“…[Identity] politics is not an alternative to class politics; it is a class politics, the politics of the left-wing of neoliberalism. It is the expression and active agency of a political order and moral economy in which capitalist market forces are treated as unassailable nature.
An integral element of that moral economy is displacement of the critique of the invidious outcomes produced by capitalist class power onto equally naturalized categories of ascriptive identity that sort us into groups supposedly defined by what we essentially are rather than what we do. As I have argued, following Walter Michaels and others, within that moral economy a society in which 1% of the population controlled 90% of the resources could be just, provided that roughly 12% of the 1% were black, 12% were Latino, 50% were women, and whatever the appropriate proportions were LGBT people.
It would be tough to imagine a normative ideal that expresses more unambiguously the social position of people who consider themselves candidates for inclusion in, or at least significant staff positions in service to, the ruling class…”
It seems to me that identity politics is a sort of MMP thrust at the usual left wing advance onto right wing policies. When identity politics develop it is to get other people’s needs looked at, included and acted on. Without the theoretical language, that is how I see it in plain terms and without a lobby championing identity politics nothing gets done for the people in the group, they get vague promises but no action. Identity politics forces the hand of government to act.
The problem is when people in that identity group continue to be fused totally to their own demands, to be carried out to their own prescription, and stop looking at the whole range of problems facing us all, with themselves as part of the whole.
These days it is climate change and the commodification of people, loss of jobs, loss of job conditions, loss of regulation and control governing employers, the desire to increase poverty by neo liberal wealth screwers, automation, loss of humanity and the progress towards a better world, that loom as the large, inescapable challenges.
A driver in identity politics is the memory of past wrongs, added to present failures to better conditions for the particular lobby group, and the tendency to ignore the other disastrous memes and practices that threaten us all. That results in a neglect to face and fight the dragon menacing the village but sacrificing all to help the one vulnerable female in its jaws.
This is how I see it and I haven’t any links or quotes to provide other people’s thinking.
It is interesting to see Adolph Reed appears to be a black man. I haven’t time at present to read all of his essay and background and I don’t yet understand why he would take the stance he has adopted.
“The problem is when people in that identity group continue to be fused totally to their own demands, to be carried out to their own prescription, and stop looking at the whole range of problems facing us all, with themselves as part of the whole.”
Except that’s not how it generally works. If you look at feminism for instance, you can easily find a variety of feminists who are actively working on issues far beyond what the mainstream perceive women’s rights to be. Many feminisms are working for equal rights of all people, not equal rights for just women. And feminists working as activists are acutely aware of the bigger picture. Likewise for other things named as identity politics in a derogatory way.
The problem arises when you have superficial and in fact misleading analysis of the likes that CV gives eg the identity politics has ruined Labour. The reality is that Rogernomics ruined Labour, Labour members and activists and the rest of NZ let it happen. Of course one of the consequences to that is that certain inividuals of identity groups will be privilged and given more of a hearing than others (the ones who support neoliberalism and can work within that framework). Because co-option is a big part of how neoliberalism works.
But even where some groups are focussed in their needs to the exclusion of other things, it’s usually because they’ve been forced into that situation by the people in power and the general culture marginalising them. You only have so much time and energy and often the political climate means you have to use that shouting until you get heard.
Well my take on the problem of focus within identity politics is that to succeed within the ruling ideology it must first become, to some degree, complicit within the ideology.
A detailed argument in support of this contention requires more time than I have available however consider the following simile. In much the same way as union officials/spokespeople were feted by employer groups with the sole intention of wooing and personally obligating them to the employers purpose before then sending them back to the worker group with a resolution that was much less than that which was being demanded, so it is with identity groups within neoliberalism. Firstly the must surrender to the supremacy and inequality of the system. They must side with the ideology and walk over the needs of others before they are allowed to gain anything.
The extent to which one surrenders to, resists, avoids or escapes the system varies across any identity group doing political work, and the dynamic you describe applies to all politics, including those politics based on working class identity, and on economics.
I think more of an issue is to what extent a group’s politics are co-opted and where the indiviudals have bought into the system the most. Hence we have Margaret Thatcher and Jenny Shipley having been helped by feminism but having coopted feminism for anti-feminist work. The Māori Party could be seen as a group based on identity politics that has chosen to work within the system far more than most of us are comfortable with. But equally there are many feminists and Māori whose work is actively and even primarily working to replace the system.
Further, if we look at the place that second wave feminism arose from, many women were leaving traditional socialist groups precisely because the men working there were privileged by the patriachal system and not willing to look at that privilege as part of the politics of replacing ‘the system’. It’s pretty easy to argue that those men were affected by the dymnamic you name.
– that within neoliberalism the identity or any clique within the identity that gain success have not “won” that success but have been allowed it within a managed power framework. The extent and the terms of that success are always determined by the powerful. Then as its own strategy the Powerful adopts aspects of the identity, mainstreams it and make use of it for political and economic ends. At the same time it changes but never undermines an ongoing requirement for groupings of identified undeserving others.
I largely agree with that except that you are talking in absolutes. And that real change happens despite neoliberalism even where neoliberalism still exists.
Do you included class politics in what you are saying? Politics based on economic revolution? Politics based on ending capitalism?
Other than that I’m not sure what your point is. Are you saying that identity politics are a problem?
My point is basically one of solidarity in the pursuit of equality.Negotiated concessions to identity factions within the framework of neoliberalism acts to undermine the position of other disadvantaged in ways that make the concession politically pointless.
From the same article: This should not by any means be interpreted as a blanket condemnation of anti-racism, feminism, or other movements for social equality. Rather, it should be construed as a condemnation of a politics that is centered on social constructs like race or gender, rather than on material conditions.
it is not as if the author thinks that these movements are wrong in themselves, just that they cannot replace the more general struggle against entrenched material hardship. Moreover, in their early stages, anti-racist, anti-sexist, etc, movements focused largely on the link between social exclusion and material hardship. Under neoliberalism identity concerns have been slid into place as replacements for, rather than aspects of, the struggle for material justice. That is what the mantra “I am socially liberal but economically conservative” just means.
Thanks for the explanation Olwyn. I understand now, and it was plain to see but it is so confusing trying to sort out what effects and reasons each policy has.
The point of posting it was simply to open up a discussion of ideas. I don’t profess to totally agreeing with the link (although I am very sympathetic). More generally posting controversial views in good faith can hopefully stimulate a proper debate, and set readers thinking for themselves. Given the intellectual state of NZ in the current ambient dominant media-cultural environment my personal POV is that a blog like the Standard could productively host a separate (good faith and well moderated) forum for links to left wing intellectual discussions from the web. 🙂
The premise seems to be that identity politics is the wrong lens through which to look at societal problems. As though people must choose one lens and stick to it.
I think using the lens as a point, when looking at what needs to be done it should be with binoculars, not a telescope. I think that sizes up a lot of the misgivings felt about lobby groups sector divisions.
Is it possible to have a caption competition for the picture in the article from Audrey Young -NZ Herald – “Brave concession a real boost for NZers” from this morning 5am. It took me a long time to wipe the tears of laughter….
That is the second time that brave has been used by the herald for political issues recently!!
I note that the costs are high
The main application charge has been set at A$3600 per applicant, an extra A$1800 for partners and dependent children over 18 and A$900 for children under 18
Can Hillary Clinton be trusted to look after the interests of ‘everyday Americans’ when she won’t tell them what she told the BIG banks in the speeches they paid her to make?
Hillary Clinton Again Declines to Disclose What She Told Big Banks in Her Paid Speeches
Lee Fang
Feb. 20 2016, 4:34 a.m.
The guy in the audience said it was a matter of trust. “Please just release those transcripts so we know exactly where you stand,” he said.
But Hillary Clinton wasn’t going there. At the MSNBC town hall with the Democratic presidential candidates on Thursday evening in Las Vegas, Clinton once again refused to release transcripts or recordings of the secret speeches she was paid millions of dollarsto make to Wall Street banks.
……..
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Auckland mayoral candidates had their first hit-up in front of the public but nothing much of substance came out of it.
Sure there’s a bunch of candidates, but right now Phil Goff will romp in – even if he can’t work up the courage to cut loose from Labour ideology.
Goff is up against minnows.
The centre-right candidate I’m told is Victoria Crone, but I have no idea what she stands for beyond politic-speak cliches.
Then you have the numpties, like rates defaulter Penny Bright – who in my opinion is a sideshow who should be banned from running.
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If I’m supposedly so ‘stupid or ineffectual’ – why even bother mentioning my name – let alone stating that you think I should be ‘banned from running’?
Even with every factor tilted to their advantage, Compass’ Meals on Wheels food is pretty unappealing:
“I hope I don’t ever have to rely on that sort of food when I get really old.”
That is the verdict of award-winning Dunedin food writer Charmian Smith after taste-testing the reheated frozen meals at a session convened by the Compass Group at Dunedin Hospital this week…
The ingredient list was an internal document that could not be taken away from the session. A seemingly high level of preservatives was concerning…
She was concerned that to meet minimum mandatory standards meals needed to provide only a third of a person’s nutrition needs. “They are expected to find two-thirds of the nutrients themselves but may well resort to bread and biscuits and other easy things to eat.”
A company spokeswoman later responded to Ms Smith’s concerns over sulphites in a statement to the newspaper, saying they were added to food to preserve its appearance and quality.
Note that this was a taste test done; under the supervision of Company reps (“Compass national development and innovation manager” shown in pics); at the hospital where the reheating kitchens are located, and; served onto plates with some care for appearance. In practice, with the reheated food; slopped into aluminium trays, then transported around town by community volunteers, the results look more like this:
At the time of that article; 44 of the 250 receiving meals on wheels had cancelled, although only the day before the SDHB had been trying to claim that as; only 11 cancellations, by selectively reporting only those cancellations processed by Compass itself. I imagine this is well over 20% cancellations by now if this comment from the above link is anything to go by:
These meals are a disgrace. After months of ill health you finally get an appitite and then this tasteless, tough food arrives. You try and try but sorry, make that 45 meals cancelled.
THE Forage North Canterbury event was created by five North Canterbury vineyards; Bellbird Spring, Black Estate, Greystone, Pegasus Bay and Tongue in Groove which, as it turns out, make wine in environments rich with seasonal wild food.
To celebrate the relationship between local grapes and food, the vineyards invited cooks, sommeliers and writers from as far afield as China and England to hunt in the hills, forage in the fields and forests, fish in the ocean and gather from the seashore in and around the Waipara Valley.
And let’s not forget that a significant chunk of people have no options other than Meals on Wheels. If they cancel they have to eat out of the cupboard.
I’d also like to know of the people cancelling, how many can prepare food safely? I’ve had elderly relatives rely on Meals on Wheels when they reached the point they couldn’t remember they’d left something cooking on the stove and where burning things. That’s a recipe for disaster.
There is another locally prepared Meals on Wheels program, but it isn’t subsidised by the health board and is thus more expensive. The potential health risk of keeping prefrozen meals for reheating, means this outsourcing may prove to be a false economy for the SDHB if the recipients of Compass’ food end up needing more hospital treatment. Your point about the safety risk of unsupervised cooking by (some of) the eldery is a good one.
Aileen Baker (89), of Dunedin, said she was likely to cancel the ‘‘dreadful” meals. Her neighbour received St Barnabas Trust meals on wheels, which were excellent but more expensive than the health board service. Mrs Baker was considering her options.
‘‘I’ve never complained in my life about anything.”
The meals were not supposed to be reheated, but Mrs Baker was doing so anyway, as she was used to eating a portion later in the day. Anne Marie Parsons (74), of Dunedin, said she had no choice but to continue with the meals, as at $5 a day they were cheaper than alternatives. She said the meals had shrunk in size and deteriorated in quality.
Thanks for the link, I didn’t realise that Heatly had ever been a nurse. She is quite the posterchild for management culture these days. It is telling that she identifies more with bankers than with healers:
Shortly after starting as the £230,000-a-year chief executive of its Southern District Health Board, she implied in an interview that those concerned by her pay-off were motivated by jealousy.
She said: “There’s not many bankers in Cumbria, so the focus is on the public sector.”
[edit: Following that interview link leads to this 2012 ODT piece:]
As a public servant, she expected to be accountable to the community, which included an “open and honest” approach to media inquiries.
However, direct media access would no longer be direct in the first instance, as it had been under Mr Rousseau, with reporters advised to send inquiries through communications manager
FYI – just posted this (and my previous comment) up on the Facebook page of Larry Williams – so hopefully he can see my response to his post.
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Also Larry – I really do think that you should ‘bone up’ on your Auckland ‘electoral maths’ – as it were?
How many Aucklanders actually bothered to vote in the 2013 Auckland local body elections Larry?
36%.
Which leaves how many Aucklanders – who didn’t bother to vote Larry?
64%.
How many candidates standing for the 2016 Auckland Mayoralty effectively, (in my view) support the pro-business, corporate-controlled Auckland ‘Supercity’ (for the 1%)?
Apart from myself – in my view – ALL of them.
So – who is the 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate that effectively, in my view, that stands out from the rest, in defending citizens’ LAWFUL rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government in Auckland?
Don’t YOU believe in transparency when it comes to the spending of public rates monies Larry?
I do.
And I have put my freehold home on the line to defend my (and YOUR) lawful rights to transparency.
I am Bi-polar, rapidly cycling. I have not found a combination of medications that allow me to function normally with Epillim and Fluoxitine the best I get is a smoothing of the worst of it, not a symptom suppression.
3 years ago I saw a panel of three Dr’s through Winz and was granted invalids benefit, however the seed of doubt were sewn and I went and found full time work in an engineering Co. I make good stuff don’t get me wrong. I’m a good worker, work hard do good quality. That’s not the issue.
The issue with bi-polar is health and safety, i’m impulsive. I’ve attacked a police officer whilst I had Hep C and tried to kill him because I warned him I was having a mental health turn and to handcuff me till I calmed in the few seconds I knew what was happeneing to my body, I had a 36 hour flight stuffed up my med times and lost the plot, my bad, completely, but I was technically insane at that moment. I spent time in jail when I was supposed to be attending my sisters wedding.
When I went to work, I had soooo many days off due to being sick half the time, not sleeping from anxiety of work and other pressures, sending me into massive depression episodes, I barely made my mortgage payments as I used up all my holidays and sick days being sick I had no cover for all the other times, that’s not on.
So at this job eventually a real bad incident occurred straight from left field never got a warning with my body some guys at work were acting complete immature dicks and were trying to kill a bird in the factory rafters and I lost it again, how can I describe it, I had to save that bird it was like my whole meaning in life. I nearly killed a guy over that. I cannot trust myself in the workplace. It’s because I cannot predict what is going to cause a moment of complete irrationality like that. And it happens all the time i’m forever at work having issues with people over my incorrect at that moment rational of others actions. I go into a complete irrationality and I justify things(my actions) at that time, that I would not at others when i’m stable.
I lost my job over the bird incident, my employer who is a bloody good bloke, once I had calmed down after a week or so explained, I am a good worker, no doubt about that, but he didn’t know what job there was for me with my issues. Bluntly these outbursts and constant time off with no predictability of them, is my issue amongst others, like working for a week with no sleep(well maybe a couple hours if i’m lucky a night)
I went back to winz. 2.5 years of trying a job. I didn’t give up, but I cannot keep saying it won’t happen again boss, when I damn well know it will. Anyways I got asked for my letter of resignation, he was kind enough not to sack me and he was right. It’s not my work it’s a Health and Safety issue.
They are making me suicidal seriously. It’s rude as hell. I got interviewed by Sue the Waikato decision maker for winz. Told by Bridget at Tokoroa Winz she makes the decisions on living support / medical certificates, but is not a Dr or anything.
Meet Sue she goes on for the whole meeting about how she’s a nurse and knows these things, raving on how much she new.. (lady ur a Nurse FFS and i’m a psychologist since I know a little about the subject). Well i’m fit for work, straight away. She’s going to prop me up on sleeping tablets and medications that will basically mong me out i’m therefore fit for some partime job I can attend whenever i’m feeling ok, that therefore means i’m fit for work as that’s possible if I don’t like it I have to go see a Winz Dr again she’ll give me a list of bought and paid for Dr’s that will follow her recommendation as we know it works she will also get winz to pay for a psychologist to treat me cure me and eventually i’ll be fit for work but at the moment I have an exemption for work, but i’m fit for work no supported living
I got a mortgage ya cheapskate winz bastards 271 comes in my account from winz, when auto payments go out I for 19 fkn dollars to feed myself on. IS that my lot for the rest of my life o
Failing to hear me at any point just talking over me, a nurse(or is she?) from Australia? WTF
I cannot take this much longer, that was the 9th, of feb, it’s 20th today never heard or received a letter as to outcome of meeting regards my medical cert and assessment for supported living payments application. Don’t I at least have the right to be informed? what the fuck is going on.
Seriously someone with clout, I need help bad, they are killing people. This constant questioning of integrity, knows better than me attitudes of what my issues are, belittling shit has to stop. How many of us are going to die from despair and suicide before it does?
Hi Richard, thanks for coming and sharing your story. I hope that some help can be offered here.
I’ve had a lot of personal experience with WINZ as an ill person. My main thought is that you need support to deal with WINZ, both in general but also in getting put back on Supported Living.
In the immediate term I would suggest finding a good benefit advocate. Try the bigger cities if you have to, they can work by phone (and email if you have access). They can phone you back so the call doesn’t cost you. If you aren’t able to phone them yourself initially, find a local agency who can pick up the cost of the call. Look at finding someone who you get on with and who gets your situation.
Benefit advocates can do things like chase up why WINZ haven’t contacted you and having them involved makes WINZ sit up and take more notice because ultimately the decisions they are making can end up before a judge.
If you can find someone locally who can also assist you as a support person, all the better. You’ve probably had all sorts of experiences with people in various parts of the system, so again, try and find someone you feel comfortable with.
Do you have a supportive GP? Are they on board with supporting you re WINZ (rather than supporting WINZ)?
Re WINZ, their staff are never qualified to be experts on medical issues, no matter what their background. Their job is to establish entitlements to payments based on external advice, and if you are looking for work, to help with that. They should never be involved in giving medical advice or making decisions based on their own interpretations of your medical needs. The only information they should be basing decisions on are what you and your medical people tell them.
If you can, always take someone with you to WINZ appointments. Refuse to talk with them on the phone, use email instead. Having a witness and a papertrail that you have at your end changes what happens.
IMO, what should be happening is that you should be on Supported Living and be allowed to work as an when you are well enough. That should be long term, without pressure to become independent. The system is capable of working with people with permanent disability, that’s what SLA is for.
Beyond all that, I think you have clear grounds for a complaint. I’m not suggesting that you do this, because you might be better off using your time to do things you enjoy or find other support for your health. But it can help to know that they are wrong in what they are doing.
Hey Richard, I have had trouble with anxiety in the past. I was also prescribed Fluoxetine, and it was good for improving my mood generally, although I did feel side affects like feeling really tired sometimes and I still had some depressive episodes.
To me it sounds like you know that work for you is not a goer right now, you could see a doctor that you trust and knows your history. I wouldnt think it would be much trouble for them to write you something saying that you are not fit for work and possibly won’t be long term.
I’m not a doctor or a professional, but I can suggest things that I think have helped me. What I think might have helped balancing out my mood was intensive exercise, like going out for for a 30 minute bike ride – riding almost as hard you can, or digging over the garden vigorously, going for a run where you do intermittent sprinting – the idea being to get yourself really puffed. Even better if you’ve got a type of exercise that you enjoy doing already, then you don’t mind going out and doing it even when you might be feeling down and not wanting to go out and do anything.
There’s also the concept of mindfulness (http://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/home/our-work/category/21/mindfulness), which could be useful, it’s one of those things that is easy to recommend and extremely hard to implement when you are actually in the moment though, and would take a lot of practice too.
I’m not sure if there are any mental health support groups in your area, it would probably help if you could meet with some others with bi-polar to share ideas, tips, and get support etc. But you can probably find an online group/forum which would be the next best thing.
It sounds like you have a good understanding of how your condition is effecting you and your life, and that is really good in my opinion. It means you’re more able to recognise and react and treat yourself as you notice yourself getting into an unhealthy frame of mind. So keep up the observations of how you feel and that should make life easier I reckon.
Hi Richard, I have a close family member who has mental problems so I can understand where you are coming from.
If I were you I think I would contact my local Member of Parliament immediately and DEMAND some help with your situation. If the MP won’t help then contact someone else (anyone) in the political sphere to see what they can do.
Can anyone help me find some graphs on long term party voting intention? I’ve tried google and it’s giving me flag referendum hits and some obscuring stuff.
I want something like the 4th chart in this link, only for preceding decades.
With Christchurch’s inhabitants finally waking up to the fact that John Key and his trolls don’t give a shit about them I thought I’d repost this to show how much they are being shafted by this ugly lot!
Sadly way too much damage done or un repaired by the time they get a chance to dump them and real change takes hold about a year after the next GE.
NATS know how to cripple areas, tying the hands of the next govt into at least 2 election cycles of rectifying their wilful destruction. It’s been their MO from the get go.
Someone mentioned recently what we already know happens but don’t stress enough – that progressive policies introduced by NZ governments are likely to be dumped on a change of government.
And if one govt ties the hands of another to do anything about it within their term, then there can be no change at all. Labour gets in, then tends to upset enough people to get thrown out, or the Opposition sets up some strawman arguments that the people get obssessed about and then Labour’s out and what is left as a memorial by the time the National vandals tear down their, usually, good works?
Probably most of us have been wondering how Kiribati people are getting on since our government decided not to accept a request to be a climate refugee from one man who has been deported.
Radio nz did a piece on Kiribati recently. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201789691
Kiribati people getting ready for “migration with dignity”
People in Kiribati are upskilling and preparing for the time when they might have to move because of the effects of climate change.
This is something that a progressive NZ has been able to do in a country that wanted help and welcomed it. (Now he might have a chance to help here.)
He was in the Values Party by the way, not the National Party.
8:12 Ron Layton http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201790116/ron-layton-intellectual-property-in-africa
Ron Layton is an expatriate New Zealander who is the founder and CEO of LightYears IP, a board member of the African IP Trust, and a fellow of Ashoka, the largest worldwide network of social entrepreneurs. He is creating global mechanisms that provide poor producer businesses in developing countries with a full range of intellectual property tools that allow them to re-position for higher and more stable incomes.
By owning the property in a private superannuation scheme, the politicians can also use their taxpayer-funded superannuation subsidies to pay off the mortgage.
For every $1 placed in the private schemes by the MP, the taxpayer contributes $2.50 to a maximum of $28,920 – an annual superannuation total of up to $40,488.
Combined with the taxpayer-funded accommodation allowances, a minister like Mrs Tolley could pay off up to $77,988 of the mortgage each year while also making a capital gain as the property’s value increases.
That’s significantly more than the average wage every years in subsidies.
Really, it’s time to end these rorts that the MPS keep giving themselves.
The politicians have themselves to blame: allowing the value of wages to decrease naturally builds resentment.
Personally I think they deserve fair wages and conditions like everyone else.
It’s tempting to suggest that their salary should be means-tested, to level the playing field, and why not just give them a percentage (250%?) of the median wage divided by the population percentage of children in poverty (plus one percent so that it can never become infinite) 😉
Personally I think they deserve fair wages and conditions like everyone else.
So do I. I don’t think that giving them near $80k per year to buy their own houses and rental properties is fair and it’s bloody expensive for the rest of us.
It would be a damn site cheaper and easier if the government simply owned a 100 room hotel in the capital that the MPs from outside of the capital could use when there. Empty rooms could be used by foreign dignitaries and government guests.
All that would cost us is rates of a few thousand and a couple of million per year for maintenance and personnel. Far less than what it’s costing us in paying these people to become rich while they add to both the housing shortage and rising house prices.
“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection”
Interesting video on why physiological addiction theories are wrong, and why environment is critical. I think some of it is a bit simplistic, but it’s a good graphic wway to get across that we’ve been looking in the wrong direction.
I found this an interesting read in latest scientific America on how political symmetry corrupts science I suggest also answers some questions re constant attacks on Neo liberalism by the far left and academia, especially those in social sciences Well worth reading full article
2015 study by psychologist José Duarte, then at Arizona State University, and his colleagues in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, entitled “Political Diversity Will Improve Social Psychological Science,” found that 58 to 66 percent of social scientists are liberal and only 5 to 8 percent conservative and that there are eight Democrats for every Republican. The problem is most relevant to the study of areas “related to the political concerns of the Left—areas such as race, gender, stereotyping, environmentalism, power, and inequality.” The very things these students are protesting.
How does this political asymmetry corrupt social science? It begins with what subjects are studied and the descriptive language employed. Consider a 2003 paper by social psychologist John Jost, now at New York University, and his colleagues, entitled “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition.” Conservatives are described as having “uncertainty avoidance,” “needs for order, structure, and closure,” as well as “dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity,” as if these constitute a mental disease that leads to “resistance to change” and “endorsement of inequality.” Yet one could just as easily characterize liberals as suffering from a host of equally malfunctioning cognitive states: a lack of moral compass that leads to an inability to make clear ethical choices, a pathological fear of clarity that leads to indecisiveness, a naive belief that all people are equally talented, and a blind adherence in the teeth of contradictory evidence from behavior genetics that culture and environment exclusively determine one’s lot in life.
Cheers OAB I think you are further evidence on the findings of this study, as are many standards contributors Note the study is even handed and indicates the bias can go the other way re conservative bias but surely even just on statistic and group think their is something to it if only 5 to 8pc of social scientist are considered conservative.
I understood your first point albeit you write in riddles and not clear English, I am not sure why, I put it down to showing off. I just raised the article out of interest and not to go into indepth peer review and replication. The article has obviously pricked your reality bubble and got you thinking which is good 😊
You really aren’t getting it: a Psychology paper, attempting to
find a bias that Psychologists had been talking about for years, finds said bias and is instantly seized upon as evidence.
A dwindling and increasingly irrelevant field? Some say…
The funny thing is, if we listen to the drivel right wingers believe, NASA, the Otago School of Medicine, the Salvation Army, The Lancet, Nature, Marine Biology and the Problem Gambling Foundation are also hotbeds of Left-wing activism, and you’re whining about Psychology? Pfft.
All science has bias from what is chosen to study. It’s not necessarily a problem except where it is unacknowleged and where power structures prevent imbalance from being changed eg the amount of medicial research that is funded by big pharma and how this has led to a culture of lying about results. It’s hard to change because the power structure (neoliberalism) literally prevent other people from doing research (it’s more complicated than that).
If social science is biased towards liberalism because of more liberals doing the research, that’s a different thing than individual researchers having bias. You seem to be conflating the two and suggesting that the individual cited was biased and unscientific in their approach. Do you have any evidence of that?
No article was not picking on an individual, simply raised that specific research to contrast social cognitition as a scene setter re left and right I believe crux of article was as is the sum of the parts equal the whole, the whole equals the sum of the parts. The study simply opines due to to the lefts massive over representation in social science this results in social cognitive bias ( including in peer review) . Of course there will be individuals who may not be bias but on average the research is indicating the potential of such
I was saying that YOU are trying to make out that the numbers of social scientists being liberal means that individual scientists who are liberal are also biased in their work. Putting aside that there is bias in all science, I think your claim is meaningless unless you can demonstrate that indiviudal scientists are in capable of doing research that isn’t contaminated by their politics.
If your point is that more liberal social scientists means that more topics that are of interest to liberals is being done, that wouldn’t surprise me. But that’s a different thing than the research being corrupted by the individual
The lack of diversity causes problems for the scientific process primarily in areas related to the political concerns of the Left – areas such as race, gender, stereotyping, environmentalism, power, and inequality – as well as in areas where conservatives themselves are studied, such as in moral and political psychology.
However, the link gives the game away:
In the last few years, social psychology has faced a series of challenges to the validity of its research, including a few high-profile replication failures, a handful of fraud cases, and several articles on questionable research practices and inflated effect sizes… In this article, we suggest that one largely overlooked cause of failure is a lack of political diversity.
So yeah, fraud, lack of replication, questionable practices…oh but the real problem is the exams are too hard for Reddullish et al a lack of political diversity. Uh huh.
Spinning now OAB, agree with your first point but surely bias is amplified if one pursuit of science is massively over represented by one dominant political school of thought
You need to stop projecting and read my comments again. I’m not saying what you think I am. I’m saying that Psychology is almost completely munted: the majority of its findings are unreliable at best.
That includes this one.
Why do you care anyway: as I said, the right makes a virtue of despising science and academia. If wingnuts don’t want to study you only have yourselves to blame.
We can all agree on that. What I don’t get is how you can’t understand that the Right’s relentless negative rhetoric about academia might deter right wingers from taking up research.
Well, if you could pass the entrance exams, that is.
PS: just because scientologists say Psychology is munted doesn’t mean it isn’t: your cite supports the view.
Generally, research is concentrated around areas of ignorance. Sometimes it results in the areas of ignorance shrinking.
Where’s the put-down there? I said “sometimes” because quite often, in the hard sciences, further study debunks previous findings, thus increasing the unknowns.
I’m no more putting Psychology down than the research team you’re citing do in their own words, quoted at 17.2.1.2.1 above: fraud etc.
Lastly, I author my own put-downs, bud. Do you deny the vitriol aimed at academia from the Right? Do you challenge my assertion that it might put people off choosing study as a career?
PS: Someone with a handle like yours might think twice before calling the kettle black.
David Stuckler: health and austerity
10:10 AM. Professor of Political Economy and Sociology at Oxford University, where he researches how social policy and economic changes influence health across the globe, and co-author of –
The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills.
He is visiting New Zealand for the February lecture series
at the 20th Public Health Summer School,
run by the University of Otago, Wellington.
The federal regulator issued the hoverboard notice following a months-long investigation involving “reports, from consumers in 24 states, of 52 self-balancing scooter fires resulting in over $2 million in property damage, including the destruction of two homes and an automobile.”
Yet more proof that things need to be properly tested and regulated before being allowed on the market.
The report is not flattering for the government. For a start, our action plan cannot sensibly be described as a “co-creation” with civil society. The government decided very early on what it wanted to put in it, and then conducted a very limited consultation exercise. For instance, it never even put out a press release about consultation. It even breached its obligation to publish, in advance, a list of its consultation activities. (In comments on the report, the government said I’d got this wrong. It pointed to a list it had posted on the State Services Commission website. That list was posted after all the consultation had taken place.)
More lies and disinformation from this government about what it’s doing.
Ok dug it out…
No Pride in Prisons to Protest Auckland Pride Parade
Queer and transgender prison abolitionist group No Pride in Prisons is holding a rally today at 5:30pm on the Karangahape Road Overbridge, in protest of the Auckland Pride Parade.
The rally follows the Auckland Pride Board’s decision to allow members of the police and the Department of Corrections to march in uniform in the parade.
“We are holding a counter-rally to take a public stand against the Auckland Pride Board’s decision to include violent, racist and transmisogynist institutions in its parade for the second year in a row,” says No Pride in Prisons spokesperson, Emilie Rākete.
“Given recent reports of racist police brutality and Corrections’ announcement to extend its ‘double-bunking’ policy, it is disgraceful that the Auckland Pride Board decided to include Corrections and police in the Pride Parade.”
“Corrections’ policies directly contribute to physical and sexual violence against trans and queer prisoners.”
Earlier this month, the Pride Board came out with its decision to allow Corrections officers to march in uniform as they did in 2015. This decision was made on the agreement that the Department of Corrections would take steps over the coming year to improve the policies affecting trans prisoners.
“To this date, the Department of Corrections has shown a blatant disregard for the treatment of all incarcerated people, especially queer and trans prisoners. The board should not have made this decision based on the Department’s vague promises for improvement.”
No Pride in Prisons believes that the effects of Corrections’ placement and double-bunking policies on queer and trans prisoners are perfectly clear.
“This year alone, No Pride in Prisons has heard from multiple transgender prisoners who have been either raped or brutally attacked while in Corrections’ custody.”
The group points to an incident late last year where a trans woman was raped after being placed in a cell overnight with a man. The group argues that this incident would not have taken place if not for the double-bunking policy.
“Corrections has introduced and massively expanded double-bunking policies despite advice that doing so would put prisoners at greater risk of physical and sexual assault. These policies have directly led to the rape of trans women and others,” says Rākete.
“Corrections has proven, time and time again, that it has no regard for the safety or bodily autonomy of inmates.”
According to No Pride in Prisons, the police have no better a track record. “A report released by the New Zealand Police in 2015 found that police officers use force against Māori at eight times the rate they do Pākehā,”[1] says Rākete.
“Last year, the New Zealand Police admitted to having an ‘unconscious bias’ against Māori.[2] While the police may call it a mere ‘bias’, these biases can be more accurately described as racism.”
“Māori currently make up about 51% of New Zealand’s prison population, despite being only 15% of the general population. This is because of the police decisions to apprehend and then charge Māori at a far higher rate than Pākehā for the same crimes.[3] What this proves is the police’s active role in perpetuating structural racism.”
“The participation of police and Corrections in the Pride Parade is a form of pinkwashing, using LGBTQI issues to mask their everyday violence and brutality, especially towards tangata whenua.”
“We encourage everyone who has been disappointed and angered by the Auckland Pride Board’s decisions to join us for the counter-rally.”
“The fact of the matter is that prisons and police are violent, racist institutions that have no place in any pride parade.”
stuff story 19/2/2016
Apartment owner blocked out of her unit in dispute with body corporate
MARIA SLADE
Last updated 14:22, February 19 2016
The Landings complex in Parnell, where owner Christine Rogerson says the body corporate is stopping her from entering her apartment.
Christine Rogerson was amazed to find a new wall and door blocking her out of her own apartment.
The owner of a seventh floor unit in The Landings complex in Auckland’s Parnell had been told she could have supervised access as the building underwent major weathertightness and other repairs.
But when she asked to retrieve personal belongings stored in a locked room, she was informed she would have to wait till the work was completed.
Then she discovered a temporary barricade had been built in the corridor outside her unit blocking her way.
“Because I’ve asked for access, they’ve denied it and I’ve said why. This is what they do.”
READ MORE:
* Deregulation non-compliance turns home into house of horrors
* Apartment owners face maintenance timebomb
“They” are the complex’s body corporate, an administration that owners say is non-communicative, inconsistent, and aggressive.
A door has been built in the corridor leading to Rogerson’s apartment blocking her access.
A door has been built in the corridor leading to Rogerson’s apartment blocking her access.
Rogerson said she was originally told the work would take a month. That has stretched to three months with no end in sight.
Owners of the 220 apartments paid an original repair levy of $8 million, then a second of $4m, she said.
“I reckon there’s going to be another $4m, but you won’t know that until the AGM. It’s likely that we’ll be hit with another $4m and they’ll give you 30 days to come up with (it).
The Home Owners and Buyers Association chair has big concerns about the law surrounding bodies corporate, chair John Gray says
The Home Owners and Buyers Association chair has big concerns about the law surrounding bodies corporate, chair John Gray says
“It’s a group of 10 people maximum controlling a group of 200 people,” Rogerson said.
Fellow owner Roberta Budvietas said she was told her apartment had to be empty by March to make way for the workmen. When her tenants unexpectedly left in October she let her grandson stay temporarily for a peppercorn rent.
“Now they’re telling me it’s November. So every week I have lost $200 in potential rent on that apartment, and I can’t actually kick the kids out now.”
The Landings owner Roberta Budvietas says information doesn’t flow from the body corporate.
Dysfunctional administration had added to the already considerable stress of the repairs, Budvietas said.
“We’re paying for all kinds of costs… and then the fact the information doesn’t flow well and questions aren’t answered.
“When you have a body corporate secretariat who tells you one set of things and you don’t know because you’re just ordinary people trying to do your best… there’s no real resource to go to.”
The Landings body corporate said the temporary wall had been put in place to comply with health and safety requirements, and a visit to the apartment could be arranged with the head contractor.
Delays in getting council consents and the discovery of additional repair work required had pushed back the finish date in some cases, and owners had been kept informed, it said.
The dispute comes as Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye conducts a campaign to assess whether rules around bodies corporate need to be changed.
She is holding a public meeting on Friday afternoon.
“I think if Auckland is going to have intensification, which we are and we need to… then we’ve got to have absolute confidence in the ownership and management structure of those dwellings.”
Some clear themes had emerged from the response to her campaign, she said:
– issues over long term maintenance plans, which every unit title complex must have, and transparency around them;
– body corporate managers versus property managers and their role, and whether it needs to be better regulated;
– whether the rules around bodies corporate and their committees likewise need to be tightened;
– access to up to date information and transparency.
Kaye says the Unit Titles Act was improved in 2010, but may need further enhancements.
However there was a balance between adequate regulation and not adding costs, she said.
“For example, if you did decide that there needs to be greater regulation around body corporate managers, then one, you might discourage people from taking that role, and two, you might add costs to that.”
But chairman of the Home Owners and Buyers Association, John Gray, is sceptical about Kaye’s efforts.
Hobanz has a host of concerns about the Unit Titles Act.
It was devoid of basic governance guidelines that other laws such as the Charities Act and the Companies Act contained, he said.
The only criteria for sitting on a body corporate committee was being an owner in the complex.
“You can have people who have been convicted of criminal conduct, bankrupted, and the sort, actually put themselves forward for election.” Gray said.
The organisation was also particularly concerned about long term maintenance plans, which were usually either inadequate or not in place at all.
On top of that bodies corporate could and did opt out of fully funding them, meaning future owners could be hit with massive repair bills, he said.
– Stuff.co.nz
Landlords lose thousands
Farmers face waterways fines video
Beer festival canned
Beetle saving farmers $44 million
“Nick Dearden, the director of Global Justice Now, said: “Despite the enormous public outcry over companies like Google and Amazon paying ridiculously small amounts of tax in the UK, the government is trying to sign us up to a trade deal that could effectively prevent us from bringing about laws that could address tax injustice.
“The ability to enact effective and fair tax systems to finance vital public services is one of the defining features of sovereignty. The fact that multinational companies would be able to challenge and undermine that under TTIP is testament to the terrifying extent of the corporate grab embedded in this toxic trade deal.”
What a pigs muddle the government move to deregulation of builders has led us to. In some other countries, the government MPs concerned would be taken to Court and with luck, imprisoned or worse. Perhaps they should be stripped of their nationality and left stateless to go from place to place spreading their stealing and criminal activities around the world instead of finessing them here on we unlucky people.
I put up a case earlier in Open Mike where a woman owner was shut out of her apartment so it could be doctored, for increasing months with an end not shortly in sight. This article is much the same, and goes into compliance, refers to legislation and gives warnings for future home buyers, especially apartments, built between 1995 and 2005.
Burrell said better legislation, to allow for a higher level of due-diligence, would be one way to minimise and assess costs in leaky buildings.
“Under current legislation we cannot even remove one piece of cladding before the remedial work starts.
“If we had legislation that allowed us to look at what is lying internally then it would be a lot easier to determine any non-compliance issues,” Burrell said.
Levie said HOBANZ believes the the lack of financial assistance to cover the faults is going to become a significant financial burden on apartment owners in the coming years.
“It is significant as it is going to become difficult for owners to borrow against weather tight projects because of the risks that lie internally,” Levie said.
He said it will also become more common for weather tight remediation to only be carried out on apartments where the work justifies a gain in property value.
“The concern is that with areas further out of the city, where the work costs the same yet the values of the apartments are not there.
“Then there will be hesitation to have external work carried out because there could be internal non-compliance issues the will add to the cost,” Levie said.
Burrell believes the only other way the non-compliance costs could be funded is if the Government went back to its original plan of covering two-thirds of the leaky building remediation costs.
PETER MEECHAM / FAIRFAX NZ.
(Andi Burrell Remedial Specialist from Anoroc Remediation )
(Home Owners and Buyers Association (Hobanz) chief executive Roger Levie)
edited
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David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
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http://bennorton.com/adolph-reed-identity-politics-is-neoliberalism/
“…[Identity] politics is not an alternative to class politics; it is a class politics, the politics of the left-wing of neoliberalism. It is the expression and active agency of a political order and moral economy in which capitalist market forces are treated as unassailable nature.
An integral element of that moral economy is displacement of the critique of the invidious outcomes produced by capitalist class power onto equally naturalized categories of ascriptive identity that sort us into groups supposedly defined by what we essentially are rather than what we do. As I have argued, following Walter Michaels and others, within that moral economy a society in which 1% of the population controlled 90% of the resources could be just, provided that roughly 12% of the 1% were black, 12% were Latino, 50% were women, and whatever the appropriate proportions were LGBT people.
It would be tough to imagine a normative ideal that expresses more unambiguously the social position of people who consider themselves candidates for inclusion in, or at least significant staff positions in service to, the ruling class…”
What’s the point? That Walter Michaels is incapable of noticing more than one kind of injustice?
It seems to me that identity politics is a sort of MMP thrust at the usual left wing advance onto right wing policies. When identity politics develop it is to get other people’s needs looked at, included and acted on. Without the theoretical language, that is how I see it in plain terms and without a lobby championing identity politics nothing gets done for the people in the group, they get vague promises but no action. Identity politics forces the hand of government to act.
The problem is when people in that identity group continue to be fused totally to their own demands, to be carried out to their own prescription, and stop looking at the whole range of problems facing us all, with themselves as part of the whole.
These days it is climate change and the commodification of people, loss of jobs, loss of job conditions, loss of regulation and control governing employers, the desire to increase poverty by neo liberal wealth screwers, automation, loss of humanity and the progress towards a better world, that loom as the large, inescapable challenges.
A driver in identity politics is the memory of past wrongs, added to present failures to better conditions for the particular lobby group, and the tendency to ignore the other disastrous memes and practices that threaten us all. That results in a neglect to face and fight the dragon menacing the village but sacrificing all to help the one vulnerable female in its jaws.
This is how I see it and I haven’t any links or quotes to provide other people’s thinking.
It is interesting to see Adolph Reed appears to be a black man. I haven’t time at present to read all of his essay and background and I don’t yet understand why he would take the stance he has adopted.
“The problem is when people in that identity group continue to be fused totally to their own demands, to be carried out to their own prescription, and stop looking at the whole range of problems facing us all, with themselves as part of the whole.”
Except that’s not how it generally works. If you look at feminism for instance, you can easily find a variety of feminists who are actively working on issues far beyond what the mainstream perceive women’s rights to be. Many feminisms are working for equal rights of all people, not equal rights for just women. And feminists working as activists are acutely aware of the bigger picture. Likewise for other things named as identity politics in a derogatory way.
The problem arises when you have superficial and in fact misleading analysis of the likes that CV gives eg the identity politics has ruined Labour. The reality is that Rogernomics ruined Labour, Labour members and activists and the rest of NZ let it happen. Of course one of the consequences to that is that certain inividuals of identity groups will be privilged and given more of a hearing than others (the ones who support neoliberalism and can work within that framework). Because co-option is a big part of how neoliberalism works.
But even where some groups are focussed in their needs to the exclusion of other things, it’s usually because they’ve been forced into that situation by the people in power and the general culture marginalising them. You only have so much time and energy and often the political climate means you have to use that shouting until you get heard.
Well my take on the problem of focus within identity politics is that to succeed within the ruling ideology it must first become, to some degree, complicit within the ideology.
A detailed argument in support of this contention requires more time than I have available however consider the following simile. In much the same way as union officials/spokespeople were feted by employer groups with the sole intention of wooing and personally obligating them to the employers purpose before then sending them back to the worker group with a resolution that was much less than that which was being demanded, so it is with identity groups within neoliberalism. Firstly the must surrender to the supremacy and inequality of the system. They must side with the ideology and walk over the needs of others before they are allowed to gain anything.
Interesting point.
The extent to which one surrenders to, resists, avoids or escapes the system varies across any identity group doing political work, and the dynamic you describe applies to all politics, including those politics based on working class identity, and on economics.
I think more of an issue is to what extent a group’s politics are co-opted and where the indiviudals have bought into the system the most. Hence we have Margaret Thatcher and Jenny Shipley having been helped by feminism but having coopted feminism for anti-feminist work. The Māori Party could be seen as a group based on identity politics that has chosen to work within the system far more than most of us are comfortable with. But equally there are many feminists and Māori whose work is actively and even primarily working to replace the system.
Further, if we look at the place that second wave feminism arose from, many women were leaving traditional socialist groups precisely because the men working there were privileged by the patriachal system and not willing to look at that privilege as part of the politics of replacing ‘the system’. It’s pretty easy to argue that those men were affected by the dymnamic you name.
Weka my point is:
– that within neoliberalism the identity or any clique within the identity that gain success have not “won” that success but have been allowed it within a managed power framework. The extent and the terms of that success are always determined by the powerful. Then as its own strategy the Powerful adopts aspects of the identity, mainstreams it and make use of it for political and economic ends. At the same time it changes but never undermines an ongoing requirement for groupings of identified undeserving others.
I largely agree with that except that you are talking in absolutes. And that real change happens despite neoliberalism even where neoliberalism still exists.
Do you included class politics in what you are saying? Politics based on economic revolution? Politics based on ending capitalism?
Other than that I’m not sure what your point is. Are you saying that identity politics are a problem?
Hi Weka,
My point is basically one of solidarity in the pursuit of equality.Negotiated concessions to identity factions within the framework of neoliberalism acts to undermine the position of other disadvantaged in ways that make the concession politically pointless.
From the same article: This should not by any means be interpreted as a blanket condemnation of anti-racism, feminism, or other movements for social equality. Rather, it should be construed as a condemnation of a politics that is centered on social constructs like race or gender, rather than on material conditions.
it is not as if the author thinks that these movements are wrong in themselves, just that they cannot replace the more general struggle against entrenched material hardship. Moreover, in their early stages, anti-racist, anti-sexist, etc, movements focused largely on the link between social exclusion and material hardship. Under neoliberalism identity concerns have been slid into place as replacements for, rather than aspects of, the struggle for material justice. That is what the mantra “I am socially liberal but economically conservative” just means.
Thanks for the explanation Olwyn. I understand now, and it was plain to see but it is so confusing trying to sort out what effects and reasons each policy has.
The point of posting it was simply to open up a discussion of ideas. I don’t profess to totally agreeing with the link (although I am very sympathetic). More generally posting controversial views in good faith can hopefully stimulate a proper debate, and set readers thinking for themselves. Given the intellectual state of NZ in the current ambient dominant media-cultural environment my personal POV is that a blog like the Standard could productively host a separate (good faith and well moderated) forum for links to left wing intellectual discussions from the web. 🙂
I agree.
The premise seems to be that identity politics is the wrong lens through which to look at societal problems. As though people must choose one lens and stick to it.
I think using the lens as a point, when looking at what needs to be done it should be with binoculars, not a telescope. I think that sizes up a lot of the misgivings felt about lobby groups sector divisions.
Is it possible to have a caption competition for the picture in the article from Audrey Young -NZ Herald – “Brave concession a real boost for NZers” from this morning 5am. It took me a long time to wipe the tears of laughter….
Malcolm Turnbull must have farted…
That is the second time that brave has been used by the herald for political issues recently!!
I note that the costs are high
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77076257/how-to-get-your-head-around-the-landmark-aussie-citizenship-announcement
i mean it’s a win-win right?, incidentally, those guys can vote right?
Can Hillary Clinton be trusted to look after the interests of ‘everyday Americans’ when she won’t tell them what she told the BIG banks in the speeches they paid her to make?
In my view – no.
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/19/hillary-clinton-goldman-sachs-transcripts/
Hillary Clinton Again Declines to Disclose What She Told Big Banks in Her Paid Speeches
Lee Fang
Feb. 20 2016, 4:34 a.m.
The guy in the audience said it was a matter of trust. “Please just release those transcripts so we know exactly where you stand,” he said.
But Hillary Clinton wasn’t going there. At the MSNBC town hall with the Democratic presidential candidates on Thursday evening in Las Vegas, Clinton once again refused to release transcripts or recordings of the secret speeches she was paid millions of dollarsto make to Wall Street banks.
……..
_________________________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Is Larry Williams ‘projecting’ when calling Auckland Mayoral candidate Penny Bright a ‘numpty’?
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11592451
Auckland mayor candidates
Auckland mayoral candidates had their first hit-up in front of the public but nothing much of substance came out of it.
Sure there’s a bunch of candidates, but right now Phil Goff will romp in – even if he can’t work up the courage to cut loose from Labour ideology.
Goff is up against minnows.
The centre-right candidate I’m told is Victoria Crone, but I have no idea what she stands for beyond politic-speak cliches.
Then you have the numpties, like rates defaulter Penny Bright – who in my opinion is a sideshow who should be banned from running.
______________________________
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/numpty
numpty
Scottish informal
A stupid or ineffectual person.
_________________________
Really Larry?
If I’m supposedly so ‘stupid or ineffectual’ – why even bother mentioning my name – let alone stating that you think I should be ‘banned from running’?
You old silly billy ‘numpty’?
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Emmerson
PJ party at the Turnbulls.
Max, can you play Abba?
http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/gif/20168/200216WEHcartoonRE.gif
Even with every factor tilted to their advantage, Compass’ Meals on Wheels food is pretty unappealing:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/373816/frozen-meals-underwhelm-video
Note that this was a taste test done; under the supervision of Company reps (“Compass national development and innovation manager” shown in pics); at the hospital where the reheating kitchens are located, and; served onto plates with some care for appearance. In practice, with the reheated food; slopped into aluminium trays, then transported around town by community volunteers, the results look more like this:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/371838/44-cancel-meals-wheels
At the time of that article; 44 of the 250 receiving meals on wheels had cancelled, although only the day before the SDHB had been trying to claim that as; only 11 cancellations, by selectively reporting only those cancellations processed by Compass itself. I imagine this is well over 20% cancellations by now if this comment from the above link is anything to go by:
Thinking about food. This is a contrast to the meals being criticised above.
Radionz had a piece on wild food from some vineyard event this morning interesting.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201790033
THE Forage North Canterbury event was created by five North Canterbury vineyards; Bellbird Spring, Black Estate, Greystone, Pegasus Bay and Tongue in Groove which, as it turns out, make wine in environments rich with seasonal wild food.
To celebrate the relationship between local grapes and food, the vineyards invited cooks, sommeliers and writers from as far afield as China and England to hunt in the hills, forage in the fields and forests, fish in the ocean and gather from the seashore in and around the Waipara Valley.
And let’s not forget that a significant chunk of people have no options other than Meals on Wheels. If they cancel they have to eat out of the cupboard.
I’d also like to know of the people cancelling, how many can prepare food safely? I’ve had elderly relatives rely on Meals on Wheels when they reached the point they couldn’t remember they’d left something cooking on the stove and where burning things. That’s a recipe for disaster.
weka
There is another locally prepared Meals on Wheels program, but it isn’t subsidised by the health board and is thus more expensive. The potential health risk of keeping prefrozen meals for reheating, means this outsourcing may prove to be a false economy for the SDHB if the recipients of Compass’ food end up needing more hospital treatment. Your point about the safety risk of unsupervised cooking by (some of) the eldery is a good one.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/371588/better-meals-under-nazis-87-year-old-says
… and in France the school children are provided meals like this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9203575/Former-NHS-chief-exec-received-150000-pay-off.html
integralenz
Thanks for the link, I didn’t realise that Heatly had ever been a nurse. She is quite the posterchild for management culture these days. It is telling that she identifies more with bankers than with healers:
[edit: Following that interview link leads to this 2012 ODT piece:]
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/200218/new-ceo-ready-listen-and-learn
Her response to media inquiries is unlikely to be called “open and honest” by anyone who has experiece of it.
Re: Cancellation Numbers
Hadn’t seen this when I made my earlier comment:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/373815/quarter-recipients-opt-out
FYI – just posted this (and my previous comment) up on the Facebook page of Larry Williams – so hopefully he can see my response to his post.
__________________________________________________
Also Larry – I really do think that you should ‘bone up’ on your Auckland ‘electoral maths’ – as it were?
How many Aucklanders actually bothered to vote in the 2013 Auckland local body elections Larry?
36%.
Which leaves how many Aucklanders – who didn’t bother to vote Larry?
64%.
How many candidates standing for the 2016 Auckland Mayoralty effectively, (in my view) support the pro-business, corporate-controlled Auckland ‘Supercity’ (for the 1%)?
Apart from myself – in my view – ALL of them.
So – who is the 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate that effectively, in my view, that stands out from the rest, in defending citizens’ LAWFUL rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government in Auckland?
Don’t YOU believe in transparency when it comes to the spending of public rates monies Larry?
I do.
And I have put my freehold home on the line to defend my (and YOUR) lawful rights to transparency.
Your fellow ZB host Leighton Smith ‘gets it’.
But then – maybe he’s not a ‘numpty’?
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Just watched The Civillian on where the Media on TV News is heading. Funny satire but with some interesting bits too. Worth a watch.
http://www.watchme.co.nz/the-civilian/season-1/episode-5/
Help sought.
Guys this is a plea for help.
I am Bi-polar, rapidly cycling. I have not found a combination of medications that allow me to function normally with Epillim and Fluoxitine the best I get is a smoothing of the worst of it, not a symptom suppression.
3 years ago I saw a panel of three Dr’s through Winz and was granted invalids benefit, however the seed of doubt were sewn and I went and found full time work in an engineering Co. I make good stuff don’t get me wrong. I’m a good worker, work hard do good quality. That’s not the issue.
The issue with bi-polar is health and safety, i’m impulsive. I’ve attacked a police officer whilst I had Hep C and tried to kill him because I warned him I was having a mental health turn and to handcuff me till I calmed in the few seconds I knew what was happeneing to my body, I had a 36 hour flight stuffed up my med times and lost the plot, my bad, completely, but I was technically insane at that moment. I spent time in jail when I was supposed to be attending my sisters wedding.
When I went to work, I had soooo many days off due to being sick half the time, not sleeping from anxiety of work and other pressures, sending me into massive depression episodes, I barely made my mortgage payments as I used up all my holidays and sick days being sick I had no cover for all the other times, that’s not on.
So at this job eventually a real bad incident occurred straight from left field never got a warning with my body some guys at work were acting complete immature dicks and were trying to kill a bird in the factory rafters and I lost it again, how can I describe it, I had to save that bird it was like my whole meaning in life. I nearly killed a guy over that. I cannot trust myself in the workplace. It’s because I cannot predict what is going to cause a moment of complete irrationality like that. And it happens all the time i’m forever at work having issues with people over my incorrect at that moment rational of others actions. I go into a complete irrationality and I justify things(my actions) at that time, that I would not at others when i’m stable.
I lost my job over the bird incident, my employer who is a bloody good bloke, once I had calmed down after a week or so explained, I am a good worker, no doubt about that, but he didn’t know what job there was for me with my issues. Bluntly these outbursts and constant time off with no predictability of them, is my issue amongst others, like working for a week with no sleep(well maybe a couple hours if i’m lucky a night)
I went back to winz. 2.5 years of trying a job. I didn’t give up, but I cannot keep saying it won’t happen again boss, when I damn well know it will. Anyways I got asked for my letter of resignation, he was kind enough not to sack me and he was right. It’s not my work it’s a Health and Safety issue.
They are making me suicidal seriously. It’s rude as hell. I got interviewed by Sue the Waikato decision maker for winz. Told by Bridget at Tokoroa Winz she makes the decisions on living support / medical certificates, but is not a Dr or anything.
Meet Sue she goes on for the whole meeting about how she’s a nurse and knows these things, raving on how much she new.. (lady ur a Nurse FFS and i’m a psychologist since I know a little about the subject). Well i’m fit for work, straight away. She’s going to prop me up on sleeping tablets and medications that will basically mong me out i’m therefore fit for some partime job I can attend whenever i’m feeling ok, that therefore means i’m fit for work as that’s possible if I don’t like it I have to go see a Winz Dr again she’ll give me a list of bought and paid for Dr’s that will follow her recommendation as we know it works she will also get winz to pay for a psychologist to treat me cure me and eventually i’ll be fit for work but at the moment I have an exemption for work, but i’m fit for work no supported living
I got a mortgage ya cheapskate winz bastards 271 comes in my account from winz, when auto payments go out I for 19 fkn dollars to feed myself on. IS that my lot for the rest of my life o
Failing to hear me at any point just talking over me, a nurse(or is she?) from Australia? WTF
I cannot take this much longer, that was the 9th, of feb, it’s 20th today never heard or received a letter as to outcome of meeting regards my medical cert and assessment for supported living payments application. Don’t I at least have the right to be informed? what the fuck is going on.
Seriously someone with clout, I need help bad, they are killing people. This constant questioning of integrity, knows better than me attitudes of what my issues are, belittling shit has to stop. How many of us are going to die from despair and suicide before it does?
Hi Richard, thanks for coming and sharing your story. I hope that some help can be offered here.
I’ve had a lot of personal experience with WINZ as an ill person. My main thought is that you need support to deal with WINZ, both in general but also in getting put back on Supported Living.
In the immediate term I would suggest finding a good benefit advocate. Try the bigger cities if you have to, they can work by phone (and email if you have access). They can phone you back so the call doesn’t cost you. If you aren’t able to phone them yourself initially, find a local agency who can pick up the cost of the call. Look at finding someone who you get on with and who gets your situation.
Benefit advocates can do things like chase up why WINZ haven’t contacted you and having them involved makes WINZ sit up and take more notice because ultimately the decisions they are making can end up before a judge.
If you can find someone locally who can also assist you as a support person, all the better. You’ve probably had all sorts of experiences with people in various parts of the system, so again, try and find someone you feel comfortable with.
Do you have a supportive GP? Are they on board with supporting you re WINZ (rather than supporting WINZ)?
Re WINZ, their staff are never qualified to be experts on medical issues, no matter what their background. Their job is to establish entitlements to payments based on external advice, and if you are looking for work, to help with that. They should never be involved in giving medical advice or making decisions based on their own interpretations of your medical needs. The only information they should be basing decisions on are what you and your medical people tell them.
If you can, always take someone with you to WINZ appointments. Refuse to talk with them on the phone, use email instead. Having a witness and a papertrail that you have at your end changes what happens.
IMO, what should be happening is that you should be on Supported Living and be allowed to work as an when you are well enough. That should be long term, without pressure to become independent. The system is capable of working with people with permanent disability, that’s what SLA is for.
Beyond all that, I think you have clear grounds for a complaint. I’m not suggesting that you do this, because you might be better off using your time to do things you enjoy or find other support for your health. But it can help to know that they are wrong in what they are doing.
Beneficiary Advocacy Groups,
Auckland http://www.bais.org.nz/
Wellington http://yellow.co.nz/y/wellington-benefit-rights-service
You could also try your local Citizens Advice Bureau (for who the local advocacy services are) or Community Law Centre.
Hey Richard, I have had trouble with anxiety in the past. I was also prescribed Fluoxetine, and it was good for improving my mood generally, although I did feel side affects like feeling really tired sometimes and I still had some depressive episodes.
To me it sounds like you know that work for you is not a goer right now, you could see a doctor that you trust and knows your history. I wouldnt think it would be much trouble for them to write you something saying that you are not fit for work and possibly won’t be long term.
I’m not a doctor or a professional, but I can suggest things that I think have helped me. What I think might have helped balancing out my mood was intensive exercise, like going out for for a 30 minute bike ride – riding almost as hard you can, or digging over the garden vigorously, going for a run where you do intermittent sprinting – the idea being to get yourself really puffed. Even better if you’ve got a type of exercise that you enjoy doing already, then you don’t mind going out and doing it even when you might be feeling down and not wanting to go out and do anything.
There’s also the concept of mindfulness (http://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/home/our-work/category/21/mindfulness), which could be useful, it’s one of those things that is easy to recommend and extremely hard to implement when you are actually in the moment though, and would take a lot of practice too.
I’m not sure if there are any mental health support groups in your area, it would probably help if you could meet with some others with bi-polar to share ideas, tips, and get support etc. But you can probably find an online group/forum which would be the next best thing.
It sounds like you have a good understanding of how your condition is effecting you and your life, and that is really good in my opinion. It means you’re more able to recognise and react and treat yourself as you notice yourself getting into an unhealthy frame of mind. So keep up the observations of how you feel and that should make life easier I reckon.
Hi Richard, I have a close family member who has mental problems so I can understand where you are coming from.
If I were you I think I would contact my local Member of Parliament immediately and DEMAND some help with your situation. If the MP won’t help then contact someone else (anyone) in the political sphere to see what they can do.
Hope this helps.
Good luck to you.
Can anyone help me find some graphs on long term party voting intention? I’ve tried google and it’s giving me flag referendum hits and some obscuring stuff.
I want something like the 4th chart in this link, only for preceding decades.
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6678-roy-morgan-new-zealand-voting-intention-february-2016-201602190455
With Christchurch’s inhabitants finally waking up to the fact that John Key and his trolls don’t give a shit about them I thought I’d repost this to show how much they are being shafted by this ugly lot!
Here is how John Key fattens his mates
Sadly way too much damage done or un repaired by the time they get a chance to dump them and real change takes hold about a year after the next GE.
NATS know how to cripple areas, tying the hands of the next govt into at least 2 election cycles of rectifying their wilful destruction. It’s been their MO from the get go.
Someone mentioned recently what we already know happens but don’t stress enough – that progressive policies introduced by NZ governments are likely to be dumped on a change of government.
And if one govt ties the hands of another to do anything about it within their term, then there can be no change at all. Labour gets in, then tends to upset enough people to get thrown out, or the Opposition sets up some strawman arguments that the people get obssessed about and then Labour’s out and what is left as a memorial by the time the National vandals tear down their, usually, good works?
Probably most of us have been wondering how Kiribati people are getting on since our government decided not to accept a request to be a climate refugee from one man who has been deported.
Radio nz did a piece on Kiribati recently.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201789691
Kiribati people getting ready for “migration with dignity”
People in Kiribati are upskilling and preparing for the time when they might have to move because of the effects of climate change.
From Dateline Pacific on 17 Feb 2016
This is something that a progressive NZ has been able to do in a country that wanted help and welcomed it. (Now he might have a chance to help here.)
He was in the Values Party by the way, not the National Party.
8:12 Ron Layton
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201790116/ron-layton-intellectual-property-in-africa
Ron Layton is an expatriate New Zealander who is the founder and CEO of LightYears IP, a board member of the African IP Trust, and a fellow of Ashoka, the largest worldwide network of social entrepreneurs. He is creating global mechanisms that provide poor producer businesses in developing countries with a full range of intellectual property tools that allow them to re-position for higher and more stable incomes.
MPs’ property loophole ‘stings taxpayers’
That’s significantly more than the average wage every years in subsidies.
Really, it’s time to end these rorts that the MPS keep giving themselves.
The politicians have themselves to blame: allowing the value of wages to decrease naturally builds resentment.
Personally I think they deserve fair wages and conditions like everyone else.
It’s tempting to suggest that their salary should be means-tested, to level the playing field, and why not just give them a percentage (250%?) of the median wage divided by the population percentage of children in poverty (plus one percent so that it can never become infinite) 😉
So do I. I don’t think that giving them near $80k per year to buy their own houses and rental properties is fair and it’s bloody expensive for the rest of us.
It would be a damn site cheaper and easier if the government simply owned a 100 room hotel in the capital that the MPs from outside of the capital could use when there. Empty rooms could be used by foreign dignitaries and government guests.
All that would cost us is rates of a few thousand and a couple of million per year for maintenance and personnel. Far less than what it’s costing us in paying these people to become rich while they add to both the housing shortage and rising house prices.
“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection”
Interesting video on why physiological addiction theories are wrong, and why environment is critical. I think some of it is a bit simplistic, but it’s a good graphic wway to get across that we’ve been looking in the wrong direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg (5 mins)
http://www.addiction.mobydigg.de/
I found this an interesting read in latest scientific America on how political symmetry corrupts science I suggest also answers some questions re constant attacks on Neo liberalism by the far left and academia, especially those in social sciences Well worth reading full article
2015 study by psychologist José Duarte, then at Arizona State University, and his colleagues in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, entitled “Political Diversity Will Improve Social Psychological Science,” found that 58 to 66 percent of social scientists are liberal and only 5 to 8 percent conservative and that there are eight Democrats for every Republican. The problem is most relevant to the study of areas “related to the political concerns of the Left—areas such as race, gender, stereotyping, environmentalism, power, and inequality.” The very things these students are protesting.
How does this political asymmetry corrupt social science? It begins with what subjects are studied and the descriptive language employed. Consider a 2003 paper by social psychologist John Jost, now at New York University, and his colleagues, entitled “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition.” Conservatives are described as having “uncertainty avoidance,” “needs for order, structure, and closure,” as well as “dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity,” as if these constitute a mental disease that leads to “resistance to change” and “endorsement of inequality.” Yet one could just as easily characterize liberals as suffering from a host of equally malfunctioning cognitive states: a lack of moral compass that leads to an inability to make clear ethical choices, a pathological fear of clarity that leads to indecisiveness, a naive belief that all people are equally talented, and a blind adherence in the teeth of contradictory evidence from behavior genetics that culture and environment exclusively determine one’s lot in life.
97% of peer-reviewed psychology papers confirm their hypotheses. 1% of psychology papers are attempts at replication.
Basically, treat all psychology with a bucket of salt. Or take Hodson & Busseri’s findings as read. Your call.
Kanai et al 2012 might interest you too.
Nah, you won’t like those results. Better set up a “think” tank to employ some academics who are just like lawyers.
Cheers OAB I think you are further evidence on the findings of this study, as are many standards contributors Note the study is even handed and indicates the bias can go the other way re conservative bias but surely even just on statistic and group think their is something to it if only 5 to 8pc of social scientist are considered conservative.
Breaking news! Lefties think lefty thoughts!
You are assuming that the majority of social scientists who are liberal do research from their bias. What evidence to you have for that?
Psychology is full to the brim with Lefties. Economics is full to the brim with Wingnuts.
Perhaps what’s really going on here is that strongly political people are attracted to fields that tolerate magical thinking.
Not being a social scientist, I can’t be further evidence.
Your cite is a Psychology paper – has anyone attempted to replicate its findings? You do understand my first paragraph above, eh.
If we’re going to treat your Psychology cite as accurate, then Hodson & Busseri deserves equal treatment.
Kanai et al, on the other hand, is a Biology paper, not Psychology, and hence carries far more weight.
I understood your first point albeit you write in riddles and not clear English, I am not sure why, I put it down to showing off. I just raised the article out of interest and not to go into indepth peer review and replication. The article has obviously pricked your reality bubble and got you thinking which is good 😊
You really aren’t getting it: a Psychology paper, attempting to
find a bias that Psychologists had been talking about for years, finds said bias and is instantly seized upon as evidence.
A dwindling and increasingly irrelevant field? Some say…
The funny thing is, if we listen to the drivel right wingers believe, NASA, the Otago School of Medicine, the Salvation Army, The Lancet, Nature, Marine Biology and the Problem Gambling Foundation are also hotbeds of Left-wing activism, and you’re whining about Psychology? Pfft.
All science has bias from what is chosen to study. It’s not necessarily a problem except where it is unacknowleged and where power structures prevent imbalance from being changed eg the amount of medicial research that is funded by big pharma and how this has led to a culture of lying about results. It’s hard to change because the power structure (neoliberalism) literally prevent other people from doing research (it’s more complicated than that).
If social science is biased towards liberalism because of more liberals doing the research, that’s a different thing than individual researchers having bias. You seem to be conflating the two and suggesting that the individual cited was biased and unscientific in their approach. Do you have any evidence of that?
No article was not picking on an individual, simply raised that specific research to contrast social cognitition as a scene setter re left and right I believe crux of article was as is the sum of the parts equal the whole, the whole equals the sum of the parts. The study simply opines due to to the lefts massive over representation in social science this results in social cognitive bias ( including in peer review) . Of course there will be individuals who may not be bias but on average the research is indicating the potential of such
Yawn. You’re at liberty to attack anyone’s findings any time you like, if you can pass peer review.
You may have difficulty with that in at least one respect: your list of the things Lefties believe (17) is pure projection.
You may also be asked to improve your spelling and grammar; perhaps you can find a sympathetic editor.
I note that the Right despises the social sciences, and academics in general. Couldn’t pass the exams, I guess.
more spin and revert to type, so boringly predictable
“No article was not picking on an individual”
I was saying that YOU are trying to make out that the numbers of social scientists being liberal means that individual scientists who are liberal are also biased in their work. Putting aside that there is bias in all science, I think your claim is meaningless unless you can demonstrate that indiviudal scientists are in capable of doing research that isn’t contaminated by their politics.
If your point is that more liberal social scientists means that more topics that are of interest to liberals is being done, that wouldn’t surprise me. But that’s a different thing than the research being corrupted by the individual
Duartes has a point that Reddullish has fixated on:
However, the link gives the game away:
So yeah, fraud, lack of replication, questionable practices…oh but the real problem is
the exams are too hard for Reddullish et ala lack of political diversity. Uh huh.Not sure what the term ‘social psychology’ refers to but it’s not equivalent to ‘social science’ right?
edit, your first draft without the ad hominem was better.
I think the entrance exam may well be an issue: not everyone is academically skilled, or capable of constructing a reasoned argument.
Social Science encompasses a range of fields:
Wikipedia.
All science has bias from what is chosen to study.
Generally, research is concentrated around areas of ignorance. Sometimes it results in the areas of ignorance shrinking.
Spinning now OAB, agree with your first point but surely bias is amplified if one pursuit of science is massively over represented by one dominant political school of thought
Reality has a Left wing bias.
You need to stop projecting and read my comments again. I’m not saying what you think I am. I’m saying that Psychology is almost completely munted: the majority of its findings are unreliable at best.
That includes this one.
Why do you care anyway: as I said, the right makes a virtue of despising science and academia. If wingnuts don’t want to study you only have yourselves to blame.
I choose to ignore the findings or rantings
of the church of Scientology as evidence
By the way OAB I suggest I may hold more degrees than you, albeit i have not majored in English re your bag of cut and paste put downs
We can all agree on that. What I don’t get is how you can’t understand that the Right’s relentless negative rhetoric about academia might deter right wingers from taking up research.
Well, if you could pass the entrance exams, that is.
PS: just because scientologists say Psychology is munted doesn’t mean it isn’t: your cite supports the view.
…cut and paste put downs.
Generally, research is concentrated around areas of ignorance. Sometimes it results in the areas of ignorance shrinking.
Where’s the put-down there? I said “sometimes” because quite often, in the hard sciences, further study debunks previous findings, thus increasing the unknowns.
I’m no more putting Psychology down than the research team you’re citing do in their own words, quoted at 17.2.1.2.1 above: fraud etc.
Lastly, I author my own put-downs, bud. Do you deny the vitriol aimed at academia from the Right? Do you challenge my assertion that it might put people off choosing study as a career?
PS: Someone with a handle like yours might think twice before calling the kettle black.
The abstract noun count is strong in this one.
Probably someone has already talked about this book looking at austerity.
This talk on Radionz this morning.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201790117
David Stuckler: health and austerity
10:10 AM. Professor of Political Economy and Sociology at Oxford University, where he researches how social policy and economic changes influence health across the globe, and co-author of –
The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills.
He is visiting New Zealand for the February lecture series
at the 20th Public Health Summer School,
run by the University of Otago, Wellington.
‘Unreasonable risk of fire’: Feds rule hoverboards unsafe
Yet more proof that things need to be properly tested and regulated before being allowed on the market.
Is that a toy?
Yeah, pretty much.
Yes. They’re one of the latest fads. Dunno why they call them hoverboards, they have wheels as well as this unfortunate tendency for some of them to spontaneously combust. Russell Crowe famously spat the dummy at Virgin Airlines when they refused to let him and his two sons take their Christmas prezzie hoverboards on an aircraft because sensible airlines were banning them as a potential fire risk.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/russell-crowe-launches-twitter-rant-at-virgin-australia-airline-after-being-stopped-boarding-flight-a6789391.html
The problem really seems to be the flood of cheap knock-offs on the market though.
more fodder for the landfill then.
Exploring Point Chevalier’s forgotten working class and left-wing history, with a busload of brilliant pensioners: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/cruising-point.html
Open Government Partnership report
More lies and disinformation from this government about what it’s doing.
Anyone know who the protest group is at the end of the pride parade on Ponsonby road? All I can see or hear is Fuck you…
The hairy iridescent bikers are more interesting…
Ok dug it out…
No Pride in Prisons to Protest Auckland Pride Parade
Queer and transgender prison abolitionist group No Pride in Prisons is holding a rally today at 5:30pm on the Karangahape Road Overbridge, in protest of the Auckland Pride Parade.
The rally follows the Auckland Pride Board’s decision to allow members of the police and the Department of Corrections to march in uniform in the parade.
“We are holding a counter-rally to take a public stand against the Auckland Pride Board’s decision to include violent, racist and transmisogynist institutions in its parade for the second year in a row,” says No Pride in Prisons spokesperson, Emilie Rākete.
“Given recent reports of racist police brutality and Corrections’ announcement to extend its ‘double-bunking’ policy, it is disgraceful that the Auckland Pride Board decided to include Corrections and police in the Pride Parade.”
“Corrections’ policies directly contribute to physical and sexual violence against trans and queer prisoners.”
Earlier this month, the Pride Board came out with its decision to allow Corrections officers to march in uniform as they did in 2015. This decision was made on the agreement that the Department of Corrections would take steps over the coming year to improve the policies affecting trans prisoners.
“To this date, the Department of Corrections has shown a blatant disregard for the treatment of all incarcerated people, especially queer and trans prisoners. The board should not have made this decision based on the Department’s vague promises for improvement.”
No Pride in Prisons believes that the effects of Corrections’ placement and double-bunking policies on queer and trans prisoners are perfectly clear.
“This year alone, No Pride in Prisons has heard from multiple transgender prisoners who have been either raped or brutally attacked while in Corrections’ custody.”
The group points to an incident late last year where a trans woman was raped after being placed in a cell overnight with a man. The group argues that this incident would not have taken place if not for the double-bunking policy.
“Corrections has introduced and massively expanded double-bunking policies despite advice that doing so would put prisoners at greater risk of physical and sexual assault. These policies have directly led to the rape of trans women and others,” says Rākete.
“Corrections has proven, time and time again, that it has no regard for the safety or bodily autonomy of inmates.”
According to No Pride in Prisons, the police have no better a track record. “A report released by the New Zealand Police in 2015 found that police officers use force against Māori at eight times the rate they do Pākehā,”[1] says Rākete.
“Last year, the New Zealand Police admitted to having an ‘unconscious bias’ against Māori.[2] While the police may call it a mere ‘bias’, these biases can be more accurately described as racism.”
“Māori currently make up about 51% of New Zealand’s prison population, despite being only 15% of the general population. This is because of the police decisions to apprehend and then charge Māori at a far higher rate than Pākehā for the same crimes.[3] What this proves is the police’s active role in perpetuating structural racism.”
“The participation of police and Corrections in the Pride Parade is a form of pinkwashing, using LGBTQI issues to mask their everyday violence and brutality, especially towards tangata whenua.”
“We encourage everyone who has been disappointed and angered by the Auckland Pride Board’s decisions to join us for the counter-rally.”
“The fact of the matter is that prisons and police are violent, racist institutions that have no place in any pride parade.”
+1
Human rights abusers belong at The Hague.
@Weka
This issue appers to be an example of our discussion 1.1.1.1.1. above
They need better signs to communicate the message..
Lyn asked, I researched
Amnesty, Pacifica…
This parade is Damnup big
Good to see Fran Wilde pop up for a few words. She pushed through the homosexual law reform in the late 80s.
The parade is finally up towards the end of the road.
Armed forces, universities, Westpac, coca cola, air nz, and of course a few corraled protesters after the police go through..
Churches, political parties including the Nats (passing in silence), Labour ( Andrew Little does a few words)…. ummm..
ANZ have amazing balloons. Greens. BNZ. Vegans. ASB. Sports – proud to play. St John’s ambulance. Fletcher building and Winstones
I am ambivalent about seeing Auckland towing at the end. Cleanup squad?
http://i.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/77096084/Fiji-warned-of-grievous-ordeal-as-category-five-Cyclone-Winston-bears-down
Spare thought for our neighbours tonight.
325 kph gusts.. poor buggers…what could survive that?
Cyclone Winston
Category 5 to hit Fiji
good grief.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htYqwXQBV9o&feature=youtu.be
Umberto Eco has died.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/20/italian-author-umberto-eco-dies-aged-84
stuff story 19/2/2016
Apartment owner blocked out of her unit in dispute with body corporate
MARIA SLADE
Last updated 14:22, February 19 2016
The Landings complex in Parnell, where owner Christine Rogerson says the body corporate is stopping her from entering her apartment.
Christine Rogerson was amazed to find a new wall and door blocking her out of her own apartment.
The owner of a seventh floor unit in The Landings complex in Auckland’s Parnell had been told she could have supervised access as the building underwent major weathertightness and other repairs.
But when she asked to retrieve personal belongings stored in a locked room, she was informed she would have to wait till the work was completed.
Then she discovered a temporary barricade had been built in the corridor outside her unit blocking her way.
“Because I’ve asked for access, they’ve denied it and I’ve said why. This is what they do.”
READ MORE:
* Deregulation non-compliance turns home into house of horrors
* Apartment owners face maintenance timebomb
“They” are the complex’s body corporate, an administration that owners say is non-communicative, inconsistent, and aggressive.
A door has been built in the corridor leading to Rogerson’s apartment blocking her access.
A door has been built in the corridor leading to Rogerson’s apartment blocking her access.
Rogerson said she was originally told the work would take a month. That has stretched to three months with no end in sight.
Owners of the 220 apartments paid an original repair levy of $8 million, then a second of $4m, she said.
“I reckon there’s going to be another $4m, but you won’t know that until the AGM. It’s likely that we’ll be hit with another $4m and they’ll give you 30 days to come up with (it).
The Home Owners and Buyers Association chair has big concerns about the law surrounding bodies corporate, chair John Gray says
The Home Owners and Buyers Association chair has big concerns about the law surrounding bodies corporate, chair John Gray says
“It’s a group of 10 people maximum controlling a group of 200 people,” Rogerson said.
Fellow owner Roberta Budvietas said she was told her apartment had to be empty by March to make way for the workmen. When her tenants unexpectedly left in October she let her grandson stay temporarily for a peppercorn rent.
“Now they’re telling me it’s November. So every week I have lost $200 in potential rent on that apartment, and I can’t actually kick the kids out now.”
The Landings owner Roberta Budvietas says information doesn’t flow from the body corporate.
Dysfunctional administration had added to the already considerable stress of the repairs, Budvietas said.
“We’re paying for all kinds of costs… and then the fact the information doesn’t flow well and questions aren’t answered.
“When you have a body corporate secretariat who tells you one set of things and you don’t know because you’re just ordinary people trying to do your best… there’s no real resource to go to.”
The Landings body corporate said the temporary wall had been put in place to comply with health and safety requirements, and a visit to the apartment could be arranged with the head contractor.
Delays in getting council consents and the discovery of additional repair work required had pushed back the finish date in some cases, and owners had been kept informed, it said.
The dispute comes as Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye conducts a campaign to assess whether rules around bodies corporate need to be changed.
She is holding a public meeting on Friday afternoon.
“I think if Auckland is going to have intensification, which we are and we need to… then we’ve got to have absolute confidence in the ownership and management structure of those dwellings.”
Some clear themes had emerged from the response to her campaign, she said:
– issues over long term maintenance plans, which every unit title complex must have, and transparency around them;
– body corporate managers versus property managers and their role, and whether it needs to be better regulated;
– whether the rules around bodies corporate and their committees likewise need to be tightened;
– access to up to date information and transparency.
Kaye says the Unit Titles Act was improved in 2010, but may need further enhancements.
However there was a balance between adequate regulation and not adding costs, she said.
“For example, if you did decide that there needs to be greater regulation around body corporate managers, then one, you might discourage people from taking that role, and two, you might add costs to that.”
But chairman of the Home Owners and Buyers Association, John Gray, is sceptical about Kaye’s efforts.
Hobanz has a host of concerns about the Unit Titles Act.
It was devoid of basic governance guidelines that other laws such as the Charities Act and the Companies Act contained, he said.
The only criteria for sitting on a body corporate committee was being an owner in the complex.
“You can have people who have been convicted of criminal conduct, bankrupted, and the sort, actually put themselves forward for election.” Gray said.
The organisation was also particularly concerned about long term maintenance plans, which were usually either inadequate or not in place at all.
On top of that bodies corporate could and did opt out of fully funding them, meaning future owners could be hit with massive repair bills, he said.
– Stuff.co.nz
Landlords lose thousands
Farmers face waterways fines video
Beer festival canned
Beetle saving farmers $44 million
“Nick Dearden, the director of Global Justice Now, said: “Despite the enormous public outcry over companies like Google and Amazon paying ridiculously small amounts of tax in the UK, the government is trying to sign us up to a trade deal that could effectively prevent us from bringing about laws that could address tax injustice.
“The ability to enact effective and fair tax systems to finance vital public services is one of the defining features of sovereignty. The fact that multinational companies would be able to challenge and undermine that under TTIP is testament to the terrifying extent of the corporate grab embedded in this toxic trade deal.”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/18/mps-can-view-ttip-files-but-take-only-pencil-and-paper-with-them
What a pigs muddle the government move to deregulation of builders has led us to. In some other countries, the government MPs concerned would be taken to Court and with luck, imprisoned or worse. Perhaps they should be stripped of their nationality and left stateless to go from place to place spreading their stealing and criminal activities around the world instead of finessing them here on we unlucky people.
I put up a case earlier in Open Mike where a woman owner was shut out of her apartment so it could be doctored, for increasing months with an end not shortly in sight. This article is much the same, and goes into compliance, refers to legislation and gives warnings for future home buyers, especially apartments, built between 1995 and 2005.
This from stuff.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/76513562/Deregulation-non-compliance-turns-home-into-house-of-horrors
He said he personally believes only about 15 per cent of the nation’s leaky buildings have been remediated.
Burrell said most non-compliance faults in leaky buildings come out of the blue for owners as they are hidden internally.
Burrell said better legislation, to allow for a higher level of due-diligence, would be one way to minimise and assess costs in leaky buildings.
“Under current legislation we cannot even remove one piece of cladding before the remedial work starts.
“If we had legislation that allowed us to look at what is lying internally then it would be a lot easier to determine any non-compliance issues,” Burrell said.
Levie said HOBANZ believes the the lack of financial assistance to cover the faults is going to become a significant financial burden on apartment owners in the coming years.
“It is significant as it is going to become difficult for owners to borrow against weather tight projects because of the risks that lie internally,” Levie said.
He said it will also become more common for weather tight remediation to only be carried out on apartments where the work justifies a gain in property value.
“The concern is that with areas further out of the city, where the work costs the same yet the values of the apartments are not there.
“Then there will be hesitation to have external work carried out because there could be internal non-compliance issues the will add to the cost,” Levie said.
Burrell believes the only other way the non-compliance costs could be funded is if the Government went back to its original plan of covering two-thirds of the leaky building remediation costs.
PETER MEECHAM / FAIRFAX NZ.
(Andi Burrell Remedial Specialist from Anoroc Remediation )
(Home Owners and Buyers Association (Hobanz) chief executive Roger Levie)
edited