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posted by on Friday January 27 2017, @04:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-ancestral-hobbit-homeland dept.

During their investigation of the purchase of a large estate in New Zealand by Peter Thiel, Matt Nippert and Anne Gibson, reporters for The New Zealand Herald, noticed that certain processes required by the Overseas Investment Act had not been followed. The explanation: Peter Thiel is a NZ citizen and hence wasn't required to follow the procedures for an overseas investment.

If Thiel is so sure that Trump will deliver, why does he need a bolt hole and more importantly, citizenship in another country?

The New York Times adds:

One question being asked was why Mr. Thiel became a New Zealander in 2011. Close behind that was how it happened.

If you like New Zealand enough to want to become a citizen, the country's Internal Affairs Department noted on Wednesday, one requirement is "to have been physically in New Zealand for a minimum of 1,350 days in the five years preceding the citizenship application." Another requirement is that you "continue to reside" there after becoming a citizen.

Mr. Thiel, 49, does not appear to have done either.

[...] If Mr. Thiel was not a resident in New Zealand for the necessary amount of time, an exception must have been made. The government has not responded to questions about whether that happened and, if so, what the reason was.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday January 27 2017, @02:20PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday January 27 2017, @02:20PM (#459456) Journal

    That's imaginary social contract bullshit.

    It's hardly imaginary. It surrounds you every day of your life. When you haul your drunken ass into a cab late at night on payday, what's to stop him from murdering you, grabbing all your cash, and dumping your carcass in a back alley? Nothing but the social contract. There are places in the world where such a thing would happen to you readily, because they do not have that same social contract in place.

    It's evident that you are not a student of history or sociology, because it would it would be simple to reference the fall of feudalism or some other example of what happens when the social contract changes or falls apart. But that's the sort of thing the Parent was referring to here.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 27 2017, @06:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 27 2017, @06:14PM (#459603)

    It's hardly imaginary. It surrounds you every day of your life. When you haul your drunken ass into a cab late at night on payday, what's to stop him from murdering you, grabbing all your cash, and dumping your carcass in a back alley? Nothing but the social contract.

    Yeah, that happened to me once! Darn social contract! If only I had had an obvious rebuttal!

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 28 2017, @12:42AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 28 2017, @12:42AM (#459771) Journal

    It's evident that you are not a student of history or sociology, because it would it would be simple to reference the fall of feudalism or some other example of what happens when the social contract changes or falls apart. But that's the sort of thing the Parent was referring to here.

    Then by all means find such an example and do so. Your would-be example of the "fall of feudalism" ignores two things. First, the obliteration of European nobility in a bunch of nasty wars from the 15th to 17th centuries. It's hard to exert power when you're dead. And second, the obsolescence of the system by superior approaches that were stronger both economically and militarily.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 28 2017, @05:25AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 28 2017, @05:25AM (#459824)

      First, the obliteration of European nobility in a bunch of nasty wars from the 15th to 17th centuries.

      WTF? Alternative history now? Is this khallow, or has Runaway taken over the account?

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 28 2017, @09:37AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 28 2017, @09:37AM (#459850) Journal

        First, the obliteration of European nobility in a bunch of nasty wars from the 15th to 17th centuries.

        WTF? Alternative history now? Is this khallow, or has Runaway taken over the account?

        For example, in England there was the War of Roses [wikipedia.org] through to the English Civil War [wikipedia.org]. Feudalism was quite dead by the end of the English Civil War. A key early battle in Continental Europe was the 1415 Battle of Agincourt which saw the destruction of a huge portion of French knights by English bowmen. A similar key ending event in Europe was the Thirty Years' War [wikipedia.org] ending with the Peace of Westphalia [wikipedia.org] in 1648.

        And I notice that you have yet to say why you're being derisive. Do you actually know any relevant history?

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 28 2017, @12:50AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 28 2017, @12:50AM (#459777) Journal
    Well, if we're going to talk about that as if it were a real thing, then what of the tens of millions of people who consistently voted to ignore systemic problems in stuff like Social Security, health care costs, or corruption in government for longer than most of us have been alive? Shouldn't they have to bear "responsibility" as well?