New Zealand Celsias

My word, there was alot of people in Auckland for the Pacific islands Forum.
And no, nobody in China or the US cares too much about the Rugby World Cup. Even if Murray McCully really does think the whole world cares ,.
My bet, the very large areas around the Pacific and the fish that is in them have become important.The mineral boom in Australia is seen as highly valuable , the milk powder boom in New Zealand and the American realisation that the Chinese have moved in big time into the Pacific while the Americans were napping, or hunting Al Qaeda in Pakistan were the reasons.

China seems to have an interesting foreign policy. Acutely aware that they need to feed their people, the protein swimming in the Pacific, and the protein roaming the paddocks in New Zealand and the minerals boom in Australia all become tantalising for their desire to trade with the Pacific. And for the Pacific, and in fact anywhere, China delivers aid without the lectures. 

There seems to be something semi-colonial about the American approach to aid. It comes wrapped in lectures and "shoulds". And worse still a speech from Hilary Clinton sometimes.

The Chinese seem to realise that giving it achieves its own objective and they have been steadily building up their influence here for many years. Just as they have in Africa. They have looked 100 years into the future , know that food security and being able to feed their people is very important and have invested in and leased and bought vast tracts of land in Africa. The US is now aware that they are playing catch up and their 50 strong troop at the Pacific Islands Forum showed how much they want to play that .

Palestine simply wanted the 14 votes at the meeting to recognise their bid to be recognised at the United Nations and the fact that they were all together in one place saves days and weeks of travel .