction, and the handily placed steering wheel-mounted commutator switch (better known to the Scuderia’s drivers as manettino) which directly controls the integrated systems governing vehicle dynamics.

Just like the predecessor the F360 Modena, the F430 has an aluminium chassis. The choice of the aluminium and the design methods used have allowed considerable structural stiffness and excellent driver and passenger protection to be combined with weight reduction.

The F430 is powered by a new 90 degree V8 featuring Ferrari’s traditionally uncompromising design approach with a flat-plane crank (180 degrees between throws).

This is an all-new unit that does not share any components with the F360 Modena’s engine. Despite a 20% increase in engine displacement (from 3,586 cc to 4,308 cc), engine weight has grown minimally by just 4 kg, while performance is considerably improved across the board. Don’t even ask about the price.

76, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

P

entax Corporation has just released the new OptioWPi. Developed in line with the concept of “sportiness, elegance and leisure” and based on the OptioWP (launched in Spring 2005), the OptioWPi offers the same waterproof performance that enables underwater shooting without the need for a waterproof case or similar equipment, and boasts a sophisticated design that makes it wellsuited to use on virtually any occasion.

What’s more, the OptioWPi manages it without a compromise in imaging performance – providing the convenience and power of a large 2.0 – inch LCD monitor and 6.0 effective megapixels, and overall operational ease.

For marine sports, skiing and social occasions too, the OptioWPi has the looks and the capability to go with your virtually anywhere.

H

aven’t got yourself a PDA yet? Palm NZ are banking on a good Christmas with the release of two new models from as low as $199, the nifty little Z22 and the more powerful TX. The Z is aimed squarely at handbag warriors, and delivers a personal organizer with calendar, appointments, birthday reminders and photo album. Palm boasts the Z22 replaces sticky notes and will keep reminders where you’ll always find them. Higher up the evolutionary scale, the TX handheld is a full on, Wi-Fi enabled Palm unit designed for workers on the move. It features what Palm says is easy connection to home or office wireless networks, and with the Documents to Go package allows work on Word, Excel and other office files. Using the Wi-Fi you can download and send email or photos, as well as synchronise with your Outlook on the desktop. $599

C

harm. Dazzle. Fascinate. Let your personality shine through with the Zen Neeon, an MP3 player that lets you do just that. With Creative Stik-Ons – decorative skins for the player’s cover – you decide the way your player looks. No more boring blacks or washed-out whites. You’ll be just as happy with its classic piano-black finish and interchangeable neon-like LED backlights, complete with a choice of 10 different brushed-metal backplate colours. 6GB holds 3,000 songs, now available in NZ. Life’s never black or white - why should your player be any different?

Website: http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/zenneeon/

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 77

LIFESTYLE

TECHNOLOGY

THE HANDHELD BUZZ News of an email deal between the world’s two leading smartphones has got Palm Treo users buzing, reports Jessie Seyfer

W

alk down any busy street and you’ll see them: workers, stooped over their mobile phones, talking, playing games or tapping

out e-mails.

So devoted are some people these days to the devices hung on their waist bands or tucked in their purses that they feel naked without them. In these circles, any announcement of a new digital amenity for their “handhelds” creates buzz.

So this month’s news of a partnership between two of the biggest makers of handheld devices – Palm and its Treo 650 smart-phone with Blackberry’s popular e-mail program – made quite a splash.

“I’m excited because it’s the best of both worlds,” says Chuck Horner, leader of the San Francisco Palm Users Group, which meets regularly to discuss Palm devices.

“BlackBerry is everywhere. It’s stable, proven and reliable.”

The world of handheld-device devotees can be roughly split between Treo and BlackBerry owners. Both have countless user groups and Web sites devoted to them.

BlackBerry, made by the Canadian company Research In Motion, dominates the handheld market, with Palm coming in second, according to Gartner research.

The new Treo 650 won’t be out until early next year, but once it’s out, it will offer the e-mail program once reserved for the BlackBerry devices, known as BlackBerry Connect.

The BlackBerry handheld leads the wireless e-mail device market, approaching 4 million customers world78, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

wide, according to a report by the market research firm Visiongain.

Horner is a Treo 650 man. He doesn’t have a BlackBerry device because, he says, he gets more software applications on the Treo. Plus, his Treo has proven remarkably durable.

“This thing I have abused beyond any device I’ve had, and it’s still going,” he says. “I have dropped it so many times. . . . My BlackBerry friends are extremely envious because of all the applications we have. They would really love to have all these apps.”

Treo 650 owners already have a choice of e-mail programs they can use, including Versamail or Snappermail in NZ. Their choice often depends on which cellular phone service and server their employer has chosen.

But Horner and his fellow device enthusiasts say BlackBerry has been around for so many years it’s gotten rid of the kinks that some programs still might have.

“If it works like it does on a ‘Berry, it’s got to be a cool thing,” remarks San Jose’s John Waller, who runs the Silicon Valley Palm Users Group.

Business development specialist Victor Karkar used to have a BlackBerry, tried the Treo for a while, and took it back because he didn’t like the fact that it took two hands to operate. Now he’s in the market for a BlackBerry again, and despite BlackBerry Connect coming to the Treo, he still wants a ‘Berry.

“I’m a huge BlackBerry fan. The Treo, it’s just got a lot of stuff I don’t really need.”

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 79

LIFESTYLE

FOOD & DRINK

PRIMAL INSTINCTS It’s summer time, and that means BBQ, as Jacques Windell points out

I

’ve always maintained that the secret to a succulent around the barbie is to burn the meat. Remember the BBQ lies in treating your meat with respect. Now- Jonno Gibbs ad? Well, that’s my brother… It’s a sad now, I meant that in the nicest possible way. I’d even thing to see a prime piece of meat die such a heinous go as far as saying that the art of BBQ-ing is just like death! I mean who in their right mind…? And then courting a lady. they expect you to eat it!

However, the key to a great ‘grilling’ is full-on unbriOK, so what is the difference between grilling and dled mania.

BBQ-ing?

I have found that steak, for example requires a very hot Grilling is fast cooking, at a high temperature any cut plate or grill and very little time or effort, whilst chicken of meat or poultry, even vegetables. Sometimes thin needs to be pampered till the cows come home. In fact, sauces or marinades are applied to the food before or it’s an absolute art to smoke chicken on the barbie, whilst during the cooking process to keep the meat moist, maintaining succulence. And if you’re really good, you because without it, grilling fast at a high heat tends to won’t burn the skin either. In fact, if you really know dry out the meat. That has to be the second greatest your stuff it will become the pièce de resistence! culinary sin.

I can hear some of you going ‘yuk’, but don’t knock Grilling is recommended for food that requires short it till you’ve tried it. A good skin is a beautiful thing. cooking times, like steak. It’s also a great way to sear and Now I know the skin is not the best for you, but life lock in the juices before BBQ-ing. is about risks and a To BBQ is to slowgood old calculated risk cook for several hours There’s nothing wrong with inin the culinary scheme any cuts of meat or dulging oneself every now and again of things every now poultry over for examand again simply adds ple wood coals. Dry with the finer things in life. So long spice to life, especially if rubs made of various as it doesn’t become an obsession the pay-off is a beautiherbs and spices are offul thing. There’s nothten applied to the meat. ing wrong with indulging oneself every now and again However, some BBQ-ers forgo the rubs and sauces and with the finer things in life. So long as it doesn’t be- let the wood-smoke flavor the food. Some, like me, do come an obsession. Balance is, after all, king. both. And did I tell you, it’s a beeauutiful thing.

I received an e-mail the other day and I must say I had Like glass blowing it’s now a dying art, but one I to agree with the lady’s take on the good old Kiwi BBQ. believe should really be rejuvenated, because it’s fun!

She pointed out that men think they’re doing their wives OK, so you sweat a little… ok, a lot and yes you reek this huge favour by firing up the BBQ. She argues that afterwards and your lungs inhale copious quantities of they actually believe they’re making this huge contribu- carbon dioxide, but it’s such a little price to pay for exceltion. But, who marinades the meat, who prepares the lence! snacks, dips and salads? Who ensures the men have all You can also BBQ a really bad cut of meat and it usuthe cooking utensils and spices they need? Who makes ally results in a tender, delicious treat that practically falls the desert and who has to wash all those dishes, or pack apart as you eat it. This method works well for delicate and unpack the dishwasher? foods as well as foods that require longer cooking times.

So, I thought maybe it’s time we educate these blokes, Some believe, you BBQ when you want whoever me included. you’ve invited, to stay for several hours and grill when Now the greatest sin I think a bloke can commit you want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

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Now that PC is becoming less popular, more of us might now be tempted to grill a bit more.

Now from what you’ve read you might think I’m a bit of a BBQ Beau. You’re right, I rock! But unfortunately there is just too little space to let you in on all my secrets, so you’re going to have to wait for my book – yeah right.

What I can say is that you can’t have a successfully succulent BBQ without my good friend Portabello. Just a little bit, or a lot of garlic butter or garlic and margarine and you’re ready to experience something near devine. But, Meadow Mushrooms have taken the entire mushroom experience to a totally new planet. No seriously, they have some recipes on their website to absolutely die for. They have also just released their newest taste sensations to titillate those guests you actually do want hanging around.

So, make the effort guys, your wives are worth it!

GRILLING TIPS ( For Gas Grills ) 1. Preheat the grill for at least 10 minutes on high. This way it will have time to burn off any bugs or creepy crawlers that might be hiding on the under side. This will also help to kill any lurking germs.

2. By pre-heating the cooking grids, they will sear the meat to give it nice grill marks, but more importantly, it will keep the meat from sticking to the cooking grate.

3. Scrub grill grates with a wire brush or spatula before and after cooking as it also reduces the risk of the dreaded meat-stick.

4. Oil your grids to prevent food from sticking to the cooking grid or warming racks. You can spray or brush on oil before lighting or spray the food with a mist of oil before placing it on the grid.

5. Avoid grill forks because they pierce the meat which robs it of all its flavour. Use long-handled tongs or a spatula to turn the food instead.

6. Don’t douse a flair-up with water. Just move the meat, or if you have a grill cover, close it.

7. Close grill cover for even cooking and keep closed as much as possible.

BACON WRAPPED STUFFED MUSHROOMS A classic favourite stuffed mushroom is taken to new heights by wrapping it in a slice of bacon. Simple, it will melt like a genius – the girl will love these. Make 20.

1. 3-4 chopped spring onions 2. 250 g cream cheese, softened 3. 20 White or Swiss Brown button mushrooms 4. 450g sliced bacon DIRECTION Preheat the BBQ. In a medium bowl, mix together the spring onions and cream cheese. Remove mushrooms stalks and stuff the mushrooms with the cheese mixture. Wrap each mushroom with a half-slice of bacon, and secure with toothpicks. BBQ for 20 minutes until the bacon is crisp and cooked through.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 81

LIFESTYLE

HEALTH

PERCHANCE TO WALK Sleep is still barely understood; sleepwalking, even less so. A look into the bizarre world of people who go bump in the night

S Claire Morrow

o I sleepwalked the other night. I didn’t go far, (RSBD). This lattermost disorder is particularly scary as just down the hall to the boys’ room and lay down it is characterized by twitching and other violent moveon the floor and continued my snooze in the more ments in the sufferer’s sleep that can cause injury. And traditional, horizontal manner. Obviously, I don’t recall researchers have been discovering that parasomnias are this, nor do I recall my confused husband coming in to in fact more common than previously thought. fetch me. Why should I? After all, I was asleep. SleepAs I said, sleep is tricky; it is complex and poorly walking is a common form of parasomnia, which one understood. It’s tough to define sleep, for which reason sufferer described as “things that go bump in the night.” most definitions of sleep become ridiculous. It’s some Sleep, as we all know, can be tricky. kind of important state that all animals go into where More than 15% of children are thought to suffer from we loose consciousness to varying degrees and undergo parasomnias of some sort, and this is considered nor- characteristic changes to our brain waves. Dreaming is mal childhood behavior. Most young children will occa- undertaken, although not always remembered, and is sionally talk or call out in their sleep (“no...I won’t share widely thought to be the brains system for going through her…she’s mine!”), being my favorite overheard phrase, junk it has picked up or is sorting through and making confirming that a sleeping toddler is, indeed, a toddler. sense of it. A good analogy is a computer hard drive, In adults, parasomnias are less common, affecting some- which needs its old junk and temporary files it accumuthing around 6% of the population. They are sometimes lates with use cleared out from time to time. The intera sign that there is something more seriously wrong with pretation of dreams (paging Dr Freud) is a fun parlour the sufferer, and theregame, but is like any fore should be investiform of insight; you Sexsomnia is not necessarily a gated. In adults, need to have some in parasomnias are most order to have more. If problem for all people who have it, commonly linked to you keep dreaming of but consent becomes an issue if only drinking, taking drugs, suitcases and hats and one party is awake stress and sleep deprivathe cigar chompers tion. I may have been keep telling you it’s under the influence of at least one of the above when I about sex, this means you are spending too much time took my sleepwalk – I’ll leave it to you to guess which. with the cigar chompers. The exception, obviously, is if A parasomnia, according to the psychiatric bible, Diag- while you are awake you believe that a dream of ripe nostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or as it is fruit heralds a pregnancy. If everyone in your culture known in the business, “DSM – IV”), is a “disorder of believes this, such a dream is a likely sign you are thinkarousal, partial arousal, or sleep stage transition. It rep- ing about this. Even your own private subconscious is resents an episodic disorder in sleep (such as sleepwalk- sociologically programmed and subject to peer pressure. ing) rather than a disorder of sleep or wakefulness per se.

Sleepwalking can of course be incredibly dangerous: May be induced or exacerbated by sleep; not a The person is not awake but they can take in some indyssomnia.” The dysomnias, by way of contrast, are a formation. They can see their coffee table and walk separate category of sleep ddisorder and are difficulties around it, even if the sleeping brain “sees” a lake or a sleeping or waking up: sleep apnoea, narcolepsy, and dragon or what have you in the place of the real object. that old chestnut, insomnia.

For this reason, if you lock a sleepwalker in the house, Parasomnias are things like teeth grinding, sleep talk- their sleeping brain can find still find the keys if their ing, sleep terrors and REM sleep behaviour disorder awake brain can. Sadly, sleepwalkers have been killed

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SLEEPWALKING WAS FIRST RAISED AS A DEFENSE TO MURDER IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1846, AND THE KILLER, ALBERT TIRRELL, GOT OFF, AFTER NEARLY DECAPITATING A HIGH-CLASS PROSTITUTE HE WAS OBSESSED WITH AND WANTED TO MARRY walking on highways, and even behind the wheels of their cars. The latter has occurred on only a few documented occasions, and tended to lead to sleep studies being carried out, largely for medico-legal reasons.

“Sexomnia” has been studied in recent years, and looks set to be officially listed as a disorder. Last year the first and only mass-market book on the phenomena was published (Sleepsex: Uncovered by Dr. Michael Mangan, available from Amazon.com or as an e-book from www.clickbank.net). Unlike sleepwalking, sufferers are unlikely to wake up in a strange place if they have had sex in their sleep, and it occurs at a different stage of sleep to sleep walking. “Sexsomnia” is not necessarily a problem for all people who have it, although it can cause serious relationship problems, and in some cases the person may be violent.

Consent therefore becomes an issue if only one party is awake. The awake person may be assaulted by the sleeper, or conversely, may believe the sleeper to be awake, and take advantage of the situation. It’s a medico-legal minefield, and raises difficult situations: if you were raped by someone who was asleep would you want them to be punished?

How does one prove that someone with a sleep disorder that can be scientifically established was, nonetheless, asleep at the time?

Sleepwalking was first raised as a defense to murder in the United States in 1846, and the killer, Albert Tirrell, got off, after nearly decapi-

tating a high-class prostitute he was obsessed with and wanted to marry. (She refused; after killing her, he then set fire to the brothel in which she worked). But he had a known history of sleepwalking, and denied all knowledge of the murder and was acquitted. Today, 150 years later, the science would not have been able to help shed much more light on things: while Tirrell could have been sent to a sleep lab to see if he had a parasomnia, there would still be know way of knowing whether he was asleep at the time of the murder and arson.

Sleep is imbued with meaning in our culture – probably in all cultures. It’s a pretty weird thing that we animals do; the only evolutionary advantage sleep is thought to confer is that perhaps there are times that being out cold is safer than running around hunting. Perhaps. It’s not the best theory, really. Just another pitiful dumb human attempt to understand why we need to sleep. We don’t understand much about sleep, except that we do need it; we get very messed up without it, and rats who are prevented from sleeping get sick and die.

For which reason, of course, we need to sleep. Practical advice: Don’t go to bed until you’re tired; face the alarm clock to the wall; if you can’t sleep get up until you are really tired; and if you read before bed don’t do it in bed. Bed is only for activities you can do with the light off.

Yawn. I think I’m done.

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 83

LIFESTYLE

SCIENCE

TO HELL AND BACK Was life on early Earth as bad as all that? And what does that mean for life on other planets? Robert S. Boyd reports

A

scientific quest called “Mission to Really Early of the conference. “Water was gushing out of the Earth.”

This picture of a comfortably warm, wet young world Earth” has unearthed evidence that our planet had an ocean, a continent and an atmosphere “contrasts with the hot, violent environment envisioned suitable for life half a billion years earlier than previously for our young planet by most researchers”, Bruce Watson, a geochemist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Instithought.

Since the requirements for life – land, water and air – tute in Troy, N.Y., declared in a recent online edition of were established so soon on Earth, some scientists say the journal Science. “It opens up the possibility that life the finding makes it more likely that living creatures got a very early foothold.”

“If there was surface water, then life presumably could could also have arisen on other worlds.

“If it happened so early on Earth, why couldn’t it exist”, said Don Brownlee, an astronomer at the Unihappen elsewhere in the universe as well?” said Stephen versity of Washington in Seattle.

“We don’t know when life began on Earth,” cauMojzsis, a geoscientist at the University of Colorado tioned Mark Harrison, an Australian geoscientist who in Boulder.

According to the traditional view of its infancy, Earth was at the astrobiology conference. “But it could have formed between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years ago from a emerged as early as 4.3 billion years ago. Within 200 million years of the Earth’s formation, all of the condidisk of dust, rocks and gas circling the sun. tions for life on Earth It then took 700 milappear to have been lion years for the young The evidence for a very young met.” planet to settle down Two hundred miland cool off enough habitable Earth consists of a colleclion years sounds like an for the first microscopic tion of tiny crystals called zircons awfully long time, but organisms to appear it’s relatively brief on the around 3.8 billion years dug up in the Jack Hills of Western geologic scale. ago, paleontologists beAustralia For comparison, lieved. suppose Earth’s 4.5 bilThis early period was named the Hadean (“hellish”) Eon, because it was pre- lion-year lifespan was shrunk to one year, with Jan. 1 sumed to be totally hostile to life. During much of that marking the beginning and Dec. 31 representing today. time, the planet was bombarded by giant meteorites By that yardstick, life could have begun on Earth as early like those that blasted the craters on the moon. Any as Jan. 12. Under the older, traditional view, it would have taken until Feb. 26 to get started. early life would have been wiped out.

The evidence for a very young habitable Earth conNow, however, researchers report evidence that conditions were much more benign when the Earth was sists of a collection of tiny crystals called zircons dug up only 150 million to 200 million years old – three to four in the Jack Hills of Western Australia over the last 20 years. New technology pioneered by Mojzsis and John per cent of its present age.

“The stage was set 4.3 billion years ago for life to emerge Valley, a geochemist at the University of Wisconsinon Earth”, Mojzsis told a conference on astrobiology – Madison, has made it possible to determine how and when they formed. the study of life on other worlds – here last month.

For example, zircons contain uranium, which decays at “There was probably already in place an atmosphere, an ocean and a stable crust within about 200 million a known rate. The Jack Hills zircons also enclose bits of years of the Earth’s formation”, said Mojzsis, chairman shale, a sedimentary rock that must have previously been

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THE EVIDENCE FOR A VERY YOUNG HABITABLE EARTH CONSISTS OF A COLLECTION OF TINY CRYSTALS CALLED ZIRCONS DUG UP IN THE JACK HILLS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS. NEW TECHNOLOGY PIONEERED

BY MOJZSIS AND JOHN VALLEY, A GEOCHEMIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON, HAS MADE IT POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE HOW AND WHEN THEY FORMED

created by erosion by liquid water. In addition, the zircons contain a rare type of “heavy” oxygen that forms only in the presence of water.

“These zircons tell us that they melted from an earlier rock that had been to the Earth’s surface and interacted with cold water”, Mojzsis said. “There is no other known way to account for that heavy oxygen.”

Sonia Esperanca, an earth scientist at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., called the Jack Hills zircons “time capsules of processes happening in the earliest times in Earth’s history.”

“The estimated ages for the oldest evidence of an early crust have been getting progressively older as geologists seek out and analyze new samples”, said Douglas Erwin, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who isn’t involved in the Mission to Really Early Earth. Erwin agreed that primitive microorganisms could have existed that long ago. “But I expect it will be very difficult to get any real evidence on the matter”, he said in an e-mail message.

“It’s certainly possible that life arose before the great bombardment, then was extinguished and arose again afterward, but we have no evidence either way”, said University of Washington geochemist Roger Buick in an e-mail message.

Another note of skepticism comes from Samuel Bowring, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “It’s a bit of a leap from a few grains of zircon to continents and oceans,” Bowring said, but he acknowledged that “it is consistent with most people’s view of early planetary evolution.”

The Mission to Really Early Earth is supported by the National Science Foundation and NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, which studies the origin of life on our planet and its possible existence on other heavenly bodies.

“We’re beginning to get the tools to test the Hadean world”, said Mojzsis. “Hell wasn’t as bad as we thought.”

December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 85

LIFESTYLE

TRAVEL

INTO AFRICA A safari is an experience beyond pictures and words, reports Alan Solomon

K

ICHWA TEMBO CAMP, Kenya – His name Author Philip Caputo, a long-ago friend and colleague, was Andrew, his father is a Masai elder, and wrote this in Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions wrapped in the red cloth of his people, he was of East Africa: “The mossy cliche from the literature of explaining things. “In Masai communities,” he said, big-game hunting `We dared not breathe’ suddenly did “for the first lady for a man to marry, your father will not seem quite so cliched.” look for you, from a different family. No blood kin.

We dared not breathe.

Then he will bring nine cows. But for the second one, I The lion moved closer, then crouched again. From seek for myself, then we can negotiate ...” time to time zebras’ heads would rise and face in the The next words were lost. Because as he spoke to lion’s direction, and then, as if they’d sensed nothing of our little group on a lawn mowed by warthogs, behind interest, the heads would go back down to the grass. him six giraffes were walking that slow, elegant walk Once more, the lion moved closer, staying low. Curiacross an acacia-dotted plain that was so thoroughly, ously, by now most of the herd had quietly retreated, quintessentially, delightfully African ... while one zebra had stayed where it was — and it was It is almost impossible to effectively describe the suc- clear this one zebra was being measured by this one cession of amazing moments that ultimately define a lion, which was now less than 30 metres away. safari into East Africa. To Closer, the lion crept. try inevitably reduces Then it stopped, and We were here in mid-Novemthem to lists – of aniwatched, absolutely still. mals, of incidents, of Again, it moved closer, ber. The great southward migraphoto ops – and what and paused. And then, tion of hundreds of thousands of we have then is no more its rear legs tensed, ready animals, mostly wildebeests, peaks magical than listing a to spring. cruise ship’s roster of And a bird screeched. in December. We were catching shore excursions.

The zebra’s head the beginning Risking that, here’s an snapped upward. A secincident. ond bird, circling the zeWe had just photographed a pride of lions scattered bra, let out a second screech. The lion sprang – but the about a few square metres of knee-high savanna: three zebra, startled by the alarm, had scrambled out of lionesses, eight cubs. Most, being lions, were either sleep- pounce-range toward the rest of the herd, leaving the ing or trying to sleep, and for the seven of us with lion standing there alone, defeated. cameras in our mostly open Land Rover, the challenge The birds, crowned plovers, had saved the zebra. was catching one with its head up and its eyes open.

“They make a lot of noise,” Willie told us, “when Which we did. they see things like lions.”

As we drove off, we spotted a fourth lioness. She was An hour had passed from the time this drama began alone, on the other side of the road, crouched in the grass until now. (Yes, we dared breathe.) Some of us had – and her attention was on a small mixed herd that in- captured the climactic scramble forever on film or the cluded a few wildebeests and about a dozen zebras. digital equivalent; most of us had panicked and had Our driver-guide, Willie, stopped the car. There were caught what the lion caught: zippo. some whispers. The seven checked cameras, some digAll of us were both shaken and stirred. ital and some not, for film, for power levels.

And then, after a drive just up the road – after a wait And we waited. of maybe five minutes – we saw two cheetah cubs,

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December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 87

coached by their mother, pull down a young Thompson’s gazelle.

“Every safari is different,” Gus, our Tanzania safari director, had told us. “We always see great things – but different things.”

He told us that after we’d watched, in something midway between fascination and absolute horror, a wildebeest being ripped to shreds at a river bend by two enormous Nile crocodiles.

See the problem here? In a matter of a few paragraphs, seven days of exploring the game reserves of Kenya and Tanzania has been reduced to a succession of bloody assaults, and that – while unquestionably a part of the experience – is only a part of the experience.

We were here in mid-November. The great southward migration of hundreds of thousands of animals, mostly wildebeests, peaks in December. We were catching the beginning.

Imagine, if you can (and, frankly, you can’t), a line of wildebeests longer than the longest freight train that has ever made you late. Then add a second train. A third. Toss in a few thousand zebras for texture and scatterings of other hoofed mammals for variety.

How many wildebeests?

“You count the horns,” Gus suggested, “and divide by two.”

When, for whatever reason (a lion sighting? a leopard?), they stampede ... oh, my. Flying hooves. Flying dust. Panic. Power. All you can do is gaze in wonder, and maybe take a snapshot that won’t come close to capturing the scene.

Now, imagine all those flying hooves and bodies and horns and power backed by the red-purple glow left by a setting sun – and try to nail that on film. Real photographers, the National Geographic people for example, with their expertise and lenses and filters and especially the luxury of time, can get it.

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Us? We try. If we’re lucky, we come close. Mostly, we remember the moment, and we will never forget it.

That’s what it’s like being on a photo safari in East Africa. Zebras, elephants, impalas, gazelles, lions, giraffes, warthogs, hyenas, cheetahs, flamingos, vultures, leopards, herons, wildebeests, spoonbills, jackals, hartebeests, eagles, Cape buffalo, servals, bustards, ostriches, elands, rhinos (well, one rhino), hippos, monkeys, crocodiles, secretary-birds, storks, baboons and more. We saw them all.

Green hills, parched plains, red dust. Dawns and sunsets. Noises in the night. Serenades in the morning. Acacia trees. Fever trees. Fig trees.

Candelabra trees. Ebony trees. Masai herdsmen. Cows. Goats. Sheep.

Baby warthogs, baby elephants, baby gazelles, baby hyenas. Lion cubs.

Leopard cubs. Cheetah cubs. Prey. Predators. Scavengers.

Other people with cameras ... on land ample to absorb the vehicles that carry them. Understand: Safaris, most of them, are communal things. Hemingway, in “The Green Hills of Africa,” wasn’t here alone.

Neither were we.

Configurations varied, but our primary companions, aside from guides and drivers, were two other couples, both – by startling coincidence – from the same suburb as us. They were fun, they were interested.

Five of us had still cameras. Marie had the only camcorder. Her intention: to create a sound movie for the grandkids. Sometimes, not knowing the machine was on, we’d slip – which led to stuff like this ...

Dick: “Is the machine on?”

Marie: “No.” Dick: “OK. The elephant on the left is taking a dump.”

Then there was the night when, after an evening of drinks and dinner at our Serengeti lodge, The Wife and I took early leave and headed down the path toward our luxury hut.

The screams came quickly.

“Go back!” It was Irene and Jerry, the other couple. “Alan! Go back!”

I turned toward the screams, then stopped and looked around. The Wife, wiser, grabbed my arm and yanked me back toward the lodge – my head swiveling just in time to see a Cape buffalo (average weight: 700kg; average disposition: ferocious) pounding downhill at full buffalo-speed right past the door of that luxury hut.

A guard carrying a rifle capable of neutralizing a stegosaurus eventually walked us to our luxury hut ...

Later, back in Kenya, our merry sixsome was semi-merged with another, even merrier group that included a quintet of women who came to call themselves The Big Five. (The Big Five is the term given the five beasts considered most dangerous to hunters: lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino.)

It was The Big Five who taught us the words to a celebratory Swahili ditty called “The Jambo Song,” which had earlier been taught them by their safari director, Tonnie.

The lyrics – “Hey, how are you? Fine, thank you, etc.” in English – sound much better in Swahili, especially the pivotal last line and refrain: “Hakuna matata.”

Within hours of meeting The Big Five, we were all singing it together. It was a beautiful thing. There were so many beautiful things.

Giraffes walking. Thompson’s gazelles running. A lion grooming a compliant cub.

The herds. The green hills. Gus and Tonnie and Willie. Andrew.

The circle of life.

The beautiful young woman who had brought tea and cookies and a smile to our tent in the mornings, who now rolled our packed duffels to the Land Rovers that would take us away from the lions and giraffes and zebras and warthogs for the last time ...

“When,” she asked us, “are you coming back?”

We were homesick for it already.

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LIFESTYLE

BOOKCASE

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND Michael Morrissey checks out wild frontiers, half-baked and daft frontiers, and the final frontier as well

FRONTIER OF DREAMS: The Story of New Zealand Edited by Bronwyn Dalley & Gavin McLean, Hodder Moa, $79.99

Michael Morrissey

Just when some readers might be forgiven for thinking that the New Zealand story has been told quite a bit lately, along comes this blockbuster of a book to accompany a blockbuster series. I’m enjoying the series – still in mid flight – and only a curmudgeon would not enjoy the book. Pictorially and size-wise, it is magnificent – a state of the art book as far as maps, drawings, paintings go – which unfolds our history in thirteen chapters.

Make sure you’re seated at a stout table when you read this tome – it weighs as much as a moa egg (which the text dutifully informs contains the equivalent of 100 hen eggs).

Like a doorstopper novel by the late James Michener, the book opens with a dazzling geological and palaeontological account of Aotearoa terra firma – Land Moving as Fast as Fingernails Grow announces a sub heading and a series of colourful diagrams provides a visual depiction.

Maps are a feature that Frontiers does superbly well – in the early chapters, we have maps that show whaling stations, musket wars, mission stations plus numerous paintings from the pre-photographic period.

The visual appeal of the book is generally well sustained throughout and it is only in the last and historically most recent chapter that confidence seems to falter. The opening two pages of silver laméd backsides of gay parade dancers accompanied by the phrase “Breaking Free” is appropriate in a way though the uniformly tanned lads appear to have been cloned off each other. The true changer of the epoch, David Lange, is arguably less examined in detail than ought to have been the case.

Gavin Maclean appears either in-

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dividually or in tandem on at least five chapters of the book. I’m not sure that he is responsible for the opening and embarrassingly catch phrase “History is the new black” (or should that be All Black?). Certainly he must take credit for writing of whaler John Guard that Maori “had been getting on his wick” (or is this a sly pun referring to lamps and wicks being filled with whale oil?) Still, his accounts are readable enough – lucid and punchy (if not punny).

It is a curious characteristic of general histories that their early chapters are solid and wide in comparison with chapters about the current era which often seem curiously thin. It is as though historians, whether defining or defending their discipline, have constructed history as a pyramid which necessarily needs a broad base but tapers to an all but invisible point. Presumably, the present is best left to sociologists until it is safely sedimented by time.

As a non-historian, I cannot readily assess the scholastic accuracy of the nineteenth century chapters (though they seem well enough), but I was shocked by some of the omissions in the near contemporary chapter, “The Golden Weather 1935-1965”. Sir Edmund Hillary’s climbing of Everest is only a small entry on a line diagram and Peter Snell et al not mentioned. In terms of the New Zealand psyche and in the world media, the Everest climb was a watershed event and Snell and his fellow runners’ domination of middle distance running was also a noteworthy phenomenon of the time. I find it inexcusable that Frank Sargeson, the foremost literary figure of the era, doesn’t warrant a mention and the coverage of the arts generally is thin. Despite these reservations, the overall effect of the book is one of calm authority and unerringly splendid production – a must for any library and school.

GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS 2006 Edited by Craig Glenday, Guinness World Records, $55 Up until recently the Guinness Book of Records was a quiet black and white document with every record imaginable recorded in small sombre print. Not any more. The cover looks like the inside of a pulsing nightclub, complete with hologram-like reflectors that image anything close by as a series of green and silver highlights. The contents page is adorned with the world’s Most Pierced Women and an ACTUAL SIZE cane toad. The razzle-dazzle continues with the Most Hula Hooped Woman, a Dog with Five Tennis Balls in his Mouth and the proud possessor of 137 Traffic Cones. Impressed? But wait - there’s more! – 31,424 students Cleaned their Teeth for 60 seconds! 937 students and staff wearing Groucho Marx Masks! 1254 Students Danced the Scottish Reel! Leonardo D’Andrea Crushed 22 Watermelons with his Head! And here’s my favourite – Most Valentine Cards Sent to a Guinea Pig – Over 206 cards from as far away as New Zealand!

Old time Guinness Book of Records readers – fact crunchers who took their records and achievements seriously – must be wondering what the hell is going on. No question – Guinness has gone upmarket-yet-downmarket with flashy collages, in-your-face images and silly records that anyone could help set. The new format declares that you don’t have to be a factgeek or a horn-rimmed nerd to read this book – a skateboarder or a guy with 258 straws stuck in his gob will be fine. I guess all this new mass participation is nicer than a group of Islamic terrorists squashed into a bus but it seems to eliminate the point of setting records for true human endurance which are mostly an individual matter requiring either guts, ingenuity or perseverance. Brushing your teeth for one minute with 30,000 others hardly qualifies.

Ok, I’ve had my beef. The compendium still has plenty to endear the true record lover. Paul Hunn can burp at 104.9 dBA. Rene Alvarenga has eaten 35,000 live scorpions. Michel Lolito, whose teeth can grind at eight tonnes per cm, has eaten 18 bicycles, 15 supermarket trolleys, 3 TV sets, 6 chandeliers, a set of

skis, a computer and a Cessna light aircraft.

Whether or how long he brushes his teeth is not recorded. I was impressed to learn the largest private library contains 1.5 million books and the record for one finger pushups is 126 (pushups not fingers). I was surprised though perhaps, I shouldn’t have been, that the world’s fastest solo navigation is held by a woman (Ellen MacArthur) and astonished to learn that the world’s most dangerous stinging nettle is in New Zealand – Urtica ferox can kill dogs, horses and has killed a man.

Bacteria are tough cookies – samples have survived over two years in outer space – they were attached to satellites. I learnt that there is such a critter as a Wolphin, the result of a whale-dolphin cross and the fastest humanoid robot can only stomp along at a snail-like 1.8 mph. On the human side, the oldest surviving couple have been married for 78 years and the world’s largest wedding banquet had 150,000 guests – a missed opportunity to set a dishwashing record. It is satisfying, though slightly absurd, to learn the longest prison sentence handed out (fraud, Thailand) was for 141,078 years though I’m sure the fraudsters will be out after only 140,000 years for good behaviour.

More criticism: many records that could reasonably be expected are absent – examples (from a list of many) could include world’s largest aircraft, most poisonous snake, world’s loudest band, largest extinct bird. In its present format, the Guinness Book of Records is no longer the exhaustive compendium of yesteryear. Perhaps they should consider a smaller formatted pocket edition which is mainly print?

SWIMMING WITH ORCA

By Dr Ingrid Visser, Penguin, $39.95 Which would you rather be doing – crouched over a computer looking at some badly written paranoid website or floating in a blue sea swimming with orca? Ingrid Visser has made her choice. Initially she found that “experts” said that there were no orca around New Zealand; that there were only 20; that there were hundreds if not thousands of orca. Obviously any two, if not all three, of these propositions could be wrong and there was only one way to find

out – get into the water! Accordingly, she found herself, as she tells us with justified pride, “the only woman working with orca in the Southern Hemisphere”. Though orca had been extensively examined in British Columbia, little serious work had been done in New Zealand waters until Visser took up the task.

The orca is a capable, versatile and voracious hunter that takes sea lion pups off beaches in Patagonia, but not in New Zealand. Known to feed on jellyfish, squid, sharks, Visser discovered that the mammal also preyed on stingrays. Visser has noted 27 species of orca prey in New Zealand waters and there may be more.

One thing that ought to be laid to rest Orca do not have humans in their sights. From the late nineteenth century through to the 1950s/60s, the orca then usually called killer whales, enjoyed a fearsome reputation, even worse than the great white shark. The 1977 film Orca was still plying the same line. The counter view, that orca will not attack humans, began in the 60s and thanks to later researchers like Visser, has now gained ascendancy.

To earn the “Dr” that the book insists is part of the title, she had to fight over frequency of meetings with her tutor, demonstrate that an inflatable boat would not be adequate for her sojourns across the sea. When it came to thesis presentation time, she was surprised – aghast – to hear the external examiner inform her that there some 50 objections to her document! She admits some of the objections were valid and set to work to remedy them. Visser admits that her passion has become an obsession – and what a healthy obsession!

Her account is written in a straightforward, reader-friendly style, easily digestible by adolescents – if they can be pulled away from that monitor.

And yes, orca do come right into the Waitemata Harbour at least once a year. Be watching!

THE CITY OF FALLING ANGELS

By John Berendt, Sceptre, $36.99 What is all this fuss about Venice? This question is usually asked only by those who have not visited the famous watery city – the only city in the world without traffic noise. When I spent a weekend there some years back, I knew little about the place but on arrival, I became, as many have done, an instant convert to her decaying charms. There’s something about magnificence in decay that stirs me deeply, just why I don’t know. Perhaps because magnificence at its peak is often accompanied by the expression of tyranny that expects obeisance whereas when the civilisation has passed away and only the buildings remain, we can enjoy them as architecture minus the tedious and oppressive trapping of visible power.

In the long litany of adoration that Venice December 2005, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, 91

has enjoyed from art critics, poets and composers (there are of course notable exceptions to the eulogists), most of the travel writers and essayists have looked at the city as a kind of architectural poem – which it very much is – and somehow overlooked the Venetians. As Mary McCarthy, renowned American author, once presumptuously said, “Nothing that can be said about Venice has not been said before” – and she was echoing another famous American literary visitor to Venice, Henry James. As Berendt triumphantly demonstrates, these statements have about as much objective correlative as the fatuous statements made around the end of the nineteenth century that science had discovered nearly everything about the universe. Berendt, a skilful social observer, has managed to find out and report back on various scandals and upheavals in contemporary Venice – events that would make a wonderfully dramatic film. Events that give the reader a fresh view of an embattled city.

The book begins – a perfect film prologue – with a destructive fire in 1996 that incinerated the Fenice Theatre, a stately opera house that was a symbol of Venetian cultural grandeur. Three days later, with the smell of charcoal still in the air, Berendt arrived. His mission – to see Venice sans tourists – was to be fulfilled in a way he could not have anticipated.

For the obvious ensuing question was – was the fire an accident or deliberate? Either way guilty parties had to be fingered. The book has the feeling of a triptych with the first event and eventual culprits identified enfolding many additional and wild characters, who, of course, are flesh and blood not novelists’ invention – a forwarding note says: “This is a work of non fiction. All the people in it are real and are identified by their real names.”

Presumably, Berendt (or his publisher), insisted on such a note otherwise non-Venetians night be inclined to imagine that such fellows as Ludovico De Luigi – a latter day Dali – a surreal painter, who arranged for a porn star politician to arrive in a gondola, topless, climb one of the famous horses at St Marks and proclaim herself a living work of art – might not exist. (And in fact, I’m still wondering, if, after all, as Berendt tells us, the Venetian embellish everything and consider truth tellers a bore, whether he hasn’t added a bit of colour.) The intricate drama of intrigue and plotting that Berendt details is a modern soap opera from real life. Naturally, the Mafia come under suspicion and in my innocence, I didn’t know that they had used arson against art institu-

tions as an extreme form of cultural terrorism.

In the middle chapters, Berendt, who seems to have a knack for engaging friend and foe alike, explores other dramas of great poignancy such as a rift in an ancient family of glass blowers from Murano.

First, we side with the father, then sneakily, we see the rebel son’s point of view. Either way, the glass creations emerge, whether fire-inspired or technically innovative – some photos would have been nice.

Another long chapter is devoted to Olga Rudge’s struggle with other Poundites determined to secure the old poet’s papers for a song and the bitter battles that ensue. If all of the above sounds unrelentingly high brow in scope, Berendt slips in a rat exterminator who attributes his huge success at his chosen profession by feeding rats the same (but slyly) doctored food that local humans eat. Is Berendt trying on a symbol for the wiliness of Venetians?

Owing to the fortuitous events of history, what was intended to be perhaps just another travel book, an architectural swan song, became an enthralling and immediate social history. This is only Berendt’s second book so it will be interesting to see which part of the globe he brings his acute gaze to next. PS: against difficult odds, the restored opera house re-opened in 2003.

SPACE RACE

By Deborah Cadbury, Fourth Estate, $36 As a small boy I informed my parents that one day a man would fly to the moon. My parents, aunties and grandparent (I had only one) laughed with amiable derision. Man fly to the moon! Consistent aerial Luddites, none of my elders so much as set foot in an aeroplane though they lived into the 70s, the era of cheap flight.

Today – setting aside the conspiratorial sceptics – we know men have flown to the moon not once but six times.

The notion that flight to the moon was possible was most prominently mooted by Werner Von Braun, a top scientist from Nazi Germany, a former member of the SS whose scientific prophecies included space stations, artificial sunlight, rocket planes crossing the Atlantic in 40 minutes – all in 1945! A series of arti-

cles published in Colliers in 1952 continued the hype and were read by millions. Certainly, I knew the name von Braun when I was in short pants. As adolescence hit, I became a science fiction fan. The moon trip was a certainty – it was just a matter of time. My parents were alive when the moon was reached, though kindly, I never crowed ‘I told you so’.

Space Race is a very apt title and just how fiercely it was contested is the thrilling tale related in this gripping book. Major Staver was responsible for the Americans gaining an early lead over the Russians by acquiring – just hours before the Brits arrived – 100 V2 rockets, 15 tons of documents, 1,000 technicians, plus the inimitable and charismatic Von Braun, ever after to lead the American half of the space race.

Later, the Americans secured some 7,000 “German experts” from all branches of industry. By any standards, they had a head start; in fact since they had the V2s, they had a flying start.

What of the Russians? Stalin was furious that they had no V2s, no documents and no senior experts. But SMERSH agents managed to get hold of a gyrostabiliser platform used in a V2 rocket, a talented young engineer called Helmut Grottrup and some blueprints for parts of the V2. Later the Russian’s trump card was an outstanding rocket engineer, Sergei Korolev, brought back into favour after a period of incarceration in a gulag on the usual trumped up charges.

It was the genius of Korolev in pioneering the R-7 rocket that led to the dramatic overtaking of the American space program by the Russians. I am of the generation who reeled under the impact of Russian success – A satellite! A dog! A man! A rocket impacting on the moon! – while the Americans languished in miserable technical failure. In relatively uncensored America, the press had a field day calling the failed American attempt to catch up Flopkin ... Dudnik ... Puffnik ... Oopsnik ...Goofkik ... Kaputnik. Of course, the Russians had their disasters too – naturally Soviet propaganda meant that a massive explosion in 1960 which killed 150 was hushed up. The Americans had their small successes and further humiliations but their moment of triumph came with the awesome moon rocket Saturn V whose 5 F-1 engines delivered 7.5 million pounds of thrust and were so powerful they could be heard 100 miles away. Meanwhile, in an ironic reversal, the Russian equivalents began blowing up. This is drama on a grand scale and no one has told it better than Deborah Cadbury. It’s a blast!

LIFESTYLE

MOVIES & DVDs

MORE LIKE PURGATORY Reece Witherspoon’s latest fails to thrill, while Russian Dolls is more than just kid stuff

Russian Dolls Release: December, 2005 Rated: M French with English sub-titles

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R Shelly Horton

ussian Dolls is a sequel to the very popular 2002 French flick, The Spanish Apartment. In The Spanish Apartment a group of 25-year-old students come to discover life isn’t all about meaningless sex and realize that they have to grow up. Set five years later, Russian Dolls has the group on the cusp of thirty discovering they really, really have to grow up.

The storyline is predominantly explained through voiceover from the lead character Xavier (played by a cute but slightly dull Romain Duris). He’s no longer working in finance and is now doing crappy freelance writing for romantic TV movies. So as he writes he fills in plot gaps: “I wrote a book called L’auberge Espanole five years ago, but haven’t been able to find a publisher.” It’s a clever way to bring you up to speed with the lives of his friends over the past five years.

Basically the gang all get back together for the wedding in St Petersburg of English stagehand William (played charmingly by Kevin Bishop) and Russian ballerina Natasha (played by the impossibly skinny, Evguenya Obraztsova).

Two stand out roles are Xavier’s ex-girlfriend, Martine (played by the captivating Audrey Tautou), who has a young son by a never-seen father, still carries a semitorch for Xavier and, like all the characters on display, is searching for true love. And current girlfriend Wendy (played by the magnetic Kelly Reilly) a gifted writer getting over an abusive relationship.

Enter Celia (played appropriately woodenly by Lucy Gordon), a top fashion model whose life story is being ghost-written by Xavier. She’s beautiful and dumb making her the perfect woman in Xavier’s eyes.

My question is why do all these beautiful and smart women fall for a neurotic no-hoper wreck? Sure Xavier is handsome and French – but come on girls, we all

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know he’s a commitment-phobic disaster. Perhaps this is a sad reflection on 30-year-old women the world over?

Anyway if you liked The Spanish Apartment I’m sure you’ll like Russian Dolls. It’s nice to have films that grow up with you.

Just Like Heaven Release: December, 2005 Rated: PG

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ook, I love Reece Witherspoon. And I think Mark Ruffalo is a big spunk. But the new movie they are starring in, Just Like Heaven, leans a bit too heavily on their sweetness to make up for its failings.

Basically Elizabeth is a type-A, work-obsessed woman who has no time for love – not much of a stretch for a Reece Witherspoon character. David is a depressed yet gentle man trying to get over the death of his wife – again, Mark Ruffalo could play this with his eyes shut.

The catch is Elizabeth is a spirit that no-one but David can see. Yup, it’s a pretty dumb plot alright. The scriptwriters obviously hope viewers will make the leap of faith before you run from the room screaming Ghost.

Myself, I struggled with it.

Anyway, our two leads have to figure out why Elizabeth is a spirit and only David can see her so they can hopefully fix the problem. There are some funny bits.

While Elizabeth is trying to convince David to help her, she seals the deal by arguing, “Look, you have two realities to choose from. The first is a woman has come into your life in a very unconventional way and she needs your assistance. The second is you are a crazy person talking to himself on a park bench.” Fair point.

Of course this is a romantic comedy so they fall in love – even though she’s not real so he can’t touch her and she can walk through walls and furniture. Hmmm.

If you’re looking for a dumb chick flick to distract you this summer Just Like Heaven is for you. But I prefer my spirits mixed with with orange juice rather than on the big screen. Cheers.

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DVDs

LES CHORISTES M, Adult themes, 93 mins Les Choristes is a beautiful movie set, as the title suggests in France, post World War 2. Clement Matthieu is the character who anchors this enchancting story of a teacher who takes a position at a boarding school for troubled boys, only to find that music hath charms to soothe his savage charges. Naturally, it isn’t going to be easy, especially with a sadistic school principal to deal with. At last year’s Academy Awards Les Choristes picked up two Oscar nominations, including best foreign language film.

WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW? M, Sexual references, 109 mins Best described as Intelligent Design for Buddhists, this New Age recruiting tool is apparently doing great business in the US. The producers take a range of scientific discoveries that point to the existence of an intelligent designer, or in their case a non-personal creative force.

The blurb on the back claims the doco “bravely jumps into the deep end at the meeting point between science and spirituality and outlines a new model for thinking 96, INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM, December 2005

about the universe and our role in it.Yeah. Man. Interesting, but don’t make the mistake of assuming that the many gurus they interview have necessarily got all their facts straight, let alone their theology.

BATMAN BEGINS M. 134 Mins Christian Bale plays the caped crusader with a melancholy ordinarily reserved for Hamlet in Christopher Nolan‘s well-written origin story.

But in a film made with such obvious care, is it too much to ask that the action sequences not be monotonous to the point of narcotizing?

Carrie Rickey