Author Archive

just a voice

Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, February 7th, 2014 - 6 comments

Brief occasional updates were requested on the public meetings being held in Dunedin. I’ll be straight up about this. I’m not altogether comfortable about submitting these posts because some readers might see the meetings as being synonymous with me. They’re not. But since I’m the only person with posting rights and because it wouldn’t be be appropriate to post an opinion under ‘notices and features’…

State of Nations

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 pm, January 29th, 2014 - 25 comments

This post isn’t a ‘contrast and compare’ piece on the policy announcements of National, the Greens and Labour. Enough to say that National are pursuing privatisation while both Labour and Green are at least trying to do good things.

Shame about the reality of the bigger picture then.

A little exploration?

Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, January 23rd, 2014 - 23 comments

On the pipers, the dancers and the great unwashed.

Off the Pages (impressions)

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, January 19th, 2014 - 11 comments

A very brief and broad brushstroke account of yesterday’s meeting at Dunedin Botanic Gardens.

Off The Pages – reminder

Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, January 16th, 2014 - 9 comments

Saturday afternoon. 1 O’Clock. Bandstand in Dunedin Botanic Gardens.

Where is this Democracy they Speak of?

Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, December 30th, 2013 - 167 comments

There’s a rumour going around that we live in a democracy.

Muppets.

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, December 16th, 2013 - 100 comments

It never fails to amaze me that supposedly experienced and professional (ie, paid) political figures routinely reaffirm a fairly deep sense of stupidity.

Off The Pages…

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, December 15th, 2013 - 17 comments

…and into the world.

The Carbon or the Swag?

Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, December 12th, 2013 - 42 comments

So many choices! What’s a body to do?

Get me inta here!

Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, November 30th, 2013 - 18 comments

Some things don’t require much in the way of brains. Shame then that we tend to let no brain people determine shit so often.

Shhh! It’s the ‘P’ word.

Written By: - Date published: 5:01 pm, November 18th, 2013 - 340 comments

You don’t have to be white and male and financially wealthy to assume a prominent position within systems of patriarchy, but it helps. And you don’t have to be financially strapped and black and female to feel the full weight of patriarchy always pressing down on you, but it helps.

Don’t Wring Your Hands.

Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, November 5th, 2013 - 282 comments

The attitudes put on display by the young men calling themselves the ‘Roast Busters’ aren’t a glitch or the product of some unsavoury sub-culture. Those young men and the attitudes they hold are the product of  very long and complex processes whereby some very fucked up shit has become normalised.

While Labour Burns Bright…

Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, November 3rd, 2013 - 47 comments

While some hold that the Labour Party conference being held this weekend could mark a watershed in NZ politics, something else that might constitute a somewhat more marked watershed is happening across the Pacific.

Your Brighter Future: Burn.

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, October 2nd, 2013 - 15 comments

“I just utter one fear…”

Remember that?

Warfare of welfare

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, September 30th, 2013 - 137 comments

3 billion reasons to be…cheerful?

Intervention. Now!

Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, September 3rd, 2013 - 24 comments

Widespread and ongoing poisoning of civilians demands decisive and immediate international action, so…

Sarin

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, September 2nd, 2013 - 128 comments

On the one hand, there is the building propaganda blitz to justify military action in Syria, and on the other…

Obama and the UK

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, September 1st, 2013 - 26 comments

So Barack Obama is going to adhere to the US constitution this time around ( unlike as was the case with Libya) and await the potential green light of Congress before commencing with any military action in Syria.

Syria et al.

Written By: - Date published: 5:09 pm, August 29th, 2013 - 311 comments

Sometimes the most complicated and complex situation becomes clear when viewed from a simple and obvious perspective.

Speculation

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 pm, July 30th, 2013 - 143 comments

I know many of the liberal left don’t like or can’t accept the thought that banning non-residents from speculating on residential property in NZ is in any way xenophobic. Thankfully, from my perspective at least, the liberal left doesn’t speak for the whole of the left. Thing is, this banning of foreign investment is similar […]

Come in Houston…

Written By: - Date published: 5:56 pm, July 11th, 2013 - 16 comments

Story of a 111 response time.

Irony? Nah.

Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, May 17th, 2013 - 56 comments

Nigel Farage went to Scotland to promote UKIP. What the hell was he thinking?

And in Good News

Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, May 13th, 2013 - 19 comments

Research published today in the journal Nature Climate Change looked at 50,000 globally widespread and common species and found that more than one half of the plants and one third of the animals will lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080 if nothing is done to reduce the amount of global warming and slow it down.

Smokefree? Then Cut the Crap!

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, March 18th, 2013 - 48 comments

ecigApparently the government is concerned for the general health of people in New Zealand. Apparently, an expression of this concern is the roll out of policy initiatives that will result in New Zealand being smoke free by 2025.

Welcome to the Burdigalian

Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, January 14th, 2013 - 200 comments

Last year, in the Arctic, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were measured at 400ppm. If you search on line for historical CO2 levels, you’ll find a lot of comments that are of the opinion that 400ppm CO2 last occurred about 800 000 years ago…or maybe just a bit longer. The implication is that since that’s well within the span of human existence it doesn’t really matter too much. It’s fine; we’ve been here before.

Halting Dynamics and Shifting Inertias

Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, January 7th, 2013 - 43 comments

Like many, I’ve been somewhat bemused and not a little angered that austerity is touted as a pathway to economic recovery. Like many, I’ve come to view both austerity and bail outs simply as means to put public monies and the control of public institutions into private hands – all the while diminishing the power of citizens on both an individual and collective basis.

But why consciously destroy or abandon real economic activity in a quest for power? Why not continue to build on whatever ‘real economy’ bases of power you posses? Idle speculation might suggest a lust for power, y’know… power for power’s sake. Or a reaction to, or recognition of impending peak resources in a world of growing population.

Gimme sense!

Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, January 1st, 2013 - 147 comments

It’s nothing but ardent colonial nonsense to be celebrating a seasonally determined cultural event in the wrong season and about six months off the mark. Every culture that marks new year celebrates around the time of, well…new year. And every culture that marks New Year locates it somewhere in the winter; notionally around the time […]

Fear factors

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, December 27th, 2012 - 74 comments

Another in an on going non-chronological series on options in the face of global warming.

If

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, December 20th, 2012 - 221 comments

If you and I were told that (variously) our sons and daughters, grandchildren, nieces and nephews were going to be killed tomorrow, would I be right to suspect that we might sit up and take notice?

Well done

Written By: - Date published: 5:16 pm, December 18th, 2012 - 83 comments

This is one of a series of posts I hope to write over the summer based to some extent or other on a recent presentation by Kevin Anderson: Professor of Energy and Climate Change, University of Manchester, Tyndall Centre.

Goldman Sachs. Global Inc?

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, November 29th, 2012 - 66 comments

What to make of yet another Goldman Sach’s appointee?