Patrick Craddock

On this last day of 2025 I shudder about a new political development in the Middle East. My view is that Israel has just made plans for a possible future war. They recognised Somaliland as an independent state. No other UN country has done this. Somaliland is a self-declared republic in the Horn of Africa. It has a history of colonial rule, a failed political union, and a journey to build a stable democracy.  Israel’s is making hard-nosed strategic calculations about its future in the turbulent Horn of Africa and Red Sea region. Over the past decade, there have been intermittent talks and in 2025,Read More →

This week our politicians have been extremely busy throwing insults at each other.  So here is one more from Shakespeare.  I dedicate it to two politicians who throw insults around like confetti or rice at a wedding.  This is for David Seymour and Shane Jones from the Sweet Swan of Avon: “A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander. It insultsRead More →

Wow – how – a look into the future??????????  Important News from government. Minister Simon Watts,  the Local Government Minister has announced cost cutting measures for wastewater aimed at boosting savings for ratepayers. He says new national wastewater environmental performances standards hope to save up to $830 million over the next 35 years by streamlining wastewater consents. Who would forecast  35 years into the future  on the effectiveness of wastewater consents or anything else and expect any accuracy, unless they  had too much Xmas optimism or something else!!! Answer:  Minister Simon Watts And he got news coverage for this rubbish. I heard it several timesRead More →

November 19, 2010. A methane explosion ripped through the mine on the West Coast. Twenty-nine workers died. The mine had inadequate ventilation, faulty equipment, non-functioning gas sensors, and no safe emergency exit. Management knew. The Trade Union knew. Government regulators knew. Widows Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse met  with Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden on the 15th anniversary of the Pike River disaster. Anna Osborne  said after the meeting,  “I don’t know, I’ve come out of there still feeling really unhappy because there’s just no guarantees that people who go to work are going to return home safely,” Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van VeldenRead More →

I watched Jack Tame on TV One (Sunday 9 November 2025)  interview Stephen Rowe, from The US CATO Institute,  a visiting  American PR non-stop talker who threw the word “freedom” around as if it was prepared and given free with every big Mac hamburger and a fizzy drink.  I was angry and shocked at this Trump like figure who got much more airtime than his thin content deserved. But we are a country of “free speech”. So will I shut up? NO!!!!!! He made think of George Orwell. This PR man is not responsible for promoting any war, but his style of talking could alsoRead More →

As a small child I lived in Scotland between Aberdeen  and Inverness and not far from Forres. This is Macbeth country. After school, we  would fight  each other  in  fatal battles with branches from trees and bellow at our opponents  “Lay on Macduff, and dammed be him who first cries,  Hold. Enough ”  We screamed  “How far to Forres?”  without knowing why!  I learned  about a King being  murdered in Inverness Castle. My Mum took me there, but I never saw the blood from King Duncan’s  assassination. But from my friends blabber  I still recall that strong rhythm. “The Thane of Fife had a wife.”  HowRead More →

VICTIMS OF VICTIMS… ..is not from me.  Edward Said, a  Palestinian-American  Scholar, who died in 2003 was writing  about Zionism, the Jews and the Palestinians.   It needs to be noted that Edward Said acknowledged that millions of Jews were persecuted, killed and butchered in Nazi Germany. This phrase captures the core irony Said identified: a people who suffered profound persecution in Europe (Jews) established a nation through the dispossession of another people (Palestinians). Zionism thinking worked for many years to establish a permanent home for Jews. The British helped with their Balfour Declaration and  in 1947, the United Nations proposed partitioning Palestine into separate JewishRead More →

If you rearrange the letters in the word  “silent” you can form “listen”. It would be good if the present three-headed coalition  government had listened more to the nation and followed past principles on our record for caring for Human Rights. Palestine  did exist before 1948, and even the Gorgon, Netanyahu, cannot deny that.  Israel did not exist before 1948.  And what about  the promised equality from the long gone Balfour Declaration? Israel is silent on that part of the promise. So is New Zealand Recently my country  shamed itself by sitting and wetting its pants  on the political fence which is dripping with theRead More →

For a long time I have supported Palestinians, who ask for no more than Israelis ask for themselves.   A country and a dignified way of life. I re-circulate cartoons and articles about Gaza. I recently received hate mail and death threats. All anonymous. I don’t even know if the threats  come from NZ, the US or anywhere else. I have deleted them. Blocked the names. I have always wanted to know  “threat” people more. I want to know names, addresses, occupations and family backgrounds. But, alas,  conscience does make many cowards especially when your name is anonymous.  Years ago I worked in a PacificRead More →

Netanyahu, Hitler and Herod have something in common. Murder  of the Innocents.  Herod wanted Jesus killed and according to  Boccaccio, 144,000 babies were murdered. Hitler wanted Jews exterminated and murdered millions of men, women and children. Netanyahu continued the brutal tradition and banned journalists from Gaza.  But journalists risked their lives, talked  and they were also murdered with the innocents.  Netanyahu continues to starve those who remain. He is attempting extermination. He might not say the words himself, but his Minister of Finance Bezalei Smotrich does not mince his belief  on what should be done. His words would do credit  to the Nazi propaganda leader. ItRead More →