Social issues

Categories under Social issues

Terra Incognita

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 pm, October 9th, 2021 - 25 comments

The future can seem scary but we do not face it alone.

Chevron v Donziger

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, October 9th, 2021 - 12 comments

Despite spending over two years on home detention Attorney Steven Donziger, who successfully sued Chevron for the environmental carnage caused by its activities in Ecuador, was sentenced to the maximum jail time for refusing to hand over devices containing confidential client information protected by attorney client privilege in a prosecution mounted by lawyers with Chevron links before a pro Oil industry Judge.

Gender split is interesting in latest poll

Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, October 7th, 2021 - 30 comments

The latest Roy Morgan poll was run between August 30th and September 26th. The headline results of Labour/Greens with 55% (increase by 3.5%) against opposition National/Act/Maori parties on 41% (up 0.5%) were good enough. But they also showed the gender split.. Women are deserting the right.

Gut Feeling and Common Sense

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 pm, October 6th, 2021 - 42 comments

With clear information people can and should be expected to make optimal and sub-optimal choices & decisions.

Holding our covid nerve

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, October 6th, 2021 - 48 comments

and keeping the faith.

That our covid response is not working out perfectly doesn’t mean we or the government are failing. What we need more of at this point are stories about ‘what if things work out’.  Not in a Pollyanna or return to BAU sense, but that we can still be ok. We need strong narratives of what that might be like, us being ok despite the pandemic.

Right now Sonny Fatupaito is an essential worker

Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, October 6th, 2021 - 125 comments

News that the head of Waikato’s Mongrel Mob chapter was given an essential workers exemption to travel to and around Auckland recently has attracted derision from the usual quarters.  But right now Sonny Fatupaito’s help is essential.

The AUKUS Shell-game

Written By: - Date published: 3:54 pm, October 4th, 2021 - 44 comments

While the agreement between the 19th Century anglophone maritime powers the US and the UK to admit Australia to the exclusive nuclear submarine club gained all the headlines, another much more significant and imminent agreement was reached between the US and Australian governments on expanding US bases in Australia in the AUSMIN statement. The US gains another unsinkable aircraft carrier.

Priorities?

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 pm, October 3rd, 2021 - 16 comments

Is setting priorities just a matter of resources?

Who are these angry Aucklanders?

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, October 3rd, 2021 - 243 comments

This weekend there have been two attempts to undermine the current Auckland Covid lock down.  Brian Tamaki’s was not the most ludicrous.

Goodbye Gladys

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, October 2nd, 2021 - 41 comments

Mike Hosking’s go to female Politician Gladys Berejiklian has resigned in disgrace after the Independent Commission against Corruption announced a formal inquiry into her involvement in preferential grants given to organisations in her former boyfriend’s seat from which it is alleged he attempted to receive a commission.

Revisiting sports, trans inclusiveness and women’s sex based rights

Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, October 1st, 2021 - 86 comments

The UK Sports Council has released new guidance on trans inclusion in sports, including in relation to biological women

Covid does not give a fuck about your plans

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, September 30th, 2021 - 31 comments

This week we have seen reckons from John Key, Act and National on how we should be loosening up Covid lockdown restrictions.  Yesterday’s 45 new cases shows how dangerous it is to think that dealing with Covid is a simple management exercise.

This turkey is struggling cooped up in a bubble

Written By: - Date published: 6:21 pm, September 29th, 2021 - 78 comments

Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas but Kiwis do, don’t they?

Highway to the Danger Zone

Written By: - Date published: 12:51 pm, September 29th, 2021 - 25 comments

I never thought I would see the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of the United States military essentially being a witness against the previous President of the United States. Yet here we are.

Government introduces law to assist tenants

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, September 29th, 2021 - 19 comments

Barry Soper and the Property Council are up in arms about proposals to ensure that all commercial tenants should only pay a fair proportion of their rental if their use of the premises has been affected by responses to the Covid pandemic.

About the latest Colmar Brunton poll

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, September 28th, 2021 - 152 comments

The latest Colmar Brunton poll confirms that National’s polling is in the doldrums and David Seymour’s preferred PM rating is twice that of Judith Collins.

Smug hermit king

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, September 27th, 2021 - 127 comments

John Key has doubled down on his claims that Aotearoa is a smug hermit kingdom and claimed that it is imperative that international travel is eased although he is fine with all other restrictions to stay in place.

Key’s baaaack

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, September 26th, 2021 - 273 comments

John Key is back and has described New Zealand as a smug hermit kingdom for daring to so far achieve something no other western nation has been able to accomplish, holding back Covid and preventing thousands of deaths.

Fearmongering or telling it how it is?

Written By: - Date published: 5:14 pm, September 25th, 2021 - 29 comments

42 is not the meaning of life and 13 is not an unlucky number.

The Golden Ticket

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 24th, 2021 - 110 comments

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern claimed yesterday that a very high vaccination rate in New Zealand would represent a “golden ticket” and make level 4 lockdowns redundant. What could that mean that’s positive for New Zealand?

The more difficult end to the vaccination programme

Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, September 23rd, 2021 - 204 comments

The country is reaching an interesting stage in the vaccination programme where reluctant vaccinees will have to receive the jab to make sure that we reach herd immunity.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 pm, September 21st, 2021 - 26 comments

Government has taken a ‘calculated risk’ with opening up Auckland somewhat tonight.

Lockdown decision – which way will it go?

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 20th, 2021 - 171 comments

Cabinet meets today to decide on the future of the lockdown levels in Aotearoa and more specifically on Tamaki Makaurau.  Which way will it go?

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, September 19th, 2021 - 78 comments

Te Wiki o Te Reu Māori is coming to a close.  The past week’s events highlight the resurgence of and dependance on Te Ao Māori.  Nowadays most of us, at least in the circles that I move in, have a deep and growing respect for Te Ao Māori and realise that it is the best […]

Where Is The Real Green Party?

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, September 17th, 2021 - 48 comments

Where’s the hairy knuckle-dragging woke when you need them?

Trump’s not so bad: the nuclear holocaust edition

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, September 15th, 2021 - 52 comments

An occasional series

What should we call the Vaccination bus?

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, September 15th, 2021 - 82 comments

The Prime Minister has sparked another national debate.  What should we call the new mobile vaccination vehicles that will be rolled out over the next week or so.

COVID, We Need To Talk About Class

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, September 14th, 2021 - 27 comments

We’ve never seen a nationwide disease illustrate class and deprivation like the future of the country depended on it. Not like this. This should change us.

Delta Covid – the battle so far

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, September 14th, 2021 - 65 comments

As Tamaki Makaurau enters week four of lockdown things are at an interesting stage.

Dirty Politics does not work any more

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, September 11th, 2021 - 83 comments

Egged on by a shock horror smear campaign on Cameron Slater’s latest post Judith Collins has attacked Dr Siouxsie Wiles by fat shaming her.

Is this the post Covid world?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 11th, 2021 - 132 comments

Just as we did with travel security after 9/11, we are about to get our next set of global regulations to control crisis.