Ministers Launch Defence Review 09 Document

[mumbles]

Mar 7, 2010 11:52:25 GMT 12 corsair67 said:

renaming half the countryside to pamper to a small number of people;

Apologies again for incurring thread drift (and belatedly at that), but acknowledging older and already pre-existing place names is hardly 'renaming'. As a New Zealander I don't have any particular issue with it.

[Dave Homewood]

I love the way TV3's newsreaders insist now on calling it Fonganui. Apparently it was never meant to have an F sound... Maybe they'll regret enforcing the change.

[kiwiscanfly]

6 months to save money! come on does that have any impact on releasing the document? why do they need to save money to release a document id they need money do that after!!
and
corokid66
Maybe they are waiting for some news concerning what our Singaporean friends may be up to?

What do you mean by this??

[Dave Homewood]

What corokid means is the reports that Singapore is looking to base a flying training squadron at Ohakea.

[skyhawkdon]

Mar 9, 2010 14:16:18 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

What corokid means is the reports that Singapore is looking to base a flying training squadron at Ohakea.

...of fast jets!

[beagle]

might be meeting John Key this week at the opening of a new school here in Rolleston. Might have to ask him about the Singapore deal and say to forget about Hoss

[corokid66]

Mar 9, 2010 14:16:18 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

What corokid means is the reports that Singapore is looking to base a flying training squadron at Ohakea.

And of course LM is tied up in the whole thing KAI – RSAF thing and what with the crapola of Public Private Partnerships in the NZDF to save bucks and LM doing its $100m NZDF logistic deal last week and Dr Mapp talking to Guyon Espiner on Q&A about moving his back passage to his front passage or something like that - who knows they might contract out RNZAF advanced pilot training to LM through buying hours in the RSAF T-50’s or as part of an offset for the use of OH?

Who knows what weird 'permutations' Treasury and Politicians are doing to the White Paper at the moment?

[steve]

Phil82 you are a gem..."pisses in your cornflakes...must remember that one. I have learnt a lot from your posts over the from your service as a airforce officer...

and while of topic... PC maori or "Modee" pronounciation ...you could write a comic book about it. TV3 i just turn...all trendy left of centre twits. Next whenuapai will change to funopai AFB in oakland or Auckland...whatever!

[Dave Homewood]

Most of the old boys from the wartime days that I have talked with pronounce Whenuapai with a 'w', not an 'f' like the modern day take seems to be. Same goes for Rukuhia, which is always pronounced by the oldies as Rook-a-higher I've noticed.

I personally think it would be highly culturally insenstive to an important and diminishing minority group to try to tell these RNZAF veterans they're incorrect. They're not - because that is how their cultural group's dialect pronouncs the words. There are more than one culture in this country, and they're not all based along racial lines. Each culture from Maori to RNZAF to railway buffs to whoever has their own way of doing things. Enforcing one mono-culture on them all wipes out the diversity of each and oppresses the offbeat.

I just needed to get that off my chest.

[steve]

Well stated Dave...in a nutshell.

I have no problems with individuals pronoucing area names like whenuapai any way as long as we all understand. I thought you were joking when you said that in fact some new staff are calling there station funohapi...i was just going over the top in sillyness!

[30sqnatc]

Mar 10, 2010 2:22:03 GMT 12 steve said:

I have no problems with individuals pronoucing area names like whenuapai any way as long as we all understand. I thought you were joking when you said that in fact some new staff are calling there station funohapi...i was just going over the top in sillyness!

Not so many years ago I was picking up a group of overseas visitors at Mangere who I was taking to Whenuapai for the night. While we waited for all their group to clear customs a person came up to me (I was in uniform) and asked for assistance. He explained he was US military and had to get to XXX, someplace I had no idea where he meant. Further questioning identified it was a air force base but still no idea what he was trying to pronounce. Eventually I asked him if he had it written down so he produced his travel orders to Whenuapai where he was to meet in inbound US flight.

By this time all the visitors were there. Turned out he had been on the same flight from LAX. They quickly started in on him joking about not being able to speak English - they were Canadians so you can imagine the banter.

He accepted a lift in the van to When-u-hapi which was about as close as he could get to understandable pronounciation.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

[Dave Homewood]

When Lockheed takes over the NZDF can't they build us a fleet of Hudsons for patrol work?

[kiwiscanfly]

at the end of the day we are still begging for more...................
am I right?
no wait i think a better way of putting this is
"at the end of the day we are still begging for what we need!"

[caromeg]

I would flag UAVs as an option here -

[Dave Homewood]

Aw come on Hawkeye, can't we get Lockheed to at least build the UAV's to look like replica Hudsons?

[caromeg]

What a waste, if you got a Hudson up and running what cool fun. Why put a UAV link and autpilot in a ruin the fun.

[kiwiscanfly]

Hi all i found this today and want to hear what you all have to say on how this may effect our future with regards to the NZDF and of course the RNZAF in the white paper.......... i know it may seem like nothing but the figures i found were well suprising!! (article from the BBC)

South East Asian nations are ramping up their military capacity in a move that could destabilise the region, a new report says.

The report comes from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

It says that arms imports by Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia leapt by 84%, 146% and 722% between 2005 and 2009, compared with the previous five years.

Analysts put this down to the regional arms race, the need to replace old weapons and the growing might of China.

There have long been concerns in this part of the world about how quickly China is ramping up its army and naval forces.

Just a decade ago, the Chinese government spent less than $10bn (£6.6bn) dollars on its weapons supplies. Today that figure is closer to $80bn.

So it is no surprise military analysts say that countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia are also keen to show off their military strength.

But in comparison to China's might, their arms purchases are insignificant.

It is not just because of China, though, that South East Asian nations are adding to their armies.

According to analysts, these countries have always harboured a deep-seated suspicion of their neighbours - so when one sees another spending more money on defence, it will follow suit.

As economies in the region expand and there are more funds around, it is thought likely we will see ever more of this arms competition in South East Asia.

So thaughts anyone???

[nige]

IMO it's something NZ Govt should be taking into account when formulating defence policy and planning - otherwise NZ will be considered a joke in some areas.

But let's face it, on the other hand, we don't have the mistrust with our far away neighbours (OZ, PI's) unlike these SE Asian countries and their very near neighbours, so it's not suprising that they are uparming and for the various reasons outlined above.

The above figures may be astounding for the likes of NZ - but I'd like to know more about NZ and these other country's income/debt/GDP etc (eg I'd guess they spend less on health and education compared to NZ and more on defence) to have an informed debate etc :-)

[kiwiscanfly]

well nige as we all know many of the South Asain countries do spend more money on defence then they should and do spend far less on education, medical ect........ but I think that it still puts our defence spending into perspective............. if they can affors it why can't we?