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Images of the ’00’s

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 2 comments

Pausing for a moment from the steamroller of local politics  – here we have some of the significant moments of the last nine years, courtesy of the Guardian. They’ve put together these  images of the ’00’s. What would a Kiwi version look like?

The Independent on National’s ACC agenda

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, October 15th, 2009 - 5 comments

Very good editorial on ACC in The Independent today. The article’s offline, but it’s quite clear about why the Government is trying to manufacture a crisis over the financial position of ACC: ACC currently collects sufficient levies to meet each year’s claims – it has levy revenue of $4.1b in the 2009 June year, compared […]

A beautiful mind – read it and weep

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, September 9th, 2009 - 53 comments

An email doing the rounds of the women’s networks found its way to me today. It’s link to an article about the late Sophie Elliott, fomerly of Otago University and the essay she wrote on equity and  and equality. Sophie may have been heading to Treasury the week she was murdered but when you read […]

What are we fighting for?

Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, July 28th, 2009 - 60 comments

A reader sent through this article from the Guardian by Malalai Joya, who was the youngest woman to enter the Afghan parliament before being suspended for denouncing the warlords and war criminals sitting beside her. Almost eight years after the Taliban regime was toppled, our hopes for a truly democratic and independent Afghanistan have been […]

Gordon Campbell on Treasury and the resurrection of Brash

Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, July 22nd, 2009 - 12 comments

Gordon Campbell has a great piece over at Scoop about Treasury’s latest ideological outburst and the resurrection of Don Brash. He points out the futility of choosing a man who played a large role in creating our wage gap with Australia in the first place to head a commission designed to close it: Brash wants […]

Gordon Campbell on PPPs

Written By: - Date published: 5:40 pm, July 15th, 2009 - 15 comments

Gordon Campbell has a great piece up at Scoop on the pitfalls of Public Private Partnerships, something we’re going to be hearing a lot more about in the near future if National and its business mates get their way. Go have a read.

Before there was spin…

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 pm, July 1st, 2009 - 11 comments

When we talk politics we often use words like positioning, frame, context – words are a vital part of the programme of political communication. Here’s a really interesting thought from US academic Lera Boroditsky, who asks  How does our language shape the way we think? …patterns in a language can indeed play a causal role […]

Emperor’s new clothes?

Written By: - Date published: 6:41 pm, June 28th, 2009 - 3 comments

I was in relaxed, Saturday mode, perusing the Dom Post at my leisure. Then I read this from Tracey Watkins and checked that the world had not shifted in alignment: Has the Government lost its mojo? How else to explain the uncanny quiet that has descended on the Beehive in recent weeks? It may be […]

The psychology of buying green

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 13th, 2009 - 10 comments

I know political animals are watching Mt Albert today, but something to read in the meantime on the psychology of buying ‘green’. We hear it in a myriad of places and phrases, from sustainability to the need to buy what’s best for the environment. But how much is that really a motivator, and how much […]

“From the Edge”

Written By: - Date published: 3:06 pm, June 10th, 2009 - 9 comments

Kevin Roberts has a new post up on his Herald blog, “From the Edge”. What a load of bloody waffle. To think in the 80’s and 90’s people used to take the man seriously. Mind you they took neo-liberalism seriously too. Perhaps Roberts is due a comeback along with all the other old tat.

The legitimacy of distraction

Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, May 23rd, 2009 - 1 comment

A cold weekend afternoon. Perfect timing for a distracting article on Twitter, Adderall, lifehacking, mindful jogging, power browsing, Obama’s BlackBerry, and the benefits of overstimulation. Sam Anderson presents thoughts in defence of distraction. Over the last several years, the problem of attention has migrated right into the center of our cultural attention. We hunt it […]

Changing gears: Cars of tomorrow coming soon?

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 pm, May 16th, 2009 - 26 comments

Whenever I spot one of the dual electric/petrol cars I always find myself a little fascinated and a little envious. But I have to admit the likelihood of my actually owning one seems remote. Maybe I need to be pushed along, as this article from the Herald Sun suggests: A proposal to ban sales of […]

Observations in passing

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 pm, May 14th, 2009 - 13 comments

I’m a little re-created – some mysteriousness with my profile means I am re-defined “similar but different” for the time being. But I haven’t stopped reading and I thought these were an interesting series of observations on the current state of play: Colin Espiner: This is, without a doubt, National’s worst week in government. And […]

The republic can wait

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 2nd, 2009 - 26 comments

No Right Turn highlights Thursday’s Herald editorial calling for our political leaders to step up and take some leadership in the republic debate. The Herald argues: If republican sentiment is to blossom, it needs to be galvanised from above. Such a process, done well, would lead to a seeping into the national consciousness of the […]

Herald preaches class warfare

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, May 1st, 2009 - 39 comments

If you’d told me the Herald would use International Workers’ Day as an opportunity to preach class warfare I wouldn’t have believed you. But there’s really no other way to describe today’s editorial. We all know the Government is running a large deficit at the moment. Of course, the deficit would be much smaller (about […]

Gordon Campbell on the MoU

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 pm, April 28th, 2009 - 29 comments

Gordon Campbell’s latest Scoop column takes a very critical view of the Greens’ Memorandum of Understanding with National. While the Greens’ strategy is based on the need to cooperate with what they see as a likely two-term National Government, Campbell argues their cooperation may help turn that likelihood into a certainty. Despite the genuine merits […]

Brits aim assistance to the low income

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, March 30th, 2009 - 22 comments

The irony of this article struck me when this week the well-off get the biggest boost to their wallet. From the Guardian : The chancellor is preparing to channel cash to poorer families in his budget as part of a mini-fiscal stimulus to kick-start the economy and protect the vulnerable. Senior cabinet figures are backing […]

Espiner on National’s use of the crisis

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 29 comments

Sadly, I couldn’t find Colin Espiner’s excellent piece in The Press today online. It’s good. Colin’s thoughtful observations derail the government’s PR spin about That Nice Man Mr Key and his commonsense centrist approach. He wonders whether the National government is taking advantage of the economic crisis to push through hard-right reforms Kiwis didn’t vote […]

Death knell for print media?

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, March 16th, 2009 - 13 comments

A conversation that seems to be occuring more and more frequently is asking what’s the future of our newspapers? It’s a global question and is examined in some depth in this interesting article from The American which says: Speculation about the future of the newspaper or its equivalents should start with a review of the […]

The Wall Street Journal gets it

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, March 9th, 2009 - 55 comments

Despite all the claims of “centrist” and “centre-right” none other than the the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that John Key’s government is very much a hard-right neo-liberal outfit: Mr. Key is returning the country to a formula for prosperity that’s worked in the past. As in Britain, the U.S. and Australia in the […]

HerStory – what’s happened to the quality chic-flick?

Written By: - Date published: 5:07 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 5 comments

A couple of weeks ago I listened to a very interesting interview with Dr Diane Purkiss (audio here) on Nine to Noon. I missed the opportunity to post on her findings of the  “dumbing down” effect, but then I spotted the same discussion in this Sydney Morning Herald article. Rom-com heroines used to be witty […]

Beneath the headlines – complete sentences

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 pm, March 3rd, 2009 - 34 comments

The issue of parole has long been controversial. We’ve also seen one of the core underpinings of our justice system become a manipulated by its political opponents, regardless of what the policy arguments are. In this article from the Listener at the begining of the year we gain some insight into parole – and why […]

Love’s Labour’s lost

Written By: - Date published: 4:24 pm, February 14th, 2009 - 14 comments

There were few Valentine’s Day sentiments for Labour in John Armstrong’s column today: It is difficult to put a finger on it, but something does not feel quite right about Labour’s approach to being in Opposition…Labour is exhibiting a self-righteousness which grates when placed against the backdrop of its rejection by voters…. We have yet […]

Marking time: Darwin to Lincoln

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 pm, February 13th, 2009 - 19 comments

Today is the anniversary of two of histories great names – Darwin and Lincoln. Both men made significant (albeit different) contributions to our current understanding of the world. Simon Jenkins of the Guardian asks which was the greater? Was it the man who transformed our understanding of the human race, or the man who made […]

When less is less

Written By: - Date published: 5:25 pm, February 12th, 2009 - 46 comments

It appears National are trying to promote the “little and often” approach to economic planning – but commentators are appearing a little skeptical. Take John Armstrong: The $500 million worth of capital spending on doing up state houses, constructing new roads and bridges, building new classrooms and so forth sounds impressive but will directly create […]

First as tragedy, second as farce

Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, February 11th, 2009 - 11 comments

After Roger Douglas’ big comeback speech was accidentally released two days early on the Internet due to inept media handling, then parodied on youtube by a sockpuppet before it had even been delivered I didn’t see much point in bothering with the actual content. Funnily enough, not many others have either. But one person who […]

Fonterra set to simmer

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, February 4th, 2009 - Comments Off on Fonterra set to simmer

Lawyer Stephen Price has rubbished Fonterra’s claim that the Chinese sub judice status of the Sanlu case prevents Fonterra releasing documentation of their communications. Price also doubts any discussion of the issues here would influence the outcome of Sanlu Chairwoman Tian Wenhau’s appeal. The criticism comes after Fonterra claimed it advised Sanlu only 0% melamine was acceptable […]

Thank God somebody’s awake at Granny Herald

Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, January 29th, 2009 - 32 comments

Surprise, surprise, it’s Garth George. “The economic situation is without a doubt the most urgent of predicaments to be dealt with, but so far this year all John Key and Co have offered is a talkfest scheduled for next month. Now we all know that the one thing that one does these days when one […]

Conservatism and Progressivism

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, January 27th, 2009 - 99 comments

Conservatism is all about maintaining the status quo. It assumes that the status quo is essentially ok, while change is best avoided. The idea comes from philosophers like Edmund Burke who figured the reason conventions and structures get to endure in the first place is because they work. Of course if you’re in the middle […]

Join the job queue – an Aussie perspective

Written By: - Date published: 6:28 pm, January 23rd, 2009 - 5 comments

Jobs, jobs, jobs seems to be the theme of the day. After reading that Microsoft has announced that 5,000 jobs are to go (the first mass layoffs in its 34-year history), and Sony signalling bigger than expected losses ahead ($US2.9 billion, the first in 14 years) this article from the Sydney Morning Herald seems to sum up the […]

Job losses in Aussie

Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, January 23rd, 2009 - 17 comments

Across the Tasman Kevin Rudd’s plea for employers to save jobs has fallen on deaf ears, with some of Australia’s biggest companies (mining, retail and automotive sectors) announcing plans to axe jobs. BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner and Australia’s top profit earner, will lay off about 3300 Australian workers — 8 per cent of the total [BHP […]

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