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notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, March 21st, 2023 - 22 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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The Christchurch Cathedral construction on the news tonight.
The reconstruction is something that really annoys me. What a colossal waste of money. Plus, I doubt it will ever be as safe as a new building, whatever they do to strengthen it.
Anyone who has travelled around Europe will know that most villages have something more spectacular than the ChCh Cathedral. And, it is not like there is a world shortage of Gothic architecture. Compared to what is overseas, the ChCh Cathedral is a cheap gothic knock-off. For instance, the ChCh Cathedral looks decidedly tacky compared to, say, Sainte Chapelle in Paris.
We missed the opportunity to replace it with something that reflects our culture and who we are. Something that would be iconic for the future for probably half the price of the Cathedral reconstruction.
But surely the only reason you oppose it in reality is because that wonderful socialist Jim Anderton supported it?
Not at all. I oppose it for the reasons stated. I am sure there were right-wingers in favour of the restoration as well. So, nothing political in my views.
In contrast, I was very much in favour of the restoration of the Town Hall, because that is iconic Kiwi designed architecture.
I think people in favour of the Cathedral rebuild probably haven't travelled enough.
Yeah. I was hoping they'd do something like Coventry Cathedral. Leave the ruined bit (strengthened and made safe) and incorporate a modernist building alongside in a harmonious fashion. It would create a deepened sense of the sacred.
Yes. I have thought that as well. It would have made a good monument to the earthquake as it was.
When george bernard shaw visited chch he thought that cathedral was a clumsy pastiche of different styles..and kinda ugly..
He said the catholic cathedral was a much better example of the genre..
(Shaw was not catholic..)
I support your position. The rebuild of this cathedral does not make sense when a new structure could have provided more meaning.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2303/S00372/statement-from-mayor-tory-whanau-regarding-the-let-woman-speak-event-in-wellington.htm
So we hear sfa from Tory for months and then she comes out with this.
I wanted a Mayor who would concentrate on fixing the city’s many problems. And didn’t Tory say during her campaign that her strength was communicating and bringing people together? Yeah right
Her statement is pretty good Anker. Free speech but no bigotry.
She talks only of the Rainbow community. She is also reading from the Greens talking points. We know she was part of the Greens when we elected her.
When though, is someone going to speak clearly about the community of women? We don't seem to exist anymore unless we are part of an 'other'.
Being afraid to say the name woman or even that women may have rights or even exist (outside of an initial) seems a bridge to far for some folk, including Tory Whanau.
This is why KJM is getting a hearing, I suspect, as she is firmly on the side of women in all our permutations.
Just out of academic interest I found Mayor Whanau's statement quite odd. In fact I worked out, generally, if she had taken out the second sentence or clause of every paragraph the statement could be stronger and more appealing.
On closer analysis I also worked out that I am not in the least bit interested in what Mayor Whanau thinks personally about this issue. She also cannot assume that when she speaks personally she is speaking for all.
She was elected to be Mayor, to have a set of priorities/policies that would strengthen Wellington and its people. She does not speak for anyone personally.
On an even closer analysis actually it is a terrible piece of writing that is full of weasel words and qualifiers. Once you take outside the 'me', 'me' 'I' focus it says nothing really. In civil and human rights terms the statement is better without personal views.
The head of Comms in WCC has been there for ages and really knows his words. I wonder did he or his team write it? If he did I suspect it was a stripped down version and the me, mes have been added.
My version. (no charge Mayor Whanau)
"There has been considerable interest from the rainbow community regarding this event. I want to make it very clear that I strongly condemn the views and actions of this group.
t“While I acknowledge that freedom of expression, movement and peaceful assembly are rights preserved in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, this protest is against principles Wellingtonians, and me personally, hold dear."
Is Tory saying that Letting women Speak is "against the principles Wellingtonians and I personally hold dear"
I am afraid she is not speaking for all Wellingtonians. She portrayed herself when a candidate as someone who could bring people together and communicate well with a range of groups. She has shown herself to be anything but.
This is also one of the few communications I have seen from Tory since she was elected.
Yes good points Anker.
She has been noticeably silent on a whole range of issues affecting all Wellingtonians then bursts into print, using her position, and saying in her personal view that she speaks for all.
Most odd.
Is this a new poll from Talbot Mills? Dated 21 March.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/national-leader-christopher-luxon-falls-to-new-low-in-poll/UATZJNSCNJAETH5XW5RUODMD3Y/
The wonderful Sister Rosetta Tharpe, born 1915 in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, performing on a Manchester railway station platform in 1964. Somehow this woman isn't in the Rock n Roll hall of Fame, but Madonna is.
Hard to see how this can end without bloodshed.
https://twitter.com/timjacobwise/status/1637928359819718658
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also angered neighbouring Jordan for speaking at a podium covered in what appeared to be a variation of the Israeli flag that showed an Israeli state with expanded boundaries that included the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Jordan.
"Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There is none," he can be heard saying in footage of the speech he gave on Sunday at a conference in France shared widely on social media. "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people."
https://nordot.app/1010545861208096768?c=592622757532812385
My dad who spent much time in Palestine during the war, had a good grip on Middle East issues, and always had misgivings about the concept of Israel, would not be surprised at the belief of some Israelis that there is no such things as Palestinians.
His view, like mine, you don't make progress in eliminating discrimination by giving rights by that you've taken from others.
Former Green Party Chief of Staff and former member Tory Whanau
Doing interviews so Auckland can see what a mayor born in the 20th C looks like.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/the-front-page-tory-whanau-on-changing-wellington-council-and-authenticity-in-politics/77G5UXUHXFELXMCF3NMYPG6BNY/
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-01-2023/mayor-deeply-concerned-at-prospect-of-simeon-brown-as-transport-minister
100 days what's up
https://www.innercitywellington.nz/latest-news/2023/2/5/wondering-what-tory-whanaus-council-has-been-doing-since-elected-first-100-days
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131134891/mayor-backs-young-councillors-green-party-bid-for-wellington-central-seat
I was looking for the title of a book that I owned years ago, written in alternate chapters by an Israeli Jewish journalist from a military family and a Palestinian who had run the media for the PLO as a young activist. They had become good friends and had a desire to set the record straight.
Their history of the expulsion of Palestinians and the opportunistic power grab by Ben Gurion's government was eye-opening. It shattered my simplistic view of kibbutzes and brave Jewish refugees in an empty land. Jews who had been turfed out of their homes and businesses in Europe turfed out in turn Palestinians from their homes, businesses and country. This is the great injustice at the foundation, literally, of the State of Israel post-1948.
The assassination in 1995 of Yitzak Rabin, at a point when Israel could have healed this wound by adopting a One State solution, was a disaster for Israel and for the Middle East.
Sorry, couldn't chase up that excellent title for you, and it's probably out of print anyway. However, off to get this recent chilling backgrounder by an Israeli Jewish historian from the library.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
NOT recent, but 2007 book.
Tik Tok brevity.
https://youtube.com/shorts/IO9JoIrvuBk?feature=share
lol. That's pretty much it.
Yes. Presence and talent! Thats for Rosetta thanks Joe.