Tuesday 5 March 2019
1) Kiwi ISIS jihadist misses home
The facts:
A New Zealander who has been active with ISIS for five years is currently being held by Kurdish forces in Syria. The Kiwi jihadist, Mark Taylor, has received international news coverage. Taylor became known as the “bumbling jihadist” for his ineptitude in accidently sharing his, and an ISIS unit’s, location on social media.
In a recent interview, Taylor looked a rather pathetic and sorry character. He made a half-hearted apology for his actions. However, he then completely undercut his apology with a discussion of his previous desires to own a slave while he was an active ISIS member.
Analysis:
The least one could say about ex-ISIS member Mark Taylor is that he is not a particularly nice guy. Taylor chose to join and participate in a religious death cult, and he also participated in the group’s propaganda efforts to recruit young Westerners. He may appear very sorry for himself now that he has been captured. But he deserves absolutely no sympathy.
We have an odd situation right now where many liberals find it hard not to show some concern for the position that a number of young ISIS-jihadists from the West now find themselves in. Indeed, for many liberals, the likes of Mark Taylor, or former ISIS bride Shamima Begum, are victims of the former so-called Islamic State. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Taylor, Begum and scores of other young Westerners chose to join a fascist-like group that engaged in the most grotesque forms of crimes against poor and marginalised people in the ISIS self-declared caliphate. Other Westerners have chosen to join forces fighting ISIS, including joining Kurdish forces. One must be judged on one’s moral actions.
Young Westerners who joined Kurdish fighters against ISIS should be seen as heroes. And young Westerners who joined ISIS should be judged as the equivalent of violent bigoted fascists. Does this mean that former ISIS members like New Zealander Mark Taylor should have all their rights taken from them? Absolutely not.
When we demand due process and the rule of law for the likes of Taylor, we should do so on the basis of protecting civil liberties and hard fought for political freedoms. We must not let the state opportunistically use the case of Western jihadist returnees as a way to chip away at our own civil liberties and political rights. The likes of Mark Taylor and Shamima Begum may have embraced fascist like totalitarianism when they signed up to ISIS. We in contrast need to stand up for political freedoms and moral justice.
2) The leaders of the Council of Trade Unions and the Public Service Association have egg on their face after a CTU resolution was passed backing striking junior doctors.
The facts:
The top leadership of the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) and the Public Service Association (PSA) had refused to come out in support for striking doctors. And the PSA leadership had played an active role in supporting a moderate breakaway junior doctors’ union. CTU union boss Richard Wagstaff has been accused of effectively backing the government and the District Health Boards (DHBs) with their efforts to thwart the activism of the militant Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA).
Two health sector unions – the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and the NZ Nurses Association (NZNO) - have stood up to the CTU leadership by taking a resolution to the National Affiliate Council (NAC) of the CTU. The resolution condemned the union-busting efforts of the DHBs. The resolution was carried 9 votes to 4, with 2 abstentions.
Analysis:
The passing of this resolution in support of striking doctors is a huge slap in the face for the moderate union leadership of the CTU and PSA. What we are witnessing is effectively the start of a civil war within the union movement itself. More radical union leaders are at battle with more moderate union bosses. The very nature and modus operandi of New Zealand’s union movement has now been brought into question.
3) And finally, the government proposes banning ticket scalping
The facts:
Ticket reselling is to be regulated in New Zealand. The government is planning to effective ban ticket scalping with a range of new regulations. Measures will include a price cap on resale tickets
Analysis:
Music fans are likely to be happy with this move to ban ticket scalping. But is this an opportunistic measure by the government to win brownie points with young voters? New Zealand has a capitalist economy where market forces are seen as the driver of the sale of goods and services. Orthodox economists would therefore ask the Government, why should the sale of tickets suddenly be heavily regulated, when the free flow of goods and services is allowed in most other areas? Perhaps the Labour-led Government wants its capitalist cake and to eat it too.
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This political roundup by John Moore is an extension on the five-minute breakfast political roundup that John gives on Radio One Dunedin, Monday to Thursday at 9am.
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