East India Company (1600's - 1800's):
Special business entity established by England, Holland, and France in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries for the trading and colonization of India/South East Asia. The British East India Company, for instance, created a trade monopoly and colonized India.
Opium War (1840-1842):
A war started by England against China's Qing dynasty because of China's ban on the trading of opium. The Qing dynasty enforced a strict ban on opium because opium addiction, along with the outflow of silver, became serious problems. England initiated the war to break the barriers of diplomacy and trade through the use of military force and won. The two countries signed the Nanking Treaty, giving way to the free trade system. Hong Kong was handed over to England and five ports, including Shanghai, were opened.
Te Tiriti – (The Treaty of Waitangi) - (1840) : 'nuff said.
Colonisation of NZ by the NZ Company – 1830’s:
While in prison Wakefield (Edward Gibbon) read a number of books on economics and social ideas, and worked out his theory on colonisation. In his writing he used language which some people say showed his remorse over his past behaviour, but which more likely was deliberately used so that he would be respectable again once he was released from prison.
In 1830 Wakefield and others formed the National Colonization Society to win official support for his colonisation theory.
He helped set up the New Zealand Association, which later became the New Zealand Company. The first organised attempt at settlement was of Wellington, under the leadership of his brother William, in1839.
After the death of his brother Arthur in the Wairau ‘affray’ of June 1843, Wakefield had to …
Wairau Massacre (1843) :
On 17 June 1843 a party of 50 Europeans, led by Arthur Wakefield, walked into the Wairau Valley from Nelson. They tried to arrest Te Rauparaha and another Maori chief, Rangihaeata, on a flimsy charge of arson from when a survey party had tried to survey disputed land in the Wairau Valley. The European claim to the land was based on a false deed of sale, which the Maori owners had been tricked into signing. …
...
and, people they were only just getting started !!
[1] http://www.itoen.com/teainfo/history/history_europe.php
[3] http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Childrens/EarlyChristchurch/EdwardGibbonWakefield.asp
[4]
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=57805
http://www.promethea.org/Misc_Compositions/PrometheanCapitalism/Fascism.html
2002-11-09
2002-01-20
It goes right back to Caesar
As far as I can tell, this stuff goes all the way back to Julius
Caesar: sidelining of the democractic process, abrogation of the
constitution, institution of permanent war. Does any
of this ring a bell ?
How about violation of the Geneva convention, or
the scapegoating and persecution of a minority group?
We should know this stuff by now !
I mean. Hitler. Pinochet. World War II...
1984. A Brave New World. War and Peace - especially the war bit.
And you know the scary thing ?
Whats scary is that they say that in Germany in 1936 it was
easy to believe in peace and the future. They lived in a Republic
after all, with strict laws regarding what the government could
and could not do, and all looked well.
And yet, as is the way with these things, by the time they started to
come for your neighbours in the night, by the time people started
to get scared - by then it was too late.
You see it takes a lot of courage to open your eyes and see
what is happening, and I dont mean courage in the face of others.
Rather you need courage to question your own perceptions,
because nobody wants to believe that their beloved have gone astray. The cheater's lover is always the last to realise.
Please God, wake me up and tell me I'm dreaming.
Caesar: sidelining of the democractic process, abrogation of the
constitution, institution of permanent war. Does any
of this ring a bell ?
How about violation of the Geneva convention, or
the scapegoating and persecution of a minority group?
We should know this stuff by now !
I mean. Hitler. Pinochet. World War II...
1984. A Brave New World. War and Peace - especially the war bit.
And you know the scary thing ?
Whats scary is that they say that in Germany in 1936 it was
easy to believe in peace and the future. They lived in a Republic
after all, with strict laws regarding what the government could
and could not do, and all looked well.
And yet, as is the way with these things, by the time they started to
come for your neighbours in the night, by the time people started
to get scared - by then it was too late.
You see it takes a lot of courage to open your eyes and see
what is happening, and I dont mean courage in the face of others.
Rather you need courage to question your own perceptions,
because nobody wants to believe that their beloved have gone astray. The cheater's lover is always the last to realise.
Please God, wake me up and tell me I'm dreaming.
2001-10-10
Musings
I awoke with a thud last night.
A fair amount of rubble must needs carrying out,
I guess, and so the brooklyn bridge has been
taking quite a beating of late,
I mean, one of those big sixteen wheelers comes thundering
over the spans, and wham ! hits that lip, whatever it
is.. booom ! off it goes. Would wake anybody,
I tell you.
Not that i have a problem with the taking out.
I mean, real estate - you know. But at a
certain point you have to ask; How far
down do you have to go before
this becomes a mausoleum ?
Missing, presumed dead. All that jazz.
The way i see it, this wasn't an attack on America.
This was attack on western civilisation. Not that
I mean to impune anything about the eastern kind,
of course. We are all in this together.
I mean we have to know who did it, but at the same
we don't. you know ? I mean maybe this is just
me, and I guess a lot of americans just wouldn't understand.
But, New York, for me, was always much more than
just a part of america. NYC has always felt
like the capital of our civilisation, the economic
and cultural capital of our world.
And thats why i say feel like there is only way to respond
to such an attack, and that is in a *civilised* way.
Mostly the people didn't run. We had sandwiches, we
carried our umbrellas with us over the bridge.
Let the barbarians come into Byzantium, let them sit in our throne, will we care?
During the war, the last one, Kosovo, I watched those so called
'planes' taking off from the Aviano air force base in Italy
- "molten lumps of pure black and heavy evil thundering into
the sky" would be more like it.
Every two minutes another two would tear into the sky,
the screams of their vortexing, tearing afterburners
screaming up into the darkest places of the sky.
Every two minutes exactly, another two, with
screams like the riders of nazgul.
But the strangest, the most *important* thing is that in
Aviano itself, the milkman was still doing his rounds.
We talked calmly with two 'FireMen' at the end of the
runway. Soon enough they were picked up in a broken
down bambina and taken out for pizza. You could pop
out for coffee.
And yet, at the *other* end of this, at the receiving end,
thousands were dying - army, civilians, terrorists... people.
The way i see it, there is only one way we can respond to
this sort of attack, and that is with dignity, with respect
for our fellow human beings, with civilisation.
In fact i would like to suggest that they take the whole area
bodily up, in one carefully preserved piece, and lay it out it
in a nice park. Somewhere upstate perhaps, where it can lie
forever, as our precious broken stone, a place for our bones.
It could be somewhere for us *all* to go and grieve, when our,
and *their* time for grieving finally comes.
A fair amount of rubble must needs carrying out,
I guess, and so the brooklyn bridge has been
taking quite a beating of late,
I mean, one of those big sixteen wheelers comes thundering
over the spans, and wham ! hits that lip, whatever it
is.. booom ! off it goes. Would wake anybody,
I tell you.
Not that i have a problem with the taking out.
I mean, real estate - you know. But at a
certain point you have to ask; How far
down do you have to go before
this becomes a mausoleum ?
Missing, presumed dead. All that jazz.
The way i see it, this wasn't an attack on America.
This was attack on western civilisation. Not that
I mean to impune anything about the eastern kind,
of course. We are all in this together.
I mean we have to know who did it, but at the same
we don't. you know ? I mean maybe this is just
me, and I guess a lot of americans just wouldn't understand.
But, New York, for me, was always much more than
just a part of america. NYC has always felt
like the capital of our civilisation, the economic
and cultural capital of our world.
And thats why i say feel like there is only way to respond
to such an attack, and that is in a *civilised* way.
Mostly the people didn't run. We had sandwiches, we
carried our umbrellas with us over the bridge.
Let the barbarians come into Byzantium, let them sit in our throne, will we care?
During the war, the last one, Kosovo, I watched those so called
'planes' taking off from the Aviano air force base in Italy
- "molten lumps of pure black and heavy evil thundering into
the sky" would be more like it.
Every two minutes another two would tear into the sky,
the screams of their vortexing, tearing afterburners
screaming up into the darkest places of the sky.
Every two minutes exactly, another two, with
screams like the riders of nazgul.
But the strangest, the most *important* thing is that in
Aviano itself, the milkman was still doing his rounds.
We talked calmly with two 'FireMen' at the end of the
runway. Soon enough they were picked up in a broken
down bambina and taken out for pizza. You could pop
out for coffee.
And yet, at the *other* end of this, at the receiving end,
thousands were dying - army, civilians, terrorists... people.
The way i see it, there is only one way we can respond to
this sort of attack, and that is with dignity, with respect
for our fellow human beings, with civilisation.
In fact i would like to suggest that they take the whole area
bodily up, in one carefully preserved piece, and lay it out it
in a nice park. Somewhere upstate perhaps, where it can lie
forever, as our precious broken stone, a place for our bones.
It could be somewhere for us *all* to go and grieve, when our,
and *their* time for grieving finally comes.
2001-10-03
Some poems
missing
this precious shimmering jewel,
this broken stone,
these broken bones,
this flashing e.m.s
the N,R is running on the Q,W
the subway car was full,
a young woman and
a black man,
a young girl with glasses,
and a picture of grover on her pink back pack
2001-09-11
Eyewitness Report - Escape from Manhattan
Originally published not here, but on Scoop.co.nz
Tuesday, 11 September 2001, 5:29 PM (EST) (part 2 was here)
It all seemed amazingly innocent at first.
What actually happened was that I looked out the window of our office on Wall St (about two blocks down and east from the WTC) and saw what looked like a ticker tape parade - hundreds of tiny pieces of paper, floating down out of the sky.
Seemed like an odd stunt for some PR company to play, and also the paper looked like trash, and some of it was burnt.
At that point we started to realise that something was very wrong.
We tried looking on the Internet, but the connection was not working at first (it was restored very soon afterward).
About then, we heard the second loud bang as the second plane impacted. Our client arrived for our 9AM meeting and we realised what had happened.
I wrote down my impressions at that time.. " a boom .. like maybe a train in the subway doing something very odd, or maybe thunder. "
This was about 9:10 am. After some discussion about whether to have the meeting or not we decided that we would instead go out and have a look.
We went and stood and looked at the horrific site - fortunately some distance away from the WTC. Not because of any sense of danger - the world trade towers are so big its always best to get a wee distance ...
>>>breaking news<<< As i write this we know that tower number 7 (much shorter than the main two) is on the verge of collapse - and looking out we see that the billowing cloud of smoke has changed colour again to white, so i guess we have lost number 7 as well. (you can see the photo of white smoke out of our window here in Brooklyn) >>>breaking news<<<
Most people were as you would expect, horrified, shocked and mostly sad. All across the pavement at this time there was a lot of charred paper, and reports, kids photos, charred brochures.
I saw one person pick up a photo of some kids and say 'wow, sick' (and keep the paper). But mostly people were very good and generally quiet. At that point we kinda figured that was gonna be everything, and for some reason headed back to work.
So, we were sitting in the middle of this meeting with the client and the whole building shook, *a lot* and a kinda 'whump'. At this point I looked across the table and said..' " uhh what the f**k was that ?"
Looking out the window, we saw huge billows of smoke coming out of the subway station, and people running down Wall St. At first we thought that there was a bomb on the subway, but then we saw a large cloud of smoke and dust (or something) rolling down Wall St, at some speed.
I learned from a (newly found) friend that I met on the Brooklyn bridge later on, that this was the only moment of real panic. As the first building collapsed, the sky went black as night and people ran in fear all the way to the river. Mostly however, throughout the day, New Yorkers have been very calm and orderly.
We met people on the bridge that had come out of the World Trade centre from the 55th floor and they were just fine. This gives me some hope. In fact there was a good hour between 8:48 am (when the first plane hit) and 10:05 (when the first building collapsed). So while there are no statistics for casualties at this point I believe that a very large percentage of the 10,000 or so people in the WTC would have been evacuated before the collapse.
Anyway, at this point we went along the corridor to another office that had TV news, and learned of the Pentagon plane, the car bomb at the State Department in Washington, and what at this point were apparently five more planes that were hijacked and in the air.
We were not sure whether to evacuate or stay inside the building. The smoke and dust outside was starting to clear and we contemplated evacuation when seeing the second building starting to lean over, we decided.. shit this is time to get out of here!! We were worried that the building might fall on us, and it seemed that Wall St might also be a target, so we stayed away from the window.
At this point my fellow worker was on the phone (all cell phones had stopped working) so I took the opportunity to stick our web cam out the window.
It is still there now, somewhat covered in dust, and you may be able to see the picture at : http://formtext.org (Note: since publishing this story it appears the web server there is being overloaded, or broken.)
With the collapse of the second building, exit was no longer an option.
Firefighters and police were apparently coming *in* to our building to catch their breath. The dust was definitely starting to get a bit thick in the air, we worried whether we would be able to breathe.
So in the end we waited, and finally we evacuated, taking my gym shirt for breathing through and a lot of water bottles from our stash (for giving to other people).
The whole bottom part of the island looked like a war zone by this stage, covered in a thick layer of dust, and bits of paper.
So we walked up the island. All subway services, train services, bridges and tunnels were closed. The plan was merely to get uptown and away from the financial area. As I say, people were very calm and collected.
I decided, after a while to part company with my office workers and head across the bridge.
Some of us had dust all over us, and some people had a bit of blood, but most people, like me, seemed generally fine and able bodied.
I exchanged a couple of war stories with people on the bridge.
Apparently, north of where the towers had been for many blocks, all the cars were burning and the smoke was still very thick.
at this point, (5pm, ie 7hrs later ) the NY fire brigade have decided that they can't get into that area to rescue people and have decided to abandon the area.
I also heard stories from people who were outside the building, that they saw body parts and filing cabinets (?) coming out of the building.
I heard, also, some disturbing stories that the dust might have been somehow infected with a biological agent or something. I dismissed this as panic type stories. At this point we were still mostly in shock, and I was pretty calm and collected really. Apparently there may well have been asbestos in the dust, so when we got home I did have a very vigorous shower.
Anyway, basically we made it back ok. I made friends as we crossed the bridge with a fellow Brooklyn Bridge escapee and now a new friend, Diane.
As soon as we got back, and I made phone contact with my wife (the phones are working, sporadically, but they are ok if you keep trying, even from NZ)
It was only at this point that things really started to hit. Paul Holmes interviewed me on the phone (somehow) and talking to him at this point, I started getting very emotional. I guess the reality was only then beginning to sink in.
Anyway after some hard scrubbing in the shower and stuff, we made a whole lot of sandwiches, and bought some paper cups and water, and cantaloupe, etc.
(brief break whilst I say good bye to Diane.. As I get back into the room, I find myself bawling again for some reason)
Anyway…
We made the sandwiches and walked to the Manhattan bridge where people were still walking across - evacuating from Manhattan, and gave them out to the people coming off the bridge.
We have photos of that evacuation, (at this point, some time later, the people walking out were all from uptown - ie away from the towers and generally in good spirits. Al I guess that might be photos under the title 'escape from Manhattan'
It was good to keep busy I guess.
So yeah, alive and very freaked out.
ENDS
Tuesday, 11 September 2001, 5:29 PM (EST) (part 2 was here)
It all seemed amazingly innocent at first.
What actually happened was that I looked out the window of our office on Wall St (about two blocks down and east from the WTC) and saw what looked like a ticker tape parade - hundreds of tiny pieces of paper, floating down out of the sky.
Seemed like an odd stunt for some PR company to play, and also the paper looked like trash, and some of it was burnt.
At that point we started to realise that something was very wrong.
We tried looking on the Internet, but the connection was not working at first (it was restored very soon afterward).
About then, we heard the second loud bang as the second plane impacted. Our client arrived for our 9AM meeting and we realised what had happened.
I wrote down my impressions at that time.. " a boom .. like maybe a train in the subway doing something very odd, or maybe thunder. "
This was about 9:10 am. After some discussion about whether to have the meeting or not we decided that we would instead go out and have a look.
We went and stood and looked at the horrific site - fortunately some distance away from the WTC. Not because of any sense of danger - the world trade towers are so big its always best to get a wee distance ...
>>>breaking news<<< As i write this we know that tower number 7 (much shorter than the main two) is on the verge of collapse - and looking out we see that the billowing cloud of smoke has changed colour again to white, so i guess we have lost number 7 as well. (you can see the photo of white smoke out of our window here in Brooklyn) >>>breaking news<<<
Most people were as you would expect, horrified, shocked and mostly sad. All across the pavement at this time there was a lot of charred paper, and reports, kids photos, charred brochures.
I saw one person pick up a photo of some kids and say 'wow, sick' (and keep the paper). But mostly people were very good and generally quiet. At that point we kinda figured that was gonna be everything, and for some reason headed back to work.
So, we were sitting in the middle of this meeting with the client and the whole building shook, *a lot* and a kinda 'whump'. At this point I looked across the table and said..' " uhh what the f**k was that ?"
Looking out the window, we saw huge billows of smoke coming out of the subway station, and people running down Wall St. At first we thought that there was a bomb on the subway, but then we saw a large cloud of smoke and dust (or something) rolling down Wall St, at some speed.
I learned from a (newly found) friend that I met on the Brooklyn bridge later on, that this was the only moment of real panic. As the first building collapsed, the sky went black as night and people ran in fear all the way to the river. Mostly however, throughout the day, New Yorkers have been very calm and orderly.
We met people on the bridge that had come out of the World Trade centre from the 55th floor and they were just fine. This gives me some hope. In fact there was a good hour between 8:48 am (when the first plane hit) and 10:05 (when the first building collapsed). So while there are no statistics for casualties at this point I believe that a very large percentage of the 10,000 or so people in the WTC would have been evacuated before the collapse.
Anyway, at this point we went along the corridor to another office that had TV news, and learned of the Pentagon plane, the car bomb at the State Department in Washington, and what at this point were apparently five more planes that were hijacked and in the air.
We were not sure whether to evacuate or stay inside the building. The smoke and dust outside was starting to clear and we contemplated evacuation when seeing the second building starting to lean over, we decided.. shit this is time to get out of here!! We were worried that the building might fall on us, and it seemed that Wall St might also be a target, so we stayed away from the window.
At this point my fellow worker was on the phone (all cell phones had stopped working) so I took the opportunity to stick our web cam out the window.
It is still there now, somewhat covered in dust, and you may be able to see the picture at : http://formtext.org (Note: since publishing this story it appears the web server there is being overloaded, or broken.)
With the collapse of the second building, exit was no longer an option.
Firefighters and police were apparently coming *in* to our building to catch their breath. The dust was definitely starting to get a bit thick in the air, we worried whether we would be able to breathe.
So in the end we waited, and finally we evacuated, taking my gym shirt for breathing through and a lot of water bottles from our stash (for giving to other people).
The whole bottom part of the island looked like a war zone by this stage, covered in a thick layer of dust, and bits of paper.
So we walked up the island. All subway services, train services, bridges and tunnels were closed. The plan was merely to get uptown and away from the financial area. As I say, people were very calm and collected.
I decided, after a while to part company with my office workers and head across the bridge.
Some of us had dust all over us, and some people had a bit of blood, but most people, like me, seemed generally fine and able bodied.
I exchanged a couple of war stories with people on the bridge.
Apparently, north of where the towers had been for many blocks, all the cars were burning and the smoke was still very thick.
at this point, (5pm, ie 7hrs later ) the NY fire brigade have decided that they can't get into that area to rescue people and have decided to abandon the area.
I also heard stories from people who were outside the building, that they saw body parts and filing cabinets (?) coming out of the building.
I heard, also, some disturbing stories that the dust might have been somehow infected with a biological agent or something. I dismissed this as panic type stories. At this point we were still mostly in shock, and I was pretty calm and collected really. Apparently there may well have been asbestos in the dust, so when we got home I did have a very vigorous shower.
Anyway, basically we made it back ok. I made friends as we crossed the bridge with a fellow Brooklyn Bridge escapee and now a new friend, Diane.
As soon as we got back, and I made phone contact with my wife (the phones are working, sporadically, but they are ok if you keep trying, even from NZ)
It was only at this point that things really started to hit. Paul Holmes interviewed me on the phone (somehow) and talking to him at this point, I started getting very emotional. I guess the reality was only then beginning to sink in.
Anyway after some hard scrubbing in the shower and stuff, we made a whole lot of sandwiches, and bought some paper cups and water, and cantaloupe, etc.
(brief break whilst I say good bye to Diane.. As I get back into the room, I find myself bawling again for some reason)
Anyway…
We made the sandwiches and walked to the Manhattan bridge where people were still walking across - evacuating from Manhattan, and gave them out to the people coming off the bridge.
We have photos of that evacuation, (at this point, some time later, the people walking out were all from uptown - ie away from the towers and generally in good spirits. Al I guess that might be photos under the title 'escape from Manhattan'
It was good to keep busy I guess.
So yeah, alive and very freaked out.
ENDS
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