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The Humanity.

Written By: - Date published: 5:57 pm, January 25th, 2018 - 8 comments

Thoughtless thugs. Killers.

A Christmas Rabbit-hole.

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, December 23rd, 2017 - 26 comments

Just some light-hearted musings.

Shaking the Tree

Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, December 11th, 2017 - 69 comments

When an apple tree is shaken, pips can fall to the ground and germinate. And then things grow back more or less as before.

#IamMetiria

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 20th, 2017 - 35 comments

If you know that feeling of dread when you get a WINZ letter, or if you’ve had roiling anxiety from being  ‘called in’ for a WINZ interview, or sighed with relief when the letter from WINZ turns out to be a replacement community services card, then follow #IamMetiria. And if you just don’t recognise those, then you might want to follow #IamMetiria to find out why others do…

Sunday Poetry

Written By: - Date published: 7:37 am, October 30th, 2016 - 16 comments

Slam, Tourettes and Sam, Le Guin as a man.

NZ Human Rights Commission Open Letter to NZ Rugby Union on respecting women

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 pm, September 8th, 2016 - 106 comments

The Human Rights Commission is calling on New Zealanders to sign the open letter to New Zealand Rugby, which asks them to seek support in addressing their internal culture issues.

Women wearing clothes

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, September 2nd, 2016 - 109 comments

In France and Italy there have been recent examples of men telling women what they can and cannot wear.

Kiaora Matariki Puaka

Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, June 17th, 2016 - 27 comments

It’s been a hard week, and many of us could do with some kindness and good news. Let’s take a moment to remember Matariki. What would Standardistas and other politically progressive people like to see for the coming year?

Indigenous Perspectives

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, May 29th, 2016 - 30 comments

“It is possible to live in a society with a world view that does not include empire”

– Winona LaDuke

We’re going to burn it all, until we burn it down.

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 am, May 20th, 2016 - 173 comments

What does it really mean to reduce NZ’s total fossil fuel use by 50% by 2030: a warm up discussion for an upcoming thought experiment.

Waitangi Day v Anzac Day

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, February 6th, 2016 - 108 comments

Advantage asks why is Waitangi Day not treated the same as Anzac day?

When survivors speak out

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, November 12th, 2015 - 45 comments

Previously posted at Boots Theory. Content note: discussion of sexual violence and the experience of survivors. Yesterday I did a round-up of the women’s voices on Twitter talking about recent events in Parliament, where women MPs from the Opposition, many of them survivors of sexual violence, were thrown out of the House for taking exception […]

Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, September 29th, 2015 - 115 comments

Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions or has the World Finally Gone madder?

Film review: Crossing Rachmaninoff

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, July 14th, 2015 - 3 comments

Something a bit different for The Standard. A review of the film Crossing Rachmaninoff which premiers in Auckland on the 18th of July as part of the International Film Festival.

Fear, Loathing and Denial.

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, May 10th, 2015 - 49 comments

There’s a major and rather obvious contributory factor to UK Labour’s failure in the UK general election that doesn’t seem to have drawn any comment. Until now…

Second “Roast Busters” report released

Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, March 19th, 2015 - 120 comments

There are many failings outlined. Police were  found to have largely treated women and girls with respect and compassion but their investigations were not robust or thorough, inadequate follow-up enquiries…

Revolutionary Spain, Revolutionary Syria, and the Bastards We Vote For.

Written By: - Date published: 3:36 pm, February 11th, 2015 - 63 comments

It seems that just as the 30’s offered the chance to turn dreams into reality, Syria is offering that chance up to ‘the left’ today. Suddenly, for me, the recent travel bans and the passport confiscation laws etc make sense since we are potentially looking at an international influx of non-nutters and non- psychopaths as happened during the Spanish Revolution of the 30s.

17 year old kiwi sits atop the world

Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, February 7th, 2015 - 15 comments

The only person to receive 100% in the world for her work was a young kiwi with only two years background. Read more here.      

Guest Post – Waitangi Day, build a bridge and get over it

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, February 6th, 2015 - 30 comments

A Guest Post by David Meech presenting an irreverent view of Waitangi day, and New Zealand history and culture.

A calculated feeding of the beasts within

Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 76 comments

The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.

Imperator Fish: A clarification

Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, January 28th, 2015 - 31 comments

Sexist right-wingers are lining up to abuse Eleanor Catton for speaking her mind. The odious Sean Plunket is the worst, calling Catton a “hua” (sounds like and sometimes defined as “whore”). Imperator Fish responds

Eleanor Catton on NZ

Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, January 27th, 2015 - 212 comments

Award winning author Eleanor Catton has expressed her disappointment and anger with politics in general and the government in particular.

Tania Billingsley’s statement

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, July 10th, 2014 - 97 comments

Tania Billingsley has waived her right to name suppression in the case against the Malaysian diplomat accused of attempted rape – and a Minister of Foreign Affairs who wants the finger pointed at anyone but him.

She’s spoken to 3rd Degree about it, and I think she’s a big damn hero.

Consumerism’s ‘desert of the real’

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, January 6th, 2014 - 47 comments

In The Matrix Neo discovers that his “reality”, is a virtual world that had kept him from seeing “the desert of the real”. George Monbiot cites research that shows how capitalism is eating itself and its consumers. The marketing con of “the good life” – desert of the real.

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.

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 […]

Politics & Pleasure: TV 2012

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, December 31st, 2012 - 32 comments

We tend to rework reality, included political knowledge and understanding, into a basic (fictionalised) story structure, with villains, heroes, and values absorbed from pleasurable forms of fiction, including TV.  This is a look at the political values embedded in some popular TV dramas.

John Key Selling (out) New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, November 11th, 2012 - 56 comments

John Key’s selling out of NZ workers’ rights, tourism industry and identity to Hollywood, the TPP and US corporates, has reached a new low.  OIA papers reveal the extent to which Warners is dictating the NZ government’s promotion of 100% Middle-earth.

Plain packaging insults my intelligence, and yours too

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 27th, 2012 - 124 comments

Plain packaging isn’t just an unproven idea, it’s pointless, illogical in the current circumstances, and seriously condescending.

Hollywood Rules

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, October 8th, 2012 - 76 comments

In another slippery John Key u-turn, after his mission to Hollywood ‘sweeteners’ are now on the table. Key is bending over to let US-based conglomerates extend their dominance in NZ, in support of their own interests and values.

Of Hollywood, Hobbits & NZ-US politics: Episode II

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, October 4th, 2012 - 66 comments

As Key heads off to the US to promote the NZ film industry, I look back at the Hobbit union-busting case and the issues it raised. Will Key’s latest mission to Hollywood, boost the economy, increase jobs and provide benefits to the NZ film industry? Or will it actually undermine the NZ’s economy and democracy, further Americanising NZ’s culture along with it?

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