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Education Standards and National Standards

Written By: - Date published: 6:01 pm, September 14th, 2011 - 50 comments

The guys at RSA Animate provide their illustative talents to a quite brilliant and wide ranging lecture by Sir Ken Robinson on the topic of education. In the space of just over 10 minutes, he ranges from it’s industrial beginnings to its doped out, standardised present and argues finally, that educationally we’re  heading in exactly the wrong direction and suggests alternatives.

Whaddarya?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 pm, September 13th, 2011 - 39 comments

There once was a time tory leaders would wield the power of the state like the powerful tyrants they were.

Nowadays that might is lent to important things like… throwing a wee party.

Those tough old bastards must be rolling in their graves.

Cheeky darkie Holmes at it again

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, July 10th, 2011 - 196 comments

In which racist Paul Holmes parades his prejudices.  Again.

A Reassuring Rebuild: The Freiburg Parallel

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 1st, 2011 - 37 comments

Christchurch has been called “Victorian planning at its most remarkable”. It needs to be rebuilt in a style that retains or even amplifies as much of its formerly cosy, reassuring character as possible, for the sake of the tourism industry, the locals, and its cultural legacy. Germany’s Freiburg is a useful example of restoring a city to former glory.

Garagin Way tickets

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, December 4th, 2010 - 8 comments

We have four pairs of tickets to give away for the Garagin Way play in Auckland at 181 Hobson St on the nights of Sunday the 5th or Monday the 6th. As the competition we ran was a bit of a fizzer, we’ll just give them to the first four emails we get at thestandardnz (at) gmail dot com – give us your name to pick up the tickets at the door.

Prizes! Tickets to Gagarin Way

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, November 30th, 2010 - 11 comments

You may have seen ads on the site recently for a comedy play called Gagarin Way, which opens in Auckland this Wednesday. As part of the Scoop ad cartel, we have four pairs of tickets to give away. Here’s the game: best – ie most funny/apt – 2011 campaign slogan for each of the Nats, Labour, the Greens, and ACT wins a pair of tickets.

To be “a bit more like a New Zealander” means _____?

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, October 13th, 2010 - 12 comments

So after all that hoo-ha I did have to think for a while what it means to look and sound like a New Zealander. My personal opinion is that for a lot of us there isn’t a particular look, but there probably is a sound. I think that like the French, we tend to regard […]

Standby for INCIS II… pfzzzt

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, July 7th, 2010 - 20 comments

For some time now National has been quietly making plans to subsume Archives New Zealand and the National Library within the Department of Internal Affairs. That’s a dangerous plan for all sorts of constitutional and accountability reasons that can’t be justified by any imaginary, vague and as yet uncosted “synergies and efficiencies”. But let’s face it, […]

Beware the politics of gender

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, June 27th, 2010 - 5 comments

An article in the Guardian puts gender politics into perspective, with 1,000 “honour killings” a year in India, according to one recent study. For those who think that the world has moved on – it hasn’t.

After the goldrush

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, June 19th, 2010 - 3 comments

“After the goldrush” Oil painting and words – Chuck Joseph 2010

When the circus left town, we had a parade,
the band played on and floats were made.
I looked sideways as they passed,…

Lazy Sunday viewing: viral video chart

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, June 6th, 2010 - 2 comments

Fancy wasting a little time on a slow Sunday? Some viral video, courtesy of Guardian blogger, Jemima Kiss.

The scars of Tui Mine

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 pm, March 15th, 2010 - 18 comments

My Granddad grew up in Te Aroha near Tui Mine. The mining ruined a large swathe of the land and toxic tailings were left behind which polluted the river and turned a large patch of bush into a desert – it is a scar on the face of my Granddad’s mountain which looks over his grave. As I write this I can hear him reciting this poem:

Lovin’ Alice

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, February 26th, 2010 - 4 comments

A burst of ‘popular’ culture to mull over the weekend, with the Guardian providing comment on the upcoming Alice in Wonderland. According to Xan Brooks : the films of Tim Burton are not so much released as laid on, staged and mounted like lavish masked balls. The interiors are opulent and the tables piled high […]

Barefoot and kiwi

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, January 3rd, 2010 - 41 comments

There is a weird article in the Sunday Star Times about a US lecturer missing out on a job because she objected to “the Kiwi habit of going barefoot”. This has been on my mind since summer started. At work the minority of kiwis, immediately shucked the shoes that we’d been wearing during winter and […]

Dual obligations

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, December 12th, 2009 - 19 comments

The more I ponder the scrapping of the TVNZ charter the dafter it seems. There are obvious downsides. What is the upside? What possible reason could there be to further weaken the already vestigial representation of our own culture on our main free to air TV channel? The only reason I’ve seen given is “dual […]

Kill your television

Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, December 10th, 2009 - 19 comments

So the Nats have decided to kill public service television broadcasting: TVNZ’s charter is to be repealed in a move commentators say will end its public broadcaster role and turn it into a “cash cow” for the Government. Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman introduced a bill yesterday to repeal the charter, which was created by Labour […]

After Edge of Darkness

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 pm, September 17th, 2009 - 11 comments

I just read that the Troy Kennedy Martin, the screenwriter responsible for Edge of Darkness died earlier this week. I wanted to mark his passing because I think Edge of Darkness is one of the best things I have ever viewed on television. I was pretty young at the time but I remember being riveted […]

A bit of culture

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 am, September 13th, 2009 - 2 comments

If you’re looking for something to do on a Sunday that’s a bit more uplifting than arguing politics, why not check out some NZ literature instead? This is brilliant: 1000 New Zealand classics released as eBooks New Zealanders can now freely download—and store in their pockets—hundreds of our most well-known books, courtesy of Victoria University’s […]

When liberals become illiberal

Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, April 29th, 2009 - 36 comments

Much as I disagree with those who oppose the freedom of same sex couples to marry, I also can’t stand those that attack the freedom of speech beyond reason. Whatever happened to “I disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”? I’m referring to gay beauty pageant judge Perez […]

Update: Shepard Fairey v AP

Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, March 27th, 2009 - Comments Off on Update: Shepard Fairey v AP

Over at his site Shepard Fairey, the creater of the Obama “HOPE” poster, has an update on his legal wrangle with the Associated Press. I’m sure a lot of people are wondering about my case with the AP over the Obama HOPE poster. I can’t talk about every aspect of the case, but there are […]

Pasifika Festival going ahead

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, March 11th, 2009 - 5 comments

The opening night of the Pasifika festival at Western Springs in Auckland will be proceeding. After a funding shortfall the Auckland City Council cancelled the traditional Pasifika opening night. But the Pacific Islands Board Auckland City (PIBAC) and the Pacific community rallied together and last week announced that they would be funding the opening night […]

Good Copy Bad Copy (repost)

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, February 24th, 2009 - Comments Off on Good Copy Bad Copy (repost)

I posted on this in the early days of The Standard but now might be a good time to check it out if you haven’t seen it already – the copyright, piracy, free culture documentary “Good Copy Bad Copy”. You can (legally) download the hi res version from bittorrent here – if you do, consider […]

Homegrown

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, December 26th, 2008 - 11 comments

At the end of my post a couple of days ago I touched on the notion of a new Zealand identity and a Left nationalism. Since then I’ve been thinking about the value of the last government’s moves to foster national identity and their remarkable success in doing so and concluded that this is quite […]

Social Report shows Kiwis better off

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 28th, 2008 - 31 comments

MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. The circle represents the status quo in 1995-97 each spoke represents a different measure (income, crimes per capita etc). If the spoke is longer than the circle than the measure has improved between 1995-97 […]

Lonely planet loves

Written By: - Date published: 5:53 pm, August 20th, 2008 - 13 comments

The Lonely Planet has a new guide on Godzone and has lavished praise on our beauty but also offers a warning on “the environmental cost, with extra visitors putting strain on the clean, green environment the country is renowned for.” So how are we planning to handle that? Not a bad question to be adding to examinations of political […]

National adopts Labour’s arts policy

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, July 16th, 2008 - 30 comments

So National has adopted Labour’s arts, culture and heritage policy essentially unchanged. Good. The flourishing of New Zealand’s arts and culture we’ve seen over the last eight and a half years hasn’t come about by chance, it’s been fostered by generous and targeted funding to give talented people the opportunity to get their work out […]

Reminder: Drinking Liberally Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 2:36 pm, July 1st, 2008 - Comments Off on Reminder: Drinking Liberally Auckland

Remember that Drinking Liberally Auckland is having its inaugural session tomorrow with David Slack. Note it in your schedules and tell your left-leaning and green friends where the action is. In fact phone a techno-phobe friend now! WHAT Drinking Liberally Auckland WHEN 7:30pm, Wed 2 July WHERE London Bar, corner Queen and Wellesley Streets, Auckland […]

Drinking Liberally – Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, June 25th, 2008 - 14 comments

You’re invited to the first Auckland Drinking Liberally event – 7.30pm next Wednesday night (2 July) at the London Bar with special guest speaker David Slack. Drinking Liberally brings together people from across the left-leaning wing of the political spectrum for discussion, debate and, well, drinking. The first Auckland event will take place from 7.30pm […]

Hollow Men film to premiere next month

Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 108 comments

The Unionist reports Nicky Hager’s book The Hollow Men has been made into a film and will be screening as part of this year’s New Zealand International Film Festivals. The 98 minute documentary is directed by Alister Barry, whose previous work includes the excellent In a Land of Plenty and Someone Else’s Country, and is […]

Lovin’ our corner of the world

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, June 11th, 2008 - 23 comments

Wanting something that’s great to be even better is no bad thing – but the Mercer 2008 Quality of Living survey our today shows we’ve quite a bit to be happy about. Auckland (#5 in the world) is the city in Asia Pacific with the best quality of living, followed by Sydney (#10) and Wellington […]

Body image gone bad

Written By: - Date published: 5:51 pm, June 10th, 2008 - 7 comments

We’re used to the importance of presentation in the world of politics, but no-one does it quite so blatently as the fashion world. We’ve seen it in the waif-like size of girl/women models, an acknowledged under-representation of ethnic diversity on the cat walk and now male models are also under pressure to down-size. In the Melbourne […]

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