Dead sheep and human rights

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, who is the son of a Jewish mother, is visiting the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia to talk business. Six years ago a trade deal fell through because New Zealand would not agree to live sheep exports. 550,000 sheep had died on the way to the Middle East between 2000 and 2012, so live sheep exports were stopped. Though the sheep would have died anyway, dying of seasickness seemed more cruel than dying at the hands of slaughtermen. One of the spin-offs of the prohibition on selling live sheep to the the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia was that the head of the largest meat company suggested to one of its shareholders, the then Minister of Agriculture, David Carter, that it may be politically expedient to stop kosher slaughter in New Zealand to placate the Arabs. Now live sheep export is back on the agenda. Business is business. Sheep were not consulted. John Key is urged to talk to the heads of the Gulf States and particularly the King of Saudi Arabia about human rights abuses while visiting there. I suspect that the trade deal will take precedence over issues of women's rights, arbitrary cruel punishments of anyone critical of the regime, beheadings and amputations as a punishment. In the 1930s New Zealand's trade with Nazi Germany increased sharply, despite Britain's objections. Britain tried to put pressure on the Nazi regime through limits if not embargoes on trade. Like now, business was business for New Zealand. Issues of human right abuses were of no concern of the New Zealand government. Those abuses were part of the story of John Keys' own family. It will be interesting to see whether he has those in mind when negotiating with the Arabs.