New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote.
New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance in the 1980s was brave and at the time cost it a lot economically. Kiwis, as they are known stood up for themselves. Small boats sailed from New Zealand to fight the French Military at a small island where the arrogant French Government of the time was testing nuclear weapons in someone else’s space (a point we will come back to). The whole episode ended with the capture of French agents sent by their Government to blow up the Green Peace boat in New Zealand. This resulted in the death of a man onboard the boat. As far as I am aware this is the only terrorist attack on New Zealand soil. Is the government still jumpy about another attack?
New Zealand is also by a long way the leader in Indigenous people rights, it is a country I love! But last night for me it became a country I am ashamed of.
I am/was a proud Kiwi, I may not have lived there for a very long time but I will always call it home, I hope. Just as I was drifting off to sleep last night watching Tone Vays talk about green nines in his technical analysis of the price of Bitcoin, still don’t get it Tone, he mentioned that New Zealand now has the right to demand your phone password on entry to the country. He is doing a seminar there to teach people about what a green nine is later this year. It was heartbreaking to hear him say that he would be warning people about this new law in New Zealand. It is the first time I have ever heard someone warn others about anything to do with my beloved country, ever! I then google this and found the CNN article that appears to be where this news first hit the press.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/03/asia/new-zealand-customs-passwords-intl/index.html
I am pretty tired and grumpy as I write this article so excuse the grammar etc I just need to get this off my chest.
I gave up on sleeping when I saw Andreas Antonopoulos tweet:
It was nice visiting New Zealand twice. Pity I won’t be going back… In today’s society this kind of Orwellian bullshit is unacceptable.
It was nice visiting New Zealand twice. Pity I won’t be going back… In today’s society this kind of orwellian bullshit is unacceptable. https://t.co/9PIZAJHK8T
— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) October 1, 2018
That got a lot of likes and retweets in only the space of a few hours! Please take note of this Jacinda, New Zealand leader, God. Basically, this law is all about a Digital search. It is pretty much game over for any form of privacy when this gets underway.
New Zealand’s national anthem is about God defending New Zealand, in fact, that is what it is called. The Prime minister goes to great lengths to present herself as a regular person insisting she likes to be called by her first name, Jacinda. Well, Jacinda, should everyone call you God now. What wonderful God-like laws will you pass next. Or should we call you Santa, Santa knows if you have been naughty or nice, something you clearly want to find out with people’s phone passwords?
If someone has been really naughty I doubt they have incriminating evidence on their phones, and if they did, I am sure they will be happy to pay the paltry fine and then use their phone to get up to all sorts of fuckery while visiting Hobbits. Nice work giving Stephen Colbert an honoree citizenship of Hobiton in front of a global audience while you strip away human rights in the background. Enough of the Hobbit chat as well, move on, we are a country, not a theme park.
I have not seen the actual legislation and this is could be a knee jerk reaction, naive maybe. I am just reacting to what the Crypto people I respect are saying about my country and it is not good. I am also just going on what I am reading in media like CNN and the ABC. Now if it turns out the legislation says that this new law requires super strong evidence that the person being digitally searched is suspected of major crimes or is a major threat then fair enough. This person must have been on the radar before arriving in New Zealand. If this is not the case and someone who has had a shitty day, broken up with their girlfriend, or is a psychopath working at customs/boarder control, can search anyone based on their gut feeling, then game over for our current government at the next election. I trust New Zealanders are smart enough to show this lot the door. Kiwis are proud of how the world sees us and I expect a very strong reaction to this. I think the world press be all over this story and it will hurt New Zealand.
I’m fortunate to know some people who have run countries, Military’s, Global companies, all people I was pleased had those roles, good people. I don’t know much about the current Prime Minister of New Zealand but I’m not liking what I’m seeing.
I was blessed to have had a Grandfather who devoted his life to the rights of people and securing good working conditions for them. Part of my passion for this new censorship-resistant global currency, Bitcoin, I’m sure is born from this. It is with great sadness that all of a sudden I see the current leadership of New Zealand as a dark murky force passing laws that will erode human dignity and freedom and align with a greater global movement of communism and totalitarianism; total centralised control! Sound crazy to you? Picture yourself, as someone goes through your phone, probably on one of those border control programs hahahah.
The clock is ticking people! Choose your leaders wisely, New Zealand didn’t. Most importantly stand up for yourselves when you see so-called leaders making mistakes, or just being plain evil. Those people, who sailed off in small boats to fight the might of the French Military were saying: Fuck off! This is our space! Don’t let your space be taken away, don’t be brain dead robots.
Bitcoin is the first time in human history we have a store of value, pride, money, call it what you will, that cannot be taken off you. I hope whoever is reading this might just start to see that having such an asset will retain some dignity and gives hope that we have the ability to control our own lives one day.
The CNN article reported this:
The New Zealand Customs spokeswoman said the number of electronic devices examined is “very low.” She added that of the 14 million travelers risk assessed and processed in 2017, “only 537 devices were examined.”
Sounds like you don’t need a digital search law then! Super low risk but nah let’s pass a law that gives us the power to search anyone and everyone. You know how this shit ends don’t you?
Time magazine reported a 500% increase in these searches in one year in the US.
Digital “strip searches,” as full digital inspections have become known, are becoming increasingly common. In the U.S., border agents conducted 25,000 such searches in 2016, up from just 5,000 in 2015, according to an analysis by the Guardian.
Well, to the 4 Million people of New Zealand, you need to do a risk assessment on a handful of people and you got it wrong this time. Oh sorry, that’s right you didn’t, her party came second and some guy who could not even win the vote of his local neighbourhood held the balance of power and formed a government with her lot. Apologies to New Zealand voters, a crazy law led to a shitty situation.
*Apologies to Jacinda if you didn’t pass this law and this is fake news or just a bad dream… but only then!
I would love to hear your opinion, leave your comment below.