MUST READ: Talking about 1080 & dispelling the ignorance of science
Taking a view on 1080 is almost guaranteed to cause disagreement with at least half your friends. Indeed, it seems nothing causes strange cleavages across the political spectrum, like talking about 1080. But the subject is like a spectre – and if we don’t talk about it fundamental disagreements will never get reconciled; and we let untruths continue, misunderstandings prevail, malintentions inform.
Read More →Game theory and NZ Coalition Politics : Agenda Setters, Co-operation, Triumph and Suckers
By applying Game theory, Nested games and the Prisoner’s Dilemma to current NZ politics, we can see that NZ First is playing the sharpest game; it’s triumphant in many policy and funding allocations. Meanwhile the Greens celebrate relatively small wins, with no real incentive to defect, playing the sucker in Labour and New Zealand First’s game.
Read More →Plastic pollution? (Almost) Business as Usual – why the plastic bag ban is barely a victory
with most policy announcements, the devil is in the detail. And though it might seem churlish, if you look closer, this is more a victory for public relations than it is for our environment. As usual, political measures are too little, too late, and not even what they seem.
Read More →MUST READ: On freedom of speech and racism most vile
The most significant injustice isn’t that some barely credible white supremacists travel the world vomiting diatribe, but that racial inequality still informs and shapes life outcomes marginalising ethnic groups here and in every nation on a daily basis.
Read More →Never mind the wagging tail, the system’s a dog
This week a range of environmental group representatives, fishing company agents, scientists, consultants and international experts gathered in Wellington to review the threats facing Maui and Hector’s dolphins. The meeting was organised by DoC and Fisheries NZ and participants had to agree to Terms of Reference which included a clause saying they wouldn’t talk to the media about the proceedings.
Read More →Plastic Pollution by Manufactured Consent
Supermarkets and retail outlets have moved an inch toward addressing the hundreds of millions of plastic bags usually in a one-way journey to the landfill, by phasing out single-use check out carry bags at various outlets.
But the pervasiveness of plastic in our lives and in the environment show both market failure, and government failure, to adequately deal with the forces of production creating pollution problems way bigger than free bags at the till.
Read More →Easy Foreign Investor Target Not Necessarily the Right One
The recent release of Statistics New Zealand figures showing the levels of foreign investment in New Zealand properties confirmed biases for many. I’m not a fan of globalisation, or investor capitalism, per se, but I do have an expectation that facts will inform policy and that liberal citizens and politicians will avoid racist dog whistles misleading attention away from real causes of inequality and injustice.
Read More →MUST READ: Why the Price of Oil is a Class Concern
Modern life has most of us over a barrel. An oil barrel. The price of oil is a fundamental force in shaping our quality of life and how much take home pay is left for other needs and wants. This has all hit home in the last few weeks as the price of fuel at the petrol pump has reached its highest ever.
Read More →The case against light rail
The Government’s announcements that they are to accelerate the procurement process for light rail to the airport and to the NorthWest including Kumeu, had some pundits and young transport enthusiasts breathless with excitement.
Read More →Western Economic and Military Groupthink on Parade This Week
So while leaders from European superpowers, Five Eyes nations and the Commonwealth parade, in self-congratulatory back slapping and hand shaking in front of the cameras, they engage in lock step and group think, marching as one over firing missiles at Syria that are actually aimed at Russia, in a real battle for supremacy of the ‘There is No Alternative’ approach to economic management, monetary policy, growth, trade and the neo-liberal agenda.
Read More →MUST READ: Russian Spy Drama Symptom of and Distraction From Bigger Geopolitical Play
I prefer to live in a country that makes its international relations decisions based on firm, independent evidence rather than speculation. Let’s not forget the rush to war based on allegations of Weapons of Mass Destruction. It doesn’t have to be ‘you’re either with us or you’re against us’, it can be a case of wait and see – at least until Wednesday when the UN Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons releases its report into the incident.
Read More →What price is dolphin protection? Election donations? Conflicts of Interest?
In 2016, Stuart Nash proposed a ten-year moratorium on commercial fishing within waters 50m deep. He said the video monitoring programme needed to be rolled out more quickly, that the (National) government wasn’t doing enough. By 2017 after the formation of the Labour – New Zealand First coalition government, he has suggested doing away with electronic monitoring altogether and has proposed nothing credible or timely in its place.
Read More →Without even small environmental wins, justice is a distant dream
As the ‘left’ moves to the centre, I find myself on the further margins of the spectrum. Here I am, left of Labour and greener than the Greens, looking for everyday solutions as well as system level change to solve the problems of our era. I can’t see how incremental and conservative capitalist prescriptions can ever be the remedy for environmental collapse, economic inequality or social exclusion at their present scale.
Read More →Overseas banking villains suck New Zealanders’ wealth offshore
The ANZ is our biggest bank, with around one million Kiwi customers and 31.3% of the market. The ANZ lending business is worth about $72.35 billion, with net loans worth $117.24 billion. That reflects staggering wealth to have in the hands and at the mercy of overseas banks.
Read More →Primates, politics, the Princess and the PM
Despite the Prime Minister’s pregnancy, this government represents a modified status quo and change will be incremental and conservative (note the debate and votes on medicinal marijuana), and in many instances Labour will be more aligned with National than the Greens.
Read More →Don Brash’s attitudes a relic of colonialism
Don Brash also overlooked the historical and contemporary diversity, and complexity of New Zealand, saying ‘New Zealand values are British values’, and that a lot of socio-economic deprivation among Maori is because they ‘don’t speak English properly’.
Read More →-
Advertise here - contact us now - tdbadvertising@gmail.com -
-
-
-
- Advertise here - contact us now - tdbadvertising@gmail.com
NZ Union Directory
- Advertise here – contact us now – tdbadvertising@gmail.com