by Keith Locke
Congratulations on Abraham Alawi for speaking out about being repeatedly singled out and searched by Customs when returning from overseas.
This is a common complaint from NZ residents and citizens of Arab origin.
As Abraham said on radio this morning, “many people are being victimised, but don’t speak”. Since becoming a citizen Abraham has felt more confident to speak out.
Listening to Abraham this morning I was concerned to hear that he hadn’t yet got his computer back from customs – four days after they seized it.
It is quite wrong for a New Zealand citizen to have their computer snatched by Customs and its contents inspected unless there is real evidence of serious criminality – which seems extremely unlikely in this case.
Customs seems to be going beyond its mandate, which makes me worried about what they will do with the extended powers they may get under the Search and Surveillance Bill currently before Parliament.
It’s good that Abraham has gone to the Human Rights Commission for a thorough investigation of all the civil liberties issues this case throws up.
Published in Justice & Democracy by Keith Locke on Tue, September 29th, 2009
Tags: Abraham Alawi, Civil liberties, customs
More posts by Keith Locke | more about Keith Locke
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
At least here they answer to somebody
This is a good one to stay on top of.
The Dept of Homeland Security isn’t answerable at all. Hasn’t been for years. Better to fly through Canada.
respectfully
BJ
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Like the police, the customs people seem so frustrated that there are no real terrorists in Aotearoa they have to make some up just to get their jollies.
And, as for “home of the free” . . . ha bloody ha!
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When people want to fly planes into your buildings full of people, I think it is reasonable to want to weed those types out.
I feel reassured that Customs are vigilant in their efforts to keep our border safe. As our population grows, naturally it will include more and more undesirables who couldn’t care less about our way of life and should be scrutinised (not that this guy is necessarily undesirable). We need to make sure we keep our guard up, and remain a first world country.
Not sure why you have taken a swipe at the US either when there is clearly no link. China, Australia, Canada, Germany, or any other number of countries for that matter have tough border controls – why aren’t they mentioned?
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Since being treated like a herd of cattle when transitting through the US in 2006 my family & I have resolved never never ever to go near the US again in our lives. We didn’t even want to enter their so called nation of the free (cruel joke). We were transiting & not by choice – it was the way Air NZ had chosen to fly.
It is a Nazi State with no respect for individuals or their dignity or rights as citizens of a friendly nation or neighbour. Their officials have been given carte blanche to take advantage of others with nil respect. Heaven forbid that NZ goes the same way.
This all stems from the fear engendered in us by The Criminal Bush/ Cheney/Rumsfeld regime who should be indited now for their crimes against humanity. I feel that strongly about this hi-jacking of freedom by these criminals. Act now & boycott this rogue state.
Read ‘Descent into Chaos’ by Ahmed Rashid to learn about The US’s glaring errors & deliberate obfuscation & trickery in Afhanistan & how it has led to this – our nemesis. Agitate & demonstrate against our involvement in this fiasco in Afganistan
Thomas Paine would turn in his grave if he knew how his ideas of freedom & respect for human rights were being prostituted in the name of security of the State. Please excuse my rant, but I do feel so strongly and plead for all to become more aware of what is being done in our name & to do all we can to stop it.
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I don’t see why Customs would need to keep a computer for 4 days. Surely they could copy off the data onto a large drive and hand the computer back in an hour or two. In any case, if I were engaged in anti-government activity, I’d keep any such data on a removable storage device such as an SD card – easier to hide than a USB device and cheaper to post. I wouldn’t keep any sensitive stuff on the computer at all.
Alternatively, I could have someone else email me any sensitive information (or email it to myself) encrypted of course.
Trevor.
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But really, what does this instance have to do with the US? Every time I go to Australia, I get sweeped with their little explosive tester, for reasons unknown to me. When I went to Europe a couple of years ago, I got my bag searched upon departure in a very thorough manner, while I was made to take my shoes off for them to scan them. And I’m a horrible whitey too. Get over it.
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And you have to laugh at the picture included at the top of this post…wtf does that have to do with being searched at Customs!
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Engendering fear among the masses is in the interest of every Government. It is so much easier to shut up the questioners in a climate of fear.
It has taken many lives to win the freedoms we take for granted.
Glib indifference to the erosion of an others rights, is complicity in the destruction of your own.
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“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed–and hence clamorous to be led to safety–by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary” (Mencken)
Global warming anyone?
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Whilst talking about how contented, healthy & satisfied with their lifestyle people may be in relation to having their civil liberties trashed when re-entering their own country, read
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141645/nobody's_talking_about_the_silver_bullet_that_could_heal_the_economy_and_cure_most_social_ills?page=2. Research showing how equality keeps people happier, healthier & more satisfied.
As far as keeping countries safe from Terrorists by confiscating computers & harassing citizens at ports & airports is concerned I would assume that fearful travellers make fearful citizens & generally unhappy ones, particularly when the fear is unwarranted & motivated by the need to control.
I would also suggest that Americans should ask their rulers why such attacks as took place on Sept 11th 2001 happen. I’m with those who reply that America had something to answer for – like their long history of subductation & warmongering often directed wrongly & unjustly at those who question Americas right to dictate to others. Might is not right & neither is ‘my country right or wrong’.
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Don’t you mean ” Congratulations on Mr. Alawi giving a one sided view on what actually happened”?
Another uninformed politician blabbing on about things he knows nothing of. Have you even read the Customs & Excise Act Mr. Locke? I am assuming not due to your uninformed comments about Customs going “beyond it’s mandate”. Why the need to use words like “snatched” when you can call it what it actually is, detained for examination.
You Sir are what is wrong with NZ today. A bunch of uninformed idiots jumping on any bandwagon they want just to get their name heard again.
Go look for some real issues.
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You remain happy in your sheltered little world.
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well said Kiwireader. People seem to think this is a country that is immune to anything. We still have this naive way of thinking like it is 1950. We are not that far away anymore and we have a completly different society. I mean simply look at everything in the media (crime) in the last year and you can tell we are not the NZ that our memories try desperately to hang on to.
We now have to grow up and realise what threats exist in the modern day. As long as we keep the current attitude displayed by Kieth Locke the more other people will exploit that.
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It does not take long to identify a computer was not a bomb, or containing drugs, or a threat to our bio-security. Snatching the computer was just that – for the purposes of a fishing expedition based on profiling that was probably a breach of his human rights.
Unless there was evidence about this person before he left or about who he met while away, there was no ground to confiscate his computer.
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Who flew planes into buildings? no doubt your new sources were CNN and FOX so I don’t blame you. The fact is that people have been polarised into thinking the world is bad, that people will fly planes into buildings, look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_World_Syndrome
There is a difference between being vigilant and abuse, clearly: the customs have no right to look at data – I think this is probably the only real tangible thing that can be expressed, I believe it when he says he was treated like an animal. Is this really what you want to reflect?
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Get over it? I doubt you’d be saying that if you were this guy – you really have no empathy for anyone.
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hand out judgements, that’s what you are good at isn’t it? obviously if you had waited a bit longer before uttering your drivel about how it was one-sided your argument would have more weight than the clouds you seem to be living on.
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how many fatalities have actually been caused by terrorist attacks – in perspective? … compare that with how many liberties were lost … is it justified?
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Interesting definition – Mean World Syndrome – What about Bad Movie Syndrome ? The recent shambles of a Flick about Super Heroes gone wrong, I even forget the title it was so un-memorable, typified another obsession of American audiences & perhaps movie makers with the idea that there are these ‘rescuers’ out there who with their super-powers will save us all from disaster ( God ??, Bush, Obama ? )
Shame is we can’t even seem to save ourselves from such rubbish – another recent US TV series Flash Forward appears to have the same sort of illogic.
Mind you the recent rubbish produced here, Tolkein’s stuff, has the same twisted logic. Fairy Tales all !
When will we cease to put our trust in such weavers of magical un-realism like perhaps Key, Brown, Obama, Rudd ? When we cease to watch so much TV ? We’re entrapped.
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Meanwhile you cower curled up in your paranoid delusions and frightened little world scared of men with beards while your liberties are peeled away.
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Nah, email is too risky. Much better security to use off-the-beaten track internet cafes to set up anonymous onlne accounts for data storage if you’re going to be crossing borders.
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The only place I have been searched is Auckland airport, the rudest airport? Auckland airport.
Heck, LAX is even more friendly.
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and yours is misplaced and unguided.
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unguided? talk about partial
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I am more afraid of pinko liberals like yourself destroying this once fine country with your ignorance.
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إن شاء الله
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I have a friend who has that swarthy appearance that so incites them, and he disappeared for 2 days. The fact that he was an Engineer at JPL with a clearance meant absolutely nothing. He couldn’t get his bags once they quit with him. They never apologize. They never admit error. They do not care for the rights of the individual at all, because they do not have to care.
They have secret lists of people who aren’t even allowed to get on the plane. At one point they had a US Congressman on one of those lists. The apparent intelligence is so close to zero as to be a joke, and it IS a running joke in the USA.
Which is why Keith felt it was a fair target and why I don’t object to his characterization.
Understanding the ways in which the USA is no longer the “land of the free” is an important exercise.
BJ
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I’d rather customs did their job even if Alawi gets precious.
and speaking of jobs; aren’t the Chinese busy serving our fastest growing tourist group (Chinese). Drivers don’t get paid (in many cases) but work for tips and commission; then there are the people who operate with rental vans who say “these are my family member” when checked by the police.
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Excuse me jh, what does that have to do with anything we have been discussing ?
Worried about Chinese Tourists now are we, ‘slit eyed’ invaders take over our tourist industry jobs panic panic !! Surely they are providing jobs for our hard pressed tourist industry workers, taking up beds in empty motels, eating meals in our cafes, flying into our airports etc.etc. Perhaps that’s what’s worrying you ?
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Excuse me jh, what does that have to do with anything we have been discussing ?
“Greens counter Peters with welcoming immigration policy
Anti-immigration feeling has no place in the Green party Immigration and Population policies released today, Green MP Keith Locke says.
“Our policy is the opposite of Winston Peters’,” the Party’s Immigration Spokesperson Keith Locke says.”
http://www.greens.org.nz/immigration
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“Worried about Chinese Tourists now are we, ’slit eyed’ invaders take over our tourist industry jobs panic panic !! ”
Those are your words.
years ago Japanese tourists started to arrive and fleets of limo’s would arrive driven by Kiwi drivers for “honeymoon couples” and a lot of buses from different companies. drivers were weary that they might bring their own drivers as (I think) Japan Travel bureau did somewhere in Australia. A few Japanese moved here working as guides and in tourist shops etc. The Chinese however are a different kettle of fish migrating en masse and as tourists from China increase being native speakers they can out compete locals as driver guides and the nature of Chinese society is clannish so they develop strong networks.
Now i must admit I always believed that we had a social contract where a country put it’s own citizens first over the interests of foreign nationals and that would be reflected in immigration policy (even though it’s is a bit selfish).
While Green Keith bleats on about being welcoming the Boston Globe travel writer reports (2004) that NZ is “at a cross-roads” and says of the “jewel in the crown”: “If your idea of a holiday is a seething mass of cars and people, topped off by a cacophony of helicopters, Queenstown may be for you. Otherwise, it serves only as a warning of the perils of overdevelopment.”
http://www.boston.com/travel/articles/2004/11/07/new_zealand_at_a_crossroads/?page=2
Green, yeah right.
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“Greens counter Peters with welcoming immigration policy
Anti-immigration feeling has no place in the Green party Immigration and Population policies released today, Green MP Keith Locke says.
“Our policy is the opposite of Winston Peters’,” the Party’s Immigration Spokesperson Keith Locke says.”
http://www.greens.org.nz/immigration
=========================
Auckland bursting at the seams? Don’t worry the greens will fight for tangata whenua representation!
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In what sense do or should the interests of ‘foreign nationals’ conflict with those of ‘New Zealand Citizens’. After all that is really what this whole string of posts is about isn’t it ? The whole thing begins when you enter the Immigration Control section of almost any airport – foreign nationals (passport holders) one queue & National Passport Holders in another. Segregation into them & us !
Whilst it is all very convenient to be one of the first through the queue because most of those on the same aeroplane as you belong to the ‘other’ lot, it is discrimination at it’s worst. Those first should be the foreign ones surely, as a welcome gesture to say come in we welcome you.
You then enter a queue for those with something to declare & one for those those who haven’t. Once again the wrong way around. Those with something to declare are going to be searched & possibly detained so they should be enabled to get a head start. Possibly not, but just a thought.
As far as the assertion that Japanese tourists may in mythical past time have been guilty of ‘bringing in their own drivers’ or been known to employ some people who were part of a ‘network’ is pure tosh. Did you witness this terrible behaviour or read it in the Truth Fish & chip wrapper.
In any case what if this were true? Would it actually be against any regulation or law of the land ? If so, protest & report it to your nearest Police Station or Immigration Officer & see how far they go to arrest the guilty party. Perhaps you could get the whole damn party arrested just for being there.
As an aside, in most of Arabia, if you are involved in say a road traffic accident & get summoned to Court, you are bound to be found guilty, just because you were there, on the grounds that if you hadn’t been nothing would have happened – justice or punitive treatment??
Oh how it makes my blood boil to hear this kind of mis-guided Nationalism. I say welcome your visitor as a friend & neighbour would if you visited them for tea. Ask them in & make them at home, offer them a bite to eat or something to drink. Be friendly. They might even invite you back if you are interesting enough.
Social Contract, Nah! One that even hints at treating the ‘other’ as one would not like to be treated by them is defunct before it gets off the ground. I advise you to go to China or Japan and act as if they owed you a welcome whilst acting like a bigoted ignoramus & see what happens.
Just my humble opinion !
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“Whilst it is all very convenient to be one of the first through the queue because most of those on the same aeroplane as you belong to the ‘other’ lot, it is discrimination at it’s worst. Those first should be the foreign ones surely, as a welcome gesture to say come in we welcome you.”
you don’t watch Border Security do you.
“As far as the assertion that Japanese tourists may in mythical past time have been guilty of ‘bringing in their own drivers’ or been known to employ some people who were part of a ‘network’ is pure tosh. Did you witness this terrible behaviour or read it in the Truth Fish & chip wrapper.”
What I said was:
“years ago Japanese tourists started to arrive and fleets of limo’s would arrive driven by Kiwi drivers for “honeymoon couples” and a lot of buses from different companies. drivers were weary that they might bring their own drivers as (I think) Japan Travel bureau did somewhere in Australia*.A few Japanese moved here working as guides and in tourist shops etc. The Chinese however are a different kettle of fish migrating en masse and as tourists from China increase being native speakers they can out compete locals as driver guides and the nature of Chinese society is clannish so they develop strong networks.”
*but they didn’t do that here
“Did you witness this terrible behaviour or read it in the Truth Fish & chip wrapper. ”
I’m a tour bus driver and have been for 22 years.
“In any case what if this were true? Would it actually be against any regulation or law of the land ? If so, protest & report it to your nearest Police Station or Immigration Officer & see how far they go to arrest the guilty party. Perhaps you could get the whole damn party arrested just for being there.”
oh now I get it you’ve run out of something sensible to say.
“Just my humble opinion !”
It would have helped if you read my post more carefully before hand.
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“Given Marxist convictions regarding class conflict and the nature of religion as an outlet of protest in the midst of the enduring oppression of ‘bourgeois’ rule, the recent phenomenon of far-leftists seeking to ally themselves with Islamists and mounting an obsessive campaign against ‘Islamophobia’ is not as strange as it might initially seem. Many Marxists see the resurgence of political Islam not as part of a rising tide of irrationalism but rather as an essentially political and rational response to the supposedly oppressive and intrinsically ‘racist’ and ‘imperialist’ nature of Western liberal democracy. In the contemporary Marxist narrative, racism is seen to be endemic in Western civilisation, and is interpreted as a tool of our bourgeois overlords who use it firstly to divide the working class (thereby crippling the unified ‘class consciousness’ that would be necessary for an uprising of the proletariat) and who also encourage selective forms of ‘racism’ (currently in particular ‘Islamophobia’) in order to gain popular support for, and to justify, their imperialist projects. Bob Pitt of the ‘Islamophobia Watch’ website, for example, believes that ‘Islamophobia’ is ‘a racist tool of Western Imperialism’ and states that the website was ‘founded with a determination not to allow the racist ideology of Western Imperialism to gain common currency in its demonisation of Islam’.[4]”
–
“Here we see the usual descent into Marxist fantasies of future rule, which unsurprisingly incorporate gleeful thoughts of retribution against the bourgeois enemy at the hands of ‘an aroused people’. Hardline Marxists are, of course, very keen on apocalyptic dreams of revolution and revolutionary violence, which goes a long way to explaining the fascination many have with Islamism. Marxist supporters of Islamism and opponents of supposed ‘Islamophobia’ seem to derive some kind of vicarious revolutionary thrill from aligning themselves with reactionary religious movements.”
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=416
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jh – your reply to my post seems irrelevent in the extreme. Whether your scenario takes place in Australia or here makes no difference to my reaction to it. It shows xenophobia & inherent distrust of the ‘other’.
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Xenophobia is defined as: A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.
What I am talking about is the risks to [a proportion of] the existing population from mass migration.
The example I gave is tourism where in one sector (guided tours) while various markets shrink the Chinese market grows and the proportion serviced by native speakers (recent migrants) increases (including those operating in the unlicensed market -driving rental vans).
Another example is the inflationary effect on housing and competition for agreeable real estate. A property suppliment described Redclills as having had “unprepossessing fisherman’s cottages” but now upmarket dwellings and that Sumner is now jokingly refered to as “Pomner”.
Gareth Morgan refered to mass migration from China as “Labours Third World Solution”
Aucklands traffic and need for new infrastructure, Queenstown and many other places have suffered in quality of life*.
One wonders what sort of migration policy we would have if eccentrics from the left like Keith Locke had their way.
the truth is that the world is full of poor people who would come here if they could get here and dilute the natural wealth.
*Note that the Green party slogan was “quality of life” but they make no association with mass migration.
http://www.greens.org.nz/features/quality-life-endash-size-doesnt-matter
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“The Green Party recognises that our quality of life is underpinned by the health of our unique ecosystems – from mountain tops to seashore, braided river to ocean floor. Ecosystems and species, including ourselves, form an intricate, interconnected web of life which is a treasure in its own right. The web of life contributes to the food we eat and materials we use, the quality of our water and soils, the moderation of climate, and ultimately the ability of our environment to support all life.”
http://www.greens.org.nz/environment
No mention of low population.
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Our current resident population is over 4 million, with at least another million New Zealand citizens and their dependents overseas. Our birth rate is roughly at replacement level at the moment. Our per capita ecological footprint is among the highest in the world, but our population density is low compared to other countries. Ministry of the Environment current modelling estimates put our carrying capacity at 5.7 million, but an agreed optimum population size for Aotearoa/New Zealand cannot be easily determined.
From the Greens population policy.
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when people do come they move into existing towns and cities. No one will ever be aware (see) carrying capacity but they will see development along the beach, infill etc and/or bursting city limits. A Japanese friend who moved here a decade or so ago described Auckland as “just a rat race”.
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This organisation advocates unfettered migration
http://www.stwr.org/
http://www.stwr.org/aid-debt-development/overcoming-barriers-human-mobility-and-development.html
links to
Mobilising ‘World Opinion’ – The Movement of all Movements
A detailed examination of the global justice movement as a representation of public opinion through the activities and objectives of the World Social Forum movement, whose ubiquitous slogan is ‘another world is possible’.
contributors
Keith Locke
At the time of writing, Keith Locke was the foreign policy convenor for the New Zealand Alliance, associate defence spokesperson and a member of the National Council of the New Labour Party. More recently, he has been elected as an MP for the New Zealand Greens.
LINKS Articles
* The New Zealand Alliance
(Issue 2, July-September 1994)
————–
Do the Greens favour open borders as part of social justice? In a perfect world I could agree with it but not on the basis of a human population explosion?
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Given that our population policy is recorded here…
http://www.greens.org.nz/policy/population
… your bringing up Keith’s views from over a decade ago as a context for asking this question is decidedly disengenuous.
BJ
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I hear what you’re saying bchip but I think it is important to know where people are coming from. There is a school of thinking that we should have open borders and while (of course) the local population wouldn’t allow it, factions influential in making policy can still have an influence that result in emphasis on particular types of node announcements etc.
On population I notice a school of thought that follows George Mombiots recent article where he blames the rich for producing co2 and skoffs at Bill Gates etc for deciding to support measures to mitigate population amongst poor people. He believes the link between population and environmental degradation is “weak”*. When policies are made by people with these sort of assumptions the result is a spade with a big crack in the handle.
I realise you can’t tell people not to breed but it is a matter of having an appropriate paradigm which frames the problem.
*disscussed here
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2009/10/06/general-debate-october-6-2009/
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