Being Legal don't make it honest.

"I come fairly to kill him honestly."   Beaumont & Fletcher.     New Zealand is going down the tricky path of all power to the politicians.  The citizen is expected to shut up, does as he's told and refrain from criticism.  Meanwhile, his basic human rights are being whittled away in the name of political conformity.  Godzone is second only to the United States as to the number of citizens incarcerated.  New prisons are being built to house those who commit the unspeakable crime of thinking for themselves.  To be fair, the vast majority of prisoners have committed real crimes but there are incidents of people being locked up for expressing independence.  A recent example is an Algerian politician locked up for two years without being charged with anything.  His only crime was to flee a military coup at home and enter NZ using a forged passport.  Considering that the Maori didn't issue visas or ask the British to invade and conquer Godzone, does a passport really matter? One has to be careful who one votes into political power these days.  While the majority of novice politicians express the desire to help their fellows, the practical reality is that they must be prepared to lie through their teeth and treat their fellows with contempt.  By NZ's standards the pay is good and they can live reasonably well at public expense.  All they have to do is compromise, nod wisely and say, 'Yes Prime Minister.' Current politicians have realised they can do anything they want, impose all sorts of regulations and the majority of people won't lift a finger.  Accordingly, minorities are penalised and the majority say that's OK, just as long as it doesn't effect us.  That's the political reality of NZ's so called democracy.  Actually NZ is rapidly becoming a dictatorship with an elite few in charge.  Money is power and they steal the bulk of the citizen's income without a qualm.  Thus, when society starts to deteriorate, they dish out the stolen money and say aren't we being generous?  Now vote for us or no money.  Power over money perpetuates into power over people.  Eternal greed enforcing eternal compliance is nothing new in our corrupt world. Have you noticed how George Bush is protected from protest groups?   He never sees them. Thus, believes he's loved by all.  Citing the Bible is of course another political ploy to con the non thinking people.  They wave little flags and forget they're being treated as simpletons in the pursuit for political power and money.  But not everybody is stupid.  Have you ever wondered why presidents get themselves assassinated? New Zealand is lucky so far.  Politically speaking, we're virtually violence free.  But the portents are ominous.  Recently an opposition Member of Parliament had his caravan (trailer) fire bombed.  It was the second violent incident involving the same MP.  I would have thought the guy was relatively harmless, but obviously somebody begs to differ.  About three years back I predicted Godzone would have political violence in about ten years.  I was wrong.  It's started already and can only get worse and the politicians have nobody to blame but themselves. When politicians ignore the will of the people and promote all sorts of unnecessary impositions, violent protests are inevitable.  I limit my protests to words.  Is not the power of the written word more powerful that bullets?  But how many word smiths did Stalin and Hitler lock up or murder? Godzone is a small and isolated country.  Martial law could be imposed and the rest of the world wouldn't notice.  Maybe the recently announced data that about one million (20%) of the population now live overseas is telling us something?