There’s some rancour on the Left regarding support for the new flag. Some say it’s worth getting rid of the Butcher’s Apron so that the stain of British Colonialism is removed from our future. This they claim is a better alternative than the Weet-bix packet corporate logo flag that Key has schemed up.
I disagree.
Key’s Corporate Rugby flag represents the culmination of 30 years of neoliberalism. It represents a NZ whose creed is ‘me first’ where community has been reduced to the boundary line of the gated tribes we inhabit.
Poverty has soared in this country by a truly obscene amount…
Nearly one in three New Zealand children ‘living in poverty’
“Child poverty – it’s not choice.” That’s the message that outgoing Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills wants to spread through social media in a challenge to Government policy.His latest annual Child Poverty Monitor, out today, says children living in households earning below 60 per cent of the median household income after housing costs, have almost doubled from 15 per cent of all children in 1984 to 29 per cent last year. Children hospitalised with poverty-related illnesses more than doubled in the 1990s and have increased further in the recent recession.
“Everything points to things being far tougher than they were 30 years ago. That’s not right in a country like ours and it’s not fair,” said Dr Wills, whose five-year term as Children’s Commissioner ends in June. “Today I’m asking New Zealanders to show they share our concern by spreading the message #itsnotchoice.
If they visit our website they can take part in a selfie campaign and show that we’re all behind the need for things to change for our kids.”
Political scientist Dr Bryce Edwards said the message was “a beautiful contrast” with Prime Minister John Key’s claim in 2011 that “anyone on a benefit actually has a lifestyle choice”.
…those 305 000 children in poverty is what Key’s flag represents. The triumphalism of distraction Sport becoming our National symbol reduces our flag to a branding exercise, which hardly justifies removing the blood drenched stamp of Empire.
Our crowded houses: Barely enough to cover the rent
An alarming number of Auckland families are being forced to live together in one house so they can afford rent and living expenses, a leading budgeting adviser says.
It comes as an ASB analysis of the New Zealand housing market released to the Herald today reveals that Auckland has a disproportionate share of multiple families living under one roof.
These families crushed into more and more overcrowded housing as speculators grumble that their housing portfolios are a little light this year is what Key’s Corporate Rugby flag represents.
These shaky jagged Isles respond that it’s the parents fault, that the individual chooses success, that privilege should be worshipped not challenged.
Never mind the benefit is designed keep beneficiaries hungry, never mind the cycle of poverty we doom these people to, never mind the fact this nation was built upon the spine of egalitarianism and every day this Government for 7 years has managed to weaken it.
Never mind, I’d love to have a beer with John Key around the BBQ shrug the shaky jagged Isles.
The latest Herald Poll has National over 50% – that tells us that this sudden slow down in housing sales hasn’t started biting yet. Wait till the credit cards need to start being repaid February next year.
For some NZers, they have earned billions this year, for many they’ve kept their heads above water dreaming of earning millions while most have gone backwards and have become envious of welfare cheques.
There’s not much to salute in John Key’s Corporate Rugby Flag, but plenty to burn.
ahem..!..it’s ‘rancour’..
And 51% support for National; oh dear!
51 % still asleep and believing the propaganda and BS these corporate
owned gutless governments bow down to and are dictated to and owned by.
don’t worry..!..labour are currently like caterpillars gone into a cocoon..
..soon they will emerge as a fully functioning monarch butterfly…
..and will wow and dazzle us all..
Heh, more monarch agents than monarch butterflies among that lot…
And you two who discredit and put down the Labour party – do you think that the Natz are doing a better job? Think not – they are devastating this country with lies and corporate greed.
The sooner they are put out to pasture, the better for us all.
Agreed – if the flag does change, for me it will represent a NZ dying a slow death. In the land of ‘so called’ plenty, there should be enough to go around!
There is enough to go around. There’s always been enough to go around, everywhere. It’s just that some grasping, self-absorbed parasites don’t want to share.
wot wensleydale said..
It can only represent to you what you allow it to represent.
No flag represents me.
Totally agree young bomber beetle. This is a totally political issue and those taking the “new flag” tack have simply lost sight of this as well as their working class origins.
Choosing sweet little logo flags is exactly the sort of shit the middle class bourgeoisie do.
Who the fuck wants to identify with them…
Frankly the left is letting its hatred of Key get the better of them. Remove the butcher’s apron and achieve a small win in the process.
That’s right, Key is really sheet actually
I suppose that the money has already been spent to pay for both referendums. .. I just wish it were a dream and that all that money had actually been used to repair the years of removing funds from our social network of welfare, education and health systems…
AND the real biggie. . increase the minimum wage rate to a “LIVING WAGE” rate. That’ll help slow poverty and help the children get the basic needs again.
Make parents less stressed, which makes for a better childhood upbringing too ♡
Weren’t we promised by Douglas and his mates that wealth would trick down and lift the incomes of the lowest-paid?
Weren’t we promised a new era of raised living standards after the so-called reforms of the 1980s and 90s?
Weren’t we promised cheaper power prices through competition?
But evidently it’s the fault of the poor because they’re having kids.
Because only the rich should breed. That’s the new sub-text of attacks on the poor.
So true Neo Liberalism economic policy has been a con…
Sadly the “new normal” for most people in the now “neoliberal propaganda” infested, brainwashed society is the perception that there is no “real” child poverty in NZ. Guyon Espiner commented during his interview with the Children’s Commissioner, that we are rather talking about “inequality” than what many consider to be “poverty”:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201782848/child-poverty-doubles-in-30-years
(02.24 minutes into the audio)
Feedback at the end of that Morning Report hour confirmed yet again, that there is too little sympathy out there among most people, they seem to be successfully conditioned to think that the problem is mainly irresponsible parents not looking after their kids.
With all the divisions we have, with the endless drive to promote selfishness, dressed up as supposed “self responsibility”, with media focusing on all kinds of other “topics”, and with the “centre” of society too busy working and doing business to fulfill their expectations, that of a two car, bungalow or townhouse owning, “professional” or “self employed” median or better household earning income, we will get NO progress in this area!
Only true, honest systemic change will bring improvements, but that does not seem to be wanted and supported by most. Hence again, a strong left force is needed, left of the corpse of “Labour” (hardly “left” these days), to get enough votes in an election, to force Labour and Greens to commit to more social justice and a fairer system. All else will NOT bring improvements, I fear.
I hear and take note that Sue Bradford and AAAP are sick of endless reports and demand ACTION:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201782830/poverty-group-sick-of-endless-reports,-but-no-solutions
This is stuff reported on RNZ, it hardly gets the same emphasis or mention on other media, in this private enterprise driven, neoliberal, NATACT infested, increasingly selfish, hyper consumerist society, that will head right to the cliff, like a drunken fool knowing no risks and dangers.
+100%
Silly hyperbole
If you burn a Lockwood flag, is it an inFERNo?
If Key wanted a legacy for his political career, I can think of a dozen different things he could have focused his attention on.
I refuse to buy into his flag crap.
I am sure he is devastated
Exactly Martyn and thanks for that.
It does not shock us anymore the depths of greed and lack of integrity that this “out of touch” govt. will stoop. Corporate greed dictates and the Natz. are asleep and willing to serve their corporate masters. All those who still support Jonkey Donkey just shows how uneducated and asleep they are.
Disgraceful and thanks for highlighting it yet again. We have to keep up the exposing of these idiots and just hope that many more will hear and understand.
Who are these people that have children when they can’t even afford to feed them?
who are these idiots who think that life is a pre planned course with no deviations or unplanned events?
That’s why people need to save
Quite honestly, this whole topic is utter BS. The means of measuring poverty is faulty, the politics is toxic and the left is a disgrace for pandering for people who either can’t keep it in their pants or who produce children with the sole intention of using them to lever a benefit off the government.
You know the Left has lost its way when it panders to this category of person.
Wtf? Eons of procreation and all of a sudden the whole of New Zealand should listen to Andrew Boi? That’s a broad brush your using.
That’s the oldest trick in the book, divide and conquer. New Zealanders are angry and rightly so. A lot have lost well paying manufacturing jobs, forestry ect ect, then reemployed as a store clerk, when our best products get exported to Foriegn factories, them turned into good to resell back to New Zealanders. And what does Andrew say? He says look at the single digit statistical welfare queen?
Your bullshits is strong in you today my saan
SAM: NZ aren’t angry about their government – they voted solidly National, remember? This is the cognitive dissonance you face: It’s only you and your tiny cohort that are perpetually angry.
The only thing the general population have to be angry about is a tiny minority that live on the dole, bash their kids, burgle their houses and do drugs.
It’s a slow process but National are making progress in their area: Getting people off long term dole, tightening DPB rules and reducing the crime rate. This is real progress because it is addressing the root cause of the problem, rather than pandering to it, as the Left does.
Andrew? Welfare and the minimum wage were literally invented to keep people from instituting communist revolutions.
So if you take those away, guess what happens?
SAM: You’ve missed the point entirely. I’m not against welfare. In fact I was brought up by a single mum on welfare.
One problem is with the structure of welfare that allows young, physically able people to live on it indefinitely and thereby develop an antisocial lifestyle. Whilst we provide the welfare we need to be intensively ‘case managing’ these individuals to get them out of their rut of hopelessness. This may require some ‘tough love’ to get results.
The other problem is the DPB system which has funded the breeding of an underclass. DPB was originally introduced with good intentions but pretty soon it became a means to score money without working for it. So a subculture of ‘DPB mums’ developed whose aim was to maximise payments by producing unloved children for cash: Poor children destined to be bashed by thug ‘boy friends’. Go look at the cases that are reported in the media.
Sounding suspiciously like some sort of right wing eugenics programme advocation emerging here…
Dont know if we truly want that sort of attitude in this country…
My son and his partner are holding off having kids because they feel they’re not yet in a financially sound enough position to support them.
That’s what a sensible person would do.
The mind boggles at the utter stupidity of people who push out large families whilst on a minimum wage or even worse, the dole.
So sooner we stop funding this behaviour via welfare, the sooner we will fix our child abuse statistics.
What statistician Hans Rosling said is the countries with the best health care has the lowest birth rates, and that it is the highest quality healthcare that keeps birth rates low.
He also says denying people basic nessecities of life ie welfare, increases the birth.
He does pretty good talks about it, one is loving uploaded to Ted Talks
That’s statisticians for you!
This isn’t Finland
Funny how for decades it was the neo liberal right wing who said NZ needed a bigger population as a foil to push for policy’s for mass immigration – with the lie that it’ll bring greater business opportunity’s – yet the real reason was to be a source of cheap labour and keep wages down…
BUt all that goes out the window when poor people actually ‘breed’ now doesn’t it..
Yes…definitely seems like a case of eugenics going on here…
Definitely does…
All the new NZ NWO corporate logo flags ( the same ones they’ll use for ‘by NZ made’ branding) will all be made in China, in fact I bet they are on order already ,we have an illusion of democracy – the joke is on us
Until we’ve sorted out the most fundamental , basic and obvious things like economic well being for ALL in this country – a flag change should be the LAST thing on the minds of any self respecting ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE in parliament.
And if its not – they need to be CURTLY REMINDED over and over and over again if needs be of just who put them in that position of trust and power in the first place.
They ARE NOT there to grow fat and rich at OUR EXPENSE.
They are NOT THERE to redefine what democracy means for the rest of us.
They ARE NOT there to pander to the whims of any select group that involves their personal benefiting by indulging those whims.
They ARE NOT there to demonize any sector to advance their political careers.
They ARE NOT there to create hardship for any select group in order to justify cost cutting where that group was never the cause of the original issue caused by political incompetence.
They ARE NOT there to unilaterally make the decision to go to war before the rest of us have had time to debate the issue.
They ARE NOT there to sign trade agreements arbitrarily when a sizable proportion of the public is in dissent and demands more public input and disclosure of just what is being signed up for.
They ARE NOT there to manipulate our media to serve their own political self interests and practice propaganda techniques on the general populace to the exclusion of democratic debate.
They ARE NOT there to weaken wages and working conditions and/ or health and safety for any select group in a way that is designed to enrich others at the expense of that select group.
They ARE NOT there to foster foreign speculation TO THE ECONOMIC DISADVANTAGE OF THOSE WHO DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED THEM.
The list goes on and on and on…. and until these issues are sorted out first – this whole flag issue should never have been able to see the light of day in the first place.
Ever.
Brilliant Wild Kapito — and we could not agree more ! Really appreciate your writing and your being impeccable with your word. Thanks again.
Now we know why they called them “the filthy rich
All they do is rob from the poor and vanishing lower and middle class and take our hard earned tax dollars to stroke their ego.
this sounds familiar
Former CBS Reporter Exposes Media Lies, Internet Shills & Astroturfing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s__qs0cBek
How can you decry any spending that is not directed at kids in poverty, while advocating for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on refugees rather than our own vulnerable?
i didn’t realise it was/is an either/or…
While I did not vote for either flag (I have issues with both) I would think we’ll have a long time to wait until a perfect government comes along before we can afford a change. In attempting a sense of proportion to all this I recall that I never even noticed the old one if it dangled or fluttered anywhere. A new one will be produce in me the same indifference.
I’m not apathetic. I’m keen on human rights and a healthy wholesome society … but my heart is with the world rather than restricted to some tiny but proud corner that always seems to have to prove itself. I fully appreciate my life in Aotearoa … I just don’t think national flags do much for me. I want social evolution as a human species. Will flags help this?
The right wing neo liberals reckon flags help to pretty up coffins of soldiers sent back from war zones like Iraq.
Such pretty rows to get all pretend patriotic over.
Looks eye catching on wide flat screen TV’s and makes propaganda so much more effective in colour.
And folks really believe that voting for one flag over another is really going to make a difference. This is a massive tax payers con job and I bet the huge printing orders from China have already been made.
Meanwhile social services are insufficient and people ( children; elderly; disabled; vets; poor and homeless etc. ) still suffer who need proper and fair help from this government. But we sure needed a pay rise for these MP’s and our very own lying PM and we all know how much he needs a pay rise. A load of BS that this new flag should take precedence over human needs and doing our best for this country on all levels.
Greed abounds with this trainwreck of a govt. They think they are fooling the masses but we are slowly waking up and lets hope for some good and positive changes in the new year.
Clearly he’s just waiting on a deal with Sanitarium and addias, then our kids will be sweet as with black flavoured weetiebricks.
A case in point:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/75321909/mother-and-partner-jailed-for-beating-child
These are the people the left want to provide with more welfare???
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