Phil and Luke are brothers, libertarians, Vic Uni students and flatmates based in Wellington, New Zealand. Their blog, Pacific Empire, covers topics including politics, libertarianism, international relations, psychology, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, art and history. See the About page for more information.
Luke is the Libertarianz Media Coordinator, while Phil was the Hutt South candidate in 2005 and is now Spokesman for Deregulation of Education.
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Two reminders for Wellington-based readers:
March on Parliament to protest the anti-smacking bill - one of the worst examples of Nanny Statism, and likely to have some terrible unintended consequences. Meet at Civic Square at noon on Wednesday. More on why we at Pacific Empire oppose the repeal of Section 59 here.
Centre for Independent […]
BBC: Two people were killed and 17 injured as LTTE light aircraft - probably assembled using parts smuggled into the country - dropped two bombs on the main air force base in Colombo. Bandaranaike International Airport, adjacent to the base, was shut down as a precaution. The war in Sri Lanka has been going […]
Here’s a brief rundown on some major current threats to world stability.
Pakistan: Nuclear instability
The headlines at the moment are all about Iran. But Pakistan is another potential flashpoint, only with dozens of nukes, questionable military loyalty, multiple insurgencies, and tense borders. Musharraf’s leadership has been increasingly called into question, as he fired a […]
50 years ago today, the Treaty of Rome was signed. It brought into being the European Economic Community, including France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The idea of European integration had existed since before the Second World War, but it took that devastating war - and the external threat […]
This ship carried deadly influenza into Apia in 1918, while the New Zealand administrators did nothing to stop the spread of the virus. 22% of the population died as a result, while in American Samoa, which took preventive measures, there were no fatalities.
Guest Post by Eric Flis
Part 1 - Introduction and Overview
Part 2 - […]
The new Government Building in Apia, Samoa, built by the Chinese. Source: Flickr.
Guest Post by Eric Flis
Part 1 - Introduction and Overview
Part 2 - Economic Vulnerability
Part 3 - Pandemic Vulnerability and Future Paradise
Eric is a member of AIPIO (Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers) and is currently studying for his Post Graduate Diploma in […]
Guest Post by Eric Flis
Part 1 - Introduction and Overview
Part 2 - Economic Vulnerability
Part 3 - Pandemic Vulnerability and Future Paradise
Eric is a member of AIPIO (Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers) and is currently studying for his Post Graduate Diploma in Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism. Eric can be contacted at intellisec(@)hushmail dot com.
Introduction
Samoa, […]
William Lind, writing in January just after Ethiopia invaded Somalia:
For more than a decade, Somalia has been Exhibit A in the Hall of Statelessness, a place where the state had not merely weakened into irrelevance but disappeared… Then, over the past several weeks, a Blitzkrieg-like campaign by the Ethiopian army seemed […]
In this climate change post, I’ll briefly outline why blaming solar variation for recent warming is incorrect, interpret the Vostok Ice Cores, and then tell you the political part of my position.
That big nuclear furnace in the sky is the ultimate source of all energy on Earth, so it would make sense if recent warming […]
Helen Clark and Sue Bradford are trying to convince New Zealand that the repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act (aka the anti-smacking bill) is about preventing child abuse and perhaps secondarily about ’sending a message’ to stop smacking because it is poor parenting. That’s the political spin, and it makes it pretty […]