Granny has zero credibility running self serving fluff like that without balance around feenys valid point that she overstepped her authority, a recurring theme with the MP for oravida.
Secondly it reads like a who’s who of dirty politics with the 3 C’s of carrick, cathy and clammy. A rogues gallery.
Judith Collins thinks that the public have no memory
“The best crime stats we had ever had” and “It was my shining glory” was in fact the result of recoding burglaries and removing these from the crime stats.
“Acting Police Minister Judith Collins has admitted knowing Counties Manukau police officers illegally recoded 700 crimes to make them disappear, but didn’t pass the information on.”
“Ms Collins, police minister until December 2011, admits she had been told “something about the stats” but said nothing publicly. She did not even tell her successor, Anne Tolley.” http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/collins-plays-down-crime-stats-blunder-2014071408#axzz3f64ZVsLc
“Judith Collins, police minister at the time, has serious questions to answer after the Herald on Sunday’s disclosure that hundreds of burglaries were taken out of crime statistics over a period of years in part of the Counties-Manukau police district. Foolishly, Ms Collins has assumed the disclosure came from the Labour Party and dismisses the subject as “politically motivated”. Her assumption was simply wrong, not that the source of the information matters nearly as much as its substance. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11293312
” principal youth court judge, Andrew Becroft, who identified recent research suggesting that young Māori who are involved or connected with their culture do not offend at any greater rate than any other person, (Cherrington, 2009)
For those who don’t understand the notion of the importance of maori culture for our youth in breaking some over representation in the negative statistics.
For those who don’t understand why reconnecting young Maori with Marae and broader whanau etc is so important for them and the rest of us.
“The Christchurch Health and Development Study has recently produced results relating rates of offending to a sense of cultural identity amongst Māori. It showed that rates of offending (both officially recorded and self-reported offending) were about five times higher in the Māori study members, than the non-Māori members. Those rates reduced to three times higher, when adjustments were made for socioeconomic and adverse family factors. However, when study members were asked whether they identified themselves as Māori, the rates of offending for those identifying solely as Māori were roughly similar to those who identified themselves as non-Māori37. This research indicates that a strong sense of Māori identity and connectedness to Māori culture may reduce risks of offending.
I suppose grade inflation might be a concern if it happened within a meritocracy, like in Ontario, perhaps. However, in NZ, the rungs of the ladder that lead to the oriface of John Key’s Republic don’t require particular merit. If everyone is being equally inflated there is no problem. If only the few that would already be assisted by privilege are being inflated, there is no new problem. After a certain distance, the gap of inequality becomes irrelevent through it’s increasing impossible divide. Teachers still teaching same stuff. Students still learning whatever they learn. Just the medals change colour. Egos and bridges stand or fall. Policy and social attitudes still the same as 1984. Cheating? Untruths? Unprincipled? It’s NZ stock in trade. Situation normal all fucked up.
Nice to hear that some teachers are pursuing a program of concentrating on what kids can do, though. That will undermine National’s Shighter Future more than anything else. Good for them.
I mean, does your fatuous scribbling give anything at all ?
Other than a dutiful salute to “John Key – 16th All Black” ?
If you’re going to Samoa I recommend you consult with the locals about whom they thank for Wednesday’s match-up.
You’ll find it’s not the simpering Richie McCaw Wannabe, ShonKey of the Infamous Triple Hand (Face Palm), but rather the presently out of work John Campbell.
You don’t believe ? Tune into Auckland Samoan talkback for a bit. You’ll also hear a thing or two about who’s at the root of Campbell presently out of work. Warning: consultation with Minister Fiapalagi Sam will not reveal anything reliable.
Are you blind Tracey? Can’t you see there are far more votes in attending the rugby in Samoa that the coronation in Tonga? I’m surprised you are so politically naive.
Why, Paul? Why do you call troll anyone who does support your narrative or agree with your point of view? Are you against debate or disagreement in this blog?
I can see some sense in Coleman attending this match as sport & recreation minister but the rest of the troughers going, undoubtedly at our expense, led by Shon reluctant to steal Labour’s thunder but I will Key?
And I find it disappointing that on this junket (like others) there are members of all parties involved (if Trevett is correct), including one which I support and expect better from. To cover each other’s backs in case of criticism from the people picking up the tab?
Even by usual Herald standards, that Trevett offering is the most fatuous drivel. Read it, reread it and was still bemused. Can only presume she was dutifully responding to Shayne Currie’s latest edict. “Glad I’m a man” rugby link for John….it works for Vladimir….
An interesting article on how the SNP were used by the Tories to win the UK general election. Clear echoes of the strategy used here by National with Internet/Mana.
That Cosby interview about how it was straight-forward to just present the options in a straight way was so wrong. They used fear by exaggerating the Scottish Labour “risks.” Here wasn’t the “fear” promoted that Labour + Green would be a bad thing. And in 2017…..
The right-wing always promote fear as they know that it can lead them to victory and thus allow them to screw over the majority of people to enrich the already wealthy.
Might be self-defeating though – he’ll struggle to pull votes like Winston – but if he did he’d be inconvenient. National likes parties manqué like Maori, ACT, & Peter Dunne – none of which endanger their vote.
I have just read the latest burbling of Trevvy. What was it all about? Was the *feel-good * announcement to do with balls? Who was going to take them? Who wasn’t? Who knows? Who cares? I bet Andrew Little doesn’t. But at least we know that he was GAZUMPED! by Dodger Key. How so?
I actually feel quite sorry for Trevvy. One day she’s going to go back and read all this juvenile besotted rubbish and be ashamed. I am presuming at one stage she was a genuine journalist who wrote real in-depth articles with both sides investigated and reported without bias.
All she has now is a published *Dear Johnnykins* diary. Poor girl.
Mr Key is “delighted to be attending this historic event”
Speaking of balls, I hope he has the grace to acknowledge that this *Historic Event* is happening ONLY because of John Campbell. Bet he doesn’t. He has no guts.
I would love to see JC be made an Honorary Chief or something like it. Go John Campbell! and go the All Blacks! And Go Samoa!
Wouldn’t it be great if on appearance Key gets a muted Samoan response but John Campbell gets a riotous response. Should that happen, would MSM report it?
I have very, very close Samoan friends, one in particular of decades, who are absolutely, absolutely serious about John Campbell being honoured with a chiefly title. As far as I can gather John Campbell is truly loved by huge numbers of Samoans, both here and in that beautiful place. He’s seen as reflecting, best as palagi can, ‘Fa’a Samoa’. Key……ummh, not so much. Polite about him, of course, polite, polite, but no. Bullshitter you see. And vain. And false.
Just quietly, can’t imagine that Trev’ of the Herald did Key any favours with the Samoan community with that piece of mindless crap she wrote about rugby balls to Samoa. You really fucked up there Trev’. Not quite ‘Pebblesque’ but certainly a fuck-up.
The sneering, eurocentric tone in this huge moment in Samoan sporting history……it’s not missed, even if polite, polite rules. You’re an unartful fool Trev’. A nasty piece of work too.
Redline blog regularly receives reports from friends within Syriza. We received the following communique from our friends, one of the left currents in Syriza, yesterday:
1) We are in front of a great NO by the Greek People, who stands defiant and fighting against the ultimatums and the destructive policies imposed on Greece by the troika and its local supporters. Today’s NO has a pan-hellenic, national, popular, democratic character. It proves once again that the Greek People has a great reserve of courage and resisting spirit, and storms the political scene, as it has always happened in critical moments of our History.
2) This great NO, around 61,5%, comes despite the (unforeseen in post-war Europe) terror campaign and direct threats by all the systemic reactionary forces on European and international level. Moreover, it has been achieved despite the manifest weaknesses of the Greek Left’s forces. It is a result that was not expected by all those who underestimate the Greek people’s courage, and this remark is valid no matter how huge difficulties we shall face tomorrow (literally!).
3) The referendum’s result represents a crushing defeat of the pro-troika internal opposition, which, in vain, spared no effort to distort the meaning of the referendum and to multiply the fear amongst the Greek society. It represents a crushing defeat of the whole old political, business and media system. Already. . . .
Good on her for being mature and taking responsibility.
New Herald on Sunday Editor is braver than previous or just they don’t feel they “need” Pebbles as much as they think they need Glucina?
“NZ Herald Weekend editor Miriyana Alexander has confirmed Pebbles Hooper has stepped down from her role as Spy co-editor.
“Today I accepted the resignation of Pebbles Hooper, effectively immediately. She will no longer co-edit the Spy pages in the Herald on Sunday, or appear in the Weekend Herald’s Canvas magazine, ” Alexander said.
“As I said on Sunday, the views she expressed in her tweet were distressing, and are obviously not shared by me, or the Herald on Sunday.
“I have also apologised to a family spokesman for the contents of the tweet and the distress it caused them.””
Do you think Herald had a heads up on the Press Council complaint and so let Glucina know she could quietly exit if she found a new job?
Tracey: Well done Hooper for taking responsibility and resigning
Sacha: There’s no evidence she resigned
Tracey: It says right here she did
Sacha: Yeah but it was probably a firing which, ironically, I have no evidence for.
I’m comfortable with my doubts, thanks. There is only a prepared written statement by her employer claiming resignation. There is no quote from Hooper saying “I resigned”. The resignation also seems to have come after the meeting and not before it.
“There is no quote from Hooper saying “I resigned”
So?
“The resignation also seems to have come after the meeting and not before it.”
I don’t know where you have worked but the general course of action, when you want to resign, is to have a meeting.
Also it is funny where you say: “No proof of any such thing from Hooper.” But when it is shown that she tendered her resignation you offer a theory that has no proof.
I had an interesting day today at the PO getting my passport photo updated – I had already been down yesterday and Internal Affairs rejected it because there were shadows in the background behind my head and my head wasn’t centred in the middle and my hair was touching the edges of the frame (I have thick curly hair) . So I was back down there today to have another attempt – 3 head shots later they got it right – ears have to be showing so I had to shove my hair behind my ears, the shadows were still there and my head was slightly tilted and not centred correctly in the frame.
What’s going on here? I was getting pretty cranky at this stage and told the staff we will be getting chips implanted next – they agreed with me and said everything about security is getting more complicated. The lady told me that when she was in a US transit lounge waiting for another flight out of the US she had her finger prints taken even though she was not leaving the t.lounge. There was a queue behind me and I apologised to the lady waiting behind me for the delay – she said “I don’t mind waiting, if it means that I can fly without fear of a bomb going off on the plane” – I said to her “lady that is the last reason why the authorities want to have your identification on their files, its surveillance for all sorts of reasons – the least being terrorism – they just create the fear knowing that we will be suckered into it and accept it”. She looked at me blankly and I just walked out of the place shaking my head.
What sort of comment is that? Who rattled your cage – I am well aware that the topic of chips has been around for years – I am an old woman for goodness sake – and watch your language its unbecoming. Have a chill pill.
Wow, swearing at elder women, stay classy TC. If there was ever a comment that negated the last shred of validity of your moaning about other people here, that was it.
Barbara, thanks for the story, it’s erudite. I think along with the increasing control stuff, there is increasing incompetencies, end of the empire stuff.
I would be careful of moaning about the validity ones comments, weka. Tell me again how magic can cure people and how expressing skeptism of magical claims is bigotry.
It’s pretty straightforward. If you’re running a border control agency and have lots of passport photos to look at every time a plane lands, get a computer to do it. It’s cheaper, more reliable and doesn’t get bored.
But there’s a downside for the poor sod who has to get a passport photo taken – a face means nothing to a computer, so as far as it’s concerned your passport photo consists of a set of points it can identify and see how they’re arranged. That means a list of criteria for a passport photo (including, as you found: must show the ears, because they make handy measuring points, must be centred in the frame, must be entirely within the frame and must have a completely plain background).
So, yeah, it’s very annoying. But it’s less to do with terrorism and surveillance than with convenience and cost-effectiveness for border control agencies. (I’m guessing that at this point you’re not thinking “Oh, no amount of trouble is too much if it means greater cost-effectiveness for border control!” Because I sure didn’t think that.)
Thanks for that P.M. I knew it was for facial recognition but I thought that hair behind ears was a bit much – I thought the equipment that processed our skulls would be like Xray with goes through stuff like hair – an MRI scan doesn’t bother about hair when they scan the head – I thought computers could do anything these days. The no shadows in the background – why that – what’s that got to do with our heads? As for the budget constraints of our Gov departments – just about half the Parliament are at the Samoa game today and the poor citizens of Samoa are shut out of the game because of the cost of the tickets – it is illusionary that there is no money in the kitty for our essential running of this country – it goes where the Gov wants it go and its on trips away and other frippery. Lack of money – I think not.
Yeah, and it was entirely coincidental he did it in the office of an MP who did nothing for him. Which is the normal response from our caring sharing government. Don’t hurt yourself falling off your high horse.
You Key Gorks have got no memory have you ? No good asking you to recall the slitting the throat gesture in Parliament then. Like your man(?) is a gauche shithead, so Realblue are you.
Gimme a call when the effete poseur tries to make like a jock rugby boy up in Apia. He’ll do it. Can’t resist.
In defence of privilege, ignorance, and Pebbles Hooper..
(tl;dr – skip to bold section)
I admit I had to wince a bit, observing the shit-storm of outrage over Pebbles Hooper’s ill-advised comments. When you get social media full of separate-but-the-same-tone opinions, it always looks like overkill no matter what the conclusion or topic. Even the Ashburton Mayor was in on the game. That’s about where my sympathy ended, though. Just before her twitter account disappeared, Pebbles posted an apology that included,
“…I deeply regret any distress caused to the family. I apologise for my wording and take responsibility for upsetting those involved, and I was careless in my actions… The issue I regrettably tried to raise was about parental negligence and the precautions needed to ensure the safety of those who are unable to care for themselves…”
This started to ring familiar bells for me, because didn’t we all see at least the superficial psychology of the tweeter? Sure we did. We were all taking about it, if a little smothered by the ideology and hierarchy of privilege. What sort of person doesn’t care about the abstract concept of kids who can’t care for themselves dying, then does, but still largely runs off their parent’s fame and fortune? How to reconcile the contradiction? IS she contrite or not? What sort of person admits they should, could, or would vote ACT, a party of extreme individualism and privilege, but will settle for a similar party, National – a party of shadows and deception? Things were getting fishy. Wasn’t the idea of what the tweeter looked like, her botox program, offered as evidence of inner insecurity? Must be something subconscious, we said. Sure we saw it, we were using it against her, to quieten our own demons. The mind of the mob is not such a mystery if you’re a life-member.
So what could be similar in her apology and also initial claim of the colloquial “natural selection”?
I’ll tell you what I saw, I saw a person like me. A threatening to vote for ACT voter (I hated any idea of anyone telling me what to do!), a person who was pissed that people (the media, and by association the public who follows the media) who’ve never demonstrated they give a shit about anyone but themselves, suddenly gave a shit about a family who they’ve never met, who they voted against in principle since 2008 – or chose not to vote at all – enabling the same thing.
Why would she be pissed, in a sort of cynical, passive aggressive way? Did she see some parallel in her situation a situation “everyone” knew about? Did anyone give a shit about her when she needed it, when she needed protection from the outside world when she was a kid? What kind of person, we asked, displays that lack of life experience? Was it not obvious? Did her parents let her down, perhaps, did they at any time look the other way when it mattered, consumed by their own ambitions, problems and tendencies? The colloquial use of “Natural Selection”, what did it really mean? The Freudian-slip-o-meter was running overtime. On one hand it matched the theory perfectly, on another, not at all. The contradiction again: how could both claims mean the same thing? Simple maths.
Culture, the whole aspirational outlook, the economic style – that’s the “natural selection” – it’s a given, it’s bigger than us, it can wipe anything out and no one knows how to stop it or change it. It’ll roll over people who aren’t ready for it, and most of those people are kids – like you, me and Pebbles, were once.
During the weekend I was reading some work by Helen Brown: privileged talented, famous Journalist. She summed privilege up nicely, in her rapid over-anxious style, omitting to get as close as anyone should to pick the maggots out of a common wound,
“…She cheerfully describes her upbringing as, ‘long periods of neglect disguised as freedom, interspersed with inspirational bouts of the Rudolph Steiner teaching method…’
The abuse of privilege is a terrible thing, but being born into isn’t an inherently good or favourable thing by default. Fucked me right up. Unlike Helen Brown there were no “inspirational bouts” of anything in my life. Took 40 years to get close to untangling it, and the time it took and the lines I had to draw cost me my financial future and my family and friends. On a bad day I’m bitter and angry. I don’t regret trying, I’d do it again, but some people aren’t as pig-stubborn as me.
“Neglect disguised as freedom”.
From the inside, being born into aspirational privilege (working or middle-class) looks like the World is just out of reach. You can hear the World, you can see it, but you cannot reach it. Everyone else is having real lives, lots of fun it seems, making wild choices and decisions that blow your mind. Trying to get out while young is like trying to swim against a rip-tide. There is no inherent or allowed personal power for the privileged kid: it’s elevation of culture over the individual at all costs. Then the teachers come along and make it worse. In my case they knew my parents, my siblings, so I was ok, I was one of them, and they put me in an accelerated class. And just like Helen Brown, I didn’t “…want to be clever, I wanted to be ordinary”, but couldn’t get out. Kids know what’s wrong, even if they can’t articulate it. So I broke out, any way I could. Helen had a tantrum, and didn’t get out. She’s even more embedded now. I got side-lined in math class in my School Cert year. Shut up and sit in the corner, they said. Don’t annoy us, we won’t ask you to learn anything. Numbers are a complete fucking mystery to me. So fuck society and their enforced aspirational games.
A few weeks ago I was talking to a homeless guy whose one line of enquiry was where I got my clothes and the rings on my fingers. He implied my privilege, that he was different and that I owed him, somehow. So I pushed back at him, gently. I sat down and told him where I got my clothes, how much they cost, and he wasn’t impressed. His sneering chuckle told me all I needed to know. Without knowing how I even came to be sitting next to him, he assumed people who look like me have the money and economic obligation to pay full price for known labels – he would, he knew what he wanted, the brand and everything – it was where he was headed. He was disappointed that I didn’t encourage his outlook of aspirational escape. In fact, I said very little and just listened. Why would I tell him that where he wanted to go was a barren landscape? Leave him hope, at least.
He grew up in the opposite kind of World to me and he said he never really had coped well with life. Sounds familiar, I thought. I could’ve been him if it weren’t for the luck of finding one person. Without that one person, when my breakdown came, I’d have been out on the street, or locked up. The alcohol and drugs the running away, that was why he did it, he told me, but he was getting towards a place of his own, he said, with help from whatever organisation. Good luck, I thought, those fuckers aren’t your friends. There was nothing more to say. Couldn’t tell if the unsolicited honesty was a sales pitch; the initial style yes, pretty common for homeless to speak that way; but, no, I think not overall. Just people talking. We talked a bit about his childhood hometown. His tribe. We’d both been there. In time and distance, he was a long way from home. What could I have done for him?
Privilege rots creativity in the minds of the privileged. It’s like possessing a set of skills that only work inside a certain environment. Maybe it’s like how an astronaut might not be much good to anyone unless there is a spaceship nearby, because they can’t figure out how to split up and re-apply their skills, while everyone else wants them to be an astronaut so they can know the moon isn’t made of cheese. It’s a prison you can’t see the bars of, even if you’re lucky enough to know where they are. A privileged person can be loaded with privileged information, but there is no way to apply it if they leave the circle of privilege. Nobody who isn’t privileged wants you to give up your privilege, otherwise they’ll never get a turn. Their hope within an intransient and hostile environment will be gone.
That’s the evil of the inequality gap: on one side we have the rich, still within the culture of potential action, on the other we have everyone else, including the presumably borderline undecided, perhaps like Pebbles Hooper. Those people are the kind that Marx relied on for societal stability “after the revolution”. They are the disaffected and disillusioned aspirant classes – the people who have woken up to the game, but have few ways of applying anything “until the revolution”.
So why can’t anyone just make a list and apply their skills? Well putting aside the obvious uses and variation of skills and talents, lets use an obvious example.
Have you ever tried volunteering?
Fuck me, it’s more involved than finding work, and the legal liability is all your own. It’s like being a contractor on a project without a project manager, but for free, and you better be pretty good at self-managing your sensible personal boundaries. It’s nothing like that flippant slogan, “Oh hey have you tried volunteering?” that they tell unemployed people, to suggest they aren’t doing enough, like the door is wide open for all-comers. There are purposeful hooks, hoops and snags, and lots of waiting, and some of those guys you’ll meet are just plain dangerous. People can be shits no matter where they accumulate. No white middle-class charity wants unemployed, unconnected people – period – unless they can use their ethnic background. How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?
The abuse of privilege, the closed doors of culture are still in effect, even with do-gooders. The tendencies of society never goes away. So recently, when I signed the electronic petition to cut those same milquetoast charities a break in the face of legislation that would have them incur costs on their police vetting, I was laughing. Laughing because they are so fucking hypocritical, so fucking self-righteous, so desperate-for-help-but-not-that-desperate. I did it anyway, because there might theoretically be an organisation out there that isn’t full of shit and who does actually have legitimate reason for concern. So fuck your volunteering and charity – born of abusive Christian help-them-but-keep-them-down ideology. I can’t wait for the revolution that never comes, but I’m not signing up to your bullshit.
Yeah but what’s your point, Charles?
I’m getting to it.
Did I say I sometimes get angry and bitter? That’s important to the point. That is what even just the scar of privilege does to the minds of certain people. Do I sound like Pebbles Hooper yet?
I know why a car would be running non-stop inside a garage, because I’ve had to consider doing it myself. How would Pebbles Hooper or anyone else ever find out? Unfortunately, though, I know that even if I showed people, who didn’t know, how to avoid it, those people wouldn’t listen. And you can be damn sure there isn’t a charity right now checking the obvious in their known clients. Practical skills aren’t for everyone and I’m no teacher. Just like the homeless guy, he wasn’t listening to the implied story that I wasn’t teaching. He was set on his course, and god bless him. Because if I told these people what I know, these homeless, these addicts, these mentally struggling people, they would not be able to hear and in most cases they’d already know better than me anyway. When I’ve tried to get back in to “climb the ladder to change the system” to help them, the system kept me out. You think change will occur inside a system of privilege? Nah that’s bedtime story stuff, it’s what our privileged parents told us to do when we pointed out the fucking obvious to them as kids. When they got to the top, they never changed anything.
Yeah but what’s the point, Charles?
I’m getting there, it’s all important to the point!
There is no certainty that the homeless guy wouldn’t reach the top, or at least find a secure roof to sleep under, but after that, using the values of aspiration, he’d be on his way to indirectly enforce homelessness on another victim. Do you reckon that pulling people into safety is as morally admirable as we like to think when our cultural environment has nowhere constructive for them to go to from there? When do we address that? Do you reckon people will wait for us before moving on their own in a potentially dangerous direction?
Fair enough, we can’t escape the present: that if you lived like a dog for most your life a bit of the good life would do you good, give you some breathing space to safely look at things and rest. Whether you were owed it or not, you might certainly need it.
That’s why the attitudes that National and ACT promote have to go – not just out of power, but out of circulation. To attempt to right the balance. And the reason it’s so important they go, and not be allowed to pass charity or social welfare into private hands is so that people like me, and Pebbles Hooper, on a bad day, when we’re angry, bitter and hurting, sick to death of the do-gooder hypocrisy, the preparation of charities to collude with a new privatised environment, it’s so that those in need don’t have to rely on our transient mood to eat that night, or have somewhere safe to sleep; or so a solo mum doesn’t finally get pushed off the rails by the stress (that’s what Bill English is sizing up next…); or so a carer of a disabled person can get a break and not fall into poverty themselves.
Don’t rely on me. It’s a roulette wheel of chance.
Don’t rely on Pebbles Hooper’s ability to figure it out in time or decide who’s deserving or not.
Don’t rely on cuddly charities being impossibly un-flawed.
Welfare must stay in the hands of a neutral government system, not flawed individuals.
That’s my first point.
That’s what I saw in the Hooper apology. She reminded me of me, my flaws, my shadows. If she isn’t already a sociopath, I hope she gets further down the track and instead of just projecting her disappointments and hurt onto current events, she digs down into the real issue and maybe even finds a solution. It’ll cost her, Big Time. Some popular psycho’s know all this stuff already and just manipulate it for their gain – easy enough to spot because they can’t contain their glee, or plans – but I’m still unsure about Hooper and can afford to extend her some good faith.
It’s an old story, kids get fucked up, it’s the way it is, and no one stops to change it. Life happens fast. Culture pushes us to think fast. Very few parents can get over themselves before becoming parents, and even if they did they can’t entirely compensate for the destructive environment – especially if they’re invested in it for income and identity. Botox is a superficial act that could mean anything, and anyone who says fashion is superficial and shallow doesn’t understand what fashion can be. In attempting to explain herself, to apologise, Hooper started a war with the people her favourite political party like to blame. Your damn-tooting her olds stepped in to “stop the conversation”. Ever heard National and ACT blaming “poor parents” for the poverty of their children? Ever heard Bill English blame solo parents for costing “the country” too much money? Mr. Freud, with have hit Defcon2.
Blaming parents is blaming kids, because once those parents were kids too, and it was their parents who were fucked up –on their own and by the environment. Blaming the poor exposes the destructive culture of the aspirant classes. Don’t let them isolate any more victims. If you want to stop the game, you have to change the culture from the outside; or as Zach de la Rocha, lyricist of Rage Against the Machine, once said, “…We don’t need the key, we’ll break in…”.
(Ahh the nineties, a heady mix of bullshit and smoke.)
“…Yes I know my enemies
They’re the teachers who taught me to fight me
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite…
All of which…”
All of which…
all of which… my generation didn’t do much about. We weren’t listening to Zach in any great numbers. If we had, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are now. Fuck the norm, Zach says. Hmmm. Nah. Mostly we turned neglectful complacence, complicity and cluelessness into the norm. But we looked good while we were at it.
It happens to every generation, even good old GenX – the poster girls and boys for “slacking” and rejecting the status quo. Few of our pop-culture heroes were slackers, though, most worked hard-out to get rich, making dumb soundbites ala Hooper along the way. Beck says he was “too busy” to be depressed. No one crucified him on social media.
To the sound of our slacker soundtrack, we lapped-up the initial flourish of greed in NZ in the nineties. We played in the boutique retail spaces, we played with bohemianism (“lifestyle homelessness”), we had the interest-free student loans and spent the money on toys, and we were so up ourselves we never stopped to check our privilege. We flattered the greed and, if the numbers are right, a fair few of us must vote for National now. In a few years you won’t find anyone admitting they voted for National. I voted ACT, once, in 2002. There were 17 of us morons of varying degree in my electorate. So Pebbles ain’t so bad, compared. She’s only thinking about it.
GenX: who the fuck would identify with that anyway? You had to be privileged to know. And the worst part? You can’t get a coffee as good as it was when we gave shit about first world problems like roast, grind, tamp, and extraction times. We couldn’t even maintain and pass on our barista skills! It became unprofitable to do so. How profitable is social awareness? So fuck sanctimonious self-righteous GenX. Fuck me, cause I was one of them. Why point at today’s hipsters. Buy a mirror. We were worse. Hooper’s generation don’t know what’s up out of unavoidable ignorance. What’s GenX’s excuse for wholesale willful ignorance? We knew what it was like before Rogernomics. Our job, our responsibility, isn’t over. The nineties were not our finest hour. Hooper isn’t any more “feeble” than us. At least she exposed the problem no one wants to address, if they can avoid it. Some of the outrage is that Hooper reminded us of our own past – not a good thing to do unless you’re Taylor Swift.
A certain personality type doesn’t get over the impact of privilege on who they are. The accident of birth includes a random portion of personality traits that contains all the best and most fragile. Cognitive functions don’t “pre-harden up” just because someone’s parents are well-placed. A certain type of person can beat compassion and understanding out of themselves, but it’s not an act of aspiration, not in the beginning; or have it beaten out of them, and that’s an act of fear-transference, or bullying. But some can’t change, ever. Famous examples might be Janet Frame, Katherine Mansfield, let’s pick some men… Witi Ihimaera, Vincent O’Sullivan – all happy to admit they don’t or didn’t get over stuff. And some who aren’t born into riches and privilege are just as potentially psychopathic as anyone who occupies the nice leather seats of parliament right now. It hard to say who’s who, sometimes. So fuck ideology. I’ll help you because you’re a person, and the reasons for your situation need addressing, not because I have a nice pair of pants and you don’t.
The difference between Hooper and me? Gender, personality, experience and direction.
The difference between Helen Brown and me? Gender, personality, experience (and what reads like a shit-load of 1996 grade caffeine) and direction.
The difference between some hard-core ideologist and me? Potentially gender, personality, experience and direction.
Who’s better? Do you know where it’s going to end for you?
Much of our existing ideologies make no account for people being people or the influence of events that lead up to the present. Eventually we have to face that fact if any version of a harmonious society is ever going to include everyone. It’s why I’m not a feminist, or an indigenous rights activist, or a lefty at heart. My perspective frequently crosses paths with those ideologies, but doesn’t adhere to them. In the end, it’s just me meeting you and we go from there.
Where Hooper and her friends go from here is up to them. She should re-open her twitter account and chill the fuck out. It’s entirely possible to state two contradictory claims and have them point to the same thing. Ideology of any kind just helps us kid ourselves. The ideology of privilege demands we not cry for the privileged (and I suggest you don’t, either), but it also encourages us to demonise the person, and in doing so we blind ourselves to what is really going on, we see only half the picture. It’s human. So don’t feel bad.
End the culture, the whole fucking lot. If you can figure out any way to do that, I applaud you. If you can actually change it, even slightly, you’ll be a better person than me.
Government sets new greenhouse gas targets. 30% reduction sounds good… but that is in relation to 2005 levels. In terms of 1990 levels it’s an 11% reduction target.
in terms of economic policies and views, Labour are far closer to the ‘social democratic’ (cough) PASOK party of Greece who kept signing off on Troika austerity measures, rather than the coalition of the ‘radical left’ party, Syriza.
That simple fact can only be good news for the Labour Party, because nodoy would like to be Syriza. Syriza is like Mana-Internet, a hodge-podge of radicals missing the wealthy donor, a Greek Kim Dot Com.
Ah, no, Syriza has the support of the majority of the Greek people unlike Labour who keep losing support because they don’t support the majority of people.
“”I said, ‘If they don’t want to be Australians then maybe they should go back to the country where their parents come from’. That’s not being racist,” Fraser said.”
The bit that always has me rolling my eyes is the complete lack of self awareness by white Australians when they say this shit as if they’re not descended from immigrants. Exactly how long do you need to live somewhere it be legitimately from there?
You’d think being born there creates some legitimacy.
Interesting to note fraser said, “Go back to where your parents come from” – can’t see the whiterighters using that in their next march, just doesn’t roll off the tongue.
Exactly how long do you need to live somewhere it be legitimately from there?
Well, on any Kiwiblog thread in which the Treaty is mentioned you’ll find someone saying 600 years isn’t enough to count yourselves as indigenous, and in a recent thread on my blog someone was trying to make the case that Palestinian Arabs have no claim to being indigenous after ca 1400 years on-site, so White Australians must have to be classed as fresh off the boat.
Ah, but it’s different if you’re not trying to claim to be indigenous. Then being a 5th generation NZer has some mana, right? That’s why Fraser’s comment was funny, about where the parents came from. I’d love to know when her rellies arrived in Oz (although looking at the article, I think she was trying to make a different point entirely and didn’t realise just how racist it would come across).
Maybe Maori should try that one – if being a 5th-generation NZer fills a person with a sense of entitlement (which it apparently does, if blog comments and letters to the editor are anything to go by), being a ca 120th-generation NZer must be good for ca 60x that sense of entitlement.
“”This target is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030,” Mr Groser said. “This is a significant increase on our current target of five per cent below 1990 emission levels by 2020.”
It was equal to a reduction of 11 per cent below 1990 emission levels by 2030.”
and
“The Government would adopt a mix of policies to ensure the target was met.
“In particular, we will begin a review of the Emissions Trading Scheme this year, which will include scope for further public discussion on what New Zealand will do domestically.” ”
Maybe next year Groser can say we’ve decided to cut our 2010 emissions by 40% and if we do this for other previous years we can meet an arbitrary target. That sort of logic would not surprise me.
Yearly cuts, as of right now, of over 10% and zero emissions from fossil by 50. Anything less than that is fcking criminal negligence that’s going to make living really fcking difficult for some and impossible for others.
Nope. Not necessarily. The 5% who are responsible for about 50% of emissions will have their lifestyle ‘protected’. They will be ‘included’ in a world bent on excluding most citizens from access to things we currently take as granted and consider basic (food, medicine). They will continue to consume and work just as have a strata of Greek society.
That’s not taking the likely and widespread collapse of social infrastructure into account.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
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What a load of Poppy-Cork from The Milky-Barred-Kid !
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11476712
Seems the only ‘stunts’ here are the jacked up crime figures and weeps of “Poor little me……” from the archetypal thug/bully.
Sooo sooo Judy !
2 thoughts stand out reading that PR piece.
Granny has zero credibility running self serving fluff like that without balance around feenys valid point that she overstepped her authority, a recurring theme with the MP for oravida.
Secondly it reads like a who’s who of dirty politics with the 3 C’s of carrick, cathy and clammy. A rogues gallery.
Judith Collins thinks that the public have no memory
“The best crime stats we had ever had” and “It was my shining glory” was in fact the result of recoding burglaries and removing these from the crime stats.
“Acting Police Minister Judith Collins has admitted knowing Counties Manukau police officers illegally recoded 700 crimes to make them disappear, but didn’t pass the information on.”
“Ms Collins, police minister until December 2011, admits she had been told “something about the stats” but said nothing publicly. She did not even tell her successor, Anne Tolley.”
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/collins-plays-down-crime-stats-blunder-2014071408#axzz3f64ZVsLc
“Judith Collins, police minister at the time, has serious questions to answer after the Herald on Sunday’s disclosure that hundreds of burglaries were taken out of crime statistics over a period of years in part of the Counties-Manukau police district. Foolishly, Ms Collins has assumed the disclosure came from the Labour Party and dismisses the subject as “politically motivated”. Her assumption was simply wrong, not that the source of the information matters nearly as much as its substance. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11293312
How do you overshadow a National government?
Piss’n’bubbles, apparently.
PR FAIL.
why is this a story today? I am confused?
Is it because the Blonde is trying to get her head above the parapet?
It seems odd because the report was released last November? Maybe I am missing something obvious…
Se is EVERYWHERE, more than any other backbencher I will wager.
I came across this today while working
” principal youth court judge, Andrew Becroft, who identified recent research suggesting that young Māori who are involved or connected with their culture do not offend at any greater rate than any other person, (Cherrington, 2009)
For those who don’t understand the notion of the importance of maori culture for our youth in breaking some over representation in the negative statistics.
For those who don’t understand why reconnecting young Maori with Marae and broader whanau etc is so important for them and the rest of us.
“The Christchurch Health and Development Study has recently produced results relating rates of offending to a sense of cultural identity amongst Māori. It showed that rates of offending (both officially recorded and self-reported offending) were about five times higher in the Māori study members, than the non-Māori members. Those rates reduced to three times higher, when adjustments were made for socioeconomic and adverse family factors. However, when study members were asked whether they identified themselves as Māori, the rates of offending for those identifying solely as Māori were roughly similar to those who identified themselves as non-Māori37. This research indicates that a strong sense of Māori identity and connectedness to Māori culture may reduce risks of offending.
http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/youth/publications-and-media/speeches/what-causes-youth-crime-and-what-can-we-do-about-it
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/education/69865514/NCEA-pass-rates-increases-don-t-reflect-genuine-increase-in-learning
Is national gaming the system at kids expense or is having greater choice and more internal assessment working?
I suppose grade inflation might be a concern if it happened within a meritocracy, like in Ontario, perhaps. However, in NZ, the rungs of the ladder that lead to the oriface of John Key’s Republic don’t require particular merit. If everyone is being equally inflated there is no problem. If only the few that would already be assisted by privilege are being inflated, there is no new problem. After a certain distance, the gap of inequality becomes irrelevent through it’s increasing impossible divide. Teachers still teaching same stuff. Students still learning whatever they learn. Just the medals change colour. Egos and bridges stand or fall. Policy and social attitudes still the same as 1984. Cheating? Untruths? Unprincipled? It’s NZ stock in trade. Situation normal all fucked up.
Nice to hear that some teachers are pursuing a program of concentrating on what kids can do, though. That will undermine National’s Shighter Future more than anything else. Good for them.
http://agrihq.co.nz/article/stateside-trust-me-its-in-the-bag?p=6
http://agrihq.co.nz/article/alternative-view-tpp-a-us-weapon-aimed-at-china?p=6
A couple of rural perspectives on the tpp neither of them glowing.
Trev’, do they actually pay you for this shit ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11476615
I mean, does your fatuous scribbling give anything at all ?
Other than a dutiful salute to “John Key – 16th All Black” ?
If you’re going to Samoa I recommend you consult with the locals about whom they thank for Wednesday’s match-up.
You’ll find it’s not the simpering Richie McCaw Wannabe, ShonKey of the Infamous Triple Hand (Face Palm), but rather the presently out of work John Campbell.
You don’t believe ? Tune into Auckland Samoan talkback for a bit. You’ll also hear a thing or two about who’s at the root of Campbell presently out of work. Warning: consultation with Minister Fiapalagi Sam will not reveal anything reliable.
A very clever move by Key, who has become an expert at reading the public mood. A Labour PM would have done exactly the same. Cheer up, North.
The arrival of the first troll of the day.
I note you recognise and are kind enough to demonstrate the move Faecetious.
As he loves his pacific neighbours so much, how come he wasn’t at the King of Tonga’s coronation?
Are you blind Tracey? Can’t you see there are far more votes in attending the rugby in Samoa that the coronation in Tonga? I’m surprised you are so politically naive.
Troll 2
Pathetic.
Why, Paul? Why do you call troll anyone who does support your narrative or agree with your point of view? Are you against debate or disagreement in this blog?
Nah, he just seems to be against trollls.
Can’t say as I disagree with him on this issue, although I probably have on others.
I blame The Herald for Paul’s behaviour. It consumes and upsets him so, yet he continues to read it.
the coronation was a few days ago… two birds, one set of traveling fees 😉
I can see some sense in Coleman attending this match as sport & recreation minister but the rest of the troughers going, undoubtedly at our expense, led by Shon reluctant to steal Labour’s thunder but I will Key?
And I find it disappointing that on this junket (like others) there are members of all parties involved (if Trevett is correct), including one which I support and expect better from. To cover each other’s backs in case of criticism from the people picking up the tab?
Good interview by Andrew Little this morning on RNZ about National’s lack of action on the economy: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201761370/govt-complacent-on-economy's-weak-spots-labour
Even by usual Herald standards, that Trevett offering is the most fatuous drivel. Read it, reread it and was still bemused. Can only presume she was dutifully responding to Shayne Currie’s latest edict. “Glad I’m a man” rugby link for John….it works for Vladimir….
An interesting article on how the SNP were used by the Tories to win the UK general election. Clear echoes of the strategy used here by National with Internet/Mana.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/latest-survation-poll-shows-england-6015818
That Cosby interview about how it was straight-forward to just present the options in a straight way was so wrong. They used fear by exaggerating the Scottish Labour “risks.” Here wasn’t the “fear” promoted that Labour + Green would be a bad thing. And in 2017…..
The right-wing always promote fear as they know that it can lead them to victory and thus allow them to screw over the majority of people to enrich the already wealthy.
Has anyone else noticed the sudden large media presence of NZ First in the media post Ron Marks deputy coup?
Reads as Dirty methods of trying to drum up a new Coalition partner for Nats next election to me, Ron Marks being distinctly Right rather than center.
Might be self-defeating though – he’ll struggle to pull votes like Winston – but if he did he’d be inconvenient. National likes parties manqué like Maori, ACT, & Peter Dunne – none of which endanger their vote.
I have just read the latest burbling of Trevvy. What was it all about? Was the *feel-good * announcement to do with balls? Who was going to take them? Who wasn’t? Who knows? Who cares? I bet Andrew Little doesn’t. But at least we know that he was GAZUMPED! by Dodger Key. How so?
I actually feel quite sorry for Trevvy. One day she’s going to go back and read all this juvenile besotted rubbish and be ashamed. I am presuming at one stage she was a genuine journalist who wrote real in-depth articles with both sides investigated and reported without bias.
All she has now is a published *Dear Johnnykins* diary. Poor girl.
Mr Key is “delighted to be attending this historic event”
Speaking of balls, I hope he has the grace to acknowledge that this *Historic Event* is happening ONLY because of John Campbell. Bet he doesn’t. He has no guts.
I would love to see JC be made an Honorary Chief or something like it. Go John Campbell! and go the All Blacks! And Go Samoa!
I wonder if it might backfire on Key, not Labour. Won’t most people think Key was being a bit pretty, childish?
Seems the historic event of a coronation of a king of tonga wasn’t delightful enough.
Wouldn’t it be great if on appearance Key gets a muted Samoan response but John Campbell gets a riotous response. Should that happen, would MSM report it?
ianmac.
That would make my day! JC is on Prime again tonight in a cameo role as part of the sport reporting team. Good to see him last night.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/70024908/john-campbell-in-apia-for-all-blacks-vs-samoa-test-its-bloody-magic
Not sure if this brief moment has been seen?
Trying to recall when Clark was invited to be part of Sky’s commentary for League, Rugby, Netball??
I have very, very close Samoan friends, one in particular of decades, who are absolutely, absolutely serious about John Campbell being honoured with a chiefly title. As far as I can gather John Campbell is truly loved by huge numbers of Samoans, both here and in that beautiful place. He’s seen as reflecting, best as palagi can, ‘Fa’a Samoa’. Key……ummh, not so much. Polite about him, of course, polite, polite, but no. Bullshitter you see. And vain. And false.
Just quietly, can’t imagine that Trev’ of the Herald did Key any favours with the Samoan community with that piece of mindless crap she wrote about rugby balls to Samoa. You really fucked up there Trev’. Not quite ‘Pebblesque’ but certainly a fuck-up.
The sneering, eurocentric tone in this huge moment in Samoan sporting history……it’s not missed, even if polite, polite rules. You’re an unartful fool Trev’. A nasty piece of work too.
Redline blog regularly receives reports from friends within Syriza. We received the following communique from our friends, one of the left currents in Syriza, yesterday:
1) We are in front of a great NO by the Greek People, who stands defiant and fighting against the ultimatums and the destructive policies imposed on Greece by the troika and its local supporters. Today’s NO has a pan-hellenic, national, popular, democratic character. It proves once again that the Greek People has a great reserve of courage and resisting spirit, and storms the political scene, as it has always happened in critical moments of our History.
2) This great NO, around 61,5%, comes despite the (unforeseen in post-war Europe) terror campaign and direct threats by all the systemic reactionary forces on European and international level. Moreover, it has been achieved despite the manifest weaknesses of the Greek Left’s forces. It is a result that was not expected by all those who underestimate the Greek people’s courage, and this remark is valid no matter how huge difficulties we shall face tomorrow (literally!).
3) The referendum’s result represents a crushing defeat of the pro-troika internal opposition, which, in vain, spared no effort to distort the meaning of the referendum and to multiply the fear amongst the Greek society. It represents a crushing defeat of the whole old political, business and media system. Already. . . .
full at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/a-great-no-by-the-greek-people/
Natural de-selection? Pebbles pushes off:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11477010
Good on her for being mature and taking responsibility.
New Herald on Sunday Editor is braver than previous or just they don’t feel they “need” Pebbles as much as they think they need Glucina?
“NZ Herald Weekend editor Miriyana Alexander has confirmed Pebbles Hooper has stepped down from her role as Spy co-editor.
“Today I accepted the resignation of Pebbles Hooper, effectively immediately. She will no longer co-edit the Spy pages in the Herald on Sunday, or appear in the Weekend Herald’s Canvas magazine, ” Alexander said.
“As I said on Sunday, the views she expressed in her tweet were distressing, and are obviously not shared by me, or the Herald on Sunday.
“I have also apologised to a family spokesman for the contents of the tweet and the distress it caused them.””
Do you think Herald had a heads up on the Press Council complaint and so let Glucina know she could quietly exit if she found a new job?
“Good on her for being mature and taking responsibility”
Presume you’re commending the editor. No proof of any such thing from Hooper.
Nope, commending Hooper who seems to have offered her resignation. Many much older and more experienced than her have not done such a thing.
Many a firing has been presented as a resignation.
Shorter…
Tracey: Well done Hooper for taking responsibility and resigning
Sacha: There’s no evidence she resigned
Tracey: It says right here she did
Sacha: Yeah but it was probably a firing which, ironically, I have no evidence for.
I’m comfortable with my doubts, thanks. There is only a prepared written statement by her employer claiming resignation. There is no quote from Hooper saying “I resigned”. The resignation also seems to have come after the meeting and not before it.
“There is no quote from Hooper saying “I resigned”
So?
“The resignation also seems to have come after the meeting and not before it.”
I don’t know where you have worked but the general course of action, when you want to resign, is to have a meeting.
Also it is funny where you say: “No proof of any such thing from Hooper.” But when it is shown that she tendered her resignation you offer a theory that has no proof.
Oh the tangled webs we weave.
bet she pops up over at media works or some other pay station for the nactolytes.
Rugby commentator?
I had an interesting day today at the PO getting my passport photo updated – I had already been down yesterday and Internal Affairs rejected it because there were shadows in the background behind my head and my head wasn’t centred in the middle and my hair was touching the edges of the frame (I have thick curly hair) . So I was back down there today to have another attempt – 3 head shots later they got it right – ears have to be showing so I had to shove my hair behind my ears, the shadows were still there and my head was slightly tilted and not centred correctly in the frame.
What’s going on here? I was getting pretty cranky at this stage and told the staff we will be getting chips implanted next – they agreed with me and said everything about security is getting more complicated. The lady told me that when she was in a US transit lounge waiting for another flight out of the US she had her finger prints taken even though she was not leaving the t.lounge. There was a queue behind me and I apologised to the lady waiting behind me for the delay – she said “I don’t mind waiting, if it means that I can fly without fear of a bomb going off on the plane” – I said to her “lady that is the last reason why the authorities want to have your identification on their files, its surveillance for all sorts of reasons – the least being terrorism – they just create the fear knowing that we will be suckered into it and accept it”. She looked at me blankly and I just walked out of the place shaking my head.
“…we will be getting chips implanted next…”
People have been saying that for fucking decades.
What sort of comment is that? Who rattled your cage – I am well aware that the topic of chips has been around for years – I am an old woman for goodness sake – and watch your language its unbecoming. Have a chill pill.
Watch my language? Seriously? Fuck that.
Wow, swearing at elder women, stay classy TC. If there was ever a comment that negated the last shred of validity of your moaning about other people here, that was it.
Barbara, thanks for the story, it’s erudite. I think along with the increasing control stuff, there is increasing incompetencies, end of the empire stuff.
I care so much for what you think of me Weka.
I would be careful of moaning about the validity ones comments, weka. Tell me again how magic can cure people and how expressing skeptism of magical claims is bigotry.
It’s pretty straightforward. If you’re running a border control agency and have lots of passport photos to look at every time a plane lands, get a computer to do it. It’s cheaper, more reliable and doesn’t get bored.
But there’s a downside for the poor sod who has to get a passport photo taken – a face means nothing to a computer, so as far as it’s concerned your passport photo consists of a set of points it can identify and see how they’re arranged. That means a list of criteria for a passport photo (including, as you found: must show the ears, because they make handy measuring points, must be centred in the frame, must be entirely within the frame and must have a completely plain background).
So, yeah, it’s very annoying. But it’s less to do with terrorism and surveillance than with convenience and cost-effectiveness for border control agencies. (I’m guessing that at this point you’re not thinking “Oh, no amount of trouble is too much if it means greater cost-effectiveness for border control!” Because I sure didn’t think that.)
Thanks for that P.M. I knew it was for facial recognition but I thought that hair behind ears was a bit much – I thought the equipment that processed our skulls would be like Xray with goes through stuff like hair – an MRI scan doesn’t bother about hair when they scan the head – I thought computers could do anything these days. The no shadows in the background – why that – what’s that got to do with our heads? As for the budget constraints of our Gov departments – just about half the Parliament are at the Samoa game today and the poor citizens of Samoa are shut out of the game because of the cost of the tickets – it is illusionary that there is no money in the kitty for our essential running of this country – it goes where the Gov wants it go and its on trips away and other frippery. Lack of money – I think not.
Brighter Future update No 94:
A man has threatened to set himself alight in the offices of a National MP.
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/man-in-custody-after-incident-at-mps-office-2015070714
An international student who is mentally ill has threatened to set himself on fire. Low life TRP attempts to blame Government. FIFY
Yeah, and it was entirely coincidental he did it in the office of an MP who did nothing for him. Which is the normal response from our caring sharing government. Don’t hurt yourself falling off your high horse.
You Key Gorks have got no memory have you ? No good asking you to recall the slitting the throat gesture in Parliament then. Like your man(?) is a gauche shithead, so Realblue are you.
Gimme a call when the effete poseur tries to make like a jock rugby boy up in Apia. He’ll do it. Can’t resist.
In defence of privilege, ignorance, and Pebbles Hooper..
(tl;dr – skip to bold section)
I admit I had to wince a bit, observing the shit-storm of outrage over Pebbles Hooper’s ill-advised comments. When you get social media full of separate-but-the-same-tone opinions, it always looks like overkill no matter what the conclusion or topic. Even the Ashburton Mayor was in on the game. That’s about where my sympathy ended, though. Just before her twitter account disappeared, Pebbles posted an apology that included,
“…I deeply regret any distress caused to the family. I apologise for my wording and take responsibility for upsetting those involved, and I was careless in my actions… The issue I regrettably tried to raise was about parental negligence and the precautions needed to ensure the safety of those who are unable to care for themselves…”
This started to ring familiar bells for me, because didn’t we all see at least the superficial psychology of the tweeter? Sure we did. We were all taking about it, if a little smothered by the ideology and hierarchy of privilege. What sort of person doesn’t care about the abstract concept of kids who can’t care for themselves dying, then does, but still largely runs off their parent’s fame and fortune? How to reconcile the contradiction? IS she contrite or not? What sort of person admits they should, could, or would vote ACT, a party of extreme individualism and privilege, but will settle for a similar party, National – a party of shadows and deception? Things were getting fishy. Wasn’t the idea of what the tweeter looked like, her botox program, offered as evidence of inner insecurity? Must be something subconscious, we said. Sure we saw it, we were using it against her, to quieten our own demons. The mind of the mob is not such a mystery if you’re a life-member.
So what could be similar in her apology and also initial claim of the colloquial “natural selection”?
I’ll tell you what I saw, I saw a person like me. A threatening to vote for ACT voter (I hated any idea of anyone telling me what to do!), a person who was pissed that people (the media, and by association the public who follows the media) who’ve never demonstrated they give a shit about anyone but themselves, suddenly gave a shit about a family who they’ve never met, who they voted against in principle since 2008 – or chose not to vote at all – enabling the same thing.
Why would she be pissed, in a sort of cynical, passive aggressive way? Did she see some parallel in her situation a situation “everyone” knew about? Did anyone give a shit about her when she needed it, when she needed protection from the outside world when she was a kid? What kind of person, we asked, displays that lack of life experience? Was it not obvious? Did her parents let her down, perhaps, did they at any time look the other way when it mattered, consumed by their own ambitions, problems and tendencies? The colloquial use of “Natural Selection”, what did it really mean? The Freudian-slip-o-meter was running overtime. On one hand it matched the theory perfectly, on another, not at all. The contradiction again: how could both claims mean the same thing? Simple maths.
Culture, the whole aspirational outlook, the economic style – that’s the “natural selection” – it’s a given, it’s bigger than us, it can wipe anything out and no one knows how to stop it or change it. It’ll roll over people who aren’t ready for it, and most of those people are kids – like you, me and Pebbles, were once.
During the weekend I was reading some work by Helen Brown: privileged talented, famous Journalist. She summed privilege up nicely, in her rapid over-anxious style, omitting to get as close as anyone should to pick the maggots out of a common wound,
“…She cheerfully describes her upbringing as, ‘long periods of neglect disguised as freedom, interspersed with inspirational bouts of the Rudolph Steiner teaching method…’
The abuse of privilege is a terrible thing, but being born into isn’t an inherently good or favourable thing by default. Fucked me right up. Unlike Helen Brown there were no “inspirational bouts” of anything in my life. Took 40 years to get close to untangling it, and the time it took and the lines I had to draw cost me my financial future and my family and friends. On a bad day I’m bitter and angry. I don’t regret trying, I’d do it again, but some people aren’t as pig-stubborn as me.
“Neglect disguised as freedom”.
From the inside, being born into aspirational privilege (working or middle-class) looks like the World is just out of reach. You can hear the World, you can see it, but you cannot reach it. Everyone else is having real lives, lots of fun it seems, making wild choices and decisions that blow your mind. Trying to get out while young is like trying to swim against a rip-tide. There is no inherent or allowed personal power for the privileged kid: it’s elevation of culture over the individual at all costs. Then the teachers come along and make it worse. In my case they knew my parents, my siblings, so I was ok, I was one of them, and they put me in an accelerated class. And just like Helen Brown, I didn’t “…want to be clever, I wanted to be ordinary”, but couldn’t get out. Kids know what’s wrong, even if they can’t articulate it. So I broke out, any way I could. Helen had a tantrum, and didn’t get out. She’s even more embedded now. I got side-lined in math class in my School Cert year. Shut up and sit in the corner, they said. Don’t annoy us, we won’t ask you to learn anything. Numbers are a complete fucking mystery to me. So fuck society and their enforced aspirational games.
A few weeks ago I was talking to a homeless guy whose one line of enquiry was where I got my clothes and the rings on my fingers. He implied my privilege, that he was different and that I owed him, somehow. So I pushed back at him, gently. I sat down and told him where I got my clothes, how much they cost, and he wasn’t impressed. His sneering chuckle told me all I needed to know. Without knowing how I even came to be sitting next to him, he assumed people who look like me have the money and economic obligation to pay full price for known labels – he would, he knew what he wanted, the brand and everything – it was where he was headed. He was disappointed that I didn’t encourage his outlook of aspirational escape. In fact, I said very little and just listened. Why would I tell him that where he wanted to go was a barren landscape? Leave him hope, at least.
He grew up in the opposite kind of World to me and he said he never really had coped well with life. Sounds familiar, I thought. I could’ve been him if it weren’t for the luck of finding one person. Without that one person, when my breakdown came, I’d have been out on the street, or locked up. The alcohol and drugs the running away, that was why he did it, he told me, but he was getting towards a place of his own, he said, with help from whatever organisation. Good luck, I thought, those fuckers aren’t your friends. There was nothing more to say. Couldn’t tell if the unsolicited honesty was a sales pitch; the initial style yes, pretty common for homeless to speak that way; but, no, I think not overall. Just people talking. We talked a bit about his childhood hometown. His tribe. We’d both been there. In time and distance, he was a long way from home. What could I have done for him?
Privilege rots creativity in the minds of the privileged. It’s like possessing a set of skills that only work inside a certain environment. Maybe it’s like how an astronaut might not be much good to anyone unless there is a spaceship nearby, because they can’t figure out how to split up and re-apply their skills, while everyone else wants them to be an astronaut so they can know the moon isn’t made of cheese. It’s a prison you can’t see the bars of, even if you’re lucky enough to know where they are. A privileged person can be loaded with privileged information, but there is no way to apply it if they leave the circle of privilege. Nobody who isn’t privileged wants you to give up your privilege, otherwise they’ll never get a turn. Their hope within an intransient and hostile environment will be gone.
That’s the evil of the inequality gap: on one side we have the rich, still within the culture of potential action, on the other we have everyone else, including the presumably borderline undecided, perhaps like Pebbles Hooper. Those people are the kind that Marx relied on for societal stability “after the revolution”. They are the disaffected and disillusioned aspirant classes – the people who have woken up to the game, but have few ways of applying anything “until the revolution”.
So why can’t anyone just make a list and apply their skills? Well putting aside the obvious uses and variation of skills and talents, lets use an obvious example.
Have you ever tried volunteering?
Fuck me, it’s more involved than finding work, and the legal liability is all your own. It’s like being a contractor on a project without a project manager, but for free, and you better be pretty good at self-managing your sensible personal boundaries. It’s nothing like that flippant slogan, “Oh hey have you tried volunteering?” that they tell unemployed people, to suggest they aren’t doing enough, like the door is wide open for all-comers. There are purposeful hooks, hoops and snags, and lots of waiting, and some of those guys you’ll meet are just plain dangerous. People can be shits no matter where they accumulate. No white middle-class charity wants unemployed, unconnected people – period – unless they can use their ethnic background. How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?
The abuse of privilege, the closed doors of culture are still in effect, even with do-gooders. The tendencies of society never goes away. So recently, when I signed the electronic petition to cut those same milquetoast charities a break in the face of legislation that would have them incur costs on their police vetting, I was laughing. Laughing because they are so fucking hypocritical, so fucking self-righteous, so desperate-for-help-but-not-that-desperate. I did it anyway, because there might theoretically be an organisation out there that isn’t full of shit and who does actually have legitimate reason for concern. So fuck your volunteering and charity – born of abusive Christian help-them-but-keep-them-down ideology. I can’t wait for the revolution that never comes, but I’m not signing up to your bullshit.
Yeah but what’s your point, Charles?
I’m getting to it.
Did I say I sometimes get angry and bitter? That’s important to the point. That is what even just the scar of privilege does to the minds of certain people. Do I sound like Pebbles Hooper yet?
I know why a car would be running non-stop inside a garage, because I’ve had to consider doing it myself. How would Pebbles Hooper or anyone else ever find out? Unfortunately, though, I know that even if I showed people, who didn’t know, how to avoid it, those people wouldn’t listen. And you can be damn sure there isn’t a charity right now checking the obvious in their known clients. Practical skills aren’t for everyone and I’m no teacher. Just like the homeless guy, he wasn’t listening to the implied story that I wasn’t teaching. He was set on his course, and god bless him. Because if I told these people what I know, these homeless, these addicts, these mentally struggling people, they would not be able to hear and in most cases they’d already know better than me anyway. When I’ve tried to get back in to “climb the ladder to change the system” to help them, the system kept me out. You think change will occur inside a system of privilege? Nah that’s bedtime story stuff, it’s what our privileged parents told us to do when we pointed out the fucking obvious to them as kids. When they got to the top, they never changed anything.
Yeah but what’s the point, Charles?
I’m getting there, it’s all important to the point!
There is no certainty that the homeless guy wouldn’t reach the top, or at least find a secure roof to sleep under, but after that, using the values of aspiration, he’d be on his way to indirectly enforce homelessness on another victim. Do you reckon that pulling people into safety is as morally admirable as we like to think when our cultural environment has nowhere constructive for them to go to from there? When do we address that? Do you reckon people will wait for us before moving on their own in a potentially dangerous direction?
Fair enough, we can’t escape the present: that if you lived like a dog for most your life a bit of the good life would do you good, give you some breathing space to safely look at things and rest. Whether you were owed it or not, you might certainly need it.
That’s why the attitudes that National and ACT promote have to go – not just out of power, but out of circulation. To attempt to right the balance. And the reason it’s so important they go, and not be allowed to pass charity or social welfare into private hands is so that people like me, and Pebbles Hooper, on a bad day, when we’re angry, bitter and hurting, sick to death of the do-gooder hypocrisy, the preparation of charities to collude with a new privatised environment, it’s so that those in need don’t have to rely on our transient mood to eat that night, or have somewhere safe to sleep; or so a solo mum doesn’t finally get pushed off the rails by the stress (that’s what Bill English is sizing up next…); or so a carer of a disabled person can get a break and not fall into poverty themselves.
Don’t rely on me. It’s a roulette wheel of chance.
Don’t rely on Pebbles Hooper’s ability to figure it out in time or decide who’s deserving or not.
Don’t rely on cuddly charities being impossibly un-flawed.
Welfare must stay in the hands of a neutral government system, not flawed individuals.
That’s my first point.
That’s what I saw in the Hooper apology. She reminded me of me, my flaws, my shadows. If she isn’t already a sociopath, I hope she gets further down the track and instead of just projecting her disappointments and hurt onto current events, she digs down into the real issue and maybe even finds a solution. It’ll cost her, Big Time. Some popular psycho’s know all this stuff already and just manipulate it for their gain – easy enough to spot because they can’t contain their glee, or plans – but I’m still unsure about Hooper and can afford to extend her some good faith.
It’s an old story, kids get fucked up, it’s the way it is, and no one stops to change it. Life happens fast. Culture pushes us to think fast. Very few parents can get over themselves before becoming parents, and even if they did they can’t entirely compensate for the destructive environment – especially if they’re invested in it for income and identity. Botox is a superficial act that could mean anything, and anyone who says fashion is superficial and shallow doesn’t understand what fashion can be. In attempting to explain herself, to apologise, Hooper started a war with the people her favourite political party like to blame. Your damn-tooting her olds stepped in to “stop the conversation”. Ever heard National and ACT blaming “poor parents” for the poverty of their children? Ever heard Bill English blame solo parents for costing “the country” too much money? Mr. Freud, with have hit Defcon2.
Blaming parents is blaming kids, because once those parents were kids too, and it was their parents who were fucked up –on their own and by the environment. Blaming the poor exposes the destructive culture of the aspirant classes. Don’t let them isolate any more victims. If you want to stop the game, you have to change the culture from the outside; or as Zach de la Rocha, lyricist of Rage Against the Machine, once said, “…We don’t need the key, we’ll break in…”.
(Ahh the nineties, a heady mix of bullshit and smoke.)
“…Yes I know my enemies
They’re the teachers who taught me to fight me
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite…
All of which…”
All of which…
all of which… my generation didn’t do much about. We weren’t listening to Zach in any great numbers. If we had, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are now. Fuck the norm, Zach says. Hmmm. Nah. Mostly we turned neglectful complacence, complicity and cluelessness into the norm. But we looked good while we were at it.
It happens to every generation, even good old GenX – the poster girls and boys for “slacking” and rejecting the status quo. Few of our pop-culture heroes were slackers, though, most worked hard-out to get rich, making dumb soundbites ala Hooper along the way. Beck says he was “too busy” to be depressed. No one crucified him on social media.
To the sound of our slacker soundtrack, we lapped-up the initial flourish of greed in NZ in the nineties. We played in the boutique retail spaces, we played with bohemianism (“lifestyle homelessness”), we had the interest-free student loans and spent the money on toys, and we were so up ourselves we never stopped to check our privilege. We flattered the greed and, if the numbers are right, a fair few of us must vote for National now. In a few years you won’t find anyone admitting they voted for National. I voted ACT, once, in 2002. There were 17 of us morons of varying degree in my electorate. So Pebbles ain’t so bad, compared. She’s only thinking about it.
GenX: who the fuck would identify with that anyway? You had to be privileged to know. And the worst part? You can’t get a coffee as good as it was when we gave shit about first world problems like roast, grind, tamp, and extraction times. We couldn’t even maintain and pass on our barista skills! It became unprofitable to do so. How profitable is social awareness? So fuck sanctimonious self-righteous GenX. Fuck me, cause I was one of them. Why point at today’s hipsters. Buy a mirror. We were worse. Hooper’s generation don’t know what’s up out of unavoidable ignorance. What’s GenX’s excuse for wholesale willful ignorance? We knew what it was like before Rogernomics. Our job, our responsibility, isn’t over. The nineties were not our finest hour. Hooper isn’t any more “feeble” than us. At least she exposed the problem no one wants to address, if they can avoid it. Some of the outrage is that Hooper reminded us of our own past – not a good thing to do unless you’re Taylor Swift.
A certain personality type doesn’t get over the impact of privilege on who they are. The accident of birth includes a random portion of personality traits that contains all the best and most fragile. Cognitive functions don’t “pre-harden up” just because someone’s parents are well-placed. A certain type of person can beat compassion and understanding out of themselves, but it’s not an act of aspiration, not in the beginning; or have it beaten out of them, and that’s an act of fear-transference, or bullying. But some can’t change, ever. Famous examples might be Janet Frame, Katherine Mansfield, let’s pick some men… Witi Ihimaera, Vincent O’Sullivan – all happy to admit they don’t or didn’t get over stuff. And some who aren’t born into riches and privilege are just as potentially psychopathic as anyone who occupies the nice leather seats of parliament right now. It hard to say who’s who, sometimes. So fuck ideology. I’ll help you because you’re a person, and the reasons for your situation need addressing, not because I have a nice pair of pants and you don’t.
The difference between Hooper and me? Gender, personality, experience and direction.
The difference between Helen Brown and me? Gender, personality, experience (and what reads like a shit-load of 1996 grade caffeine) and direction.
The difference between some hard-core ideologist and me? Potentially gender, personality, experience and direction.
Who’s better? Do you know where it’s going to end for you?
Much of our existing ideologies make no account for people being people or the influence of events that lead up to the present. Eventually we have to face that fact if any version of a harmonious society is ever going to include everyone. It’s why I’m not a feminist, or an indigenous rights activist, or a lefty at heart. My perspective frequently crosses paths with those ideologies, but doesn’t adhere to them. In the end, it’s just me meeting you and we go from there.
Where Hooper and her friends go from here is up to them. She should re-open her twitter account and chill the fuck out. It’s entirely possible to state two contradictory claims and have them point to the same thing. Ideology of any kind just helps us kid ourselves. The ideology of privilege demands we not cry for the privileged (and I suggest you don’t, either), but it also encourages us to demonise the person, and in doing so we blind ourselves to what is really going on, we see only half the picture. It’s human. So don’t feel bad.
End the culture, the whole fucking lot. If you can figure out any way to do that, I applaud you. If you can actually change it, even slightly, you’ll be a better person than me.
Government sets new greenhouse gas targets. 30% reduction sounds good… but that is in relation to 2005 levels. In terms of 1990 levels it’s an 11% reduction target.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70038782/tim-groser-commits-new-zealand-to-30pc-cut-in-greenhouse-gases
Labour need to watch this and learn from their history as there’s no way that Labour is back – yet.
in terms of economic policies and views, Labour are far closer to the ‘social democratic’ (cough) PASOK party of Greece who kept signing off on Troika austerity measures, rather than the coalition of the ‘radical left’ party, Syriza.
That simple fact can only be good news for the Labour Party, because nodoy would like to be Syriza. Syriza is like Mana-Internet, a hodge-podge of radicals missing the wealthy donor, a Greek Kim Dot Com.
Ah, no, Syriza has the support of the majority of the Greek people unlike Labour who keep losing support because they don’t support the majority of people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage-pregnancies-is-a-startling-success.html?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email&_r=2
– No reason this wouldn’t work here as well
Indeed.
You start providing healthcare for free, people use it.
This is what the RWNJ’s want.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/irelands-austerity-success-is-no-model-for-greece-340662.html
classic aussie
“”I said, ‘If they don’t want to be Australians then maybe they should go back to the country where their parents come from’. That’s not being racist,” Fraser said.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/tennis/70038375/nick-kyrgios-hits-back-at-former-champion-swimmer-dawn-fraser-over-racist-rant
ummm – yes it is
The bit that always has me rolling my eyes is the complete lack of self awareness by white Australians when they say this shit as if they’re not descended from immigrants. Exactly how long do you need to live somewhere it be legitimately from there?
You’d think being born there creates some legitimacy.
Interesting to note fraser said, “Go back to where your parents come from” – can’t see the whiterighters using that in their next march, just doesn’t roll off the tongue.
Exactly how long do you need to live somewhere it be legitimately from there?
Well, on any Kiwiblog thread in which the Treaty is mentioned you’ll find someone saying 600 years isn’t enough to count yourselves as indigenous, and in a recent thread on my blog someone was trying to make the case that Palestinian Arabs have no claim to being indigenous after ca 1400 years on-site, so White Australians must have to be classed as fresh off the boat.
Ah, but it’s different if you’re not trying to claim to be indigenous. Then being a 5th generation NZer has some mana, right? That’s why Fraser’s comment was funny, about where the parents came from. I’d love to know when her rellies arrived in Oz (although looking at the article, I think she was trying to make a different point entirely and didn’t realise just how racist it would come across).
Maybe Maori should try that one – if being a 5th-generation NZer fills a person with a sense of entitlement (which it apparently does, if blog comments and letters to the editor are anything to go by), being a ca 120th-generation NZer must be good for ca 60x that sense of entitlement.
very true, esp if 5th is considered better than 2nd.
What a load of shit tim groser
“”This target is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030,” Mr Groser said. “This is a significant increase on our current target of five per cent below 1990 emission levels by 2020.”
It was equal to a reduction of 11 per cent below 1990 emission levels by 2030.”
and
“The Government would adopt a mix of policies to ensure the target was met.
“In particular, we will begin a review of the Emissions Trading Scheme this year, which will include scope for further public discussion on what New Zealand will do domestically.” ”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70038782/climate-change-issues-minister-tim-groser-commits-new-zealand-to-30pc-cut-in-greenhouse-gases
talk, bullshit, talk, bullshit… you know nothing tim groser
Maybe next year Groser can say we’ve decided to cut our 2010 emissions by 40% and if we do this for other previous years we can meet an arbitrary target. That sort of logic would not surprise me.
I expect he’ll say they are working on a time machine so that they can meet all the targets from yesteryear – what a dim bulb is tim groser
Yearly cuts, as of right now, of over 10% and zero emissions from fossil by 50. Anything less than that is fcking criminal negligence that’s going to make living really fcking difficult for some and impossible for others.
I suspect that NZ emissions from fossil fuels are going to be near zero by 2050 (or before) anyways.
Nope. Not necessarily. The 5% who are responsible for about 50% of emissions will have their lifestyle ‘protected’. They will be ‘included’ in a world bent on excluding most citizens from access to things we currently take as granted and consider basic (food, medicine). They will continue to consume and work just as have a strata of Greek society.
That’s not taking the likely and widespread collapse of social infrastructure into account.
You’re a smug self righteous little git Kevin.