The Sydenham Socialist & Motorcycle Enthusiast Society

15/07/2026

13/07/2026

Just got my annual motorcycle registration invoice for the only modern motorcycle I own, $816.45.

I do think that charging based on engine size is illogical.

As a comparison my modern bike is an 850 Moto Guzzi producing 75 HP, 195 to 200 km/h while a Triumph 675, 105 to 128 horsepower (257 to 265 km/h). Rego cost for the Triumph $507.13.

That's a $309.32 difference.

I might add too, according to most studies and motorbike accident stats, intersections are the most common places for motorbike accidents as they involve many vehicles crossing paths, taking turns, and stopping.

Ministry of Transport and NZ Police data indicates that in roughly 90% of crashes involving a motorcycle and a car at urban intersections, the car driver is primarily or partially at fault.

Just saying.

Looks like I will put the Guzzi on hold for winter.

13/07/2026

Port Unions Call for Local Control at Lyttelton Port

The Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) are renewing their call for Christchurch City Holdings Limited (CCHL) and the Christchurch City Council to reject global port operator DP World’s takeover bid for the port of Lyttelton.

The two port unions are advocating Lyttelton Port remains locally controlled, operated, and focused on its workforce and wider benefits for the region.

The port unions’ call comes in response to recent media coverage outlining an alternative proposal put forward by the Tōnui consortium, a joint venture involving local rūnanga and global giant DP World.

While unions share the rūnanga’s concerns regarding environmental stewardship and the lack of engagement from current Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) leadership, they strongly maintain that global port conglomerates are not the answer for Aotearoa’s strategic assets.

Mark Wilson, RMTU Lyttelton Branch Secretary, says the Unions are telling CCHL and the council to ditch the DP World proposal.

“What Lyttelton Port needs is for management and governance to meet with the port unions and chart a joint way forward. We want a strategic partnership that respects both workers and the community, ensuring our port is controlled and operated by and for our region and our country.”

The unions note the current tension stems from a long-standing failure of LPC leadership to engage constructively with its workforce, local iwi, and the wider community.

Maritime Union of New Zealand Lyttelton Branch Secretary Gerard Loader says port workers and the local community share many of the same concerns as local Māori.

“However, bringing in a global giant like DP World that will dominate and control is a step in the wrong direction for New Zealand’s supply chain.”

He says port unions look forward to a constructive dialogue with rūnanga.

MUNZ and RMTU are urging CCHL to foster a genuine, transparent, and local future that secures public ownership, honours environmental bottom lines, and treats workers as key stakeholders.

Both port unions will be represented at the community campaign meeting on Friday 17 July 7pm at the Loons Hall, Lyttelton, to keep Lyttelton port in public ownership.

11/07/2026

🇫🇷 💣🌈 Today is the 41st anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Waitematā harbour by French secret service agents who placed two limpet mines on the ship’s hull, timed to detonate after they left. Photographer Fernando Pereira, who had joined the crew to document French nuclear bomb ‘testing’ on the 's forthcoming trip to Moruroa, was killed in the bombing.

While the attack was clearly intended to prevent negative publicity about France’s nuclear weapons ‘testing’ in Mā’ohi Nui, particularly as it was done less than a month before the Treaty of Rarotonga / South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty opened for signature on 6 August 1985 ( https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1193155662841564 ), ironically it had the opposite effect - highlighting to audiences around the world, who until then had largely ignored the voices and opposition of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement and Pacific governments, the lengths that nuclear armed states are prepared to go to try and conceal their nasty nuclear destruction.

France later paid compensation to New Zealand "in recognition of the events surrounding the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland on 10 July 1985" that was used, in part, to establish the Peace and Disarmament Education Trust ( ) to provide post-graduate scholarships, funding for internships and grants for projects related to peace and disarmament. The interest on the Trust’s capital was used for two funding rounds a year until this year, when the funding available was 50% less than the amount available last year, apparently due mainly to lower investment returns and market losses, dispersed in only one round. It is not clear how or if if this is related to cuts to funding for other grants administered by the DIA, including the Disarmament Education United Nations Implementation Fund ( ) which was shut down entirely this year, with eligible NGOs advised to instead apply for grants from the proceeds of gambling, which raises serious ethical concerns as well as questions about NZ's practical commitment to disarmament ...
https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1375134047977057

The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior is not the only anniversary this month related to the devastating ongoing impact of nuclear weapons in the Pacific, including the disastrous repercussions of more than 300 full scale nuclear bomb detonations by Britain, France and the US here in the Pacific, using Pacific peoples "as human guinea pigs in an obscene experiment to 'progress' the insane pursuit of nuclear weapons supremacy", https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1369940101829785

Last week, we marked the 60th anniversary of France's detonation of a nuclear bomb code named Aldébaran at Moruroa, a 28 kiloton bomb nearly double the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima which caused widespread radioactive contamination throughout the region, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1478860954271032 That was the first of 193 nuclear bomb blasts from 1966 to 1996 at Moruroa and Fangataufa by France.

Also last week, we marked the 80th anniversary of the first US nuclear bomb blast in the Marshall Islands, a 23 kt atomic bomb detonated above Bikini Atoll ... “for the good of mankind, and to end all wars” ... the first of 67 US nuclear ‘tests’ in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1477976981026096

The Rainbow Warrior's final journey before the bombing was to evacuate the people of Rongelap following that US nuclear ‘testing’ programme in the Marshall Islands, see for example 'Rongelap people remember forced evacuation after US nuclear tests', https://matangitonga.to/2025/03/28/rongelap-people-remember-forced-evacuation-us-nuclear-tests and the Greenpeace account of the evacuation at https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/75199/a-defining-moment-in-history-40-years-ago-the-marshall-islands-fought-to-protect-their-future-and-defied-the-us

Rongelap was extensively contaminated when particles of radioactive fallout from 'Castle Bravo' - the largest ever US nuclear warhead detonation - landed on the island to a depth of one and a half inches in places on 1 March 1958: the anniversary of 'Castle Bravo' became known throughout the Pacific as Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day, commemorated as Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day in the Marshall Islands, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1369940101829785

During the observance of last year, the Marshall Islands signed the Treaty of Rarotonga, a decision the Pacific Islands Forum stated “carries profound importance given its history and ongoing advocacy for nuclear justice”, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1069123751911423

Just three days ago, it was the ninth anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons ( ), which was adopted on 7 July 2017, an anniversary of hope and also a time to reflect that for all communities harmed by is long overdue, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1483479923809135

It is also a time to reflect that the arrogant colonial mindset which allowed, indeed encouraged, the horror of nuclear weapons ‘testing’ and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior continues today - the Pacific is still neither nuclear free nor independent.

The Pacific is still impacted by the many faces of colonisation - physical, cultural, spiritual, economic, nuclear, military - past and present, and the ongoing issues of independence, self-determination and sovereignty here in Aotearoa and the other colonised and occupied countries of the Pacific remain, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1369940101829785

To stop further nuclearisation, militarisation and economic exploitation of our region, we must all act on the theme of the 8th Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Conference: “No te parau tia, no te parau mau, no te tiamaraa, e tu, e tu - For justice, for truth and for independence, wake up, stand up!”

Rainbow Warrior images: Greenpeace Aotearoa for a Pax Christi Aotearoa Te Upoko o te Ika Radio Pacific Conference of Churches Pacific Network on Globalisation Moruroa e tatou Marshall Islands Student Association - FIJI Youngsolwara National Nuclear Commission, Republic of the Marshall Islands Marshallese Educational Initiative Greenpeace Aotearoa Greenpeace International Pax Christi International IPB - International Peace Bureau ICAN France - Campagne Internationale pour Abolir les Armes Nucléaires Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese Quakers in Nelson Labrats

10/07/2026

As horror and outrage continue to be expressed by our Govt. after China's test of an unarmed ICBM in the Pacific, a great many New Zealanders are being manipulated by an ongoing global, highly successful US propaganda campaign, aided by our complaisant public media.

To bring a little balance and proportion to the topic, below is a summary which would seem rather relevant. The information is not "classified"; it's all available from U.S. Govt. releases.

Strangely though, despite our Prime Minister Christopher Luxon describing China's ballistic missile test as "incredibly unwelcome" and "unacceptable", and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour strongly condemning the action as "extremely unwelcome behaviour" that militarises the region, neither seem aware of their bosom ally's history in the post-war Pacific. Have the GCSB and the NZSIS kept them in the dark? :) Somewhat doubtful ! "What I would say to you is that it's an Operational Matter." ???
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Recent dates on which US test fired nuclear-capable ICBM missiles 7,000kms into the mid-Pacific:

•2026: March 5, June tbc.
•2025: February 19, May 21, November 4.
•2024: June 4, June 6, September 4.
•2023: February 9, April 19, September 6, November 1.
•2022: August 16, September 7.
•2021: February 23, August 11.
•2020: February 5, August 4, September 2, October 29.
•2019: February 5, May 1, May 9, October 2.
•2018: April 25, May 14, July 31, November 7.
•2017: February 8, April 26, May 3, August 2.
•2016: February 20, February 25, September 5.
•2015: March 23, March 27, May 20, August 19, October 21.
•2014: May 22, September 23.
•2013: May 22, September 22, September 26.
•2012: February 25, November 14.
•2011: June 22, July 27.
•2010: June 16, September 17.
•2009: June 29, August 23.
•2008: May 22, August 13.
•2007: February 7, May 15, August 8.
•2006: February 16, June 14, July 20.
•2005: August 25, September 14.
•2004: July 23, September 15.
•2003: June 11, September 10.
•2002: September 18.
•2001: February 7, June 13.
•2000: June 8, September 27."

Source https://x.com/PeterCronau/status/2074411541643051128?s=20
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The SS&MES opposes ALL weapons-testing in the Pacific ----- we are disgusted though that successive NZ Governments have failed to condemn the U.S. war preparations in this perhaps optimistically labeled Ocean of Peace, and continue to send our military to take part in exercises such as RIMPAC and China-baiting battle group transits of the Taiwan Strait.
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* As a footnote:
A U.S test code-named "Frigate Bird" on May 6, 1962 was a key part of "Operation Dominic," a massive series of atmospheric nuclear tests. A Polaris A-2 ballistic missile fired from the USS Ethan Allen (SSBN-608) flew hundreds of miles and successfully detonated its live nuclear warhead in the atmosphere over the Pacific.
"Frigate Bird" is a landmark in U.S. military history, the first (launch to detonation) operational test of a nuclear missile fired from a submerged submarine ever carried out by the United States.
64 years later, the Chinese repeat the exercise, minus the nuclear explosion, and they're the bad guys?

09/07/2026

Interesting to see the countries that voted against or abstained.

Diplomatic tensions between Washington and Havana have widened in recent months.

06/07/2026

German federal prosecutors have filed charges against a Ukrainian national over a series of Nord Stream pipeline blasts in September 2022.

The suspect, identified only as Serhiy K. under German privacy law, faces allegations including war crimes, causing an explosion, and destroying infrastructure, according to German media reports.

Investigators say he coordinated the operation that damaged both pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm.

The blasts in September 2022 halted gas flows from Russia to Germany and crippled key energy links.



https://www.dw.com/p/5GP4x

05/07/2026

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME.

Trump Asked FIFA to Review Balogun’s Suspension. He Is Now Eligible to Play.

The reversal is highly unusual and the first time since 1962 that FIFA has allowed a player to appear in a game when they would have been suspended.
President Trump called Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, on Wednesday and asked him to review the suspension of the United States’ top goal scorer, Folarin Balogun, after he was given a red card in the team’s match that night against Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to three people familiar with the conversation.

On Sunday, FIFA announced that Mr. Balogun would be eligible to play Monday against Belgium after it reversed the suspension.

The reversal is highly unusual and the first time since 1962 that FIFA has allowed a player to appear in a game when they would have been suspended. It also comes as Mr. Infantino has spent years trying to curry favor with Mr. Trump. Last year, FIFA created and gave Mr. Trump the FIFA Peace Prize amid the president’s public, but failed, campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pascale Van Damme, the president of the Belgian federation, did not reply to a message seeking comment.

NYT, 5 July 2026
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SS&MES . . and I guess we can now assume that team U.S.A. will contest the Final, that it will win, and that it will win by the Greatest Margin that a Football World Cup has ever been won by? Oh, and that a couple of the opposing Finalist's top players will receive retrospective Red Cards before the match kicks off? Corruption? What corruption?

02/07/2026

AN "OWN GOAL" FOR SMIRKER SEYMOUR ?

Anybody but Act Party Leader David Seymour would probably have been a little ashamed to take home the end of term Report assessed by the Auditor General's Office of the Associate Minister of Education's pet project, the "reformed" School Lunches scheme. His awareness of his own brilliance, however, seems to have protected our David from any crisis of self-confidence. Remember the old trick of "losing" a less than satisfactory report on the way home from school? It was working well here, until those pesky people of the Taxpayers' Union lodged an O.I.A. request and obtained a copy of the document.
Measured against the criteria for another of Seymour's portfolios, his self-contrived Ministry for Regulation ( designed, remember, to kneecap bureaucracy, slash red tape and save the country billions), it makes damning reading. In case you missed RNZ journalist Marika Khabazi's article, herewith an abbreviated summary.
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RNZ :

Staff at the Ministry of Education assigned to the Healthy School Lunches programme spent about $130,000 on travel in a year. Remodelled under Associate Education Minister David Seymour in an effort to save taxpayer money, the programme has come under renewed criticism this week after the Audit Office found unfair procurement practices and inadequate monitoring of value for money.

Now, an Official Information Act response to a request from the Taxpayers' Union has revealed details around staffing and travel expenses.

The documents show the equivalent of 37 total full-time staff work at the ministry work on the school lunches programme, which is largely delivered through external providers.

Nine of those had "manager" job titles, a further 22 were senior, principal or lead advisors, with the remainder being four programme coordinators and a "development chef ".

Two communications advisors were also dedicated to the scheme, with the ministry citing the need for continuity on the programmes.

The 12 staff hired since the start of 2025 were on starting rates of a combined minimum $1.1 million a year, half of those in senior roles earning more than $100,000 a year.

Recruitment since 1 January 2025 includes:

One strategy and partnerships manager in a band of at least $142k to $214k*
Two service delivery managers on at least $121k to $181k*
Three staff in a senior administrator band of about $100k to $108k
Six senior advisors on about $74k to $86k

* Uses pay band information from late 2023 to mid 2024

The general manager of the programme alone spent more than $17,600 between April 2025 and the start of March on accommodation and travel between Wellington and his home in Rotorua.

More than $10,000 was spent in the same time period on one staff member taking three trips - including flights, accommodation, meals, transport and parking - to the Chatham Islands to "implement the internal model at three schools".

The ministry's response also said it had no "analysis, briefings or advice" on appropriate staffing for a programme primarily delivering services through external providers..

In a statement, Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Austin Ellingham-Banks said the ministry had "outsourced the lunches but kept the bureaucracy".

"For all that overhead, the Auditor-General found the ministry 'did not have sufficiently robust mechanisms to measure, manage, and monitor' the programme. What on earth are they all doing?"

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SS&MES :

* "9 of the 37 staff had "manager" job titles, a further 22 were senior, principal or lead advisors, with the remainder being four programme coordinators and a "development chef". ???
That many Chiefs doesn't leave a helluva lot of Indians to get on with slashing the Red Tape. Still, we mustn't hold our collective breath waiting to hear a satisfactory explanation ---- the whole schemozzle will doubtless turn out to be yet another of those Ministerial "NO GO" areas, an Operational Matter. There've been quite a few of them lately.