The French

[Mailman]

Ahmed Zaoui is a dream compared to some of the absolute scum you poms have let in to this country (and no, Im not talking about Australians! ).

Then again, I guess you have to let them jihadi's in just in case you end up offending them! guru

Mailman

[Joe Black]

Wasnt our poxy boat.. it was however our poxy police that caught the French James Bond wannabes. I liked it, means I dont need a Visa for France, but they still need a Visa for NZ, plus we got a big wedge of cash and some EU concessions.. all for the Frenchies sinking a Greenpeace boat that I didnt care about.

A big wedge of cash and some EU consessions? The amount given would barely amount to a weeks spending from one of their slush funds. Concessions? there weren't any.

As far as I see it the Frenchies got away with it. NZ was forced under threat of more EU restrictions being pushed through by France (NZ farming already suffering from EU limits on produce and 50% tariffs which almost bankrupted the economy) to let Mafart and Prieur serve their sentences on French territory. Within a short period of time they were repatriated to France and next seen on the steps of the Elysee Palace being handed the 'Légion d'honneur' by Mitterand.

The slight difficulty a Frenchman faces in having to apply for a guaranteed visa before they go on holiday doesn't seem much to brag about...


Edit: an interesting take on what happened for those interested: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s351111.htm

[Mailman]

Not quite so sure what France got away with, since they got nabbed and forced to apologise and had to hand over $20mil (or about £2.5 at todays exchange rate ).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior

So...was $20 mil, international embarrassment and the worlds focus on your dirty underwear (trying to implicate MI6??) really worth sinking a Greenpeace boat. Not to mention frenchies super duper secret agents getting snapped by constable plod AND making it a bit of a pain in the arse for your people to travel down south.

So not quite so sure what they got away with aye?

Mailman

[tay]

A big wedge of cash and some EU consessions? The amount given would barely amount to a weeks spending from one of their slush funds. Concessions? there weren't any.

yes there was, NZ agricultural produscts always had a tough time getting into EU markets, not since. We got concessions alright. And you might think 20 million quid is nothing.. but considering all we had to do was capture a couple of spies, easy money.

[Joe Black]

So...was $20 mil, international embarrassment and the worlds focus on your dirty underwear (trying to implicate MI6??) really worth sinking a Greenpeace boat...not quite so sure what they got away with

Well, considering they seemed to have achieved their objective and how much they were prepared to spend and what it was worth to them, the amount paid was trivial.

A 10 year sentence, where NZ is forced to let them serve it on French territory (French ambassador sending them wine and Cognac for Xmas) and going home to be handed medals after just two years. Doesn't seem too bad to me.

As for the worlds focus, NZ was more or less left to fend for itself. Despite the ship being registered in the UK and the leaks trying to implicate MI6, the UK did nothing and treated it, like many other countries, as the equivalent of a domestic dispute. Amongst most French it was "c'est l'Etat, c'est la vie". They seemed more upset that it made then look incompetent than anything else.

yes there was, NZ agricultural produscts always had a tough time getting into EU markets, not since. We got concessions alright.

You mean like this: http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocum...cumentID=18640, or the promise from the French not to oppose NZ butter imports for all of the next two years.

Perhaps if you Google "EU consessions to NZ" you might prove me wrong...

[tay]

Your example is 19 years after the original concessions....

Well, considering they seemed to have achieved their objective and how much they were prepared to spend and what it was worth to them, the amount paid was trivial.

Even in your deluded world surely sinking a greenpeace boat, getting caught and paying millions of pounds in compensation is not achieving the objective.

[tay]

What I dont understand is how anyone could have possibly expected NZ to do anymore than it did. We are a minnow country with the intgernational clout of a gnat, we have no armed forces to speak of, our police dont carry guns, and if we lodge a diplomatic protest with another country it generally gets filed between the jam dougnut order and the bog roll requisition sheet. Oh well... we dont care, we are quite happy being the pimple on the end of the world as its far more peaceful than the rest of the world, we dont have worries about national security and we know that we are white and western enough that if any other country invades us (like Fiji), most of the western world will rescue us.

But.. having said all that.... our constaple plods humiliated the French, catching their little James Bond wannabes blowing up a ship that didnt even belong to us, we werent protecting it, it wasnt registered to us... most of us dont even like Greenpeace much.

However catch the agents we did .... due to a motel owner being nosy and reporting the spies, apparently they were supposedly on a honeymoon but were sleeping in seperate beds.. so she rung the police....

So Greenpeace lost a boat... we made France apologise, give us some money, give us concessions... all with practically no help from any other country.. and yet people like Joe Black think the french got away with it? Mission accomplished.. jesus if thats mission accomplished I am never ever planning a crime caper with him.

[Gonzo]

Oh well... we dont care, we are quite happy being the pimple on the end of the world as its far more peaceful than the rest of the world, we dont have worries about national security

Looks like your govenrment is keen to get your country up to speed with the rest of the west http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/in...m?c_id=1501470

But they are having to find a different bogeyman to the one that we have been given.

[tay]

We dont do anything properly, e ven our national threats are under-whelming.

[Joe Black]

Your example is 19 years after the original concessions....

Even in your deluded world surely sinking a greenpeace boat, getting caught and paying millions of pounds in compensation is not achieving the objective.

Given that their aim was to prevent Greenpeace from gaining evidence of the effects of Frances nuclear program - radiation leakage into the sea etc, which could have been used to put international pressure on the French to stop their test program, sinking the ship and preventing that happening to me hardly seems like utter failure.

"Your example is 19 years after the original concessions...."

Of course, that was the point. Other than France holding off backing any further restrictions against NZ produce for a few years, before and after it was business as usual.

Jeez, it's like trying to explain things to a three year old...