The first business trip of 2009 Woo-hoo!  I'd say "watch this space for updates", but frankly, I don't think there will be all that much worth updating.  I suspect my week will consists of a great deal of "get up, go to work, go back to hotel, get a bite to eat, go to bed, repeat".

 

However, if, on the odd chance that something exciting or out of the ordinary happens, I'll put it in here!

 

Hasta

James

An Open Letter to John Key, Ehud Olmert, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Kofi Annan:

 

I have developed a plan for ending the ongoing strife between Israel and the Palestinian state.  At the risk of sounding immodest, I think this proposal addresses all the important points, and is really a "win-win" situation for all involved.

  

Israel is a "created" state as it is.  It did not exist as a modern country until roughly 60 years ago.  I am not arguing the whether or not that was a good thing.  That is for those much more intelligent that I to debate and discuss.  I merely suggest that perhaps it's not the existence of Israel that is causing the strife, but rather the location.  Obviously, if the country was "created", then the land for it had to come from somewhere.  And the past sixty years would indicate that the people who gave up their land weren't really a big fan of that plan, and it has created a bit of strife, difficulty, war and bloodshed as a result.

 

Really, let's think about this--somewhere there was a meeting where a bunch of people said "Hey, we want to create a Jewish state.  So where should we put it?  Right in the middle of a bunch of people who are predisposed not to like it from the get-go.  And we'll take the land off of those people involuntarily.  This'll work!"

Who thought this was a good idea?  Seriously, am I the only person who sees a few flaws in that plan?

 

So I am suggesting that New Zealand should offer up a section of Canterbury to become Israel.  Think of it as a donation to world peace.  Really, it's in everyone's best interest.  There aren't that many people in the South Island anyway, so it would disturb not that many of my fellow New Zealanders.  The climate is similar.  We'd probably have to through in the infrastructure from at least one reasonably sized city, so Christchurch would do.  Israel at present is about half the size of Canterbury, so we don't even have to give them all of Canterbury, just half.  We will have to give up some farmland and sea access, but the overall benefits should easily offset that.

 

What are those benefits?  The first one is obvious--the import of millions of people and all the economic and business benefits that come with them.  New Zealand is in an economic recession at the moment and the government is trying to work out how to stave it off, or offset the effects.  Let's be honest, we are primarily and exporting nation.  However, instead of shipping our goods to the the market, we'll be bringing a market to our goods. 

 

Then there's the secondary benefit of all the work that would need to be done to actually implement this plan.  All sorts of jobs will be created by the creation of Israel v2.  There's the obvious construction of the boundary fences/border crossings that will need to be put in.  Not to mention all the jobs generated by the relocation of the current inhabitants of the region.  Beyond that, Israel is a massive importer of goods.  They haven't historically been a major trading partner of New Zealand, but I'm sure that would change if they were on our doorstep! 

 

Secondly, according to many sources "business" is the prime output of Israel.  So who better to have asan economic "island-partner" than a country that excels and growing and developing business and revenues?

 

This is but a sampling of the benefits to New Zealand.  The reasoned mind will surely identify others.  But what are the benefits to Israel?

 

First, and most obvious, new neighbors who are not sworn to the destruction of the Israel.  Hard to see the locals lobbing projectiles from Dunedin.  The worst they can probably expect is some drunken Otago students tossing the odd empty over the fence.  I don't really think we can put a value on this. 

 

Secondly, it's reasonably similar terrain and climate, so pretty easy for the emigres to adjust.  And assuming that not all will want to move, will probably end up with a bit more space anyway.

 

Thirdly, the fishing is better.

 

I'm not suggesting that there aren't a few details to be worked out here, but I'm confident that it's nothing that a little bit of Kiwi ingenuity and some creative thinking can't fix.  For example, I'm pretty sure Weta could do a really good job of recreating some of the prime tourist attractions that are found in Israel, and the new locations will have the added benefit of not being crumbling from being really old.  And it will be much safer for the tourists (see the first benefit listed earlier).  If push came to shove, I'm sure some things could actually be relocated.  History is filled with people dismantling buildings piece by piece and then shipping them somewhere else and re-erecting them.  I'm not saying it would be easy, but I'm certain it could be done here as well.

 

Now this last argument, what is to be rebuilt v. what is to be moved, is something that Israel will have to discuss and compromise with the Palestinian state on.  I know that historically this has not proven to be a strong point in the relationship between to the two.  However, I have to believe that with the prospect of the current location of Israel being vacated, there might be some room for discussion that's never existed before.

 

So, I think you can see from this modest proposal, everyone really gets something that they want/of benefit for them, and nobody has to be shot.

I didn't have too many New Year's resolutions this year--

 

Really, only three:

1.  Write the book I've been meaning to write.

2.  Be disciplined about my exercise (I've been totally slack and I can feel it).

3.  Keep my blogs up to date (defined as at least one post per week).

 

It's really only number three that's relevant here--so this is post 1.

 

I just got back from a week of camping with the family at Tawharunui--awesome time as usual.  Other than the first day (it rained literally the entire day and into the night), it was good weather the whole time and lots of fun in the sun on the beach and on the hill.  Nobody got hurt and everyone got to do the things they wanted to do (mostly).  Lots of digging in the sand, fishing, boogie boarding and general relaxing was done by all.

 

I hope anyone who stumbles across this had a Happy New Year, and I wish you all the best in the upcoming year.

 

Cheers,

James