New Zealand is ready for the Rugby World Cup 2011. NOT!

Kia Ora,

Is New Zealand really ready to host the Rugby World Cup 2011? Not after another debacle over security I think not. A lot of fingers were being pointed at the police last night but they can't do everything it needs a change in mindset for the whole country.

This is the situation which eventuated last night, but has gone from the news services today.

A vehicle which had being sitting for days in a car park of a sports field according to residents, yet nothing was done until Tuesday when one resident called the police. They then showed up 24 hours later to find a bomb in the vehicle.

Compare that with Britain with their history of combating terrorism. My understanding of their actions is no vehicle is left sitting parked for more than 24 hours. Any residents would of called it in well before they did in Auckland.

Taking the item of the news services is too late. It got on there so it will be world wide, this the day after NZ was rated the most peaceful country in the world.

I understand a consultant being used for the World Cup is not a New Zealander & the assessment is all is safe & I think I have an idea who it is.

Thing is when assessing for threats such as possible suicide bombings are hard to picture if you have not lived in that environment. Those of us who have (alot of Kiwis), see the threat assessment as terrorist attacks & suicide bombings extremely likley either during or prior to the Rugby World Cup.

To combat a terrorist or terrorism you have to be able to think like them, that is something I have being accussed of more than once.

Currently in NZ there are a multitude of responses to likely bomb threats & I know talking to someone in a Government department that their response was totally lacking (being British they identified it but no one wants to know) where as Government department next door to them has a response in line with how terrorists think.

In NZ there seems to be a believe that you just deal with the one incident & it will be all Jake (OK).

But that is not standard operating procedure for any terrorist group. These current bomb alerts with hoax or simulated bombs or even real ones not properly set could just as well be the groups planning something seeing how NZ services, security industry & population react to such incidents.

They would then stage anther hoax or real bomb & plant seondary devices to catch in the first instance the emergency services, but also where people would be evacuated too.

This was the action taken in Northern Ireland in the Omagh bombing.

Even worse today is the suicide bomber.

The following was an incident in Iraq during my time there.

The Police Academy was mortared or rocketed on a daily basis, but on this occassion the bombers used this to their advantage as people were taking the same actions everyday.

Two bombers got into the Academy area (there has being some suggestion they bribed their way in past the check points) at breakfast time.

What then appears to have happened is one bomber lined up with the breakfast crowd before detonotating.

Everyone else thinking it was one of the regular mortar or rocket attacks ran to the shelters, where in one the other bomber was waiting, as people crowded in they then detonated their vest.

One thing noted in the NZ responses is the public are allowed to stand around at the cordons edge as a crowd.

All that has to be done here is work out where the cordons are likely to go in & plant devices for maximum effect.

Similar tactics were used when a 'suicide' bomb was detonated outside the embassy next to our villa in Iraq. The responding Iraqi police units later found three unexploded devices along the street, that had failed to explode as they responded to the incident.

Standard tactic with suicide bombers is two to three with short gaps in between or in the case of an attack on Abu Gharib at least seven other bombers. The difference with Abu Gharib was four were used to isolate the area then three others attempted to breach the camp, one after another.

New Zealand ready for the Rugby World Cup 2011? I think it is a long way from even being close.

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Most Peaceful Country in the World. Yeah Right!

Kia Ora,

For those that missed it, New Zealand has been named the most peaceful country in the world this year. Even one of our local papers questioned that.

Exactly what do they use to judge this?

Violent crime is out of control, in particular so far this year & that is just the reported crime. A media outlet a few years back claimed that 95% of crime & 96% of violent crime are unreported in NZ.

Not sure about the figures but definitely a lot fo crime goes unreported unless there is a campaign about a particular area of crime.

I am also not sure that is really the view many people have of NZ.

1986 springs to mind when an army buddy & myself toured Europe & we meet up with other Kiwi's, Aussie's & groups from Britain.

Prior to them all coming to Crete where we bumped into them, a British tabloid had printed an article (front page I am told) where it named Kiwi's as the most aggressive people on the planet.

That image is not helped by the Haka (even though I love them, it does come across as aggressive) & even more by two movies. "Once were Warriors" &  "What become of the Broken Hearted".

There is also the statistic which has NZ with the second highest percentage of people in prison after the US in the developed world. That doesn't back up a peaceful place.

Neither does the way we drive. Nice until we get behind the wheel then watch out.

During that time in Crete as we debated whether New Zealanders were aggressive or not, we as a group were walking to have a meal.

On the side of the road were a couple with Auckland written on the bottom of their pack. Someone spoke to the guy then said is your girlfriend from the US? No, New Zealand, but glad you didn't say Aussie as she is going to hit the next person who says it.

Since she was very petit, immediately an Aussie woman says "see told you, you Kiwis were aggressive even more than us. Even a tiny girl like that is ready to fight."

This woman's contention had being that Kiwis were the most aggressive because 1. we are very good at sport for our population size (for many years we topped the medals per capita at the Olympics), 2. we party hard & aggresively & 3. even though we don't fight as much as Aussies & many of us say we are much of fighters, in her opinion you piss a Kiwi off at your peril.

So are we really peaceful? Or is it a myth?

In many respects the more peaceful places are those who are prepared for the worst.

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