JL
Not content to control us and our flow of information, Jacinda is pushing to control everything ever said or done, anywhere.
In December our esteemed leader spoke online (first 8 mins) at a conceited puff-fest of heads of state led by ‘sleepy’ Joe Biden.
Chinese and Russian state media called the project hypocritical. One Chinese newspaper compared the US initiative to “a mistress of a brothel teaching morals to schoolgirls”.
Jacinda looked at ease in this role propagating a persona of almost saintly inclusivity to the powerful elite.
Yet Kiwis are being dismissively and autocratically repressed and then ignored by her ego-fuelled antics.
Ardern espoused how innovation (Artificial Intelligence) can be used to support democratic values. Values she, so clearly, does not possess.
They will also, in the wrong hands, be used for more sinister and all-encompassing social control.
And, under Jacinda’s guidance, NZ is the guinea pig for the World Economic Forum’s AI pilot study.
For those whose opinions were removed from online posts, or mentioned a trampoline and got bombarded with adverts to buy one – or if you are someone who remembers the Cambridge Analytica scandal – then the prospect of Jacinda at the helm of this evil should give you the jitters.
Below in italics is the gist of her hypocritical and blatantly ironic transcript.
“Democracy, pluralism and partnership underpinned by human rights and the rule of law are essential to our identity as a nation.
Jacinda Ardern
Great sounding words, but what a gall to blatantly promote herself as a bastion of democracy when REGULARLY throwing ours under the bus.
Remember her ‘captain’s call’ restricting the lucrative oil and gas industry? Her own cabinet was kept in the dark about that.
What about the removal of elected boards at our local hospitals, and the unmitigated theft of our councils’ water assets under He Puapua?
What about the mandates and lockdowns? The ridiculous situation of being allowed a set number of friends over for a BBQ, but by government decree being told that they can’t use your toilet!
…We need to be conscious that democratic systems and the progress they make can be fragile; they need certain things to thrive.
Jacinda Ardern
Quality people at the helm perchance?
Among them high quality institutions, a clear social contract that binds people together and underpins their relationship with governments, an unwavering commitment to human rights and the rule of law, a real voice for marginalised people, and the ability to make decisions and respond to pressing economic and social issues.
Jacinda Ardern
She is gutting our institutions. Our Bill of Rights is relegated to a guidebook. The Treaty was a clear social contract; it’s now been muddied to allow for a revised history, co-ownership, co-governance and separate law and health provision.
This reimagining of our founding document was prompted by the controversial He Puapua report, made public only after an Official Information Request.
As to the rule of law: the Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and opposition MPs have all damned the urgent passing of the Covid-19 traffic light system as dangerous and poor law-making.
People’s human rights are being trampled by Ardern’s government..
Covid 19 has exposed institutional and social deficits; Mental health issues, access to housing, social displacement and inequality, the distrust marginalised groups already had in governments. Covid has made difficult social justice issues into urgent priorities…
Jacinda Ardern
Social deficits are not just highlighted, they are exacerbated. Not so much by the pandemic but by the Ardern Government’s response.
A million per day is spent on transitional and emergency housing. Children live next door to gang members, drug-dealers and crime. Thousands are squeezed out of home ownership by inflation and shortages.
Foodbanks use drive-throughs to cater for demand, and there has been a dramatic leap in gun violence.
..and has seen brave people, essential workers, put their wellbeing on the line for the rest of us.
Jacinda Ardern
Meanwhile, Ardern let overseas DJs masquerading as essential workers in and allowed the Green co-leader to fly out to a Covid hotspot and back while allowing an infected mate’s mate from Fiji into our hospital wards and allowing her wedding singer to skip MIQ.
She intensified mistrust in marginal groups by highlighting and then hunting down all eligible Maori for vaccination.
Ardern is right: those still to be jabbed do not trust her, the manufacturer or the product and should be congratulated, not demonised, for defying her edict.
Our work, economic and social lives have been pushed online.
Jacinda Ardern
Pushed by mandates, lockdowns, selective Ministry of Health information and an ineffectual and overly compliant media.
This has accelerated digital transformation in exceptional innovative ways. It has also thrust many into an environment that can be isolating, unfamiliar and lacking the social norms that govern offline behaviours. For some, it has deepened economic and social distance highlighting problems of inclusion. This in turn feeds into questions of democratic resilience.
She talks about the loss of inclusion. What about babies that are growing up without seeing faces, families who can’t attend funerals or church and who are banned from social settings? Already, unvaxxed children are being excluded from sport and there’s a real fear that eventually she will ban unvaxxed kids from class, forcing them to learn online or be homeschooled.
How dare Ardern talk about democratic resilience at a time when she has so casually stripped us of our freedoms.
Her brand of socialism cannot co-exist within a real democracy. ‘Her way or the highway’ stinks of authoritarianism.
Digital developments are having profound effects on many of our democracies. Many of those are enabling and strongly positive, some though, require careful thought on their impacts on society and democratic institutions. As we think about democratic resilience we need consciously to engage communities on how we nurture and maintain democracies in the digital environment. That will be a key part in building back better.
Aotearoa NZ…
Jacinda Ardern
World leaders looking on a map don’t know New Zealand as Aotearoa. A poll of Ardern’s constituents told her it was not to be changed. National put the flag to a referendum and the flag, despite not being my first choice, remains the same. That was an example of true democracy in action.
Ardern needs to stop being a public relations guru and become a Prime Minister. Saying we are Aotearoa often enough, does not and should not make it so.
Aotearoa NZ is committed to a free open and secure and globally connected internet as a powerful vehicle for social progress, democratic participation and economic and technological advances. The internet connects people across our borders between our legal systems and our distinctive democracies cultures and values. Keeping it free open and secure means making certain conscious trade-offs in the way we pursue other objectives.
Hmm… last I looked, people were talking in code so their opinions weren’t removed by the algorithms. Censors removed all negative posts from Ardern’s own Facebook page. Online videos analysing MoH statistics have been surreptitiously removed and those involved threatened with the same agencies to wield AI technology – SIS, Police and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
I’m a firm believer in embracing the strength of our diversity. Open multi-stake holder approaches can be powerful, effective, and importantly, enduring.
Sure, Ardern let a few people change their gender on their birth certificate, but she has also ditched hundreds of thousands of Kiwis from all walks of life who opposed her draconian mandates and the uncharted law changes that suited her narrative as well as her excessive (mis-)management of real information.
I’ve seen the progress made through the Christchurch Call to Action where governments and the private sector and civil society worked together to eliminate terrorist and violent extreme content online.
The Christchurch shooting was the deplorable act of a lone wolf. Gun licensing laws were already in place but were not enforced; online-content laws were already in existence and able to curb extreme content yet Ardern jumped on the tragedy and used it as leverage.
We were delighted, this year, to have the United States of America join the Christchurch call. The US has joined more than 50 other countries. A global network of civil society organisations and many of the world’s largest tech companies in this work.
There are another 145 countries in the world. How’s that inclusivity going?
When talking of civil society organisations, individuals and organisations independent of government, which billionaires are Ardern doffing her hat to here?
This is a vote of confidence in the idea a safer internet does not have to compromise on openness or on human rights.
Ardern has already compromised us to such heights now that I’m thinking the AI programme is already up and running. God help us if she gets more powers.
On a related note
(Hardly a related note – this is the crux of the whole damn thing )
as artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies pay an increasing role in our lives we need to develop ethical human rights based frameworks to understand the impacts and govern them.
Oh dear God! This is not a summit, it’s a job interview. Ardern wants to lord it over all online content.
Those frameworks need global perspective. Countries small and large and voices and expertise from across society.
By ignoring elected councils who rubbished her 3 Waters takeover, by dismantling our DHBs without a mandate to do so, by shutting down doctors with alternative views, by promoting handpicked rent-a-scientists and dissing any other view as misinformation, she has effectively silenced many experts as it is.
Aotearoa NZ…
Go away.
Aotearoa NZ is pleased to work on these issues in the global partnership on AI. The Christchurch call, the freedom online coalition and here at this summit.
These frameworks need to focus on effective solutions. Our digital future, democratic resilience and respect for human rights in each other demand no less.
This work is critical to ensure technology enhances and contributes to a free and open society rather than acts as an instrument for oppression or undermine human rights.
I also believe as elected leaders we have a responsibility to act when we see emerging challenges to democratic resilience.
Ardern’s an emerging challenge… but why not grab the chance for a bit more leveraging and self-congratulatory clamour.
In NZ we saw that covid 19 was affecting traditional media models already under pressures from rapid changes in technologies and consumer demand. We’ve also seen a spread of misinformation on covid19 particularly through social media.
We had to act, so we made it a priority to establish a public interest journalism fund to help our media to continue to produce stories that continue to keep new Zealanders informed. Underpining this action is recognition that a vibrant and trusted media centre is a vital component in a democracy especially during times of crises.
With a mushrooming army of PR miscreants, the government has become the largest supplier of ready-made news stories. It is also mainstream media’s biggest single advertiser, and in gifting tens of millions to keep them afloat, their single biggest benefactor.
In order to keep their jobs, the fourth estate has agreed to terms and become nothing more than a PR arm for this government.
The trust in them has gone. Ardern killed it, and so, therefore, killed another vital component of democracy.
These challenging covid times the worlds democracies have a unique opportunity to come together to ensure global health settings and our domestic health systems are better prepared for the next pandemic.
While harping on about the threat to our health system she stalled medical reinforcements at the border; spent more money ridding us of democratically elected health boards than on medical upgrades; mooted a pathetic cycle bridge to ‘help curb congestion’; and aims to spend $14,000,000,000 on a tram.
All the while lying to New Zealanders about who has died FROM rather than WITH Covid (the man with Covid who was shot dead) or in hospital WITH rather than FROM Covid.
And then while under-reporting that 95 per cent of people contracting the virus have little to no symptoms she hid the very real adverse effects of the vaccine.
Aotearoa NZ will work with partners to promote global cooperative and evidence based approaches to respond to disease outbreaks so we can ensure equitable and sustainable outcomes for all countries and prevent deepening inequalities.
Surely she can’t jab the whole world every 4 months.
This opportunity to protect the health of our people, the health of our economies and the health of our democracies should not be lost
This is what building back better is all about.
Building back better – is a common mantra spouted far too readily around the world. Is Ardern working for us or is she someone else’s puppet?
Once again I thank President Biden for convening this summit and the invitation to open this panel discussion on strengthening democratic resilience. I look forward to continuing this important conversation for us all.
One can only ponder what calamities, real or imagined, she will leverage and what technological power she is willing to wield for her misguided ideology.
Soon, if still our leader, we will see what her part in this unholy alliance can achieve under the guise of climate change.