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Tim ("the Gross") Grosser has lashed out while PM Key has laughed the whole thing off, saying "100% Pure" is like a MacDonalds' ad - it should be taken with a 'grain of salt'
In short, we are ruled by criminal hypocrites
New Zealand’s Green Tourism Push Clashes With Realities
By CHARLES ANDERSON
16
November, 2012
The
scene is set: a giant countdown clock, a 1,500-foot red carpet and
assurances from the New
Zealand government’s
tourism arm that the South Pacific nation will once again become the
real Middle Earth.
As
the Wellington premiere of “The Hobbit” approaches, New Zealand’s
picturesque landscapes are set to take center stage once again. Ten
years ago, the breathtaking vistas featured in Peter Jackson’s
“Lord of the Rings” trilogy were at the heart of a tourism
campaign that helped jump-start a multibillion-dollar international
travel industry and a worldwide image of the country’s clean, green
living. It was what Tourism New Zealand, the country’s tourism
agency, called “100% pure” New Zealand.
But
while the spectacular and seemingly untarnished natural backdrops,
stunning waterscapes and snow-tipped mountains might look world-class
on film, critics say the realm New Zealand’s marketers have
presented is as fantastical as dragons and wizards.
“There
are almost two worlds in New Zealand,” said Mike Joy, a senior
lecturer in environmental science at Massey University in Palmerston
North. “There is the picture-postcard world, and then there is the
reality.”
The
clean and green image has long been promoted by the isolated country
in its striving to compete in world markets. But an
international study in the journal PLoS Onemeasuring
countries’ loss of native vegetation, native habitat, number of
endangered species and water quality showed that per capita, New
Zealand was 18th worst out of 189 nations when it came to preserving
its natural surroundings.
Dr.
Joy said that for a country purporting to be so pure, New Zealand
seemed to be failing by many international environmental benchmarks.
Last
month, the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment released a survey
showing that more than half of the country’s freshwater
recreational sites were unsafe to swim in. Fecal contamination of
waterways, caused largely by dairy farming — the source of 13.9
billion New Zealand dollars, or $10 billion, in annual exports,
nearly a quarter of New Zealand’s total — was widespread.
The
survey showed that people who swam in those rivers were at a high
risk of illness, including serious diseases like giardiasis,
cryptosporidiosis and campylobacteriosis. The waterways were the
cause of 18,000 to 34,000 cases of waterborne disease each year.
Eugenie
Sage, a member of the New Zealand Parliament who is environment
spokeswoman for the Green Party, said the results belied the “100%
pure” marketing image.
“We
promote our country as 100 percent pure and 100 percent Middle
Earth,” she told Parliament in October. “But to swim in our
rivers, which is the birthright of Kiwi kids — you cannot do it in
the majority of the rivers that the Ministry for the Environment
monitored.”
Before
the Nov. 28 release of the first of three “Hobbit” films by Mr.
Jackson — the movies are based on a book by J.R.R.
Tolkien,
also the author of “The Lord of the Rings” — Prime Minister
John Key has been courting more international tourism.
This
year in Japan, Mr. Key introduced a “100% Middle Earth” campaign
to attract tourists from that country. In September, he made an
official trip to Los Angeles to woo the film and tourism industries.
The
“Lord of the Rings” films were a boon for New Zealand, attracting
more than 20,000 people a year to the country and pouring an
estimated 700 million dollars into the economy in 2004 alone.
International
tourist spending almost doubled, from 3.1 billion dollars in 1999,
when filming of the “Lord of the Rings” began in the country, to
6 billion dollars at the end of 2004, a year after the final
installment of the trilogy made its debut. By 2011, however, the
number had tapered off to 5.6 billion dollars, according to
statistics from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Although
the government has not projected any numbers for the “Hobbit”
trilogy, it was desperate to keep the filming in New Zealand and
repeat the success of “Lord of the Rings.” After a dispute with
the New Zealand actors’ union, the government even changed labor
legislation to clarify how actors were seen under the law. It also
offered the Hollywood studio Warner Brothers an extra $25 million in
tax breaks on top of its basic 15 percent subsidy as a sweetener.
The
investment seems to have paid off. Research conducted by Tourism New
Zealand from May to July found that 57 percent of people already
considering trips to New Zealand were aware of the “Hobbit”
trilogy. Almost all in that group knew the films had been made there.
Martin
Snedden, the head the Tourism Industry Association, a lobbying group,
said in a news release that the Tolkien films showcased New Zealand’s
“stunning landscapes” and raised awareness of the country around
the world.
“Unless travelers know we exist, we are never likely to get on their shopping list of potential destinations,” Mr. Snedden said.
“Unless travelers know we exist, we are never likely to get on their shopping list of potential destinations,” Mr. Snedden said.
But
New Zealand’s reputation as a pristine place might not be exactly
warranted. Since European colonization 150 years ago, as much as 90
percent of the country’s original wetlands have been drained to
make way for towns, farms and roads. The wetlands are considered to
be of international importance for supporting numerous species
of birds,
fish and plants.
For
creatures like the black stilt, which lives in such places, it may be
too late. There are only about 100 left, making it possibly the
rarest wading bird in the world. It is just one species out of the
2,800 that the country’s Department of Conservation considers
endangered.
In
2008, New Zealand ranked first among 146 countries in Yale
University’s Environmental
Performance Index ,
which ranks countries on the quality of their environmental policies.
The report compares international data on criteria like habitat loss,
greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and protected marine areas.
In
2012, however, the country slipped to 14th. New Zealand’s
greenhouse gas emissions, half of which are caused by the agriculture
industry, are the fifth-highest per capita among members of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the
association of free-market democracies.
Most other countries in the
O.E.C.D. have managed to reduce per capita emissions, but New
Zealand’s have increased 23 percent since 1990 — from about 66
million tons of carbon dioxide in 1990 to about 83 million tons in
2009, according
the country’s Environment Ministry .
Pure
Advantage, a nonprofit group promoting green business, estimates that
the country will overtake the United States in per capita emissions
in less than eight years, putting it almost into the world’s top
10. But total emissions in New Zealand, which has a population of 4.4
million, are far lower than those of the United States, with 312
million people.
This
month, New Zealand refused to commit to a second round of emissions
reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 international agreement
on reduction of greenhouse gases. Instead, it will align with several
of the world’s largest emitters, including the United States, China
and India, in negotiating an alternative agreement. That could be
approved by 2015 and in effect by 2020.
“This
is a day of shame for New Zealand. Our reputation as a good
international citizen has taken a massive hit,” Moana Mackey, a
member of Parliament who is the climate
change spokeswoman
for the opposition Labour Party, said in a statement.
Bruce
Willis, a farmer in the Hawke’s Bay region and president of the
lobbying group Federated Farmers, said New Zealanders often saw
themselves as “the very best at something or very worst.”
“When
visitors look at our countryside and our waterways, they are struck
by how free they are of plastic bottles and the detritus of modern
life,” he said, adding that it was unfair to place most of the
blame for environmental problems on the agriculture industry.
Mr.
Willis said that the country could do better but that New Zealand
farms were “way up there” in terms of environmental performance.
David
Broome, the Federated Farmers’ spokesman, cited Yale’s index as
showing that New Zealand ranked first in 2012 for the effect of water
quality on human health. For effect on the ecosystem, however, the
country ranked 43rd.
In
the end, he said, the environmental picture is not black and white.
A
recent report by Pure Advantage said New Zealand’s environmental
record was worrying for the country’s economic future. One of New
Zealand’s main priorities, it said, should be giving legitimacy to
the “100% pure” branding.
“These
rankings will come as a shock to those in New Zealand who believe our
country prides itself on its clean, green image,” the report said.
Gregg
Anderson, Tourism New Zealand’s general manager for Western
long-haul markets, said from his Los Angeles office that he did not
believe the campaign was misleading international tourists. “100%
pure” was never just about the environment, he said. It was about a
New Zealand experience.
“We
put our hands on our hearts and say New Zealand does not have a
completely untouched environment,” he said, “but we are better
than most.”
Frank McSkasy
27
November 2012
.
.
Continued
from: When
spin doctors go bad
The
truth? You can’t handle the truth!
When
Jack Nicholson bellowed that famous line in the 1992 movie, “A
Few Good Men“,
few would have thought that it would apply twenty years later; down
under here in Godzone; but that this time the tables would be turned
against an apologist for the Establishment.
Mark
Unsworth – a right-wing lobbyist for a professional “government
relations consultancy” company, Saunders Unsworth, seems to find
difficulty “handling the truth”. Especially when that truth comes
from respected and reknowned environmental scientist, Dr Mike Joy…
On
16 November, the New
York Times carried
a story on the upcoming release of “The
Hobbit“.
The article made reference to Tourism New Zealand’s publicity
campaign centering around a supposedly “100% pureNew
Zealand” theme.
As
we should all know by now, New Zealand is not “100% pure”.
In fact we probably haven’t been “100% pure” for several
decades now.
Dr
Joy stated as much and was duly quoted by New
York Times,
“There are almost two worlds in New Zealand. There is the picture-postcard world, and then there is the reality.”
Green
MP, Eugenie Sage, backed up Dr Joy’s brutal truth, and was quoted
in the same article (from a statement she made in Parliament last
month),
“We promote our country as 100 percent pure and 100 percent Middle Earth. But to swim in our rivers, which is the birthright of Kiwi kids — you cannot do it in the majority of the rivers that the Ministry for the Environment monitored.”
And
you know what? They are telling the truth. The clear,
unvarnished, simple truth.
Dear
Leader John Key and Trade/Climate Change Minister Tim Groser
Minister, have now waded into the ‘mix’.
Yesterday
(26 Nov), Groser rebuked Environment scientist, Dr Mike Joy, by
saying,
“It’s been used as a stick to beat New Zealand by environmental activists.”
Today,
Dear Leader added, just to make sure we understood what our
politicians were “hinting” at,
“It’s like saying ‘McDonald’s, I’m loving it’ – I’m not sure every moment that someone’s eating McDonald’s they’re loving it . . . it’s the same thing with 100% Pure. It’s got to be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt.”
Dr
Joy replied,
“I’m not going to lie about this stuff.”
He’s
right. Why should he lie?
Politicians
know that the “100% Pure” is a marketing scam to bring tourists
(and more importantly their cash) to New Zealand and can only succeed
if the true nature of our degraded environment is kept secret.
After
all, successful politicians like Dear Leader John Key are so
used to manipulating facts and employing half-truths to serve
their political purposes (usually getting elected), that they forget
that the rest of the population are not politicians.
So,
having created their own “dynamic” standard of ethics, Key,
Groser, and minions like Unsworth, are taken aback when
the general populace raise an eyebrow in disbelief when we are
expected to take part in conning overseas tourists? Our response is,
“They want us to what-?”
How
many times has Key been caught out telling half-truths, or not being
upfront with the public?How many election promises has he broken;
side-stepped; back-tracked; or watered-down until his pledges were
useless?
The
trouble now seems to be that Key and Groser are now expecting the
public to buy in to their truth-bending ways.
Not
just “buy in” – but to be tacitly complicit with
the scam.
John
Key wants 4.4 million people to be like him.
A nation of 'politicians'
A nation of 'politicians'
Surprisingly
most of the the general populace won’t have a bar of it.
Key
says that no one expects New Zealand to be “100% Pure”.
I
wonder what he expects when he buys a bottle of “pure water”
to drink?
Sources
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