My verdict on National's latest policy releases

1) privatiztion of school property
Politically - it is a bit dangerous, it brings more emphasis on the fact that national is the party of privitization. National has been hiding its policy for a while. A good fraction of their policies are likely to be less popular than saying nothing and this is not a total disaster so I give it a C

Technically : I like the idea. it sems ridiculous to say that schools should also be involved in property management. I think it is not a bad idea for hte government to invest in property - but school property is likely to be one of the worst of those investments. better to make more money from another inestment and use that to pay for the school property. Of course one would need to carefully monitor performance.

2) removing the cap on doctor fees
Politically - political suicide - what on earth were they thinking? If they really wnated to do that they should have disguised it in a wider policy - like some big policy discussion on how to get more doctors or something.

Technically : doctors are statutory monopolies in a number of regards. And if we don't have enough docotrs a more effective answer might be to make us require less of them by freeing them up from a lot of perscription work, paperwork etc.

NZ herald comments on media coverage

"We talk to you only because you are not just a reporter for Kiwi newspaper. Kiwi newspaper always makes Chinese people look bad," one Chinese community member said.

The Chinese woman's sentiments may well be justified. Trudy Millar, an Otago University student who recently did a study on mainstream news coverage of immigrants, found that they were almost always cast in a bad light.

Looking at the Herald, she found 127 stories on immigrants in the past three years, out of which 62 had content which she classified as portraying them negatively, 36 neutral and only 29 positive stories.

lincon then says

The result has been exceptional news coverage of a story which could have easily slipped into another negative portrayal of an immigrant community, but turned into one which cuts across racial boundaries, touched every heart and has truly fascinated the public.

Trust defended

Grace Xue inidcates she even turned down an interview which could have earned her $10,000.

"We rejected that because it's not an opportunity for me to make money. You can't put a price on your dignity and you can't sell your own story."

Her partner, Shane, had taken two weeks off work without pay and it had cost them to make phonecalls to Australia related to the case but she never had any intention of trying to claim those, or any other expenses, from the trust.

Ms Xue also said she never had any intention of asking the trust to pay for the PR expense and has not even received a bill.

Now, with the trust formed Ms Xue said she has agreed to do an interview with a magazine for a "significant amount" but only if the payment goes directly to the trust.

Ms Xue said when she first learned about Qian Xun's plight she was told Madame Liu was elderly and did not have much money.

She said she has since learned Madame Liu does have money but says the trust will be there to give extra help.

the threads usually start with an old post translated here from septempber 2006. Then There are a number of people who will respond with various degrees of bile. Some of the worst of which call for her rape etc.
NZ herald says on this topic

Some people have gone so far as to wish the 27-year-old Auckland woman dead, while others have placed a curse on her young son.

There are clearly some sick people out there.

Ms Xue's spokesman, Tony Edmonds, said she was aware of the comments being made about her and had taken legal advice.

"It's hurtful and the early legal advice is that it's defamatory."

Edmonds said many of the defamatory allegations being posted about Ms Xue seemed to be the result of cultural differences.

Pumpkins grandmother

Madam Liu Xiao Ping is Pumpkins grandmother, she is the deputy general manager of a chain of five-star hotels in China's Hunan province. I believe it is the "Hunan Yunda Real Estate Development Co. Ltd" on Xi Street & ChenJia Street in Hunan
here is one of their projects Looks like the the Sheraton Changsha (the 43 floor, Hunan Yunda Plaza) is the crown jewel which is of course in conjunction with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
here is a picture - second from left

OK too much information already...

Tazers

as DPF says

The latest Police shooting appears to be a good example of where a Tazer may have saved a life.

I'm always in favour of giving the police more weapons and more powers. The basic principle is that you dont criple your own police force - unstead you give them all the options and then force them to have the appropriate protocols and training.

To put it simply - if police use tazers inappropriatly then the problem is not that they have tazers - it is that they are people who abuse the tools they are given! the situation should be possible to remedy via more training, more careful hiring of police and more careful investigation of incidents.

The bottom line is it is easy to see a large number of situations whee having a tazer would save either the lives of criminals or police and victims, if it can save lives you should not entirely take it off hte table (although, of course, there might be a number of restrictions on it).

Xue's trail remains warm

Chief Hession said the trail left by Xue remains warm.

“I would say it's not cold,” he said.

“We have some leads and we're conducting interviews and investigating the things that develop from there.

“We have a couple of dozen people working on this particular case right now and we have access to several dozen more if we need to.”

Some media reports have said Xue may be running out of cash after withdrawing $6455 in US currency in Auckland, before flying to Melbourne and purchasing the flight to LA worth more than $A2800.

If so, Xue may be looking for work in LA.

One presumes his income sources in NZ have been frozen - or at least that he has not attempted to access them.

Trust fund

The NZherald reports that the Half sister of pumpkin has asked for some money from the trust for Public relations. there is nothing to see here actually, since the trust will either accept it or reject it as per usual for trusts (yes a certain percentage of trust money - up to 15% of this particular trust - always goes on this sort of thing).

But what their choice to publish such a non story does indicate, is that the NZ media is begining to shift its position towards the people involved. It seems they want to post this sort of a story.

method of murder

The telegraph also has the murder weapon
a yellow teck tie aparently used for strangulation
Family friend David Ma claims police told him the tie had been used to kill Mrs Xue, who married her fugitive husband Naiyin Xue, 54, in a simple ceremony at a registry office.

Mr Ma said detectives had informed him of the tie's significance as they asked him if he recognised it. Police would not comment.

This week, New Zealand detectives seized the tie, a martial arts staff and a dressing gown as the search for Xue intensified in the US.

here is the video for Nai Yin pleading for Grace to come back

Daily telegraph on Xue

OMG Michelle Cazullino is a legend here is her article on Xue.

On what would likely be the last night of her life, the 27-year-old sat in her home in the Auckland suburb of Mount Roskill, writing in Mandarin on her personal blog about her distress at the loss of her married lover.

"In this world, most of us have a lot of hard times; we struggle for living with exceeding loneliness," she wrote.
...
As the world would come to learn less than a fortnight later, the "good memories" were pitifully few, punctuated by periods of mindless violence and futile attempts to escape the sadistic spectre of her husband, Nai Xin Xue. This week he became an international fugitive after it was revealed he had abducted their three-year-old daughter, Qian Xun, and dumped her at Melbourne's Southern Cross railway station last Saturday.
...
Xue is now the prime suspect in her murder and there are suggestions their daughter might have witnessed her mother's death.
Even in Annie's most terrifying nightmares, she could never have anticipated it would come to this.

From the outset, she had been dependent on Xue, firstly as a struggling young language student who saw an opportunity when her landlord offered to let her move in, and later as a 23-year-old bride, already three months pregnant.

Their disastrous union was always destined to fail: at 50, Xue was a year older than Annie's mother and a divorced magazine publisher and martial arts practitioner, whose lack of financial acumen led one creditor to label him a "terrible businessman". As Annie would soon come to learn, there was a more sinister side to her new husband.

Intensely possessive of his beautiful family, he soon began exhibiting the same selfish traits that led him to abandon his eldest daughter Grace, then 19, in New Zealand in 1999. Despite later claiming she had run away from him, he eventually devised an explanation that allowed him to simultaneously accept the blame for their parting while exonerating himself of any real wrongdoing. The man who once published a book documenting his birth as a gift to his mother from the gods would never accept that his "mission" - spreading his style of martial arts around the world - was doomed to fail time and again.

In the mid-1990s, he arrived in New Zealand from Fushun, in China's Liaoning province, keen to prove his expertise as a kung fu master, and promptly organised a demonstration designed to showcase his expertise. What happened next would become the stuff of local gossip for years to come.

"He invited people to come and test how skilful he was," restaurant owner and former acquaintance Raymond Tang recalls. "I believe a Pacific Islander came up and because of his mass, (Xue) was beaten easily - just one move and he was off the track. He left New Zealand for some years before coming back again and proclaiming himself a master. I do not know him well, but I do not feel it's the case."

History was destined to repeat itself in Los Angeles, where Xue surfaced again in 1999. Although he was temporarily reunited with former girlfriend Qiu Yan Xu, he was ostracised by the local martial-arts community almost immediately.

According to Anguang Sun, owner of the Tai Chi Academy of Los Angeles, Xue advertised for students in a local Chinese-language newspaper, but was soon found to have inflated his qualifications.

"He is a very arrogant man . . . I don't think anybody liked him here," Sun says. "He told people that he was the best in the world at Wu-style tai chi - he said he was a grand master. He was always boasting and lying, all so he could make money by cheating people."

His fortunes looked to have turned around by the time he met Annie in late 2002. The publisher of Auckland's Chinese Times, he allowed himself to be filmed for a university documentary as he made a tearful plea for the "missing" Grace to get in touch. He resolved to be a better father when Qian arrived in early 2004. About that time, he established the NZ Energy Kungfu Association and was running a number of increasingly popular tai chi classes.

But chillingly, he also began using his young wife as a punching bag.

By the time he became a New Zealand citizen, and she a resident, in 2005, the couple's marital difficulties were well entrenched and they had moved houses several times.

The situation came to a head a year later, when Xue was convicted of bashing his wife. The details of the assault, contained in court papers, revealed that he had held a kitchen knife to her stomach and had threatened to kill her for the crime, in his eyes, of "not returning his love". He had also bashed her, leaving her right eye swollen and bruised and her nose bloody.

Their daughter, the couple's only child, also suffered a cut to the head. In September, Annie spent a month in Shakti Asian Women's Refuge in Auckland, where she was helped to obtain protection and parenting orders.

Another Chinese woman, who met her during her stay, later recalled how Annie had arrived at the shelter battered and bleeding.

She later admitted to being bashed by Xue, who was demanding sex on a daily basis and had confiscated her passport to prevent her from leaving. The woman wrote on a Chinese language website: "(Xue) threatened if Annie escaped he would kill Annie and her family."

The couple's neighbours were also aware of their marital problems, with many of them describing him as a strange and difficult man.

"I think his temper (was) not very good: easy to anger," Yu Hui said.

In November, Annie fled with their daughter to her parents' home in Changsha, in China's Hunan province, but the pair returned to New Zealand in February this year.

She appeared to have resolved not to return to her husband, and using the pseudonyms Flower on the Other Bank and Bi An, she enrolled in three dating websites.

In one listing, she describes herself as childless; in another, she wrote that she was looking for friendship in a "hard, uncontrollable and lonely life". Eventually, she began an affair with a married man. She wrote extensively about their short-lived liaison on her personal blog, which she opened on July 29. The man in question is thought to be a Wellington artist, the man she calls "my ideal" on the site.

"He is a married man, even has a two-year-old daughter. This dooms he and I to a fleeting affair," she wrote in an entry dated August 29.

"Like a family living happily together for almost two months . . . I found myself deeply in love with this a little bad and very cute guy.

"Fool around, but don't fall in love. This is a truism. The deeper the love, the most painful is the hurt. The week before his wife returned, I drove away and fled our little love nest . . . fled the city that belongs to him.

"The heart, cut like a knife. A wounded heart. Tears, on the face . . . there'll never be anyone who loves you as deeply as I do, this you'll never understand." Xue, however, was not ready to relinquish his control over his wife, and nothing in their relationship would change.

With her lover now out of the picture, he was able to talk her into returning to him.

Yet not even the thought of losing her for good was enough to compel him to alter his ways. "Annie was a very peaceful and friendly lady," neighbour Mao Shi Quan recalls.

"A few months ago (she) came to my house very frightened."

In the final few entries on her blog, Annie detailed the impact of her destructive marriage.

"Life is like a (bad) dream," she wrote. "My life is unstable and I hope I can just have the freedom to come and go any time I want until I can find a place where I can emotionally have a rest.

"But I simply can't find it. I am tired and lonely. Life is meaningless without love. Life is suffering."

Despite that, she had not given up on finding a new partner.

"If I love someone," she wrote, "I will also love his shortcomings. I will be a good wife and a good mum."

By that stage, she had also begun lying to her mother, Liu Xiaoping, who was in constant contact with her daughter over the internet.

On August 20, she told Liu the reason she had returned to Auckland from Wellington was that Qian was not accustomed to the city's wild and windy weather.

She also claimed she had not returned to her husband, although Liu would later learn that was a lie when she rang her daughter's phone and Xue himself answered.

For Liu, the decision was characteristic of her daughter: "She was a very kind, unsophisticated person, she was very trusting and naive and she didn't have much social experience," she said earlier this week. "But she cared very much about her family, her child and her husband."

Others had another explanation. "Annie had no will of her own," family friend Yuegang Wang says.

"That made her totally dependent on her husband (both) financially and emotionally."

By Tuesday, September 11, her time was running out. The last confirmed sighting of her took place at 4.35pm that afternoon. Annie's final hours remain a mystery, although it is believed her husband confronted her about her extramarital affair. At 9.20pm, Xue was caught on CCTV cameras retrieving a ceremonial sword and his passport, both of which had been confiscated by police after an earlier domestic incident.

But when Annie refused to testify against her husband, authorities had no choice to return them.

From there, he allegedly drove himself and little Qian - Pumpkin - to the airport in his wife's car, which was later discovered in the carpark where he left it.

The pair were again caught on security cameras in Melbourne, with Xue abandoning the child at the bottom of an escalator.

Dragging a large suitcase behind him, he never looked back.

Qian has since been placed in the custody of the Victorian Department of Human Services and remains in the care of a foster family.

Few details have been released about how she is faring, but earlier this week, it was revealed that she had reacted with excitement after recognising a photo of her mother on TV. And sadly for the little girl, if she did witness Annie's murder, Qian seems to have no real understanding that she is gone.

political test

here is the US primaries political test
and here I am
Strange I seem to have drivted to a less authoritarian and more left leaning perspective - although I think it might reflect changing questions.
I would say in reality I am actually mroe authoritarian than almost anyone on the USA primary list and hard to define on the left right spectrum but generally rather centrist.

I prefered my last result that had me just in the upper left quarter.

Memorial for Anan

It looks like the chinese herald got the scoop on the memorial I presume that means they have the insiders regarding the grandmothers friends and friends of Anan - not entirely surprisingly of course.

Why was there not a flag on Xue's / Xun Xun's passport?

Why can people who apparently commit child/spousal abuse like Xue still leave NZ so easily on pasports? (OK I guess he is allegedly guilty of thse things one needs to be careful)

Surely there should be some sort of automatic hold on their ability to travel with their children in light of that sort of thing at least without the other partner's agreement. Otherwise we are wide open to someone commiting a crime and abducting the child and taking them overseas. Come on surely our government departments can talk to each other.

Having said that I understand they dont talk much at all.

Xue from the net

A book about his style - apparently

Someone in 2001 asking about naiYin

More from his blog

reference
Form and Push Hands Training. By Xue Nai-Yin. Tai Chi: The International
Magazine of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Volume 23, No. 3, June,
1999, pp. 42-43.

Some one writes about his training advice
When I asked Xue Nai-Yin, who taught me the Xing-yi Five Element Fist, how he could be so good in martial arts, instead of answering my question, he asked me, “Do you believe that I trained eight hours every day for many years?” Of course, I do. A recipe for success in learning a martial art is a good learning environment plus hard work and some talent.

Someone accused Xue of being a fake

There's a guy called Xue Nai Yin in Auckland who teaches Wu style. Perhaps that's who you're looking for?

The Chinese government apparently gave him a "Grand Master" title, though I'm not sure how much the Chinese government knows about martial arts!

His approach seems very much tournament based rather than traditional tai chi chuan.

I once pushed him over at a public demonstration. Shortly afterwards, an article (apparently written by a relative of Xue) appeared in the local Chinese newspaper describing the situation and boasting that he'd won.

His publicity materials say he's challeneged and beaten all the tai chi masters in New Zealand, but when I mentioned a couple of very prominent ones to him he hadn't even heard of them and had no interest in meeting them.

someone accuses Xue of being a fake and the NZ herald asks for some help :)

Xue nai yin is so bad.
He doesn't have anything.
He is so bad in his city.
There are many people who knows that xue nai yin is fake.
Almost his teacher don't think he is theire students.
Almost his pictures or technics are fakes.

If you want to know,please go to shenyang look for many master. They will teach you.

Nai Yin Xue's blog

I found Nai Yin Xue's blog . Of course this is not in Chinese.

he says
Master Xue Naiyin is from Fushun of Liaoning province. As the successor of the sixth generation, he was Chairman of Liaoning Taijiquan Association and General Coach of Liaoning International Taijiquan Training Center in 1995.

Master Xue Naiyin started practising martial arts when he was eight-years-old.

Since then, he has learned Wushu first from Mr Jie Zizhu and afterwards from Mr Duan Degui and Mr Qiao Songmao. What he was practised are Form-and - will Boxing. Eight Trigrams palm nd Wu Style Taijiquan.

As he has always been studying assiduously being strict with himself according to the instructions, he has grasped the spirit and quintessence of the boxing of inner strength and sensitivity .

In 1978, he began to pass on the skill of Wushu in many schools, and from 1980s on, he specializes in Taijiquan.

In order to get to know the true essence of Taijiquan, he has visited a great number of famous martial artists and asked them for advice on how to futher improve his Kungfu and he has made rapid progress.

In 1992, he successfully established Fushun Wu style Taijiquan Research Commitee, whose members have been over 4000.

And in 1995 he was elected as Chairman of Liaoning Taijiquan Association when it was established.

He was also examined and approved as a Taijiquan expert at the First National Master Get-Together of Taijiquan Masters in 1993 and in the next year he was formally named International Taijiquan Famous Master. The articles by Xue Naiyin have abtained praise and prizes many times.

They have been published in the magazines around the world, especialy the international famous T'AI CHI magazine.

His works ' Orthobox schools of Wu style Taijiquan' and "Wu Style Taijiquan and swordplay" have been published by Beijing sport university Publishing House. The videotape Wustyle Taijiquan has also come out in Shenyang

The pupils of Master Xue Naiyin have been seen everywhere both at home and abroad such as Japan, Singapore, Spain, Germany and New Zealand. Master Xue Naiyin immigrated to New Zealand 1996 and he made a lot of contribution to the development of Tai ji in NZ.

His ultimate goal is to spread Wu style Tai ji to as many places as possble , so more and more people can get benfit from it.

text from Nai Yin Xue's book

Does anyone have an electronic version of some text from Nai Yin Xue's book? I would Like to use it to see if he has been posting on the internet using pseudonyms. I suspect he has and I'm pretty good about analysing these sorts of things I've beaten many so called experts to it before.

Grandmother speaks of Xun Xun

The age reports on the grandmother interview

Ms Liu said Qian Xun told her: "Mummy is asleep now. She got up and then went to sleep again.

"Daddy left me at the train station. I don't know where he has gone."

Mrs Liu, an executive in a hotel and property group, fought tears as she spoke of the first time she saw the footage of a lost and lonely Qian Xun.

"When myself and my family saw the footage of Qian Xun at the foot of the escalator in a Melbourne train station looking around, we all burst out crying.

"I didn't think that the last time I saw my daughter in February this year would be the final goodbye," she told Chinese TV. "I am very, very sad."

Mrs Liu said Qian Xun became anxious whenever she left the room. "She is worried that I just disappear at any moment and abandon her somewhere she didn't know," Ms Liu said through a translator.

She said her granddaughter wanted to go back to China, where she has spent time in the past.

Search for lover

In LA the police are looking for Hairdressing instructor from beijing, Qiu Yan Xu who was reported to be Xue's lover in his book.

NZ police

I dont like to be critical of the NZ police but their handling of the 'pumpkin case' deserves some mention

Police say 'We did the right thing over car'
Police are staunchly defending their handling of the An An Liu homicide inquiry, but remain under fire for taking days to discover her badly beaten body in the boot of her husband's car. Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope commended the inquiry yesterday, saying it had proceeded "in keeping with best professional practice". During the 45 hours between the Police arriving at the home and discovering the body in the boot, many of the journalists were leaning on the car writing their notes and joking that the body was in the boot.

Now in their defence
1) origionally the case was not a homocide - it was a investigation of an abandoned child case on behalf of australia. That doesn't require boot searches of every car.
2) NZ police have many restrictions they need to obey in order to not spoil convictions (and not get fired) - probably too many.

But still. In missing children cases "always check the parents" and in murders - "Always look in the boot" (so always get the warrent for it).

is pumpkin a racist term?

there has been some debate over whether the term "pumpkin" is racist or offensive.

Bomber says
Dumb cops and a media dumbing down the story. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Stil I have found that the term pumpkin seems pretty popular even in the chinese bulliten boards. At first glance I thought it might be bit offensive but it would seem those who should most be offended are not offended.

more on Qian Xun Xue (Xun Xun / little pumpkin)

A wikipedia article has been set up it's of course not as up to date as he best blogs but it will develop.

Meanwhile the grandmother has written an open letter to NZ

Today is a Traditional Chinese Festival-Mid-Autumn Day, which is a day for all of the family members get together. However, I need to leave the hometown with grieved feelings and fly over thousands of miles to handle my lovely daughter, An An Liu’s funeral in New Zealand. At this very moment, anyone who has conscience would understand the deepest pain in my broken heart.

Several years ago, An An arrived in New Zealand with a beautiful wish that to pursue knowledge and consummate her self-desire and happiness. However, she is closed her eyes now and would keep her unfinished wish forever. I and My family and all of An An’s friends are bearing so much regrets and bitterness that beyond description. Hence, I want to condemn the violence crime that this murderer did to An An, and I’m requesting the Interpol to arrest this brutal criminal as soon as possible, to punish this criminal by law, and give back the fairness to An An and all the people who loves An An.

An An is my only daughter, and Xun Xun is my only granddaughter, blood is thicker than water. Therefore, I will bring my daughter back home, and let her peaceful soul rests in her homeland in China. I will adopt my lovely little granddaughter and take her with me as well. I want she grows up healthy in a safe and warm place that well protected by us. After the case occurs, Xun Xun has suffered the enormous misfortune, yet at the same time, she is also experienced the truest love that gathered by hundreds and thousands people who continually giving care to Xun Xun with love. In China, there is an old saying for ‘great love’: for a drip of water, we should give back with a spring. We will let Xun Xun memorize this ‘great love’, and I feel strongly that I have duties and responsibilities to take care of Xun Xun, and I will try my best to provide a harmonious environment for Xun Xun, and to bring up her as an honesty and virtuous person with brilliant outstanding to make the contribution for the society.

In this grave misfortune, all walks of life have given us the huge sympathy and help. I and my family would like to give our most sincerity in acknowledgment of the General Consulate of People’s Republic of China in New Zealand and in Melbourne, and also the government in New Zealand and Australian. We would like to say thanks to all the media agencies for their justice supports; thanks to all the people who are helping us and taking care of my granddaughter Xun Xun. At last, we especially want to say thanks to and give our respects to the police agencies of New Zealand, Australia and the United State.



Yours sincerely,

Xiao Ping Liu

25/09/2007

more on Qian Xun Xue (Xun Xun / little pumpkin)

A wikipedia article has been set up it's of course not as up to date as he best blogs but it will develop.

Meanwhile the grandmother has written an open letter to NZ

Today is a Traditional Chinese Festival-Mid-Autumn Day, which is a day for all of the family members get together. However, I need to leave the hometown with grieved feelings and fly over thousands of miles to handle my lovely daughter, An An Liu’s funeral in New Zealand. At this very moment, anyone who has conscience would understand the deepest pain in my broken heart.

Several years ago, An An arrived in New Zealand with a beautiful wish that to pursue knowledge and consummate her self-desire and happiness. However, she is closed her eyes now and would keep her unfinished wish forever. I and My family and all of An An’s friends are bearing so much regrets and bitterness that beyond description. Hence, I want to condemn the violence crime that this murderer did to An An, and I’m requesting the Interpol to arrest this brutal criminal as soon as possible, to punish this criminal by law, and give back the fairness to An An and all the people who loves An An.

An An is my only daughter, and Xun Xun is my only granddaughter, blood is thicker than water. Therefore, I will bring my daughter back home, and let her peaceful soul rests in her homeland in China. I will adopt my lovely little granddaughter and take her with me as well. I want she grows up healthy in a safe and warm place that well protected by us. After the case occurs, Xun Xun has suffered the enormous misfortune, yet at the same time, she is also experienced the truest love that gathered by hundreds and thousands people who continually giving care to Xun Xun with love. In China, there is an old saying for ‘great love’: for a drip of water, we should give back with a spring. We will let Xun Xun memorize this ‘great love’, and I feel strongly that I have duties and responsibilities to take care of Xun Xun, and I will try my best to provide a harmonious environment for Xun Xun, and to bring up her as an honesty and virtuous person with brilliant outstanding to make the contribution for the society.

In this grave misfortune, all walks of life have given us the huge sympathy and help. I and my family would like to give our most sincerity in acknowledgment of the General Consulate of People’s Republic of China in New Zealand and in Melbourne, and also the government in New Zealand and Australian. We would like to say thanks to all the media agencies for their justice supports; thanks to all the people who are helping us and taking care of my granddaughter Xun Xun. At last, we especially want to say thanks to and give our respects to the police agencies of New Zealand, Australia and the United State.



Yours sincerely,

Xiao Ping Liu

25/09/2007

CYFS and 'pumpkin'

Grace Xue her partner, CYFS and the Grandmother will be considering Qian Xue's future .
Most likely she wil return to china with her grandmother - I say that because government ministers have already stated this to be the likely result and that CYFS might well be influenced by that.
Also while both parties have money enough to care for Qian Xun the grandmother is known to the child and is from the murdered as opposed to murderer's side of the family which they might think helps psychologically.

Regardless they should be putting their best peopel onto it so they should come up with the right decision whatever that might be.

CYFS released the below

Child, Youth and Family has a focus on keeping families together, but most importantly the welfare and interests of the child are the first and paramount consideration. Children thrive in a permanent homes that provide a sense of emotional, cultural and personal belonging, and the opportunity for life long attachments. It is very important that we work Qian's family to achieve this for her.

We will be meeting with the grandmother on her arrival in NZ and ensuring she is well supported and able to care for Qian. We will also be ensuring that Qian's emotional needs and wellbeing are well looked after. Our Australian colleagues will assist us with information about Qian's time in Australia to help in addressing her best interests.

In circumstances such as these it is important that we have legal protections in place for Qian. We are working closely with the Court to ensure that these are in place and that the process is smooth and efficient.

We are very conscious of the need to ensure decisions and plans are made promptly.

We are applying for Qian to be placed in the custody of the Chief Executive until further planning can occur. From there a number of steps will be required; and given the circumstances surrounding Qian it will be important that we are sensitive to the family's grief and the trauma that Qian has already suffered.

Our practice in these kinds of situations is to involve the family in discussions and decision making. We will be planning to bring family together to make plans for her; this will involve family who are in NZ and family in China who we can identify. It is important that family are at the heart of the planning for Qian. We will want to ensure that the family is provided with all the information we can give them so that they can make the best decisions for her. A lawyer will be appointed to Qian to ensure her best interests.

We understand visas will be required for Qian to leave NZ for China, if this is what is decided is in her best interests. If this is required we will work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Chinese Authorities to obtain the necessary documents.

Police and the "shoot people with knives" email

A big fuss has been made of a email that circulated regarding Cops and peopel with knives. For context here is the full email below without hte photos (I dont want to make this site R18)

also I note that it's actually not a police officer. It's believed to be the result of inmates fighting inside a prison. (http://www.snopes.com/photos/gruesome/kunsan.asp)

The photos are of an officer trained in hand-to-hand combat.
The officer thought, due to his size and fighting skills, he could disarm a knife wielding aggressor.

Here is why I am forwarding these on.

To all the idiots out there who always say, "Why did the cops have to shoot him?
He only had a (insert your choice of weapons here, i.e. knife, bat, club. whatever).?
He didn't have to be shot.

To that, I respond, "tough crap ... shoot'em".

If an officer tells you to drop your weapon, just drop it.
If you're a retard, stupid, on crack, mental or just "scared" ... too bad.?

No one deserves what this cop got for just doing his job.?
If you've got a knife, then you should die ... period.

This is vivid proof of how deadly people who are "only" armed with a knife can be.

Some of the public think that officers should try to disarm someone armed with a knife but anyone who has had training in knife fighting will tell you - even if you win you are going to get cut. Keep this in the back of your mind when confronting someone armed with an edged weapon.

There is a bit more context to that email that it has been suggested in our local media. Clearly the person is suggesting you shoot a person whi is acting agressively with a knife desipte instructions. Of course even that might be too much, but how peroic do we want our police to be?

Mr Xue

Nai Xin Xue was also apparently married to Nancy Chen. Nancy Chen never met An An Liu. But like An An, she emigrated from China, and in Auckland met, Nai Xin. "He was deeply suspicious" At times he would punish her by locking her out of the house for hours.
while she plead to get back in. One night he was beaten and strangled by her husband.

She went to the police and then went to Shakti Asian Women's Refuge spending three months there. She has not seen her husband since.

---

He also traveled to the US to show off his skills at tai chi - apparently the community over in the US saw him as being a show off and some of them investigated his credentials and discovered that he is not a master. One contacted china and was told hewas not while another pushed him to test his skills a test he apparently failed.

He wrote a book which details his trip and this, together with his bragging, provides a lot of clues regarding where he might try to hide. Police are already aware of an ex lover in the US who might try to hide him and the fact that they don't sem to have contacted her yet implies that she doesn't want to be found for some reason.

Liu AnAn's blog

FYI here is a copy of her blog
Ie pumpkin's mother's blog

OK picky people here is the origional

An an's affair?

Cao Jun has asserted that he did not have an affair with Anan. His statement is credible - it would seem that An an (pumpkins mother) was probably trying to make Nai Yin Jealous.
Cao Jun said
1) He has two children, 17-year-old daughter, and son 21 months - so her blog was incorrect about that
2. He asserts he was not in Wellington when she said he was there and he did not have opportunity to be there
3. Her photos of him are taken from the public domain
4. He asserted his right to defend himself against defamation (not that that makes his statement any more or less credible) but his defense sounds very much like that of an innocent man.

Charity

We were phoned today by a woman who said "I am calling today from the westpack trust helicopter or somthing like that, would you like to donate some money?"

Oh My God.. if you don't know for sure what charity you are geting money for, why the hell would I give you my money!!

Global warming

NZ has just released its quite pathetic new anto global warming legislation.
this is more formally, the framework for its new emissions trading scheme. The first sector on board from 1 January next year will be forestry (ie we get to pay out some money to people own pine trees). The transport fuels sector will be next in 2009 (bus tickets to cost more maybe). the electricity/energy and industrial sectors then agriculture, waste, and solvents in 2013.

In theory by 2040 the only sector which is not carbon neutral will be agriculture. The bad news then is that agriculture is about half our emissions. Over the first commitment period we seem to have the ambitious goal of considerably increasing our emissions (due to the fact that agriculture is excempt) in the long run we seem to have modest goals.

Overall the labour government has compromised to the politically sensitive groups of forestry and agriculture in order to make it so that national cant oppose the legislation (and ensure that the greens will) - a politically savy move as with their handling of the pumpkin case - the smart labour party is back! But environmentall it is a complete dud - and their excuses ring hollow. Agriculture CAN take action to reduce their output nd they can generaly afford it (they are flush with cash in the dairy sector at least).

It smells rather like the whole Kyoto process. it would seem our aims are to reduce pollution from NZ and the EU while China and india get a free ride because we cant stop them. Bottom line is that then we will get a massive net increase in polution.

Its would seem that global warming has become all about keepign the masses vaguely happy with the feeling that we are doing somthing on the political front while not actualy doing much and thus keeping them happy on the money front.
the government tells us this will cause about a 4cent rise in petrol prices - well think - how much will that change your driving behaviour? - not at all? ok well that is exactly how effective it will be.

All that it will do is make a few foresters a litle richer and a few poor countries a bit richer on a global scale. otherwise - well we need to grow bigger balls if we want to achieve anything.

Pumpkin**

Staff at Southern Cross railway station in Australia's second largest city found the girl crying and alone on Saturday. Security footage showed Mr Xue leaving his daughter. They named her Pumpkin after the brand of clothing she was wearing at the time. She was placed in care of a foster family in the Australian state of Victoria.

Xue Nai Xin 54 also known as Michael was active in the Auckland Chinese community, a magazine publisher and martial arts 'expert' (disputed by the tai chi community). He met annie an international student approximately 5 years ago. They had a child called Qian Xun. They separated last month with Annie moving to Wellington where she chaimed on her blog to have had an affair with Cao a chinese artist* who is married and claims to have never lived in Wellington. However they recently got back together.

The drama started when Xue Nai Xin collected his passport and a confiscated sword from Henderson Police around 9.35am prior to flying to Australia. he then abandoned his daughter at Melbourne’s Southern Cross Railway Station and boarded a flight to LA. New Zealand police were alerted and the investigation lead to the discovery of the body of an Asian Female has been found in a car boot outside the Xue home in Mt Roskill which was identified as annie's. The cause of death was determined as a violent act without the use of a weapon. The current assumption in the media appears to be that it was some sort of strangulation*** or similar as the result of a domestic violence episode. Police had been in contact with the family over incidents of domestic violence in the last year.****

the police indicate that it is quite posible that Qian Xun saw the act*****. And she reports that her father lied to her that her mother was in bed sick.

This case has gathered world wide attention. with media from not only australia los angeles and melbourne but also china korea and the UK being interested. As a result the hunt for Xue in the USA is heating up with reports of him taking a shuttle to china town and staying in a hotel there although he appears to have fled to a larger chinese community. It will be hard for him to hide with so much publicity.

meanwhile the NZ government has "moved heaven and earth" to get her grandmother to NZ and her half sister (grace xue) has started a trust fund (with the help of people such as sir Roger Douglas) - although the grandmother would like to politely refuse donations since she feels she is financially independant being somthing pretty much equivilent to the vice president of a decent sized company in china.

Grace and her partner Shane are investigating the chances of adopting Qian Xun while the grandmother has declaired she will try to take her back to China. Discussion are occuring with the help of NZ child youth and family services. the grandmother is known to Qian Xun and had means to suport her while Grace and Shane are younger and located in NZ, they also have a almost one year old child already.

* looks like this was a bit of a fantasy - it appears An an often did not tell the truth on the internet.
**I know I should use her real name but since even some family don't I feel excused
*** apparently with a yellow scarf
**** detals are in later posts
***** almost certain she saw somthing

Time

I was visualizing time travel.
I see it as being a set of paths from the beginning of time to the future like a near infinite bunch of straws in your hand. Each person who goes back in time causes their thread of existance to skip from one straw to another straw. So two peopel from the same time could go back in time and make changes to kill eachother and both suceed (in a sense).

Now what if there are mroe time travelers than possible worlds? (ie several time travelers per world) well then we cna either use nfinity mathmatics to say "it doesn't matter" (although I don't think that is valid in this context) or we could say you will start to go back in time and met other time travelers but time travelers from slightly different universes. You would then get all these infinite universes isolating until they reached a stable equilibrium. (ie for a one world example imagineif you went back in time and kill your dad then you would not be born so it would be another time traveler who got to be the time traveling pilot and he might kill his dad but then you exist again etc until one if them failed - possibly you).

The next interesting thing is how would these people react to time travel? Well since time travel to your past in essence could cripple your dominant civilization (and we assume you are dominant if you have time travel) then you would probably want to prevent it even for fairly benign behaviour - but how to prevent it without doing it yourself? My proposal is that one civilization would do a massive amount of time travel effectively neutralizing threats and making other time lines like their own history - in order to makeother civilizations that would want to make their own history like it is. Moulding the multiverse in their image.

So whatever time line your in you should see one species develop time travel try to use it without direct knowledge of its effects (which is ok because thatis natural) and then at some point realise the loop they are in and start sending out a huge number of time travelers to make the world liketheir own. because of the way these loops work you would pretty much only find universes justlike your own becuase the odds of being at the end of the loop are much higher than being ion the loops at the beginning because there is only a finite number of inconsistent loops.

Timre travel hypothesis

I was visualizing time travel.
I see it as being a set of paths from the beginning of time to the future like a near infinite bunch of straws in your hand. Each person who goes back in time causes their thread of existance to skip from one straw to another straw. So two peopel from the same time could go back in time and make changes to kill eachother and both suceed (in a sense).

Now what if there are mroe time travelers than possible worlds? (ie several time travelers per world) well then we cna either use nfinity mathmatics to say "it doesn't matter" (although I don't think that is valid in this context) or we could say you will start to go back in time and met other time travelers but time travelers from slightly different universes. You would then get all these infinite universes isolating until they reached a stable equilibrium. (ie for a one world example imagineif you went back in time and kill your dad then you would not be born so it would be another time traveler who got to be the time traveling pilot and he might kill his dad but then you exist again etc until one if them failed - possibly you).

The next interesting thing is how would these people react to time travel? Well since time travel to your past in essence could cripple your dominant civilization (and we assume you are dominant if you have time travel) then you would probably want to prevent it even for fairly benign behaviour - but how to prevent it without doing it yourself? My proposal is that one civilization would do a massive amount of time travel effectively neutralizing threats and making other time lines like their own history - in order to makeother civilizations that would want to make their own history like it is. Moulding the multiverse in their image.

So whatever time line your in you should see one species develop time travel try to use it without direct knowledge of its effects (which is ok because thatis natural) and then at some point realise the loop they are in and start sending out a huge number of time travelers to make the world liketheir own. because of the way these loops work you would pretty much only find universes justlike your own becuase the odds of being at the end of the loop are much higher than being ion the loops at the beginning because there is only a finite number of inconsistent loops.

World cup rugby

One of my theories of world cup rugby is that you should not beat the easy teams by large margins.
Why? Well there are two styles of rugby the first is all about not making errors because you know every error wil be punished and grinding down the oponent. the second style is about playing a weak opponent where you open up your defence because you know they probably cant take advantage.

the problem arises because they are quie different games. if oyu play 10 "lets crush them games" in a row then it will be very hard to settle back in to a "lets grind it out and win by 3 points" strategy. I think that is one of NZ's weakneses at world cup time because we will thrash a series of weak teams and loose by a small margin to a strong one.

With this in mind - if you want to win the world cup you should play every game like a grand final. sure score those tries against the minnows when they are available but keep up the mind set that any points they score are a defeat and dont try for tries that you know would be a waste of time against a good team.

Sure the public in NZ might complain about a 20 point victory over japan and insist it should have been 60 but they won't remember that for long. Giving minnows a hiding with lots of wide open agressive play says your team is good as individuals but your plan is poor (classic NZ rugby?).

BTW who were the crazy people picking france to be in the final? home ground advantage isn't worth nearly enough to get them there! they wil be lucky to make it into the quarters.

World Cup Rugby

One of my theories of world cup rugby is that you should not beat the easy teams by large margins.
Why? Well there are two styles of rugby the first is all about not making errors because oyu know every error wil be punished and grinding down the oponent. the second style is about playing a weak opponent where you open up your defence because you know they probably cant take advantage.

the problem arises because they are quie different games. if oyu play 10 "lets crush them games" in a row then it will be very hard to settle back in to a "lets grind it out and win by 3 points" strategy. I think that is one of NZ's weakneses at world cup time because we will thrash a series of weak teams and loose by a small margin to a strong one.

With this in mind - if you want to win the world cup you should play every game like a grand final. sure score those tries against the minnows when they are available but keep up the mind set that any points they score are a defeat and dont try for tries that you know would be a waste of time against a good team.

Sure the public in NZ might complain about a 20 point victory over japan and insist it should have been 60 but they won't remember that for long. Giving minnows a hiding with lots of wide open agressive play says your team is good as individuals but your plan is poor (classic NZ rugby?).

BTW who were the crazy people picking france to be in the final? home ground advantage isn't worth nearly enough to get them there! they wil be lucky to make it into the quarters.

Climate change

So New Zealand is two faced over climate change .
Australia and USA aren't sure it exists but if it does hope that nuclear power will magically resolve the issue.
And china thinks it exists and frankly doesn't care in the face of maintaining their economic growth rate. (which obviously dwarfs the other two issues)

Looks like hte green movement has failed and might as well join Maia in saying

'In fact if I think of climate change for more than 47 seconds I generally get to: "There is no hope, we're all doomed, I might as well just eat chocolate and watch Buffy while I still can."'

Aparently that is what most of our leaders are doing.

More on the simulation argument

Assumption set 1
1) indifference principle
2) that there are almost infinitely more ways the world could look 'not real' than look 'real'
3) there will not be an infinite weighting towards future civilizations running real simulations (unreal ones would probably be more effective to achieve most aims anyway).

using the above we can say we are either in a very special world or there is a low number of simulations. and therefore that the odds are that there wil never be many high quality simulations.

Assumption set 2
1) indifference principle
2) that civilizations will tend to run more simulations of current time than of ancent historical times
i) because they will be more useful (for example predicting real life behaviour)
ii) they are the data points that you start with - afterall we only know someone like churchill existed by backtracking historic data. So any new simulation program will presumably create you at the present moment and then work backwards to finally make you as a baby and forwards as new data comes in.
3) that simulations will be largely real ancestor simulations (indifference principle already implies this)

Now any simulation of a future period will include simulations of simulations and because of (2) at any instant in time those simulations will be weighted towards that instant in time with less and less sims living in earlier times. If there is a near infinite number of sims and a constant increase in computing power (which is what boistrom seems to suggest) then there would be a massive weighting towards the future sims.

Again this implies either we get sims really soon (regardless of if we are a sim or not) and become extinct - OR we never make many sims.

file with the matrix hypothesis

if your into the simulation (matrix) hypothesis then try investing in this
http://www.timetravelfund.com/
for a $10 investment you could be sucked into the far distant future!
Classy.