PODCAST: Covid-19 & Melanesian Instability with Buchanan + Manning + Dr David Robie
This week’s A View from Afar podcast.
Political scientist Paul Buchanan and publisher/producer Selwyn Manning are joined by Dr David Robie to discuss how Covid-19 has become a trigger of instability in the wider Pacific Region.
Dr David Robie is editor of AsiaPacificReport.nz and a renowned expert on Melanesian and Pacific affairs.
In this, the first of a two-part SPECIAL, we analyse how Covid-19 has been a trigger of instability across the Pacific region.
And specifically, for this episode, we deep dive into instability in Melanesia focusing on:
- Security issues in Papua New Guinea
- Indonesia’s interests in dividing regional groups such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group
- a security crisis that has developed in Fiji, after the recent detention of nine politicians and activists who dared to criticise former military coup leader, Frank Bainimarama’s government.
Buchanan, Manning, and Robie analyse these topics in detail and express concern for Indonesian interference in the Melanesian Spearhead Group and for democracy in the region, especially as Fiji edges toward expected elections in 2022.
- About A View from Afar:
- A View from Afar is able to be re-streamed and re-broadcast. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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The podcast A View from Afar is produced by 36th Parallel assessments’ Paul G. Buchanan and Multimedia Investments Ltd’s Selwyn Manning.
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It was Nominated as a Top Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.
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Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.
You can also see this podcast as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.
A View from Afar by Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://eveningreport.nz/2021/07/29/podcast-buchanan-manning-on-cyber-attacks-and-the-evolution-of-hybrid-warfare/.
Introducing the Ecommerce Accounting Hub by A2X
Managing the accounting for an online business can be challenging. Between rapidly changing tax laws, increasing levels of automation and ever increasing complexity, it’s easy to get confused.
Launched today, the Ecommerce Accounting Hub by A2X brings together a comprehensive collection of educational resources that explore almost every aspect of accounting for today’s online businesses.
From the latest trends, research and data, to tried-and-trusted methods, the Ecommerce Accounting Hub provides a one-stop shop of the latest insights, knowledge and advice to help both sellers and their accountants to prosper in this rapidly evolving environment.
The Ecommerce Accounting Hub brings together educational guides on the following topics:
- The fundamentals of ecommerce accounting.
- What you need to know about ecommerce sales tax.
- The most important things to know for successfully accounting for Amazon, Shopify and eBay transactions.
- What accountants need to know to best serve ecommerce sellers.
The hub helps readers to gain a broad understanding of their chosen topic with actionable advice and information they can apply to their businesses straight away.
“Our goal here at A2X is to make ecommerce accounting easy. By creating the Ecommerce Accounting Hub, we hope to help more sellers and their accountants to demystify ecommerce accounting and support their ongoing success.” – Callum Armstrong, Content Manager at A2X.
You can find the Ecommerce Accounting Hub at www.a2xaccounting.com/ecommerce-accounting-hub/
PODCAST: Buchanan + Manning on Cyber-Attacks and the Evolution of Hybrid Warfare
This week’s A View from Afar podcast.
A View from Afar: Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning present this week’s podcast, A View from Afar with a deep-dive into cyber-attacks and hybrid warfare – Especially how 2021 has witnessed a Cold War II styled stand-off between global powers.
To re-cap, there has been:
- Allegations of a global-scale hack by the People’s Republic of China.
- There’s the Pegasus spyware scandal, where Israel has exported deep-tracking and targeting spyware to despots and authoritarian governments.
- Then there’s been the relatively silent mission-creep of Palantir as a Western-oriented Public Private Partnership-styled signals “facilitator”.
Paul and Selwyn discuss how all of this sets 2021 apart and adds up to an evolution of hybrid warfare capabilities.
About A View from Afar:
The podcast A View from Afar is produced by 36th Parallel assessments’ Paul G. Buchanan and Multimedia Investments Ltd’s Selwyn Manning. It was Nominated as a Top Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.
Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.
A View from Afar by Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://eveningreport.nz/2021/07/29/podcast-buchanan-manning-on-cyber-attacks-and-the-evolution-of-hybrid-warfare/.
DATA ETHICS: NEW CHALLENGES FOR AN OLD PROBLEM
Is it right to warn people when an algorithm predicts they are likely to commit a crime? Should the use of a facial recognition artificial intelligence tool that identifies people as gay be banned? Is it right for a visa application screening tool to be used before it can be certified as not containing racial bias?
Should children be removed from families when a data analytics tool suggests they are at risk of suffering abuse and neglect even though they have not suffered yet? What notice should a judge take of a machine prediction that someone will offend while on bail, even when their gut instinct tells her that he will not?
Welcome to the challenges of use of data analytics applications by governments. Dr. Nicholas Agar, an internationally renowned data ethicist from Victoria University has joined forces with one of the world’s leading universities, to design an intensive program on data ethics and algorithmic governance.
Dr. Agar said, “Public officials need to work from a robust data ethics model if they’re to properly support their elected leaders through the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Working with Carnegie Mellon University Australia, we have designed an executive education program that injects discipline into the thought processes needed for ethical use of such tools. I’m delighted that Dr. Craig Jones, Stats NZ Deputy Chief Executive for Data System Leadership has agreed to speak at the program.”
Governments’ experience with their use of data analytics tools so far has had mixed results. There have been many successes, but the number of failures is growing rapidly. One tool used to detect welfare fraud has brought down the Dutch Government while another similar tool has cost the Australian Government over $1 billion in compensation payments and extracted an apology from Prime Minister Morrison.
Other failures have occurred in areas as diverse as storing medical records through to predictive exam results for school-leavers and predictive land-use planning tools.
“Some of these have failed because of ethical shortcomings while others have suffered from democratic deficits. Technical inadequacy has been the least important factor explain the failures. But this also requires officials to also develop deeper understanding of both the methods and their applications,” Dr. Agar said.
The course gives participants hands-on experience with data analytics and data visualization tools applied to actual datasets to bring them close to the techniques and the issues associated with using them.
Guided by scholars and practitioners of policy, analytics and ethics, participants will develop their own robust framework for making ethical assessments. The course draws heavily upon New Zealand’s own experiences before concluding with a special session on balancing Noa (benefits and opportunities) against Tapu (sensitivities and risks).
Applications for Data Ethics and Algorithmic Government executive program close on June 11.
ABOUT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY-AUSTRALIA
At the invitation of the South Australian Government, CMU opened its Australian campus in Adelaide in 2006. Located in the historical International University Precinct in the heritage-listed Torrens Building in Victoria Square, CMU was the first international university to be established in Australia. Our Australian campus marks CMU’s presence in the Asia and Pacific region, making it a vital partner to the CMU extension campuses in Silicon Valley, Rwanda, and Qatar.
91% Kiwis think it’s safe to travel within NZ yet only 19% plan to take a holiday
Auckland, New Zealand – Travel search and comparison start up Tripomi conducted a survey in which New Zealanders were asked about their current travel outlook. 82% of survey respondents stated they would prefer to travel within New Zealand instead of abroad this year.
And while 91% of respondents believe it is currently safe to travel within New Zealand only 19% plan to take a holiday. As for visitors, 87% believe foreigners need to be vaccinated in order to visit New Zealand.
In terms of the destinations within New Zealand respondents plan to visit this year, Auckland ranked highest with 29%, followed by Queenstown (24%), Christchurch (21%) and Wellington (14%).
“The biggest surprise from our survey is that New Zealanders of all ages are interested in visiting cities while popular outdoor destinations such as Milford Sound received little interest,” said James Watson, one of Tripomi’s co-founders.
“We’re seeing an increase in searches for hotels in cities like Auckland which is good since many premium hotels are currently offering excellent deals,” said James.
When asked about the travel bubble with Australia, 62% of survey respondents (vs 38%) believe it is currently safe to travel to Australia, yet only 40% would visit.
About Tripomi:
Tripomi.com is a travel search and comparison site. It’s free to use, available 24/7, and contains zero advertisements. The best part is you never have to login or share any personal information. Just search and compare great offers.
Tripomi’s New Zealand Travel Outlook Survey:
- Google Survey:
- Sample size: 200
- Gender: All
- Ages: All
- Current Location: New Zealand
- Language: English
- Conducted: May 14-16 2021.
- Sampling method: Convenience
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Up on the big screen: New Zealand startup CloudCannon graces inspiring film “Outside the Valley”.
Follow the tales of homegrown tech startup CloudCannon in the upcoming international documentary film “Outside the Valley”.
Created by award-winning documentary producer and director Hunter Weeks, along with start-up legend J. Ryan Williams, the film Outside the Valley is set to hit the big screen in Dunedin on June 1st, 2021, 6PM at Rialto Cinemas.
The feature highlights the intriguing journey of startups from challenging norms and doubts, to succeeding in a cut-throat competition in the midst of a global pandemic. The documentary film Includes Dunedin’s very own CloudCannon, a software company on a mission to develop tools that enable companies to build and manage remarkable websites.
CloudCannon was spearheaded by founders George Phillips and Mike Neumegen and continues to create massive impact from this side of the world by supporting global enterprises, including many Silicon Valley companies, with their content management needs.
“We’re honoured to be part of this documentary. CloudCannon is serving customers around the globe and doing it from Dunedin, it’s exciting to see other companies succeeding from unlikely places. Sharing our story to help inspire others to take the same journey is really empowering to say the least,” Neumegen says.
Learn more about the documentary and screening schedules worldwide through OutsideTheValley.tv and cloudcannon.com.
About CloudCannon
CloudCannon makes building and managing static sites simple and easy by bringing all of the required elements together into an ‘all in one’ platform. Organisations seeking to leverage the performance benefits of static sites can use CloudCannon to connect to Git, automate a Jekyll or Hugo build on CloudCannon and host their site on CloudCannon’s global CDN all for one monthly price.
Arvida Group Partner with Liftango to Personalise Transport for Members
Christchurch, New Zealand. Arvida Group selects transport technology provider Liftango as a strategic partner to deliver innovative On-Demand Transport services as part of their new services to people living in their own homes.
The bespoke transport solution will provide personalised and On-Demand Transport for Arvida Good Friends members under the brand name Good Friends Go. Members will include Arvida residents across eight villages in Christchurch as well as people who live independently in the community.
Members can access the service via a smartphone App or request a booking by phone. The service consists of a unique membership functionality developed by Liftango. This allows members of Arvida Good Friends to book individual rides on-demand and pay as they go, or access unlimited rides for a monthly subscription.
“We saw this opportunity to expand our demand-responsive transport offering as it aligned with the needs of key members of society that require better access to transport,” says Trystan Eeles, COO and Co-Founder of Liftango.
Good Friends Go services eight Arvida facilities and is available now in Riccarton, Addington, Sydenham, Cashmere and Christchurch City.
“Adding Liftango’s On-Demand Transport solution provides our members with more choice in how they plan their days. Good Friends Go membership means independence to stay active and socially connected – and to easily access our new community Living Well Centre,” says Rachel Hopkins, Head of Living Well Communities at Arvida Group.
Passengers can specify pick up and drop off locations and have full visibility of their vehicle location via the Good Friends Go smartphone App. For individuals who do not wish to use a smartphone, bookings can be made by speaking to a trained operator within a dedicated Call Centre.
For older Cantabrians, On-Demand Transport provides the security of knowing they can stay connected by accessing a reliable mode of transport with trained drivers when they need it.
To access the Good Friends Go On-Demand Transport service Good Friends members can visit https://www.goodfriendsgo.co.nz/. For more information, please call 0800 20 41 20.
About Arvida Group
Arvida Group Limited is one of the largest operators of aged care and retirement villages in New Zealand and is listed on the Main Board (NZSX) of the NZX with the ticker symbol ‘ARV’. It is a constituent member of the S&P/NZX 50 Index.
About Arvida Good Friends
Stay in the home you know and love with a bit of help from Arvida Good Friends – private home help, transport and activities at our community centre. Arvida Good Friends Help at Home and Care at Home plans make it easy to access friendly, trained helpers who support you to keep living the independent life you love. Good Friends Go is an On-Demand Transport service available exclusively to Arvida Good Friends members.
For more information: https://goodfriends.co.nz | hello@goodfriends.co.nz
About Liftango
We help cities, communities and organisations reduce congestion and combat climate change by providing equitable access to shared transport through a carpool and On-Demand transport technology platform. This technology makes best use of vehicle capacity whilst giving passengers the freedom to travel the way they want to.
Together, we help:
- Cities evolve into Smart Cities
- Transit Agencies to create better public bus systems
- Private Bus Operators to digitise their services to become more efficient
- Corporates to create sustainable and scalable mobility solutions for their staff
- Property Developers to design sites around future mobility solutions instead of using space for parking
We believe access to transportation is a fundamental right for people in modern society and through our technology, we provide convenient, efficient and sustainable transportation for the people that need it the most.
For more information: https://liftango.com | info@liftango.com