The Salvation Army’s Latest Report: Identifying the Sins – but not the Solutions

By Chris Trotter

THE LATEST “State of Our Communities” report from the Salvation Army exposes a worrying fragility in New Zealand’s social relationships. Behind the happy multicultural façade so beloved of politicians and bureaucrats, racial animosities fester and tensions between competing ethnic communities multiply.

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Christmas Contributions Drive

Brothers and sisters, Comrades, it’s that time of year again when we pass the hat around so we can pay the bills over summer and buy beloved ones a tiny Christmas gift – if you want to support independent blogs who have done so much to counter the right wing bias of the mainstream media, then we need your support.

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Throwing my weight around

By Vanessa Kururangi

I am a poet/creative writer. I don’t claim to know facts or statistics. This piece is offered purely as a creative response to recent (and historic) events, speaking to how women and girls are forced to navigate the World throughout their lives.

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Soaring rents, skyrocketing suicide rates, environmental scientists too frightened to talk and 100 000 hungry children – Merry Christmas NZ

We have lost perspective on what actually matters in this country. It’s partly a current affairs and news environment more focused on petty gotchas and infotainment, it’s partly a smug conceit by the Left who have ignored those issues because Labour is in Power.

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How badly beaten down have we become by drug prohibition? When we are offered crumbs we cheer

…giving Police discretion to prosecute drug users is not a solution and will result in racist outcomes, which is what we have now – but by all means, cheer like this is meaningful.

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National’s disgusting and despicable fear mongering over medicinal cannabis

The only thing worse than the Greens celebrating this pathetic nothing is National trying to manufacture monsters that simply don’t exist.

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Of all the people to attack, Richie Hardcore isn’t one of them!

…this story is such horse shit! If there are any questions to answer it’s from Simon Bridges and the National Party member who is in a relationship with Sroubek’s former partner…

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Medicinal Cannabis Bill set to pass Parliament; patients celebrate ambivalently

By Chris Fowlie

“A lot of us also have mixed feelings at the moment. New Zealand is catching up with the rest of the world, but this new law has only delivered part of what we hoped for,”

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Waatea News Column: ‘How Santa Parades became a flash point for racism’

I’ve always felt, as a Pakeha, that just below the surface of the civility of New Zealand culture, there bubbles something pretty bitter in the soul of many white Kiwis.

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TWITTER WATCH: Politicising a death

Everyone seems to want to twist the tragic death of this young visitor to our shores into their own ideological frame work.

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The horror of Antarctica meltdown

While our political leaders are numbed into inaction by business interests who gain the most from climate change pollution, the one place climate deniers always pointed at to claim global warming wasn’t really happening, is in meltdown…

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I was wrong about Judith Collins – what the latest leak really says about the factions inside National

TDB understands there are 3 factions inside National, Faction Simon Bridges, Faction Judith Collins and a third faction. It is this third faction who are leaking in an attempt to destabilise Bridges to take power for themselves.

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A new political movement: Let’s just be honest – real climate change will require a political, social & economic revolution

Climate change and its impacts are far more dangerous than currently acknowledged and only a radical populist response can unseat the vested corporate interests that create the current political and economic inertia. As more and more climate events occur at faster and faster rates, voters will turn on the current hegemony, the question is who will harvest that anger and fear, the Left or the Right?

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Setting The Agenda View All →

The Salvation Army’s Latest Report: Identifying the Sins – but not the Solutions

By Chris Trotter 16 hours ago

THE LATEST “State of Our Communities” report from the Salvation Army exposes a worrying fragility in New Zealand’s social relationships. Behind the happy multicultural façade so beloved of politicians and bureaucrats, racial animosities fester and tensions between competing ethnic communities multiply.

By Curwen Ares Rolinson 4 days ago

The 10th of December marks the 70th Anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. It’s a pretty interesting document – not least because, if you peruse its contents, it contains an array of “rights” that have largely fallen by the wayside here in modern, neoliberal society.

By Chris Fowlie 4 days ago

“A lot of us also have mixed feelings at the moment. New Zealand is catching up with the rest of the world, but this new law has only delivered part of what we hoped for,”

By Chris Trotter 4 days ago

It is the privilege of artists to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable. Which is exactly what so many of them are doing in response to the deepening crisis of anthropogenic global warming.

By The Daily Blog 5 days ago

It’s not often I agree with the National Party on mental health issues, but the announcement late last week by Police Minister Stuart Nash that extra training for police recruits in mental health issues had been scrapped, had me searching for my blue cardigan for the first time in many years.

By John Minto 5 days ago

The restructuring of state education proposed by the government working group led by Bali Haque, feels like a fresh breath of spring air after 30 years in the dark ages of Tomorrow’s Schools.

By The Daily Blog 5 days ago

Exactly 30 years ago, a taskforce headed by a supermarket magnate, and urged on by an ideological Treasury and rampantly privatising Labour Government, came up with a report on schooling that led to the Tomorrow’s Schools reports.

By John Minto 6 days ago

Yesterday the Fiji Times reported Prime Minister Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama attended a memorial service at Qana in Southern Lebanon to remember the Fijian soldiers who died as part of United Nations peace keeping missions in Southern Lebanon.

Well, well, well – Kim Dotcom was right – here is the mass surveillance

By Martyn Bradbury 9 hours ago

Are you feeling safe yet sleepy hobbits?

By Martyn Bradbury 16 hours ago

…giving Police discretion to prosecute drug users is not a solution and will result in racist outcomes, which is what we have now – but by all means, cheer like this is meaningful.

By Martyn Bradbury 16 hours ago

We have lost perspective on what actually matters in this country. It’s partly a current affairs and news environment more focused on petty gotchas and infotainment, it’s partly a smug conceit by the Left who have ignored those issues because Labour is in Power.

By Martyn Bradbury 2 days ago

…this story is such horse shit! If there are any questions to answer it’s from Simon Bridges and the National Party member who is in a relationship with Sroubek’s former partner…

By Martyn Bradbury 2 days ago

While our political leaders are numbed into inaction by business interests who gain the most from climate change pollution, the one place climate deniers always pointed at to claim global warming wasn’t really happening, is in meltdown…

By Martyn Bradbury 3 days ago

The only thing worse than the Greens celebrating this pathetic nothing is National trying to manufacture monsters that simply don’t exist.

By Martyn Bradbury 4 days ago

Jacinda’s apology captured all that guilt and shame and articulated it in a way that was raw and human, we are blessed to have her.

By Martyn Bradbury 4 days ago

…poor old Simon, he can’t stop leaks in his party and he can’t catch a break from the Polls.

Waatea News Column: ‘How Santa Parades became a flash point for racism’

By Martyn Bradbury 2 days ago

I’ve always felt, as a Pakeha, that just below the surface of the civility of New Zealand culture, there bubbles something pretty bitter in the soul of many white Kiwis.

By Martyn Bradbury 3 days ago

Everyone seems to want to twist the tragic death of this young visitor to our shores into their own ideological frame work.

By Martyn Bradbury 6 days ago

…the irony is that if anyone approached the employers of the Wellington Twitteratti and complained about their online bullying they would scream all day about being doxed.

By The Daily Blog 1 week ago

The 2018 JMAD New Zealand media ownership report finds that the New Zealand print newspaper market has shrunk considerably. The combined circulation of the four largest newspapers plus 15 regional ones declined almost nine percent from September 2017 to September 2018. Since 2012, circulation of the NZ Herald has dropped 36 percent.

By Martyn Bradbury 2 weeks ago

A very compelling and well argued piece from Rachel Stewart in relation to the anger the trans argument manages to spark off.

By Martyn Bradbury 3 weeks ago

The group behind the expulsion of the Police at Pride have some interesting ideas on crime and punishment that are worth investigating, but their position on child rapists is, how do I say this politely, well, ummmm, ‘interesting’…

By Martyn Bradbury 3 weeks ago

Smearing Facebook critics as linked to Soros and hating Jews is charming but if anyone else had pulled a stunt like this, they would be gone, Facebook somehow manages to remain untouched.

By Martyn Bradbury 3 weeks ago

Pride has come before a fall.

MUST READ GUEST BLOG: Vanessa Kururangi – Throwing my weight around

By The Daily Blog 3 days ago

I am a poet/creative writer. I don’t claim to know facts or statistics. This piece is offered purely as a creative response to recent (and historic) events, speaking to how women and girls are forced to navigate the World throughout their lives.

By The Daily Blog 3 days ago

Yes, the tour had a profound effect on my life.

Initially I couldn’t give damn about the Tour. I had better things to than traipse around the country looking after rugby players

But defeat of the police at Hamilton was a humiliation felt by the police and I was no exception. I wanted revenge. Therefore, I wanted the Tour to continue so the police could redeem.

By The Daily Blog 4 days ago

“Well, actually…I like children!”

This is the response African-American novelist and poet Alice Walker gave when she was asked why she wanted to go to Gaza.

By The Daily Blog 5 days ago

To be honest, I haven’t seen such hateful commentary by ordinary Kiwis in a long time, and that deeply concerns me as a New Zealander more than it does as a Māori because we have to find ways to accept one another and live together in this country.

By The Daily Blog 7 days ago

Teachers and our kids deserve better. Next to being a parent, teaching is the toughest and most undervalued societal role. Teachers deserve more. They nurture the mind’s which become our nations future.

By The Daily Blog 1 week ago

I’ve attached an article below. It’s American and a bit dated but it rings true in this country TODAY. Read it and you’ll understand how Serco and our own government have screwed us. Then join us in the MARCH ON PARLIAMENT 1PM 6 DEC 2018 to ask the question …

By The Daily Blog 1 week ago

Have been asked a lot lately about how this Office was set up. So have written background piece –
This Office was set up as a result of the experiences of Tā Mark Solomon and Dame Tariana with climate change on their iwi.

By The Daily Blog 1 week ago

It didn’t get much coverage on our TV News but an estimated 15,000 Aussie students staged a school strike last Friday to tell their politicians they had to do a lot more about Climate Change.

The Liberal Agenda – RIP Geoff Murphy – you taught me everything about being a Pakeha New Zealander

By Martyn Bradbury 1 week ago

With Goodbye Pork Pie, Sleeping Dogs, Utu & The Quiet Earth, Geoff Murphy taught me what it was to be a Pakeha New Zealander.

By The Liberal Agenda 2 weeks ago

WHAT: Water Protest

WHERE: Cathedral Square, Christchurch

WHEN: Saturday at 12 PM – 2 PM

By Martyn Bradbury 4 weeks ago

Michael Moore is one of our generations great American documentary makers. Academy Award winning Fahrenheit 9/11 remains one of the top grossing docos of all time so when one of the first pundits to predict Trump would win makes a new documentary on why Trump won, it becomes necessary viewing for anyone who cares about American politics.

By Martyn Bradbury 4 weeks ago

I was waiting for Actors Equity to condemn Pop Up Globe as heteronormative patriarchal sexual symbolism and demand the entire franchise be renamed Shakespeare Strap-On.

By Martyn Bradbury 4 weeks ago

The brutal and illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine should be denounced every possible chance we are given, and in a NZ music scene devoid of politics and focused on the vapid, Upper Hutt Posse reminded us, as Lorde did, that music can be far more powerful when its critical.

By The Daily Blog 1 month ago

Alex Pirie has recently been diagnosed with advanced cancer. He is starting chemotherapy to prolong life. He would like to have the opportunity to spend time with his wife, friends and tick off his bucket list. Alex is an incredible mentor and is incredibly deserving.

By The Liberal Agenda 1 month ago

We have a new Minister of Broadcasting, Media and Digital Communications but what’s he going to choose – RNZ+, TVNZ, combine it all together or just push everything online?

By The Liberal Agenda 2 months ago

A bittersweet tribute to the World’s smallest dolphin will be held at Muriwai Beach this Saturday 27 October at 2pm. Māui and Hector’s dolphins are only found in New Zealand – they’re one of the rarest dolphins in the world and they’re probably found at a beach near you. Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders NZ […]