Someone Else’s Country

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 30th, 2009 - 11 comments
Categories: history, Media - Tags: , , , ,

As the same old faces of the Right roll out the same old failed neoliberal ideas in new packaging, it’s a useful time to rewatch Alister Barry’s fantastic documentaries on what happened the last time round. In many cases even the faces haven’t changed.

Someone Else’s Country examines the devastating effects of the neoliberal revolution on New Zealanders as a privileged few plundered our common wealth. NZ on Screen has just put the whole documentary online. Appropriate timing.

Alister Barry’s excellent follow-up, In a Land of Plenty, is available at NZ on Screen too.

11 comments on “Someone Else’s Country ”

  1. vto 1

    yes well you see this is the problem with debating something like all of this. There were indeed a few who did some plundering eg. Fay and Richwhite imo. However that was a problem in structuring some things that happenned – they were not carried out as well as they could have been. But that doesnt mean the central idea is not correct or worthy.

    • Pascal's bookie 1.1

      heh. I’ve heard similar things about the USSR. And apparently GWB wasn’t a proper conservative, etc.

  2. Thanks for that one. Always keen to learn more about NZ politics and it’s history.

  3. Adam Jarvis 3

    Great video, thanks for posting.

    Well worth watching.

  4. Cameron 4

    Great video. Everybody should watch it!

  5. Rex Widerstrom 5

    Excellent, thanks for the heads-up. Now if only someone had an archive of the 1992 ABC “Four Corners” program, covering much the same topic.

    In it Winston Peters alleged, amongst other things, that MPs had been taking bribes. A reminder of the furore can be found in the Hansard of his personal explanation.

    While some of what Winston said – notably in relation to Selwyn Cushing – was later found to be incorrect, there are still a great many issues rasied in that program by him and by others as to the actions of Michael Fay, David Richwhite and others that have never been adequately answered.

    I once had a copy, which I played to public meetings (TVNZ having refused to air the show) but I lost it over the years.

    Australia appears not to have a version of NZ on Screen, with broadcasters pretty much left to their own devices with regards to decisions on the preservation of programs. Let’s hope the ABC has that one, and will release it one day.

  6. If you like this you will probably also enjoy the excellent 1996 series Revolution.

    Unfortunately not available to embed, you can watch all 4 parts on NZ on Screen here: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/revolution-1996/series

  7. 350ppm 7

    Last week was the 40th anniversary of the election in which Roger Douglas was first elected to the NZ Parliament. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Douglas
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NZ_Elections

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