Food Poisoning: A Case For New Zealand Shipping

New Zealand First transport spokesperson Peter Brown has called for the expansion of our merchant fleet now is has been determined that the likely source of the cornflour contamination has come from the hold of the foreign ship which brought the commodity here.

“Whilst I realize it will never be practical, or indeed possible, to use only New Zealand ships to handle our imports and exports, this incident clearly illustrates there is a need to develop the industry.

“A merchant fleet of reasonable size breeds expertise and attitude to matters maritime. Something is wrong when a ship known to have previously carried lead concentrates is allowed to carry foodstuffs and that commodity is not thoroughly checked at point of discharge.

“The vessel should have been cleaned and checked prior to loading and again, as a safety insurance check, at discharge.

Some people appear to not to have been on their guard or perhaps not thinking maritime.

“With an active merchant fleet we would, in time, have more expertise and these incidents would not happen,” concluded Peter Brown.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>