He does, all the time, the whole 4 or 5 of Him, depending upon the scene that is set Slippery can transform Himself from Dances with transvestites to discussing issues upon the world stage with international leaders in the blink of an eye,
The reshuffle was one such rare moment.
No-one saw the knives go in, everyone was surprised, the new order settled in seconds.
“I can smile, and murder while I smile.”
Thanks. Read the first bit. Will read the rest after work today.
This quote from Arundhati Roy, is very relevant at home and abroad:
This theft of language, this technique of usurping words and deploying them like weapons, of using them to mask intent and to mean exactly the opposite of what they have traditionally meant, has been one of the most brilliant strategic victories of the czars of the new dispensation. It has allowed them to marginalize their detractors, deprive them of a language to voice their critique and dismiss them as being “anti-progress,” “anti-development,” “anti-reform,” and of course “anti-national” – negativists of the worst sort. To reclaim these stolen words requires explanations that are too tedious for a world with a short attention span, and too expensive in an era when Free Speech has become unaffordable for the poor. This language heist may prove to be the keystone of our undoing.
But according to you Karol as a Deconstructionist, language is meaningless anyway, so what does it matter, language and words are only good for “deploying…like weapons”?
According to Deconstructionism, isn’t Roy’s world view, just that, a purely subjective experience, there is no objective reality out there for it to attache to, its no more truthful or valid or evil than Hitler’s world view?
Does she really need her girl pal QofT to rush in snarling and biting?
QofT, you repeatedly avoids stating what intellectual school she subscribes to.
What are you afraid of?
For the record, QofT, your girl pal has admitted she is a Deconstructionist, with a small qualification interestingly enough – ‘for the most part’ was it if I remember correctly – a failed attempt to hedge her bet I think.
Some of us get bored with your fixation.
You tried this ages ago, then never replied to Karol when she explained herself.
It was either sniper shots at Karol, or sniper shots at those troublemakers born on another patch of dirt. Got stats yet?
I remember Karol saying she was a bit of this a bit of that.
It’s BS of course.
Acting like you are scouring a rubbish tip of discarded and broken ideologies you don’t actually have a clue about, picking up fragments that you think are ‘useful’ to your vested interests is called creating propaganda.
Marxism, neo or whatever, Deconstructionism/Postmodernism or whatever those flaky followers like to call it, are ideologies which make truth claims about the way the world is. Claims that are easily disprovable.
You build your world view/argument on these failed ideologies as Feminists do, then you are exposed to the same failures.
Wailing that you are being “pigeon holed” doesn’t change that.
Ditto for neo-liberalism/neo conservatism and those scrambling to defend it in the wake of 2008.
Acting like you are scouring a rubbish tip of discarded and broken ideologies you don’t actually have a clue about, picking up fragments that you think are ‘useful’ to your vested interests is called creating propaganda.
Just because you do it doesn’t mean that everyone does. Karol certainly doesn’t share your attitude toward “thinking”. Perhaps if you gave the rather pathetic misogynist stroking a rest some time, maybe the blood will flood back to the organ that is responsible for actual thought.
In case that was too subtle for you…
Most people think about things before they spew it out on the rest of us… You just seem to wank a lot when you get excited. Your keyboard must have a sticky problem whenever you reply to a female commentator.
Lol, I’ll leave the rest of your ignorant absurdities to others, but seeing you are so hung up on labels, please enlighten me on what happened with regard to neo-Conservatism in 2008.
Pretty strong suggestion in that comment that you don’t know anything about Neo-Conservatism.
k_p: I remember Karol saying she was a bit of this a bit of that.
It’s BS of course.
Acting like you are scouring a rubbish tip of discarded and broken ideologies you don’t actually have a clue about, picking up fragments that you think are ‘useful’ to your vested interests is called creating propaganda.
Gee, you sure do show your superficial understanding of the umbrella terms you are referring to. I assume you mean that comment fatty helpfully linked to, of which I associated myself with bits of poststructuralism and neo-Marxism, etc. Do you understand the meaning of “heterogeneous” as used at the link?
Note in the second line the reference to “critical theorists” as being included in the general collection of post-structuralists theories. Click on the link and you will see that neo-Marxism is included there.
ie I was referring to an eclectic mix of related theories all included under very general terms that you don’t really seem to understand.
I don’t know how anyone can do anything but pick out various bits of each, as ones they most agree with.
Scouring rubbish tips for discarded and broken ideologies about and picking up fragments that you think are ‘useful’.
That’s not creating propaganda.
That’s bricolage!
Especially when it’s women writing, because our ladybrains can’t come up with awesome arguments about deconstructionist marxist neo-anarcho-eco-feminism like k_p’s.
k_p: But according to you Karol as a Deconstructionist, [citation needed] language is meaningless [citation needed] anyway, so what does it matter, language and words are only good for “deploying…like weapons”? [citation needed]
For an objectivist, you make a lot of loose claims based on little evidence.
Do you have anything to contribute about the significant article GeoffC linked to, or are you just trying to divert his thread?
This “theft of language” is being most effectively deployed by the coal industry to hide the dirty nature of their business, using words to mask intent and to mean exactly the opposite of what they have traditionally meant. For example Fonterra say they plan to excavate a major “Escarpment Mine” Just south of Auckland, that looks likely to become the ground zero in the fight against climate change in the Auckland area. Fonterra facing unexpectedly stiff opposition from local residents and Auckland based environmentalists, hoped an “Escarpment Mine” wouldn’t get the same emotional response from Aucklanders that “Open Cast Mine” might.
Everyone knows what an open cast mine looks like, from unpleasant pictures seen on television and in books.
“Escarpment” in geology means a natural feature of the landscape, either a very steep natural slope, or slanting cliff face. The coal mining industry have subverted the original meaning of this word, for their own uses. Using the word ‘Escarpment’ avoids the unpleasant mental pictures that automatically form in people’s minds on hearing the words ‘Open Cast Mine’. ‘Escarpment Mine’, much more pleasant.
<blockquote.Dairy juggernaut Fonterra is planning a major new coal mine in north Waikato, saying that will be cheaper than buying coal from Solid Energy, the state-owned enterprise axing 120 jobs at Huntly, blaming falling prices.
Fonterra's coal mining company Glencoal is about to apply for resource consents to develop an open cast coalmine on 30ha of farmland it has owned for 10 years between Mangatawhiri Rd and the new State Highway 2 at Maramarua.
The name Mangatangi is more familiar to Aucklanders as being the location of the Mangatangi Dam, Auckland’s largest water-storage dam. With a capacity of 39 million cubic metres, it supplies nearly a quarter of the city’s bulk water.
Aucklanders are not too happy to learn that it will also be the location of the regions biggest opencast coal mine. Oops, pardon me ‘escarpment mine’.
PS. This proposed mine was originally going to be publicy notified with a chance for public submissions. But on meeting unexpectedly stiff resistance from locals and environmentalitst, this is now in doubt with Fonterra considering seeking fast track permission. (Maybe the language trick didn’t work).
The Truth-Out.Org article – the politics of disconnect. And we wonder why the polls read as they do. “Mr Key’s a ‘nice man’……..honourably doing all he can in the circumstances. Very well. Kia Ora……”
Deliberate is what it is………brought here to do the business.
Not an easy article to read being so very very American, but quite unnerving with a clear echo with what’s happening here in NZ. Makes one wonder where the brief is coming from?
He is his usual aggressive obnoxious self but amongst the abuse and self obsessed diatribe are a couple of pearlers. About Paula Bennett he says “I can’t stand what she is doing to beneficiaries, I just won’t tolerate taking a stick to the most vulnerable, who, by and large, don’t want to be there.”
And about the distribution of wealth he says “[i]n this government, the few get rich in the name of the many. That just can’t continue.” So government, he says, has to become far more involved.
If only he learned to be more civilised and circumspect he could become a very good politician.
Yes. I read it and thought he was very good on the class/beneficiaries/anti-wealthy elites stuff. But his prejudices against people/qualities outside of various socially constructed “norms” undo all the good stuff he says.
There you go with that Deconstructionist nonsense again, Karol.
“various socially constructed “norms””
What about your socially constructed feminist ideas, values, attitudes? Can’t they be deconstructed as well, aren’t they also just another set of self serving formulae, Karol?
It’s like that nonsensewith gay “marriage’, you were banging on about “binary opposites” – that’s just pure academic pedantry.
Ditto with the “essentialism” cry that goes up around here to dismiss any opinion you lot don’t like. It’s a bit of jargon made up by the Academic Left, premised on the same old flaky, 1970’s French philosophy, Deconstructionist/Feminist nonsense.
Oh, k_p. It’s seriously cute how you keep popping up whenever a woman has an opinion to try and score some pseudoacademic point about what you think the term “social construct” means.
@Kiwi Prometheus
Having looked it up, it appears that Deconstructionism is about finding meaning in texts by uncovering underlying assumptions. The Basics of
Philosophy pages. point out that it is “notoriously difficult to define” and that some critics have “gone so far as to claim it is a dangerous form of Nihilism”.
Nihilism appears to be where K.P is pushing it.
You can push any philosophy or analytical approach to extremes and it will be…well…extreme. Keeping an eye on a wider perspective, therefore is required with any philosophy or analytical approach.
With regard to deconstructionism, it appears useful; if we don’t check up on our basic assumptions from time to time we really will deviate from our aims and ideals. I believe doing this “checking” is part of what is commonly called “thinking”.
I can imagine that those who are “winning” under the basic assumptions going by unquestioned would not like this form of analytical approach.
I would question those who think they are “winning” under basic assumptions going by unquestioned. I really don’t think there are many people at all who are currently “winning” at present. That is, not unless you thrive in living in a divided, unhappy and stressed society that is heading for financial, social and environmental meltdown.
Interesting that there is no reply from K.P. One could be forgiven for thinking that this “deconstructionism” argument was a poorly thought out faux intellectual comment that was in actuality simply trying to get someone to STFU.
Good points there, bl @1.28pm. And after a day at work, I am not that interested in untangling all of k_p’s off-target claims, unsubstantiated and loose assumptions, and poor understanding of theory/ies. I have other more useful things I’d rather be doing.
k_p: There you go with that Deconstructionist nonsense again, Karol. How did you decide that I was deconstructing and not doing an older form of semiotic (structuralist) analysis, or some discourse analysis, or applying critical theory, or just doing what most folks do here when they critically read a newspaper article?
Where did I mention “binary opposites” on open mike today?
Tamihere has an image in his head of the good deserving worker (generally male) that Labour should go into bat for. It’s a cloth cap vision that was not even entirely relevant in the 1930s. As far as I’m concerned, he’s far too much like Shane Jones, and can shove his political aspirations up his back pussy. In today’s world he would do far more harm than good.
The fact that he can say something that sounds militant and left wing only serves to show how far to the right Shearer and the ABC have remained. Instead of complaining about a male beneficiary on a roof, Tamihere would complain if they weren’t driving a ute. I thought the left in general had moved well past his sort of blokiness, but maybe not.
What a hypocrite. He was waving his own stick around years before Paula even thought about picking hers up.
And it is all well and good saying “So government, he says, has to become far more involved”, he really needs to spell out that policies he would adopt.
And didn’t he take the side of the POA against their workers in that dispute?
Well he’s got the right level of arrogance and double standards to be back in parliament amongst like minded characters and he’d know all about diversion of public monies for personal gain.
What DS needs to realise is he’d stab him in the back given half the chance and is not a team player so it’s a major judgement call, if JT can take a seat off the nat’s why not I say as they’ve got plenty of candidates who can’t do that so far.
Agreed. The Labour caucus would be benefit from his energy and passion. However JT’s unrestrained “bull in the china shop” manner during his previous term as a MP lost him a lot of friends on his own side (and continues to alienate to this day). Without wise mentoring I suspect JT would stumble back into his familiar form and serve as a liability rather than an asset to the caucus.
Duh!? What a pointless comment, k_p@10.06am. When you strip way your emotive, subjective sneer, all you are doing is outlining my comment in general terms: i.e. I agree with some things Tamihere says and not others. And that is unusual or wrong,…. how?
Why not try engaging with the substance of my or others comments, instead of such pointless general sneers?
lol
Even if the military analogy stood, why would that be wrong?
Or do you believe that the appropriate response to being struck by so-called “friendly” fire is “thank you, sir, may I have another”?
If only he learned to be more civilised and circumspect he could become a very good politician.
Yeah, unlikely, micky, given he says:
“Tamihere reckons it’s not what he says, but how he says it that gets him into trouble. He reckons people know he’s saying the right thing, “but they might be far more genteel or academic [how they say it]. I’m not”.”
Because you know, he’s clearly just saying what we’re all thinking, he just doesn’t sugar-coat it, man. Just like Paul Henry.
I greet this new “positioning” from a man who is interested in charter schools with some caution. It looks as if he is shaping himself up for one of the West Auckland seats; either Carmel’s, or if they take Hooton’s advice, New Lynn. Hooton, who seems to take “left” and “sinister” as across the board synonyms, was earlier this week suggesting that they metaphorically “cut Cunliffe’s throat,” as well as making oblique remarks about his family.
I agree with you, Olwyn. I’ve just read the story in SST re Tamihere, and I don’t think he’s changed one little bit. What I find interesting is that Shearer has endorsed his re-entry into Labour membership, and it sounds as if he (Tamihere) is going after the Waitakere seat. Which, after the hard yards put in by Carmel Sepuloni to get in behind with only nine votes to win it, is cheeky to say the least. I hope the Waitakere Labour people can see behind the cheeky grin and charm to the self-interested, egotistical rightwing boy who wants another “go” at Parliament.
It is hard to tell just how much influence Hooton has, but it seems as if there are certain quarters that are not content to bury the hatchet now that Shearer has been endorsed by his colleagues, but instead want to continue to sideline the centre-left of the party while tacking rightwards. Not only that, they seem to favour right wingers on that ground alone, with competence, hard work and even the ability to win seats coming a distant second. I will be interested to see what shape the reshuffle takes.
Yeah but ….. Mickey …. (in reply 37) you know as well as I do sometimes those selections can be “rigged” by certain members of caucus/HO – and Tamihere WAS endorsed by Shearer – which speaks spades to me !
What I also found fascinating in the SST story is that Tamihere is going to ask Maori to change from their Maori vote ie Te Tai Tokerau – to a General vote. That’s pretty cheeky on his part.
“… it seems more likely Tamihere wil persuade Labour Maori members to swtich electoral rolls into the Waitakere seat, giving him enough clout to win selection and he hops, beat Bennett”
However, the story also mentions he’s popular out South Auckland way, so maybe he’ll have a tilt at Ross Robertson’s seat if RR decides he’s had enough !
I agree that you have a perfectly good MP Micky, I just do not trust the decision makers, and do not think I have good reason to trust them, to be honest.
I think the revolt would go beyond New Lynn Olwyn. In fact the party would be decimated and it would take years (if ever) for them to get back to it’s present state. They could kiss goodbye to the next election or failing that, they would be a one term govt. and that would be the end of Labour for a long time.
That’s why Hooton et al are working their butts off fomenting as much mischief as they can.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Oops Olwyn. I was grazing over my recent comments and I came across this one. My last sentence. I wasn’t referring to you when I said that. Rather the ABC club…
It’s OK Anne – I got what you meant. I notice that they never seem to distance themselves from Hooton’s comments. The fact that he supports Shearer appears to licence him to say what he likes. That headline in the NBR last week was simply outrageous.
I’d like to see JT take back a seat, none of this safe seat comfy stuff, he has to earn it.
Mangakiekie is winnable and has an ordinary and lazy candidate who got walked over in debates by slimy smiley Sam. Win that and you deserve a go, not as a minister just an MP.
I thought Brendan Who was imported into NZFirst to fulfill that particular role, shame He has been so efficiently kneecapped and dispatched to Siberia…
Interesting to read 3 columns about Waitangi Day especially relating to Titewhai Harawira.
Matt notes the pathos
When Key slunk back to the local flash hotel among his own, he huffed in a speech that he’d had enough of protesters ruining our national day.
In fact, the only protest at Waitangi this year was a peaceful march of several hundred against domestic violence.
But then Key’s also the man who can’t remember what he thought as a young man about protests against apartheid or nuclear ships – although he’s happy to take credit on the international stage for the reputation New Zealand now enjoys because of those stands.
Rodney Hide – that sad wanker reminds us all of why we can be thankful he’s out of parliament – he is so subtle not
The day could work if there was something big happening that would lift us and give us pause for thought. Like New Year’s Eve fireworks, only bigger, or Concert in the Park.
Instead, our political leaders all sweep up to the Bledisloe-gifted grounds, far away from most of us
It is very hard to argue against the line that Titewhai uses that, “We get benefits as a Treaty partner because we fight for them.” It seems to me to be very true and one of the major reasons that the fight will continue – because equality has not arrived in this country yet.
And these lines are exceptional from the Day interview
She resents the governments’ (past and current) financially based solutions to the issues of the Maori underclass.
Although Key says Treaty stimulants are the “biggest stimulus on the horizon” that will “financially empower iwi”, Harawira believes the approach neglects the real problems faced by Maori and the real obligations of the Treaty of Waitangi.
“The Treaty has been reduced to a document that we’ve got to give those Maoris a dollar for then it will all disappear. Well it won’t. The injustice continues.”
Money will not solve an education system, health statistics and housing situations that continue to be disastrous for Maori, Harawira said.
Oh dear that buggers up the bullshit memes put forward against tangata whenua.
The only way imo to sort these issues out is for some humbleness – and not from tangata whenua.
Titewhai hit the nail on the head when she said about Key – “he’s just talking to Pakeha……”.
Muttering conceived by spin doctors and calculated for throw-away line delivery at Waitangi.
The rationale – to tap the subliminal anti-Maori racism rampant in this country. And like the seasoned real estate agent talking heads (“we are part of the story”) Gower et al close on Key’s behalf.
These contributions encapsulates the situation of NZ quite well. Geoff and Karol’s : “the new extremism…” and a quote from Arundhati Roy vis a vis the statements from Titwhai Harawira. Given the landscape and situation of NZ – is was never so important to be “one people” and yet there is constant work on creating two nations. One wonders to whose benefit.
One people, eh? How about we all become Maori, or Polynesian. That would solve the perceived problem would it not? Or are you suggesting that the only option is for us all to be Pakeha?
So we should all accept being part of a political entity imposed by Europeans, and named after a mainland European Dutch province. Can’t help thinking that this is a little bit exclusionary. Why does this group get naming rights above anyone else? Are they more cleverer than everyone else? Are they more moral than everyone else? Are they more superior than everyone else? Two things are certain: They are more whiter, and they are more racist than everyone else.
Yeah, like I said, the only option is for us all to be one with the dominant culture ie Pakeha.
Of course we are already all NZers, all that is required for that is to either be born here or to jump certain citizenship hoops. Once you have a NZ passport or entitlement to one then you are a NZer. What you really mean is you want one people culturally. Which takes me back to my first point – which culture do you want us all to be? And why should Maori be assimilated into that when they have equal rights to their own sovereignty under Te Tiriti?
@ Colonial Weka
I think Foreign Waka was referring to something a whole lot wider than creating one dominant paradigm, rather seemed to be referring to asking NZers to unite and strengthen themselves against this (failing) dominant paradigm. I read FW’s comment as speaking to the need for the people of NZ to become less easily divided on important issues.
I don’t really follow that blue leopard. I feel solidarity with many Maori re the dominant paradigm. I also recognise that they have been thinking about this, and working hard, for generations in ways that my people haven’t. That counts for something. I don’t need to be ‘one’ with Maori in order to work with them against oppression. All we need to common ground and common purpose, and that exists to varying degrees, but I don’t beleive that we have to be the same or of one mind. In fact I think that lessens us in many ways.
FW specifically refers to two nations, and I took that to be about Maori and Pakeha. FW states it as a bad thing. I don’t see this divide you talk about. I see Maori issues continually being sidelined, or ignored, or not even recognised by the dominant culture. Hence Titewhai’s comment that they have to fight for their treaty rights. And when they do, they get accused of creating divisions. Sorry, but IMO it ain’t Maori that are causing this problem. It’s Pakeha unwillingness to deal with reality and other ways of understanding the world than their own that creates the problems. We WANT Maori to assimilate into Pakeha culture. They can keep their groovy cultural things that we like (haka, art, some te reo), but we will not tolerate them existing as a people in their own right and self-determination. Hence the fight and what you see as division (I think).
I used to think that Pakeha needed to change, but I don’t hold that hope so much any more, although I will still work for that. I think in reality
time will resolve the problem – eventually Polynesians will outnumber European descendants and NZ will become a Pacific Island once again instead of an outpost of the Queen of England.
btw, I find the notion of ‘one people’ pretty offensive. It takes me immediately to people like Pauline Hanson. I’m not sure that is where you are, but if you are going to use those terms then please understand the political context they exist within. Hanson’s ‘One Nation’ ideas are racist and exclusionary and in complete denial of the reality of Aboriginal people. She would get on well with John Ansell. These are not people who will join use in the fight against oppression.
@ Colonial Weka
Well perhaps I was misunderstanding Foreign Waka’s comment. I understood the message to be similar to what you write here. Waka’s comment referenced not only Titewhai’s comment, also Geoff’s, link, which I only had a quick scan of, however believed it to be about the divide and rule and distraction techniques being used on us nearly constantly. Therefore not specifically about race; that is only one division being used, there are many, low waged vs unemployed, middle income earners vs lower income earners, employers vs employees, gay vs straight the list is endless.
I understood the “two nations” to be simply “dividedness”; not as in race. It depends on what particular issue is being presented as in which way our nation is being split in two in any particular moment.
Your btw links in as an example of what Karol quoted Arundhati Roy as saying. (comment 2.1 above). Are you saying that we can’t use the word “one nation” anymore without bringing up the spin of exclusionary and racism that some bigot in Australia sold? Thats very sad. She doesn’t have exclusive rights to the concept of people uniting.
Yes, it’s possible that I have misunderstood FW too. Perhaps they can clarify.
“Are you saying that we can’t use the word “one nation” anymore without bringing up the spin of exclusionary and racism that some bigot in Australia sold? Thats very sad. She doesn’t have exclusive rights to the concept of people uniting.”
It’s not about the words so much as the concept. The words could be reclaimed. I just don’t agree with the basic premise of ‘one people’. We are NOT one people. We are a nation of many peoples, and the reasons we don’t have as much unity as we might want is because of lack of cultural awareness. Trying to merge all cultures won’t solve that.
Where the right or whoever are creating division as a way of gaining political power, then I agree this is a problem. I just don’t believe the ‘one people’ meme is the solution. Worse, it plays directly into their hands. Have you seen John Ansell’s rhetoric?
“Have you seen John Ansell’s rhetoric”?
Lol, no thank goodness!! Yet I can imagine….
Yes, I think there is not really any argument here. It ends up being what we associate words with. I have no problem with “One” being a concept involving uniting whilst still retaining diversity; yet I can see how you associate it with a concept involving a merging cultures.
I agree that merging cultures is not a positive way to go. Acknowledging and appreciating differences, to me is far less “ist”. We can’t all be exactly the same, and how horrid if we were!.
Seems that you have not cottoned on that these constant divisions amongst the races is giving advantage to someone. You figure out who that is and you might just see what the real game here is. It does not matter what race you are (really!) but it does matter whether the homophobic tendencies on anyone’s part is being used to undermine NZ as a whole.
OK – are you making the comment BECAUSE my synonym says FOREIGN or do you want to reinvent biology? You can replace the term if you want to with “ethnic group” or “different people”. Don’t politicize the word race, its perfectly legitimate in a scientific sense. Besides, you comment just shows exactly what my point was and thank you for demonstrating so vividly the issue at hand.
Not sure what you mean otherwise. Biologically, there is ONE human race (Homo sapiens). NZer is not a race. We are all the same species.
I think you are talking about ethnicity and culture. I don’t understand why you want that to be ‘one’. But as blue leopard and I were mentioning, perhaps you have been misunderstood. Would you care to clarify your point?
Pretty absurd responses to your accurate comment. I, too, would like to know to whose benefit actively dividing us is for? I sure as hell wish the majority would realize that its not to their benefit.
“One people” is an attitude of inclusiveness, the responses from CW & Jenny omit to acknowledge this. There can still be diversity and an attitude of “we’re all in this together”. We don’t have to become one colour, or clones. How foolish to even suggest that.
Britain after Stonehenge program on Choice TV relayed how the Romans gave a hoard of silver and gold to a “friendly” Scottish tribe to keep them onside and try and divide the clan loyalties. This was over 1000 years ago. Do we not learn anything
Please people, try and engage and see what games are being played on you. This is getting really serious. Look at what is going on overseas. Our paradigm is not working. We need collective force to shift toward a more positive direction.
I agree…Our biculturalism is Pakeha defined biculturalism and it is not working.
But I don’t see the problem as being that we are not “one people”. Biculturalism would work better if it was not within a neoliberal paradigm – that is the problem.
There would be nothing wrong if we had two cultural norms, so long as they were both given equal opportunity to exist. Currently, we have token Maori culture that gets further subjugated by our racist economic system.
We need to redefine biculturalism so that both cultures can exist. Promoting only eurocentric ideals failed us before, during the 1970s, and this was after 2 decades of an equity based economic system.
To ditch biculturalism now, we would be left with the worst possible combination of economic and cultural systems. – neoliberalism and mono-culturalism. Yuk.
An attitude of “we are all in it together” has nothing to do with colour, bi-culturalism, gender or any of these other ways of dividing us up.
Our dominant paradigm has been referred to as the “white male paradigm” by some. I will use this term to get my point across.
My observation is that the closer you are to a white male mentality the more likely you are to be “successful” in that hierarchy, I emphasize “mentality” because those who are “winning”, recieving accolades and value in the hierarchy and whom support and promulgate this dominant paradigm are not solely white nor male; we all know examples where some of the worst offenders are quite other than that physically. and those losing are not solely brown, pink, yellow, red. They are also white. And they are also white and male.
The more people who realize this the more we realize we are all in this together and the less prone we will be to being distracted and divided and ruled.
I need to add that I don’t believe many people are “winning” at all currently. Some might think they are, however there has to be some denial involved when the trends overseas are taken into account. It doesn’t matter whether you are “middle class” (what ever that means) and/or “non-political” and fairly “comfortable”; these groups of people are being affected by the state of chaos that our Western society has become. It doesn’t matter whether you are brown, black, white. It doesn’t matter what your gender is. Most peoples interests are being adversely affected.
There are problems that need to be dealt with and aren’t being, and one thing that would help is that we realize our similarities; we breathe, we love, we hurt, we all want what is best for ourselves.. If we could realize what unites us, we would start respecting one another, and one anothers’ different interests and start ensuring we were moving toward a better direction. This is not what is occurring at present. We are being more and more pitted against one another.
Yes, when I read those last two comments, and the one that I replied to, I have no idea what your point is…but I am interested
The problem is that the term ‘one people’ or ‘we are all in this together’ is usually a call to end biculturalism…that is how I read it.
Yes, I wondered whether that was the case re you referring to biculturalism, which wasn’t what I was talking about.
Basically I’m commenting on getting NZ people in a state of mind where they are not so damned dividable! (My comment was in response to Foreign Waka’s comment at (5) and the response FW got to that comment.)
If people see what they have in common with one another, they are more likely to work together and be less easily divided.
re There are problems that need to be dealt with
I guess I am being deliberately vague because I’m not in the mood for searching for links to substantiate my point!
I’m referring to the type of problems illustrated out of the global financial crisis; how we are witnessing less and less morality and integrity from those in the upper echelons of our society (Western, not solely NZ), where people still appear to be giving our superiors credit for “knowing what they are doing” where its no longer due. I mean, these people such as bankers and politicians have been caught red-handed again and again and again, yet no real response or change to anything; not rectifying regulations, not the way things are reported and not how people vote. Just denial.
When a movement began that would have started getting the problems addressed, (Occupy Wall Street) here in NZ, it appeared people were more concerned over the state of our public lawns?? Our media, along with our lawn-valuing population, appear to have entirely checked out; I live amongst people of many different nationalities and I am constantly hearing how particularly dreadful New Zealand media is and how uninformed the people are (not surprising really).
I’ll make a short mention of the entirely illegal wars our Western society are involving themselves in, ones where there are war crimes committed and the initiators of which simply go on to get another, probably higher paid jobs, rather than be done for their crimes
Despite all these issues our media continues to push the lowest common denominator in attitudes. For what? Ratings? And in the meantime, it appears that people are still merely supporting a government because the main frontsperson “seems like a nice guy” despite oodles of dodgy, dodgy behaviour, incompetence and fiascos. And do I even bother to mention the approach our largest opposition party…is…taking…nah, I think you’ll probably get my point…
These are the types of problems I was referring to needed to be dealt with.
The issue with our media is a big one. We tend to have a bland and predictable media who perpetuate ignorance, but I think that is partly to do with the size of our population.
Mainstream sources of media – TV/newspapers/radio have such a limited amount of people to aim at, as a result they all sit in the middle and offer nothing. Compared with the UK – they have enough people to support left wing and right wing papers, as a result there are contrasting views and an environment is created where debate will occur…overcoming this is difficult.
This is compounded by the general agreement of most of our political parties. In a way, the demise of ACT has almost been a burden for the left…without them contrasting opinions also disappear. Nothing promotes true left policies more than an ACT supporter opening their mouth.
The population issue is a real one. But it pays to remember that in the UK you get the tabloids as well as the Times, The Gaurdian, and the Independent. While you do get more top notch stuff, you also get a lot more crap.
Hmm interesting . That gives me some insight thanks.
It is rather strange though, I was just considering how that we are a small nation, one might hope that spinning bigoted type attitudes wouldn’t “work” because we are only a few degrees separated and most of us must know plenty of others from different walks of life, therefore understand how different people’s needs and the issues they face are. This has certainly been what has caused me to open my attitudes up and pull my horns in and learn to consider a matter from different angles before drawing conclusions.. I would think we would be more understanding (and thus tolerant) toward one another’s different needs and issues for this reason. This does not appear to be the way it is working though.
Madoff would have arrived here in the nick of time to see the whole s**t-pile collapse as the likes of Sir Doug et al beat him by a long nose to suck all the cash out of the bloated upper-middle class with finance schemes that bore a remarkable resemblance to Madoff’s very own little money spinner…
2014, once again, will see politicians from all sides promising much,smiling and waving,
speeches that convince some, that’s the trickery,the hoodwinking of the political game,
once elected the hammer comes down,all bets are off,they are in office,why should
they care, or even stand by the words they uttered, prior to gaining office.
‘Democracy means government by discussion,but it is only effective if you can stop
people talking’ By Clement Atlee.
‘Democracy is the name we give the people, whenever we need them. By Robert,
Marquis de Flers and Arman de Caillavet L’habit vert.
Yes it works. Now for someone to explain to me – in laywoman’s language – how you create a link using your own words like “this” or “have a look at this” etc.
Umm… not layman enough for me. I will print a copy and find someone to explain what it all means and how it translates into practice. Thanks anyway joe90. It’s a start. 🙂
I can try in lay-person 🙂 In this example I’ll use square brackets [ ] so we can see what’s going on, but when you do it for real you’ll use angle brackets .
There are three bits to remember. The opening tag (which includes the address), the clickable text, and the closing tag.
————————-
The opening tag starts with a bracket, the letter a, and the phrase href=
Like so:
[a href=
That bit will always be the same for every link you make. The “a” means “this is a link”, and the href= means “this is the address the link takes us to”
We put quote marks around the address which mean “this is the beginning and end of the address”, and then a bracket, and that’s the end of the opening tag.
Like so:
[a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRPmPn8pCY”]
————————-
Next is the text that you want to be able to click. This can be anything at all. It doesn’t need quote marks or anything, whatever you put here is exactly what you’ll see.
Like so:
[a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRPmPn8pCY”]felix’s new band
————————–
The last bit is the closing tag. It’s just a bracket, a slash, another a, and another bracket. It means “this is the end of the link”.
Like so:
[a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRPmPn8pCY”]felix’s new band[/a]
————————–
And that’s it! Replace the square brackets in the example with angle brackets and this is what you’ll get: felix’s new band
One of my younger incarnations in the sixties was as a bass and slide guitar player. Now play slide lapstyle and bottleneck- deeply satisfying music. Still raises my neck hairs when I hear a slide player…….
I was disappointed to hear that Phil Goff, Phil Twyford and others apparently supported John Tamihere’s return to the party; perhaps they could share their reasoning here at The Standard. In today’s newspaper article John sneers about ‘the sisterhood’, and his comments about Paula Bennett’s appearance are an absurd sideshow, a circus he would bring to Parliament should Labour be foolish enough to let him swan back. He asks whether instead of calling Paula fat he should describe her as morbidly obese. Why does he make any negative comment about a woman’s appearance? What does this say about his character, about him as a man, and about those who overlook his ugly proclivities to renew his footing in Labour? In light of recent party tensions, I find myself wondering what sort of government Labour would make with its current team; not, perhaps, one that ordinary party members might feel proud of, or part of. I find myself hanging back from this party, which wears the cloak of Labour, but whose heart may no longer be truly Labour. I watch with interest the jostling for list positions as we approach the next election. Shane Jones, like John Tamihere, has an overworked ego but has achieved little in Parliament; he flaps his lips at media moments but is not the thoughtful leader we hoped for (and thus does not warrant in my view a high list position). Other list MPs have accepted positions, or taken stances, for rewards that may be as illusory as their list rankings in the months to come. I do not personally care who is the leader of the Labour party. But I care very much about the heart of the Labour party, as one little cog that has kept it beating in the provinces. Attention seeking opportunists like John Tamihere and Shane Jones come and go. But I thought more of Phil; as a woman member of the party, I can’t overlook sexism which, like any other kind of ism, can only exist if good people condone it.
It would be good to read a response from a member of caucus to what you write here. When people express doubts about a party on The Standard, it would be interesting to know how many they represent. In this case, a lot I’m sure, which makes me view it a worthwhile activity for caucus members to respond.
I know Phil Twyford and it puzzles me too. I can only assume he was approached and he agreed to let him have another chance. I presume Tamihere’s negative personal comments re Paula Bennett is tied up with his desire to win the candidacy for the Waitakere seat. (I know he says he’s not interested but who believes a politician even a past one).
I suspect it’s an attempt to attract the red-neck, anti-female politicians brigade to support him in his cause. Remember the previous candidate was Carmel Sepuloni and she indicated her intention to run for the candidacy again some time ago.
As a happily hetero sport-loving beer-drinking bloke, I find Tamihere’s attitude infantile at best, offensive at worst. Worse still is this patronising notion that people like him and Shane Jones speak for a large chunk of society, and voters will return to Labour in droves if only Tamihere and Jones could be to the fore.
If these two “blokes” are such vote-magnets, how come they keep losing elections?
Are you meaning that these bloke-types are to appeal to the female vote?
Or that these bloke-types are bitches?
I guess I personally would agree with the second option, however, if you are meaning the first, I wonder whether this is true? Or is it that blokes don’t vote for chicks? I have wondered how the genders are split with regards to political views; whether there is a distinct trend amongst the genders. It was certainly mentioned during election-time that Act has a hard time appealing to the female voter.
From memory, I think he called certain women (was it women Labour MPs including Helen Clark?) bitches earlier in the 2000 decade when he was given the push. Something along those lines anyway. Someone will correct me if I’m wrong.
Yes, Virginia Linton, I – too – am seeing a much more sexist Labour caucus re-appearing with John Tamihere’s endorsement by so many of the rightwing blokes and their takeover of the caucus.
And I regret to say that I think we’ll see the so-called re-shuffle of front positions due to be announced
soon by the Leader reinforce this blokey-bent.
Hi lprent,
I posted a query a few Open Mikes ago, not realising you were away.
Its simply about the “notify me via email” function, which no longer works. Its no biggy really, yet I was wondering if there was some way to get this function back? If there was any setting I could change from my side? I am on Safari 5.something and gmail email.
I will go back and find my last query because there were a few others commenting in response.
Ah. Thanks for reminding me. I’m just fixing one of the backups that isn’t working too well. I’ll reconnect and start the mail server after that. It was simply an oversight when I shifted the server in Jan. Ummm people may get a pile of banked emails when that happens.
It was more that my brain was elsewhere. The code I was trying to build/fix was complicated and I had to kind of stretch to make it work at all well in the target platform.
As well as The Standard I was somewhat vague about really important things like sleep, Lyn, bills and taking pills.
Oh cool! Thanks lprent, and thanks for the work you do, its most appreciated.
(Hopefully you’ll address the really important things first, I’m sure none of us would begrudge you that 😯 )
Lynn,You have to take your medication, and get some sleep. The days of SysOp’s surviving on 4 hrs, and umpteen cups of corrosively strong coffee are long gone now lol. And never forget the better half! Mental note to self, don’t forget your pills!
Chris Laidlaw’s lame quip trivializes and undermines a serious point
Radio New Zealand National, Sunday 10 February 2013, 11:10 a.m.
Chris Laidlaw interviewed Seyed Majid Tafreshi Khameneh, the Iranian Ambassador to New Zealand.
LAIDLAW: Iran has supported Hezbollah, hasn’t it.
TAFRESHI: Hezbollah has not invaded any other territory. They are
defending their land. They are freedom fighters.
LAIDLAW:[guffaws nervously] Well, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.
Disappointed in Laidlaw’s lapse into hard right propaganda, I sent him the following e-mail….
Dear Chris,
After the Iranian ambassador had pointed out that Hezbollah is an indigenous self-defence organization, and had never sent troops to invade any territory, you quipped that “one man’s freedom-fighter is another man’s terrorist.” That was not only a banal observation, it served to trivialize and undermine the point that the Ambassador had just made.
@Morrissey
I find this sort of thing really shameful. How rude and uninformed we can be.
It is probably beyond any “middle” NZ to grasp the concept that the word “freedom fighter” isn’t synonymous with terrorist The word “terrorist” can, thus be effectively used to stamp out any opposition to the status quo, and noone seems to mind that the status quo way of doing things is leading us to hell in a handbasket.
Its just shameful to be lumped in with this type of mentality (if you can even call it that).
NZ must not change as there is no alternative.
Meanwhile –
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official: After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
If Key and Gillard in Queenstown are supposed to signify the ‘ANZAC Spurrut’ at play, then I want no part of it.
Yet another Key venture in self-aggrandisement, sucking up and selling out.
It’s interesting when you look at the definition of a psychopath available on the internet. I think it’s Wikipaedia that has some interesting characteristics. You could provide a match with the various categories more precisely than you coud with the likes of Bainimarama or Mugabe.
Yet – still the populace worships! – aided and abetted by an uncritical MSM.
As they say though – the harder they rise, the harder they fall!
(and if EVER there was a travesty to an OZ Labor Party it would be Joolya – I keep wondering if NZ’s equivalent are an ABC club and a Shearer).
Hey! – btw (as they say amongst the connected) – what’s happened to that noice little boi FanClub, or FanBoi – or whatever the fuck he pops up as? AND – WHERE lately is the Hataitai pacifier that not only now wants to review the ‘used by’ label expiry date, but also the ‘RRP’ [or recommended retail price]. Bugger! I forget her name just at the moment – hold on – for the benefit of precision, I’ll just Google her shall I? ………
Oh fuck – it seems she’s become irrelevant to GOOGLE too!
Anyway – you fellas should know who I mean – she’s a foreskin in the ABC club along with the Mallardy bovver boy and a host of other amusements
Didn’t you get the memo? Drinking to excess is only bad when it’s Yoof (i.e. anyone who looks “young” to a Campbell Live producer) doing it. Grown-ups can do whatever they like, it’s not like they set examples or contribute to drinking culture or anything.
So the future isn’t a boot stamping on a human face, forever. It’s a person in a beige business outfit advocating beige policies that nobody wants (but nobody can quite articulate a coherent alternative to) with a false mandate obtained by performing rituals of representative democracy that offer as much actual choice as a Stalinist one-party state. And resistance is futile, because if you succeed in overthrowing the beige dictatorship, you will become that which you opposed.
Despite being hypocritical and increasingly a parody of shit sensationalism and faux community concern, it looks like the Campbell live team just keep getting lucky breaks.
Someone at TVNZ made something much much worse.
It’s called lose lose for those who watch rather than ‘make’ TV.
“it’s not like they set examples or contribute ”
Not one reply, not even a nibble.
Someone get me a two headed tortoise and JC’s extension number.
Someone should tell David Shearer to stop listening to what He is saying when speaking in front of a camera,
Shearer i noticed on the news tonight has a bad habit of self editing in the middle of making a comment, this also brings in the aaah as He searches for the words He wants to use as a clarification in the middle of a comment to the media…
I think I might have mentioned it before, but I doubt very much it’s searching for words, just making sure he remembers to use the ones he’s been told to.
Speak from the same sleeve you wear your heart on, or learn to fake it better.
He should just stop speaking and get someone competent doing it. If I were fixing my car and reached the limit of my incompetence, I’d get hold of someone who knew what they were doing. I wouldn’t burn down the closest workshop and carry on.
Labour voter??? Labour Party member???, rather have Slippery leading the National Party to victory in 2014???,
The vote has been had, is there another in February 2014???, if not such denigration of those the Labour Caucus voted for as Leader is pretty pointless and it’s only possible out-come is to increase the chances of Slippery being the Prime Minister until 2017,
Myself, i would rather work toward not having the worst case scenario occur and would suggest that if you are a Labour Party member your energies would better be spent ensuring the Party Members have the ability to ‘trigger’ the scheduled leadership votes under the ‘new’ rules into the future,
Shearer may have made that abhorrent bene-bashing speech and His ‘worker in the pub’ one wasn’t something to cheer about either,
Compare this tho to another Labour Leader as Prime Minister, ”Beneficiaries will not be included in Working for Families as this will encourage them to get a job”-Helen Clark,
Who was Prime Minister when income tax was applied to welfare benefits,none other than David Lange,
Or is every one still imbibing sour grapes about the other Dave’s failure to topple Shearer…
“Labour voter???” – Nope. Not any more.
“Labour Party member???” – Nope. Never joined any political party.
“rather have Slippery leading the National Party to victory in 2014???” – Nope. that doesn’t sound like me at all. Besides, I reckon you’ll need many more than just my vote for that not to occur. Good luck, best get your lucky red socks out of the bottom drawer, bless.
And none of those answers above discredit or give less validity to me stating opinion in any way shape or form, Comrade. Do feel free to prove they do if you’re bothered.
As for the rest of your post, all I can give you is a bit of a shrug, apart from
“Or is every one still imbibing sour grapes about the other Dave’s failure to topple Shearer…”
As opposed to you sipping the dregs of the sweet nectar of success dripping off the bottom of Mallard’s poisoned chalice.
You were doing alright until the spurious final comment, my feelings on Mallard are pretty plain in the comments on the post on that subject,
Spoze the likes of Trev and Shane with their open attacks on the Green Party are a bit like the anti-Shearer crew here on the Standard, Trev might have caught it by being entangled with McCully’s ex and Shane well wanker’s never really stop themselves from gushing,
Lolz i should really just scroll past the ‘i hate Shearer comments’ but even that’s damn hard as i found out today reading one interesting comment on an entirely unrelated subject that ended with a ‘i hate Shearer’,
Hate on, but, unless there is a vote in February 2014 and a willingness of caucus to put that vote to the wider Party which considering everything is a small flight of fancy then Shearer we are all stuck with and no amount of venting will change that,
Nah not red socks, my feet are Green from having roamed my patch to often without any on…
John key got a mixed reception at the Big Gay Out today, according to Stuff:\\
Today at the Big Gay Out he donned a yellow polo shirt and chatted convivially with drag queens, gay men and women and almost nude couples painted in tiger stripes. But when he took to the stage at the invitation of Miss Ribena, a drag queen with a penchant for purple, there was a slight shift in mood.
“F*** you John Key,” several voices in the crowd called.
“Don’t worry they must be from West Auckland,” Miss Ribena said.
“That’s alright,” Key replied. …
And then, Auckland local Andy Lawrie attempted to reinforce the point that Key might not be as progressive as he purported. Lawrie was seen lowering a coat hanger affixed to a bamboo pole over the head of the Prime Minister.
“It’s just a little reminder,” he said.
On the coat hanger was a “gay” red shirt.
“It’s just to make people remember.”
The Greens seemed to be more in tune with the event. Loiusa Wall got various mentions because of her marriage equality amendment bill. But the rest of Labour MPs seem to have been MIA.
Meanwhile, Lucy Lawless turned up to do a little Community Service, and probably mingled today:
Lucy Lawless will be among the thousands at today’s Big Gay Out in Auckland.
“BigGayOut this weekend. Could life be more colourful? Hooray for everything!” she has tweeted.
GayNZ.com Daily News hears the actress, who has a global following, particularly among lesbians, even helped out by pitching in to erect tents yesterday.
Long term plan for NZ’s move to Charter or Partnership Schools might go like this.
The full extent of Michael Gove’s (UK Sec Education) plans to revolutionise education are revealed today in a secret memo showing he is considering outright privatisation of academies and free schools. All academies and free schools in England, which are the Education Secretary’s personal obsession, would be free to become profit-making for the first time, and be entirely decoupled from Whitehall control. ……Mr Gove is considering the radical step because massive expansion of academies and free schools is costing government too much money.
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Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
Dairy prices increased by 3.9% across the board at the latest Fonterra global auction. The lift followed rises of 1.3% and 4.3% in the December auctions which took dairy prices to their highest level in 11 months, defying those analysts who believed Covid-19 had disrupted dairy markets. In the latest ...
America's Cup team American Magic has spoken publicly after their boat Patriot capsized when on its way to their first win of the Challenger Selection Series yesterday. Patriot dramatically capsized yesterday, becoming temporarily airborne before crashing back into the water and tipping. The boat, helmed by New Zealander Dean Barker, could not be ...
It’s a seemingly age old question: why do Auckland’s beaches become unswimmable after every single downpour? Stewart Sowman-Lund investigates.Ah, the beach. A staple of the New Zealand summer. Unless, of course, you’re based in Auckland and it’s raining. The start of 2021 has been a lot like every other New ...
We have opened a book, among members of the Point of Order team, on how long it will be before the PM offers to sort out the land dispute at Wellington’s Shelly Bay and (to win the double) how much the settlement will cost taxpayers. Just a few weeks ago ...
Breakfast TV news is back for 2021, and Tara Ward got up early to watch. “Thank god it’s almost Christmas,” John Campbell said during the opening minutes of Breakfast’s premiere episode of the year. “2021’s been rough so far. I’m buggered”. We’re all buggered, to be fair, but I’m worried that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Pearson, Professor of Journalism and Social Media, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Griffith University The blame for the recent assault on the US Capitol and President Donald Trump’s broader dismantling of democratic institutions and norms can be ...
Despite a popular and unifying leader of the governing party, divisions both in policy and culture will test the progressive movement, writes Peter McKenzie.‘I think we’re confused.” Marlon Drake is an organiser for the Living Wage Movement. His job takes him all over Wellington, trying to convince businesses to increase ...
Covid-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins says vaccinations should be available to the public by the middle of the year, but other countries are prioritised. ...
It’s as true now as it ever has been: nowhere else offers an education experience like that of Dunedin. But rather than resting on their laurels, the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic have plans to make the city an even more inspiring place for students.From high in the summit ...
Haggis, neeps and tatties and whisky may not be a traditional spread for a summer gathering in NZ, but trust Auckland city councillor and Kiwi-Scot Cathy Casey on this one. Gie it laldy! Rule one: Hold it on (or near) January 25Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759. Since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University It could be argued artificial intelligence (AI) is already the indispensable tool of the 21st century. From helping doctors diagnose and treat patients to rapidly advancing new drug discoveries, it’s our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University Through recent natural disasters, global upheavals and a pandemic, Australia’s political centre has largely held. Australians may have disagreed at times, but they have also kept faith with governmental norms, eschewing the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Holly Seale, Associate professor, UNSW Health workers are at higher risk of COVID infection and illness. They can also act as extremely efficient transmitters of viruses to others in medical and aged care facilities. That’s why health workers have been prioritised to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Orchard, Adjunct Lecturer, Monash University Last week, somewhat overshadowed by the events in Washington, the Democrats took control of the US Senate. The Democrats now hold a small majority in both the House and the Senate until 2022, giving President-elect Joe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mittul Vahanvati, Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Heatwaves, floods, bushfires: disaster season is upon us again. We can’t prevent hazards or climate change-related extreme weather events but we can prepare for them — not just as individuals ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University Starting school is an important event for children and a positive experience can set the tone for the rest of their school experience. Some children are excited to attend school for the first ...
Some families in emergency housing are reporting their children are becoming emotionally distressed because of their living conditions. Demand for emergency accommodation has escalated this past year with the number of emergency housing grants increasing by half. Data showed nearly 10,000 people were given an Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant between ...
Summer reissue: Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden are back for a second season of On the Rag, and where better to start than with the mysterious, exhausting world of wellness?First published June 23, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
With few Covid-19 infections and negiligible natural immunity, New Zealand faces being a victim of its own success when it is left till last to get the vaccines, argues Dr Parmjeet Parmar. ...
Steve Braunias reports on a literary cancelling. The Corrections department has refused to allow Jared Savage's best-selling book Gangland inside prison on the grounds that it "promotes violence and drug use". An inmate at Otago Corrections Facility in Dunedin was sent a copy of the book – but it was ...
New data from the CTU’s annual work life survey shows a snapshot of working people’s experiences and outlook heading out of 2020 and into the new year. Concerningly 42% of respondents cite workplace bullying as an issue in their workplace - a number ...
An international player, selector and self-confessed cricket stats nerd, Penny Kinsella has now played a hand in recording the rich history of the women's game in New Zealand. Penny Kinsella’s cricketing career was perched on the cusp of change for the White Ferns. “My first tour to Australia, we ...
The dramatic capsize of American Magic brought out the best in the America's Cup sailing fraternity. But, Suzanne McFadden asks, what does it mean to the crippled New York Yacht Club campaign and to the Prada Cup? It was a scene as unreal as it was calamitous. Right at the moment the ...
The current number of members of parliament is starting to get too low for the job we expect them to do, argues Alex Braae. As a general rule, with the possible exception of their families, nobody likes backbench MPs. But it’s nevertheless time we accepted that parliament should have more of ...
The experience in the Brazilian city of Manaus reveals how mistaken, and dangerous, the herd-immunity-by-infection theory really is. As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop ...
As New Zealand gears up to fight climate change, experts warn that we need to actually reduce emissions, not just plant trees to offset our greenhouse gases. ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
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.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
It’s really bugging me. Is John Key our Richard III ?
He seems weighed down by the cares of office, his hair
increasingly tinted white at the temples.
I saw no hint of his goofy ‘youf’ persona around Julia Gillard.
Like Ric, he might find his own troops deserting him.
Would the real John Key please stand up ?
He does, all the time, the whole 4 or 5 of Him, depending upon the scene that is set Slippery can transform Himself from Dances with transvestites to discussing issues upon the world stage with international leaders in the blink of an eye,
He is after all Slippery…
Richard III is a bag of bones – true, there may be some similarity there!
The reshuffle was one such rare moment.
No-one saw the knives go in, everyone was surprised, the new order settled in seconds.
“I can smile, and murder while I smile.”
Interestingly, that line is only in the McKellen movie adaptation of Richard III, not the play – it’s originally from Henry VI Part 3.
Interesting and valid article on the demise or dismantling of democracy and the rise of authoritarian..
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13998-the-new-extremism-and-politics-of-distraction-in-the-age-of-austerity
Thanks. Read the first bit. Will read the rest after work today.
This quote from Arundhati Roy, is very relevant at home and abroad:
But according to you Karol as a Deconstructionist, language is meaningless anyway, so what does it matter, language and words are only good for “deploying…like weapons”?
According to Deconstructionism, isn’t Roy’s world view, just that, a purely subjective experience, there is no objective reality out there for it to attache to, its no more truthful or valid or evil than Hitler’s world view?
Still pigeonholing people, k_p? Interesting.
Can’t Karol stick up for herself?
Does she really need her girl pal QofT to rush in snarling and biting?
QofT, you repeatedly avoids stating what intellectual school she subscribes to.
What are you afraid of?
For the record, QofT, your girl pal has admitted she is a Deconstructionist, with a small qualification interestingly enough – ‘for the most part’ was it if I remember correctly – a failed attempt to hedge her bet I think.
What are you afraid of?
Some of us get bored with your fixation.
You tried this ages ago, then never replied to Karol when she explained herself.
It was either sniper shots at Karol, or sniper shots at those troublemakers born on another patch of dirt. Got stats yet?
I remember Karol saying she was a bit of this a bit of that.
It’s BS of course.
Acting like you are scouring a rubbish tip of discarded and broken ideologies you don’t actually have a clue about, picking up fragments that you think are ‘useful’ to your vested interests is called creating propaganda.
Marxism, neo or whatever, Deconstructionism/Postmodernism or whatever those flaky followers like to call it, are ideologies which make truth claims about the way the world is. Claims that are easily disprovable.
You build your world view/argument on these failed ideologies as Feminists do, then you are exposed to the same failures.
Wailing that you are being “pigeon holed” doesn’t change that.
Ditto for neo-liberalism/neo conservatism and those scrambling to defend it in the wake of 2008.
Oh my god, k_p, do you mean you don’t actually get why people keep using the word “pigeonholed”?
I’ve only linked to the reason a few dozen hilarious times now.
Just because you do it doesn’t mean that everyone does. Karol certainly doesn’t share your attitude toward “thinking”. Perhaps if you gave the rather pathetic misogynist stroking a rest some time, maybe the blood will flood back to the organ that is responsible for actual thought.
In case that was too subtle for you…
Most people think about things before they spew it out on the rest of us… You just seem to wank a lot when you get excited. Your keyboard must have a sticky problem whenever you reply to a female commentator.
Lol, I’ll leave the rest of your ignorant absurdities to others, but seeing you are so hung up on labels, please enlighten me on what happened with regard to neo-Conservatism in 2008.
Pretty strong suggestion in that comment that you don’t know anything about Neo-Conservatism.
k_p: I remember Karol saying she was a bit of this a bit of that.
It’s BS of course.
Acting like you are scouring a rubbish tip of discarded and broken ideologies you don’t actually have a clue about, picking up fragments that you think are ‘useful’ to your vested interests is called creating propaganda.
Gee, you sure do show your superficial understanding of the umbrella terms you are referring to. I assume you mean that comment fatty helpfully linked to, of which I associated myself with bits of poststructuralism and neo-Marxism, etc. Do you understand the meaning of “heterogeneous” as used at the link?
Note in the second line the reference to “critical theorists” as being included in the general collection of post-structuralists theories. Click on the link and you will see that neo-Marxism is included there.
ie I was referring to an eclectic mix of related theories all included under very general terms that you don’t really seem to understand.
I don’t know how anyone can do anything but pick out various bits of each, as ones they most agree with.
Scouring rubbish tips for discarded and broken ideologies about and picking up fragments that you think are ‘useful’.
That’s not creating propaganda.
That’s bricolage!
I don’t have any subscriptions, it’s just too difficult keeping my address and direct debits up-to-date.
I am sure that Karol can and will reply to you in due course.
Perhaps you need to read her comment at 2.1 again – in particular the first line.
“Thanks. Read the first bit. Will read the rest after work today.”
Note the bit about “‘after work today”.
Come on, you don’t really expect k_p to read what people actually write do you?
Especially when it’s women writing, because our ladybrains can’t come up with awesome arguments about deconstructionist marxist neo-anarcho-eco-feminism like k_p’s.
Edit – reply to CW
LOL – no!
Just could not help myself – I usually try to ignore idiots.
k_p: your girl pal has admitted she is a Deconstructionist, [citation please.
Why do you continue to insist that people are what they’re not?
k_p: But according to you Karol as a Deconstructionist, [citation needed] language is meaningless [citation needed] anyway, so what does it matter, language and words are only good for “deploying…like weapons”? [citation needed]
For an objectivist, you make a lot of loose claims based on little evidence.
Do you have anything to contribute about the significant article GeoffC linked to, or are you just trying to divert his thread?
This “theft of language” is being most effectively deployed by the coal industry to hide the dirty nature of their business, using words to mask intent and to mean exactly the opposite of what they have traditionally meant. For example Fonterra say they plan to excavate a major “Escarpment Mine” Just south of Auckland, that looks likely to become the ground zero in the fight against climate change in the Auckland area. Fonterra facing unexpectedly stiff opposition from local residents and Auckland based environmentalists, hoped an “Escarpment Mine” wouldn’t get the same emotional response from Aucklanders that “Open Cast Mine” might.
Everyone knows what an open cast mine looks like, from unpleasant pictures seen on television and in books.
“Escarpment” in geology means a natural feature of the landscape, either a very steep natural slope, or slanting cliff face. The coal mining industry have subverted the original meaning of this word, for their own uses. Using the word ‘Escarpment’ avoids the unpleasant mental pictures that automatically form in people’s minds on hearing the words ‘Open Cast Mine’. ‘Escarpment Mine’, much more pleasant.
<blockquote.Dairy juggernaut Fonterra is planning a major new coal mine in north Waikato, saying that will be cheaper than buying coal from Solid Energy, the state-owned enterprise axing 120 jobs at Huntly, blaming falling prices.
Fonterra's coal mining company Glencoal is about to apply for resource consents to develop an open cast coalmine on 30ha of farmland it has owned for 10 years between Mangatawhiri Rd and the new State Highway 2 at Maramarua.
ANDREA FOX AND MATT BOWEN http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/business/7759938/Coal-costs-force-Fonterras-hand
The name Mangatangi is more familiar to Aucklanders as being the location of the Mangatangi Dam, Auckland’s largest water-storage dam. With a capacity of 39 million cubic metres, it supplies nearly a quarter of the city’s bulk water.
Aucklanders are not too happy to learn that it will also be the location of the regions biggest opencast coal mine. Oops, pardon me ‘escarpment mine’.
PS. This proposed mine was originally going to be publicy notified with a chance for public submissions. But on meeting unexpectedly stiff resistance from locals and environmentalitst, this is now in doubt with Fonterra considering seeking fast track permission. (Maybe the language trick didn’t work).
The Truth-Out.Org article – the politics of disconnect. And we wonder why the polls read as they do. “Mr Key’s a ‘nice man’……..honourably doing all he can in the circumstances. Very well. Kia Ora……”
Deliberate is what it is………brought here to do the business.
Not an easy article to read being so very very American, but quite unnerving with a clear echo with what’s happening here in NZ. Makes one wonder where the brief is coming from?
Thanks GeoffC, very interesting. A lot of parallels between US and NZ.
There is an interview with John Tamihere in the SST this morning (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8279775/Tamihere-wants-to-return-to-politics/). The headline says it all, he wants to get back into Parliament.
He is his usual aggressive obnoxious self but amongst the abuse and self obsessed diatribe are a couple of pearlers. About Paula Bennett he says “I can’t stand what she is doing to beneficiaries, I just won’t tolerate taking a stick to the most vulnerable, who, by and large, don’t want to be there.”
And about the distribution of wealth he says “[i]n this government, the few get rich in the name of the many. That just can’t continue.” So government, he says, has to become far more involved.
If only he learned to be more civilised and circumspect he could become a very good politician.
Yes. I read it and thought he was very good on the class/beneficiaries/anti-wealthy elites stuff. But his prejudices against people/qualities outside of various socially constructed “norms” undo all the good stuff he says.
There you go with that Deconstructionist nonsense again, Karol.
“various socially constructed “norms””
What about your socially constructed feminist ideas, values, attitudes? Can’t they be deconstructed as well, aren’t they also just another set of self serving formulae, Karol?
It’s like that nonsensewith gay “marriage’, you were banging on about “binary opposites” – that’s just pure academic pedantry.
Ditto with the “essentialism” cry that goes up around here to dismiss any opinion you lot don’t like. It’s a bit of jargon made up by the Academic Left, premised on the same old flaky, 1970’s French philosophy, Deconstructionist/Feminist nonsense.
Oh, k_p. It’s seriously cute how you keep popping up whenever a woman has an opinion to try and score some pseudoacademic point about what you think the term “social construct” means.
Do you not know what Deconstructionism is?
Ooooh, yeah, k_p, educate the feminist, that’ll show her, oooooh you’re such a master debater!!! *orgasm*
hahaha K_P needs some aloe vera for that burn! It would seem he lets the dictionary do the thinking for him.
@Kiwi Prometheus
Having looked it up, it appears that Deconstructionism is about finding meaning in texts by uncovering underlying assumptions. The Basics of
Philosophy pages. point out that it is “notoriously difficult to define” and that some critics have “gone so far as to claim it is a dangerous form of Nihilism”.
Nihilism appears to be where K.P is pushing it.
You can push any philosophy or analytical approach to extremes and it will be…well…extreme. Keeping an eye on a wider perspective, therefore is required with any philosophy or analytical approach.
With regard to deconstructionism, it appears useful; if we don’t check up on our basic assumptions from time to time we really will deviate from our aims and ideals. I believe doing this “checking” is part of what is commonly called “thinking”.
I can imagine that those who are “winning” under the basic assumptions going by unquestioned would not like this form of analytical approach.
I would question those who think they are “winning” under basic assumptions going by unquestioned. I really don’t think there are many people at all who are currently “winning” at present. That is, not unless you thrive in living in a divided, unhappy and stressed society that is heading for financial, social and environmental meltdown.
Yeah, as I understand it deconstructionism of more of an analytic tool than a philosophy.
Interesting that there is no reply from K.P. One could be forgiven for thinking that this “deconstructionism” argument was a poorly thought out faux intellectual comment that was in actuality simply trying to get someone to STFU.
My money’s on copy-pasta/reworking of something k_p saw on a men’s rights forum, probably Reddit-based.
Good points there, bl @1.28pm. And after a day at work, I am not that interested in untangling all of k_p’s off-target claims, unsubstantiated and loose assumptions, and poor understanding of theory/ies. I have other more useful things I’d rather be doing.
kiwi_prometheus – do you know what ‘stalking’ is?
k_p: There you go with that Deconstructionist nonsense again, Karol. How did you decide that I was deconstructing and not doing an older form of semiotic (structuralist) analysis, or some discourse analysis, or applying critical theory, or just doing what most folks do here when they critically read a newspaper article?
Where did I mention “binary opposites” on open mike today?
Tamihere has an image in his head of the good deserving worker (generally male) that Labour should go into bat for. It’s a cloth cap vision that was not even entirely relevant in the 1930s. As far as I’m concerned, he’s far too much like Shane Jones, and can shove his political aspirations up his back pussy. In today’s world he would do far more harm than good.
The fact that he can say something that sounds militant and left wing only serves to show how far to the right Shearer and the ABC have remained. Instead of complaining about a male beneficiary on a roof, Tamihere would complain if they weren’t driving a ute. I thought the left in general had moved well past his sort of blokiness, but maybe not.
What a hypocrite. He was waving his own stick around years before Paula even thought about picking hers up.
And it is all well and good saying “So government, he says, has to become far more involved”, he really needs to spell out that policies he would adopt.
And didn’t he take the side of the POA against their workers in that dispute?
Well he’s got the right level of arrogance and double standards to be back in parliament amongst like minded characters and he’d know all about diversion of public monies for personal gain.
What DS needs to realise is he’d stab him in the back given half the chance and is not a team player so it’s a major judgement call, if JT can take a seat off the nat’s why not I say as they’ve got plenty of candidates who can’t do that so far.
Agreed. The Labour caucus would be benefit from his energy and passion. However JT’s unrestrained “bull in the china shop” manner during his previous term as a MP lost him a lot of friends on his own side (and continues to alienate to this day). Without wise mentoring I suspect JT would stumble back into his familiar form and serve as a liability rather than an asset to the caucus.
So he gets your cooing approval if its an enemy target he hits, but squeal in outrage when you come under friendly fire, LOL.
Duh!? What a pointless comment, k_p@10.06am. When you strip way your emotive, subjective sneer, all you are doing is outlining my comment in general terms: i.e. I agree with some things Tamihere says and not others. And that is unusual or wrong,…. how?
Why not try engaging with the substance of my or others comments, instead of such pointless general sneers?
lol
Even if the military analogy stood, why would that be wrong?
Or do you believe that the appropriate response to being struck by so-called “friendly” fire is “thank you, sir, may I have another”?
If only he learned to be more civilised and circumspect he could become a very good politician.
Yeah, unlikely, micky, given he says:
“Tamihere reckons it’s not what he says, but how he says it that gets him into trouble. He reckons people know he’s saying the right thing, “but they might be far more genteel or academic [how they say it]. I’m not”.”
Because you know, he’s clearly just saying what we’re all thinking, he just doesn’t sugar-coat it, man. Just like Paul Henry.
“Just like Paul Henry.”
A left arse cheek to match the one on the right.
Any volunteers to occupy the centre ground?
Well … not if we’re going to keep running with that analogy … 😛
Ba dum tish 😆
I greet this new “positioning” from a man who is interested in charter schools with some caution. It looks as if he is shaping himself up for one of the West Auckland seats; either Carmel’s, or if they take Hooton’s advice, New Lynn. Hooton, who seems to take “left” and “sinister” as across the board synonyms, was earlier this week suggesting that they metaphorically “cut Cunliffe’s throat,” as well as making oblique remarks about his family.
I agree with you, Olwyn. I’ve just read the story in SST re Tamihere, and I don’t think he’s changed one little bit. What I find interesting is that Shearer has endorsed his re-entry into Labour membership, and it sounds as if he (Tamihere) is going after the Waitakere seat. Which, after the hard yards put in by Carmel Sepuloni to get in behind with only nine votes to win it, is cheeky to say the least. I hope the Waitakere Labour people can see behind the cheeky grin and charm to the self-interested, egotistical rightwing boy who wants another “go” at Parliament.
It is hard to tell just how much influence Hooton has, but it seems as if there are certain quarters that are not content to bury the hatchet now that Shearer has been endorsed by his colleagues, but instead want to continue to sideline the centre-left of the party while tacking rightwards. Not only that, they seem to favour right wingers on that ground alone, with competence, hard work and even the ability to win seats coming a distant second. I will be interested to see what shape the reshuffle takes.
There is no way he would succeed in Waitakere and New Lynn would revolt rather than support him. We have a perfectly good electorate MP right now …
Yeah but ….. Mickey …. (in reply 37) you know as well as I do sometimes those selections can be “rigged” by certain members of caucus/HO – and Tamihere WAS endorsed by Shearer – which speaks spades to me !
What I also found fascinating in the SST story is that Tamihere is going to ask Maori to change from their Maori vote ie Te Tai Tokerau – to a General vote. That’s pretty cheeky on his part.
“… it seems more likely Tamihere wil persuade Labour Maori members to swtich electoral rolls into the Waitakere seat, giving him enough clout to win selection and he hops, beat Bennett”
However, the story also mentions he’s popular out South Auckland way, so maybe he’ll have a tilt at Ross Robertson’s seat if RR decides he’s had enough !
I agree that you have a perfectly good MP Micky, I just do not trust the decision makers, and do not think I have good reason to trust them, to be honest.
I think the revolt would go beyond New Lynn Olwyn. In fact the party would be decimated and it would take years (if ever) for them to get back to it’s present state. They could kiss goodbye to the next election or failing that, they would be a one term govt. and that would be the end of Labour for a long time.
That’s why Hooton et al are working their butts off fomenting as much mischief as they can.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Oops Olwyn. I was grazing over my recent comments and I came across this one. My last sentence. I wasn’t referring to you when I said that. Rather the ABC club…
It’s OK Anne – I got what you meant. I notice that they never seem to distance themselves from Hooton’s comments. The fact that he supports Shearer appears to licence him to say what he likes. That headline in the NBR last week was simply outrageous.
I’d like to see JT take back a seat, none of this safe seat comfy stuff, he has to earn it.
Mangakiekie is winnable and has an ordinary and lazy candidate who got walked over in debates by slimy smiley Sam. Win that and you deserve a go, not as a minister just an MP.
Tamihere already stood for mayor of Waitakere City and he lost. What makes him think the Waitakere electorate would be any more keen on him?
It does not matter what Tamihere says under any circumstances.
There have been too many examples of his lack of judgement for him to e treated with any respect.
The count of sins commences at the figure 192,000 and goes upwards rapidly.
When he last ran in Tamaki he never once thanked the electorate workers who canvassed and erected signs for him.
I’ve never met a west Auckland labour volunteer worker who would piss on him if they found him on fire.
Yep. I put up billboards for him once. You could tell my ones, they were the ones with two extra staples – one through each of his nasty piggy eyes.
You know JT would make a great heir apparent to lead New Zealand First – if his ego and Winston’s could work with the other’s!
I thought Brendan Who was imported into NZFirst to fulfill that particular role, shame He has been so efficiently kneecapped and dispatched to Siberia…
quod erat demonstrandum 🙂
Interesting to read 3 columns about Waitangi Day especially relating to Titewhai Harawira.
Matt notes the pathos
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10864403
Rodney Hide – that sad wanker reminds us all of why we can be thankful he’s out of parliament – he is so subtle not
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10864396
And a very nice article from Simon Day
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8283238/A-tete-a-tete-with-Titewhai
It is very hard to argue against the line that Titewhai uses that, “We get benefits as a Treaty partner because we fight for them.” It seems to me to be very true and one of the major reasons that the fight will continue – because equality has not arrived in this country yet.
And these lines are exceptional from the Day interview
Oh dear that buggers up the bullshit memes put forward against tangata whenua.
The only way imo to sort these issues out is for some humbleness – and not from tangata whenua.
Titewhai hit the nail on the head when she said about Key – “he’s just talking to Pakeha……”.
Muttering conceived by spin doctors and calculated for throw-away line delivery at Waitangi.
The rationale – to tap the subliminal anti-Maori racism rampant in this country. And like the seasoned real estate agent talking heads (“we are part of the story”) Gower et al close on Key’s behalf.
No Key only talks to RICH Pakeha, the rest of us are ignored.
These contributions encapsulates the situation of NZ quite well. Geoff and Karol’s : “the new extremism…” and a quote from Arundhati Roy vis a vis the statements from Titwhai Harawira. Given the landscape and situation of NZ – is was never so important to be “one people” and yet there is constant work on creating two nations. One wonders to whose benefit.
One people, eh? How about we all become Maori, or Polynesian. That would solve the perceived problem would it not? Or are you suggesting that the only option is for us all to be Pakeha?
Just all New Zealanders would be a good start.
So we should all accept being part of a political entity imposed by Europeans, and named after a mainland European Dutch province. Can’t help thinking that this is a little bit exclusionary. Why does this group get naming rights above anyone else? Are they more cleverer than everyone else? Are they more moral than everyone else? Are they more superior than everyone else? Two things are certain: They are more whiter, and they are more racist than everyone else.
“Just all New Zealanders would be a good start.”
Yeah, like I said, the only option is for us all to be one with the dominant culture ie Pakeha.
Of course we are already all NZers, all that is required for that is to either be born here or to jump certain citizenship hoops. Once you have a NZ passport or entitlement to one then you are a NZer. What you really mean is you want one people culturally. Which takes me back to my first point – which culture do you want us all to be? And why should Maori be assimilated into that when they have equal rights to their own sovereignty under Te Tiriti?
@ Colonial Weka
I think Foreign Waka was referring to something a whole lot wider than creating one dominant paradigm, rather seemed to be referring to asking NZers to unite and strengthen themselves against this (failing) dominant paradigm. I read FW’s comment as speaking to the need for the people of NZ to become less easily divided on important issues.
I don’t really follow that blue leopard. I feel solidarity with many Maori re the dominant paradigm. I also recognise that they have been thinking about this, and working hard, for generations in ways that my people haven’t. That counts for something. I don’t need to be ‘one’ with Maori in order to work with them against oppression. All we need to common ground and common purpose, and that exists to varying degrees, but I don’t beleive that we have to be the same or of one mind. In fact I think that lessens us in many ways.
FW specifically refers to two nations, and I took that to be about Maori and Pakeha. FW states it as a bad thing. I don’t see this divide you talk about. I see Maori issues continually being sidelined, or ignored, or not even recognised by the dominant culture. Hence Titewhai’s comment that they have to fight for their treaty rights. And when they do, they get accused of creating divisions. Sorry, but IMO it ain’t Maori that are causing this problem. It’s Pakeha unwillingness to deal with reality and other ways of understanding the world than their own that creates the problems. We WANT Maori to assimilate into Pakeha culture. They can keep their groovy cultural things that we like (haka, art, some te reo), but we will not tolerate them existing as a people in their own right and self-determination. Hence the fight and what you see as division (I think).
I used to think that Pakeha needed to change, but I don’t hold that hope so much any more, although I will still work for that. I think in reality
time will resolve the problem – eventually Polynesians will outnumber European descendants and NZ will become a Pacific Island once again instead of an outpost of the Queen of England.
btw, I find the notion of ‘one people’ pretty offensive. It takes me immediately to people like Pauline Hanson. I’m not sure that is where you are, but if you are going to use those terms then please understand the political context they exist within. Hanson’s ‘One Nation’ ideas are racist and exclusionary and in complete denial of the reality of Aboriginal people. She would get on well with John Ansell. These are not people who will join use in the fight against oppression.
@ Colonial Weka
Well perhaps I was misunderstanding Foreign Waka’s comment. I understood the message to be similar to what you write here. Waka’s comment referenced not only Titewhai’s comment, also Geoff’s, link, which I only had a quick scan of, however believed it to be about the divide and rule and distraction techniques being used on us nearly constantly. Therefore not specifically about race; that is only one division being used, there are many, low waged vs unemployed, middle income earners vs lower income earners, employers vs employees, gay vs straight the list is endless.
I understood the “two nations” to be simply “dividedness”; not as in race. It depends on what particular issue is being presented as in which way our nation is being split in two in any particular moment.
Your btw links in as an example of what Karol quoted Arundhati Roy as saying. (comment 2.1 above). Are you saying that we can’t use the word “one nation” anymore without bringing up the spin of exclusionary and racism that some bigot in Australia sold? Thats very sad. She doesn’t have exclusive rights to the concept of people uniting.
Yes, it’s possible that I have misunderstood FW too. Perhaps they can clarify.
“Are you saying that we can’t use the word “one nation” anymore without bringing up the spin of exclusionary and racism that some bigot in Australia sold? Thats very sad. She doesn’t have exclusive rights to the concept of people uniting.”
It’s not about the words so much as the concept. The words could be reclaimed. I just don’t agree with the basic premise of ‘one people’. We are NOT one people. We are a nation of many peoples, and the reasons we don’t have as much unity as we might want is because of lack of cultural awareness. Trying to merge all cultures won’t solve that.
Where the right or whoever are creating division as a way of gaining political power, then I agree this is a problem. I just don’t believe the ‘one people’ meme is the solution. Worse, it plays directly into their hands. Have you seen John Ansell’s rhetoric?
“Have you seen John Ansell’s rhetoric”?
Lol, no thank goodness!! Yet I can imagine….
Yes, I think there is not really any argument here. It ends up being what we associate words with. I have no problem with “One” being a concept involving uniting whilst still retaining diversity; yet I can see how you associate it with a concept involving a merging cultures.
I agree that merging cultures is not a positive way to go. Acknowledging and appreciating differences, to me is far less “ist”. We can’t all be exactly the same, and how horrid if we were!.
very quaint and naive otv
Seems that you have not cottoned on that these constant divisions amongst the races is giving advantage to someone. You figure out who that is and you might just see what the real game here is. It does not matter what race you are (really!) but it does matter whether the homophobic tendencies on anyone’s part is being used to undermine NZ as a whole.
Foreign Waka, there is no such thing as race. We are all one species. It’s the belief in race that is one of the causes of racism.
OK – are you making the comment BECAUSE my synonym says FOREIGN or do you want to reinvent biology? You can replace the term if you want to with “ethnic group” or “different people”. Don’t politicize the word race, its perfectly legitimate in a scientific sense. Besides, you comment just shows exactly what my point was and thank you for demonstrating so vividly the issue at hand.
No, nothing to do with your name.
Not sure what you mean otherwise. Biologically, there is ONE human race (Homo sapiens). NZer is not a race. We are all the same species.
I think you are talking about ethnicity and culture. I don’t understand why you want that to be ‘one’. But as blue leopard and I were mentioning, perhaps you have been misunderstood. Would you care to clarify your point?
We are supposed to ALL be New Zealanders.
Quite right.
David, what makes you think that all New Zealanders are not ALL New Zealanders?
+1 Foreign Waka,
Pretty absurd responses to your accurate comment. I, too, would like to know to whose benefit actively dividing us is for? I sure as hell wish the majority would realize that its not to their benefit.
“One people” is an attitude of inclusiveness, the responses from CW & Jenny omit to acknowledge this. There can still be diversity and an attitude of “we’re all in this together”. We don’t have to become one colour, or clones. How foolish to even suggest that.
Britain after Stonehenge program on Choice TV relayed how the Romans gave a hoard of silver and gold to a “friendly” Scottish tribe to keep them onside and try and divide the clan loyalties. This was over 1000 years ago. Do we not learn anything
Please people, try and engage and see what games are being played on you. This is getting really serious. Look at what is going on overseas. Our paradigm is not working. We need collective force to shift toward a more positive direction.
Our paradigm is not working.
I agree…Our biculturalism is Pakeha defined biculturalism and it is not working.
But I don’t see the problem as being that we are not “one people”. Biculturalism would work better if it was not within a neoliberal paradigm – that is the problem.
There would be nothing wrong if we had two cultural norms, so long as they were both given equal opportunity to exist. Currently, we have token Maori culture that gets further subjugated by our racist economic system.
We need to redefine biculturalism so that both cultures can exist. Promoting only eurocentric ideals failed us before, during the 1970s, and this was after 2 decades of an equity based economic system.
To ditch biculturalism now, we would be left with the worst possible combination of economic and cultural systems. – neoliberalism and mono-culturalism. Yuk.
I think you miss the point here, Fatty.
An attitude of “we are all in it together” has nothing to do with colour, bi-culturalism, gender or any of these other ways of dividing us up.
Our dominant paradigm has been referred to as the “white male paradigm” by some. I will use this term to get my point across.
My observation is that the closer you are to a white male mentality the more likely you are to be “successful” in that hierarchy, I emphasize “mentality” because those who are “winning”, recieving accolades and value in the hierarchy and whom support and promulgate this dominant paradigm are not solely white nor male; we all know examples where some of the worst offenders are quite other than that physically. and those losing are not solely brown, pink, yellow, red. They are also white. And they are also white and male.
The more people who realize this the more we realize we are all in this together and the less prone we will be to being distracted and divided and ruled.
I need to add that I don’t believe many people are “winning” at all currently. Some might think they are, however there has to be some denial involved when the trends overseas are taken into account. It doesn’t matter whether you are “middle class” (what ever that means) and/or “non-political” and fairly “comfortable”; these groups of people are being affected by the state of chaos that our Western society has become. It doesn’t matter whether you are brown, black, white. It doesn’t matter what your gender is. Most peoples interests are being adversely affected.
There are problems that need to be dealt with and aren’t being, and one thing that would help is that we realize our similarities; we breathe, we love, we hurt, we all want what is best for ourselves.. If we could realize what unites us, we would start respecting one another, and one anothers’ different interests and start ensuring we were moving toward a better direction. This is not what is occurring at present. We are being more and more pitted against one another.
I think you miss the point here, Fatty.
Yes, when I read those last two comments, and the one that I replied to, I have no idea what your point is…but I am interested
The problem is that the term ‘one people’ or ‘we are all in this together’ is usually a call to end biculturalism…that is how I read it.
There are problems that need to be dealt with
Can you be more specific? I am confused
Yes, I wondered whether that was the case re you referring to biculturalism, which wasn’t what I was talking about.
Basically I’m commenting on getting NZ people in a state of mind where they are not so damned dividable! (My comment was in response to Foreign Waka’s comment at (5) and the response FW got to that comment.)
If people see what they have in common with one another, they are more likely to work together and be less easily divided.
re There are problems that need to be dealt with
I guess I am being deliberately vague because I’m not in the mood for searching for links to substantiate my point!
I’m referring to the type of problems illustrated out of the global financial crisis; how we are witnessing less and less morality and integrity from those in the upper echelons of our society (Western, not solely NZ), where people still appear to be giving our superiors credit for “knowing what they are doing” where its no longer due. I mean, these people such as bankers and politicians have been caught red-handed again and again and again, yet no real response or change to anything; not rectifying regulations, not the way things are reported and not how people vote. Just denial.
When a movement began that would have started getting the problems addressed, (Occupy Wall Street) here in NZ, it appeared people were more concerned over the state of our public lawns?? Our media, along with our lawn-valuing population, appear to have entirely checked out; I live amongst people of many different nationalities and I am constantly hearing how particularly dreadful New Zealand media is and how uninformed the people are (not surprising really).
I’ll make a short mention of the entirely illegal wars our Western society are involving themselves in, ones where there are war crimes committed and the initiators of which simply go on to get another, probably higher paid jobs, rather than be done for their crimes
Despite all these issues our media continues to push the lowest common denominator in attitudes. For what? Ratings? And in the meantime, it appears that people are still merely supporting a government because the main frontsperson “seems like a nice guy” despite oodles of dodgy, dodgy behaviour, incompetence and fiascos. And do I even bother to mention the approach our largest opposition party…is…taking…nah, I think you’ll probably get my point…
These are the types of problems I was referring to needed to be dealt with.
well said, I get your point and agree with you.
The issue with our media is a big one. We tend to have a bland and predictable media who perpetuate ignorance, but I think that is partly to do with the size of our population.
Mainstream sources of media – TV/newspapers/radio have such a limited amount of people to aim at, as a result they all sit in the middle and offer nothing. Compared with the UK – they have enough people to support left wing and right wing papers, as a result there are contrasting views and an environment is created where debate will occur…overcoming this is difficult.
This is compounded by the general agreement of most of our political parties. In a way, the demise of ACT has almost been a burden for the left…without them contrasting opinions also disappear. Nothing promotes true left policies more than an ACT supporter opening their mouth.
The population issue is a real one. But it pays to remember that in the UK you get the tabloids as well as the Times, The Gaurdian, and the Independent. While you do get more top notch stuff, you also get a lot more crap.
Thanks Fatty,
Hmm interesting . That gives me some insight thanks.
It is rather strange though, I was just considering how that we are a small nation, one might hope that spinning bigoted type attitudes wouldn’t “work” because we are only a few degrees separated and most of us must know plenty of others from different walks of life, therefore understand how different people’s needs and the issues they face are. This has certainly been what has caused me to open my attitudes up and pull my horns in and learn to consider a matter from different angles before drawing conclusions.. I would think we would be more understanding (and thus tolerant) toward one another’s different needs and issues for this reason. This does not appear to be the way it is working though.
Your Conspiracies Today Breaking News!
No. 94: Christpher Dorner.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/news/2013/02/08/12476/lapd-manhunt-some-cheer-on-fugitive-christopher-do/
How is that a conspiracy?
It’s not, but that won’t stop the wackjobs. The first facebook link:
We Are All Chris Dorner
Christopher John Dorner is the victim of a manhunt and smear campaign. 5 years ago he was fired…
For many his allegations about police conduct ring true hence the support.
Great Bernard Hickey interview with the guy who spent a decade trying to get peoples attention about Madoff’s ponzi scheme.
He even got a couple of guns and sent his wife to shooting school, it was getting that hairy.
He reckons Madoff was burning through the world markets and clients and would have reached NZ eventually if it hadn’t crashed.
Now he makes a fortune detecting and alerting US authorities about ponzi schemes.
He describes the clues that give a ponzi schemer away.
http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/63049/double-shot-interview-harry-markopolos-how-i-found-worlds-biggest-ponzi-scheme-8-years
Madoff would have arrived here in the nick of time to see the whole s**t-pile collapse as the likes of Sir Doug et al beat him by a long nose to suck all the cash out of the bloated upper-middle class with finance schemes that bore a remarkable resemblance to Madoff’s very own little money spinner…
2014, once again, will see politicians from all sides promising much,smiling and waving,
speeches that convince some, that’s the trickery,the hoodwinking of the political game,
once elected the hammer comes down,all bets are off,they are in office,why should
they care, or even stand by the words they uttered, prior to gaining office.
‘Democracy means government by discussion,but it is only effective if you can stop
people talking’ By Clement Atlee.
‘Democracy is the name we give the people, whenever we need them. By Robert,
Marquis de Flers and Arman de Caillavet L’habit vert.
Above quotes sourced from the Collins Thesaurus.
Record snow in a warming world: The science is clear.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8283594/King-find-recalls-Savage-mystery
Hi Anne, success, i hope the above link works,
thanks for your help. 🙂
Savage was one of our ‘truly great’ PM’s
He was indeed.
Yes it works. Now for someone to explain to me – in laywoman’s language – how you create a link using your own words like “this” or “have a look at this” etc.
Anne.
http://www.ironspider.ca/format_text/hyperlinks.htm
Thanks joe90…. Mystery solved, I’m a bit ashamed to say.
Umm… not layman enough for me. I will print a copy and find someone to explain what it all means and how it translates into practice. Thanks anyway joe90. It’s a start. 🙂
I can try in lay-person 🙂 In this example I’ll use square brackets [ ] so we can see what’s going on, but when you do it for real you’ll use angle brackets .
There are three bits to remember. The opening tag (which includes the address), the clickable text, and the closing tag.
————————-
The opening tag starts with a bracket, the letter a, and the phrase href=
Like so:
[a href=
That bit will always be the same for every link you make. The “a” means “this is a link”, and the href= means “this is the address the link takes us to”
The next bit of the opening tag is the address you want the link take us to. In this example it’s a youtube video address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRPmPn8pCY
We put quote marks around the address which mean “this is the beginning and end of the address”, and then a bracket, and that’s the end of the opening tag.
Like so:
[a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRPmPn8pCY”]
————————-
Next is the text that you want to be able to click. This can be anything at all. It doesn’t need quote marks or anything, whatever you put here is exactly what you’ll see.
Like so:
[a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRPmPn8pCY”]felix’s new band
————————–
The last bit is the closing tag. It’s just a bracket, a slash, another a, and another bracket. It means “this is the end of the link”.
Like so:
[a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHRPmPn8pCY”]felix’s new band[/a]
————————–
And that’s it! Replace the square brackets in the example with angle brackets and this is what you’ll get: felix’s new band
Your turn…
Testing:
(ahref=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjQimIWClEw”) If you like Patti Smith You Might Like This(/a)
Many thanks Felix. I’ve been wanting to learn how to do this for ages
edit – bugger!
You need to use angle brackets, like < >
Also put a space between the “a” and the “href”
Apart from that you’re golden
second time lucky
edit: yes!
Ta Felix
Riverdance
Here goes
edit: She’s done it. She’s so clever. 🙂
Thanks felixviper.
Yay!
That you with the white hat and the slide guitar, felix?
could be…
One of my younger incarnations in the sixties was as a bass and slide guitar player. Now play slide lapstyle and bottleneck- deeply satisfying music. Still raises my neck hairs when I hear a slide player…….
I hear you. Something primal about slide that you don’t get from regular guitar.
Sonny Landreth: Almost Everybody Slides.
Probably drilled by him spinning in his grave.
I was disappointed to hear that Phil Goff, Phil Twyford and others apparently supported John Tamihere’s return to the party; perhaps they could share their reasoning here at The Standard. In today’s newspaper article John sneers about ‘the sisterhood’, and his comments about Paula Bennett’s appearance are an absurd sideshow, a circus he would bring to Parliament should Labour be foolish enough to let him swan back. He asks whether instead of calling Paula fat he should describe her as morbidly obese. Why does he make any negative comment about a woman’s appearance? What does this say about his character, about him as a man, and about those who overlook his ugly proclivities to renew his footing in Labour? In light of recent party tensions, I find myself wondering what sort of government Labour would make with its current team; not, perhaps, one that ordinary party members might feel proud of, or part of. I find myself hanging back from this party, which wears the cloak of Labour, but whose heart may no longer be truly Labour. I watch with interest the jostling for list positions as we approach the next election. Shane Jones, like John Tamihere, has an overworked ego but has achieved little in Parliament; he flaps his lips at media moments but is not the thoughtful leader we hoped for (and thus does not warrant in my view a high list position). Other list MPs have accepted positions, or taken stances, for rewards that may be as illusory as their list rankings in the months to come. I do not personally care who is the leader of the Labour party. But I care very much about the heart of the Labour party, as one little cog that has kept it beating in the provinces. Attention seeking opportunists like John Tamihere and Shane Jones come and go. But I thought more of Phil; as a woman member of the party, I can’t overlook sexism which, like any other kind of ism, can only exist if good people condone it.
Well said, Virginia Linton.
It would be good to read a response from a member of caucus to what you write here. When people express doubts about a party on The Standard, it would be interesting to know how many they represent. In this case, a lot I’m sure, which makes me view it a worthwhile activity for caucus members to respond.
+1 to Virginia Linton.
I know Phil Twyford and it puzzles me too. I can only assume he was approached and he agreed to let him have another chance. I presume Tamihere’s negative personal comments re Paula Bennett is tied up with his desire to win the candidacy for the Waitakere seat. (I know he says he’s not interested but who believes a politician even a past one).
I suspect it’s an attempt to attract the red-neck, anti-female politicians brigade to support him in his cause. Remember the previous candidate was Carmel Sepuloni and she indicated her intention to run for the candidacy again some time ago.
Virginia +1.
As a happily hetero sport-loving beer-drinking bloke, I find Tamihere’s attitude infantile at best, offensive at worst. Worse still is this patronising notion that people like him and Shane Jones speak for a large chunk of society, and voters will return to Labour in droves if only Tamihere and Jones could be to the fore.
If these two “blokes” are such vote-magnets, how come they keep losing elections?
If these two “blokes” are such vote-magnets, how come they keep losing elections?
Because bitches, that’s why.
@Pascal’s Bookie
I don’t understand?
Are you meaning that these bloke-types are to appeal to the female vote?
Or that these bloke-types are bitches?
I guess I personally would agree with the second option, however, if you are meaning the first, I wonder whether this is true? Or is it that blokes don’t vote for chicks? I have wondered how the genders are split with regards to political views; whether there is a distinct trend amongst the genders. It was certainly mentioned during election-time that Act has a hard time appealing to the female voter.
From memory, I think he called certain women (was it women Labour MPs including Helen Clark?) bitches earlier in the 2000 decade when he was given the push. Something along those lines anyway. Someone will correct me if I’m wrong.
Ah cheers Anne,
A case of projection I would conclude 🙂
Yes, Virginia Linton, I – too – am seeing a much more sexist Labour caucus re-appearing with John Tamihere’s endorsement by so many of the rightwing blokes and their takeover of the caucus.
And I regret to say that I think we’ll see the so-called re-shuffle of front positions due to be announced
soon by the Leader reinforce this blokey-bent.
Twyford and Goff are all part of the Mallfaria, see where this is going out west. They just can’t help themselves.
Watch that space and DC and CS better watch their backs, even more so now.
watch Labour do it all in public whereas the NACT do the deals, sort out the spin and everyone then gets on with it.
A really well-composed comment, Virginia.
Sorry about that brief outage. Didn’t notice a mysql update amongst the security fixes.
Hi lprent,
I posted a query a few Open Mikes ago, not realising you were away.
Its simply about the “notify me via email” function, which no longer works. Its no biggy really, yet I was wondering if there was some way to get this function back? If there was any setting I could change from my side? I am on Safari 5.something and gmail email.
I will go back and find my last query because there were a few others commenting in response.
(There was also another query to you at post 19 on the same Open Mike.
Thank you
Ah. Thanks for reminding me. I’m just fixing one of the backups that isn’t working too well. I’ll reconnect and start the mail server after that. It was simply an oversight when I shifted the server in Jan. Ummm people may get a pile of banked emails when that happens.
It was more that my brain was elsewhere. The code I was trying to build/fix was complicated and I had to kind of stretch to make it work at all well in the target platform.
As well as The Standard I was somewhat vague about really important things like sleep, Lyn, bills and taking pills.
Oh cool! Thanks lprent, and thanks for the work you do, its most appreciated.
(Hopefully you’ll address the really important things first, I’m sure none of us would begrudge you that 😯 )
Lynn,You have to take your medication, and get some sleep. The days of SysOp’s surviving on 4 hrs, and umpteen cups of corrosively strong coffee are long gone now lol. And never forget the better half! Mental note to self, don’t forget your pills!
Thank you, and thanks for the work you put in. It lets us write and perhaps even be heard now and then.
Chris Laidlaw’s lame quip trivializes and undermines a serious point
Radio New Zealand National, Sunday 10 February 2013, 11:10 a.m.
Chris Laidlaw interviewed Seyed Majid Tafreshi Khameneh, the Iranian Ambassador to New Zealand.
LAIDLAW: Iran has supported Hezbollah, hasn’t it.
TAFRESHI: Hezbollah has not invaded any other territory. They are
defending their land. They are freedom fighters.
LAIDLAW: [guffaws nervously] Well, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.
Disappointed in Laidlaw’s lapse into hard right propaganda, I sent him the following e-mail….
Dear Chris,
After the Iranian ambassador had pointed out that Hezbollah is an indigenous self-defence organization, and had never sent troops to invade any territory, you quipped that “one man’s freedom-fighter is another man’s terrorist.” That was not only a banal observation, it served to trivialize and undermine the point that the Ambassador had just made.
Your interview was otherwise fair and thorough.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
@Morrissey
I find this sort of thing really shameful. How rude and uninformed we can be.
It is probably beyond any “middle” NZ to grasp the concept that the word “freedom fighter” isn’t synonymous with terrorist The word “terrorist” can, thus be effectively used to stamp out any opposition to the status quo, and noone seems to mind that the status quo way of doing things is leading us to hell in a handbasket.
Its just shameful to be lumped in with this type of mentality (if you can even call it that).
NZ must not change as there is no alternative.
Meanwhile –
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official: After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years.
If you have even the remotest interest in public broadcasting, I cannot recommend the following link enough. Truly inspiring!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q
frackin’ hell
http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130209/OPINION/130209230/1119
…and you thought Atlantis was a disaster
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/09/lawless-high-seas-threaten-the-planet
growing a clam-shell economy
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/09/1563101/national-journal-warns-the-economic-price-of-climate-change-is-already-here-and-growing/?mobile=nc
“oh my gully goodness gracious me”
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/02/09/bangladesh_faces_mass_migration_loss_of_land_from_climate_change.html
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
If Key and Gillard in Queenstown are supposed to signify the ‘ANZAC Spurrut’ at play, then I want no part of it.
Yet another Key venture in self-aggrandisement, sucking up and selling out.
It’s interesting when you look at the definition of a psychopath available on the internet. I think it’s Wikipaedia that has some interesting characteristics. You could provide a match with the various categories more precisely than you coud with the likes of Bainimarama or Mugabe.
Yet – still the populace worships! – aided and abetted by an uncritical MSM.
As they say though – the harder they rise, the harder they fall!
(and if EVER there was a travesty to an OZ Labor Party it would be Joolya – I keep wondering if NZ’s equivalent are an ABC club and a Shearer).
Hey! – btw (as they say amongst the connected) – what’s happened to that noice little boi FanClub, or FanBoi – or whatever the fuck he pops up as? AND – WHERE lately is the Hataitai pacifier that not only now wants to review the ‘used by’ label expiry date, but also the ‘RRP’ [or recommended retail price]. Bugger! I forget her name just at the moment – hold on – for the benefit of precision, I’ll just Google her shall I? ………
Oh fuck – it seems she’s become irrelevant to GOOGLE too!
Anyway – you fellas should know who I mean – she’s a foreskin in the ABC club along with the Mallardy bovver boy and a host of other amusements
Just saw Key on the News playing a drinking game, and sculling a glass of beer. Nice to see he supports safe drinking habits.
Didn’t you get the memo? Drinking to excess is only bad when it’s Yoof (i.e. anyone who looks “young” to a Campbell Live producer) doing it. Grown-ups can do whatever they like, it’s not like they set examples or contribute to drinking culture or anything.
Missed that memo. Thanx for the heads up. A case of do as he says, not as he does huh?
Charlie Stross on the beige dictatorship. …sigh…
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/02/political-failure-modes-and-th.html
So the future isn’t a boot stamping on a human face, forever. It’s a person in a beige business outfit advocating beige policies that nobody wants (but nobody can quite articulate a coherent alternative to) with a false mandate obtained by performing rituals of representative democracy that offer as much actual choice as a Stalinist one-party state. And resistance is futile, because if you succeed in overthrowing the beige dictatorship, you will become that which you opposed.
Thoughts?
“a Campbell Live producer”
Despite being hypocritical and increasingly a parody of shit sensationalism and faux community concern, it looks like the Campbell live team just keep getting lucky breaks.
Someone at TVNZ made something much much worse.
It’s called lose lose for those who watch rather than ‘make’ TV.
“it’s not like they set examples or contribute ”
Not one reply, not even a nibble.
Someone get me a two headed tortoise and JC’s extension number.
Someone should tell David Shearer to stop listening to what He is saying when speaking in front of a camera,
Shearer i noticed on the news tonight has a bad habit of self editing in the middle of making a comment, this also brings in the aaah as He searches for the words He wants to use as a clarification in the middle of a comment to the media…
I think I might have mentioned it before, but I doubt very much it’s searching for words, just making sure he remembers to use the ones he’s been told to.
Speak from the same sleeve you wear your heart on, or learn to fake it better.
I pity the Hansard editor.
He should just stop speaking and get someone competent doing it. If I were fixing my car and reached the limit of my incompetence, I’d get hold of someone who knew what they were doing. I wouldn’t burn down the closest workshop and carry on.
Labour voter??? Labour Party member???, rather have Slippery leading the National Party to victory in 2014???,
The vote has been had, is there another in February 2014???, if not such denigration of those the Labour Caucus voted for as Leader is pretty pointless and it’s only possible out-come is to increase the chances of Slippery being the Prime Minister until 2017,
Myself, i would rather work toward not having the worst case scenario occur and would suggest that if you are a Labour Party member your energies would better be spent ensuring the Party Members have the ability to ‘trigger’ the scheduled leadership votes under the ‘new’ rules into the future,
Shearer may have made that abhorrent bene-bashing speech and His ‘worker in the pub’ one wasn’t something to cheer about either,
Compare this tho to another Labour Leader as Prime Minister, ”Beneficiaries will not be included in Working for Families as this will encourage them to get a job”-Helen Clark,
Who was Prime Minister when income tax was applied to welfare benefits,none other than David Lange,
Or is every one still imbibing sour grapes about the other Dave’s failure to topple Shearer…
“Labour voter???” – Nope. Not any more.
“Labour Party member???” – Nope. Never joined any political party.
“rather have Slippery leading the National Party to victory in 2014???” – Nope. that doesn’t sound like me at all. Besides, I reckon you’ll need many more than just my vote for that not to occur. Good luck, best get your lucky red socks out of the bottom drawer, bless.
And none of those answers above discredit or give less validity to me stating opinion in any way shape or form, Comrade. Do feel free to prove they do if you’re bothered.
As for the rest of your post, all I can give you is a bit of a shrug, apart from
“Or is every one still imbibing sour grapes about the other Dave’s failure to topple Shearer…”
As opposed to you sipping the dregs of the sweet nectar of success dripping off the bottom of Mallard’s poisoned chalice.
You were doing alright until the spurious final comment, my feelings on Mallard are pretty plain in the comments on the post on that subject,
Spoze the likes of Trev and Shane with their open attacks on the Green Party are a bit like the anti-Shearer crew here on the Standard, Trev might have caught it by being entangled with McCully’s ex and Shane well wanker’s never really stop themselves from gushing,
Lolz i should really just scroll past the ‘i hate Shearer comments’ but even that’s damn hard as i found out today reading one interesting comment on an entirely unrelated subject that ended with a ‘i hate Shearer’,
Hate on, but, unless there is a vote in February 2014 and a willingness of caucus to put that vote to the wider Party which considering everything is a small flight of fancy then Shearer we are all stuck with and no amount of venting will change that,
Nah not red socks, my feet are Green from having roamed my patch to often without any on…
John key got a mixed reception at the Big Gay Out today, according to Stuff:\\
The Greens seemed to be more in tune with the event. Loiusa Wall got various mentions because of her marriage equality amendment bill. But the rest of Labour MPs seem to have been MIA.
Meanwhile, Lucy Lawless turned up to do a little Community Service, and probably mingled today:
Lolz dances with transvestites, Slippery gets the first comment of the day and maybe the last of the night,
Imagine the Gordon Brown type comments that must flow from the mouth of that chameleon as the limo whisks Him off from such events…
Long term plan for NZ’s move to Charter or Partnership Schools might go like this.
The full extent of Michael Gove’s (UK Sec Education) plans to revolutionise education are revealed today in a secret memo showing he is considering outright privatisation of academies and free schools. All academies and free schools in England, which are the Education Secretary’s personal obsession, would be free to become profit-making for the first time, and be entirely decoupled from Whitehall control. ……Mr Gove is considering the radical step because massive expansion of academies and free schools is costing government too much money.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/secret-memo-shows-michael-goves-plan-for-privatisation-of-academies-8488552.html
That’s the point they’ve reached in the United States, thus allowing the far-right Republicans to argue for voucher schools. Fortunately the latest effort in Louisiana was overturned late last year: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324705104578151570134436156.html