“The Insurgency: Present State and Possible Future” Date: 27 August 2007 Time: 5.45pm Venue: Law School, Lecture Theatre 2, Old Government Buildings, Victoria University of Wellington, Pipitea Campus, Lambton Quay Presenter: Colonel Thomas X. Hammes, United States Marine Corps (Retired) I’ll definitely be attending this talk. Hammes was one of the first authors to use [...]

4GW, Wellington | 4 Comments »

In some ways, it sounds exactly like a typical Al Qaeda attack, with multiple, near-simultaneous bombing targeting public transport: Stuff, “Bombs spark city chaos”Four explosions plunged Christchurch into commuter chaos yesterday. A bomb exploded in the Bus Exchange about 3.10pm, forcing hundreds of passengers, many of them schoolchildren, onto surrounding streets. Inner-city traffic came to [...]

4GW, Infrastructure, New Zealand, Resilience, Terrorism | 4 Comments »

Here at Pacific Empire, we’ve been busy recently with productive things, like writing essays, going to work, brewing beer and handing in theses. So we haven’t blogged yet about the Electoral Finance Bill (EFB). Well, it’s time to say something. The EFB is one of the most breathtakingly audacious things the Labour Government of New [...]

Free Speech, Labour, Libertarianz, New Zealand, Politics | 2 Comments »

Phil and I have been getting into the homebrew scene in the last few months, and I’m proud to present this photo walk-through of the brewing of our third batch of kit beer. Making beer with a kit is fairly simple and the initial setup takes only an hour from go to whoa. The first [...]

Catastrophes, New Zealand, Personal, Science, Sex, Technology | 4 Comments »

Originally posted on Coming Anarchy. If you would like to comment, please do so there. Lihir gold mine, Papua New Guinea A history of conflict As has been explored in previous Oceania Day posts, conflict in Oceania – particularly in Melanesia – is often related to resources. The prime example is Bougainville, where in 1989 [...]

4GW, Black globalization, Development, Energy, Failed states, Infrastructure, Mercenaries, Non-state actors, Pacific, Resilience | No Comments »

Originally posted on Coming Anarchy. If you would like to comment, please do so there. Home-grown street gangs are a growing threat to Oceania’s island states. In addition, criminal organizations from around the world have taken advantage of the economic vulnerability and weakness of the Pacific islands, using them as bases for money laundering, drug [...]

Black globalization, Failed states, Non-state actors, Pacific | No Comments »

“Chocolate and toast,” Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty It’s part of a bigger project to blame people in poverty for making bad choices on an individual level, rather than seeing the structural issues which leave people so broken that they torture a three year-old. If we can tut-tut about the smoking, then we don’t have to [...]

Culture, Domestic Violence, New Zealand, Politics | No Comments »

Invitation designed by Leanne. Download as .pdf. Also on Facebook. We’re having drinks at The Flat next Saturday in celebration of Phil’s 21st (which is actually today). If you are a regular reader of Pacific Empire who’ll be in Wellington on the 18th, consider yourself invited! Come along and try out Luke’s bar, sample some [...]

Personal, Wellington | 2 Comments »

The rhetoric around child abuse is getting quite deafening. What better time than to throw my own rhetoric into the mix? Christine Rankin’s group called for three minutes of silence, including drivers on the roads (!) Transit said that drivers had better not stop and get out on the motorway, because that wouldn’t be safe [...]

Culture, Domestic Violence, New Zealand, Politics, Smacking | 1 Comment »

Here’s another gem from the Libertarianz Conference 2007: a slideshow I gave to show off Libertarianz activism over the last few years. You can play the slideshow while listening to my own dulcet tones telling you what’s going on, by downloading this mp3 (17 MB); my bit starts around 37:15. You can also download the [...]

Libertarianz, New Zealand, Personal, Politics, Wellington | No Comments »