US-Saudi-Israeli State Sponsors Of Errorism Against Iran

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  April 11, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  3 Comments

I’m pretty sure that if *anybody’s* guilty of the whole aiding and abetting “terrorism as a tool of statecraft”, and generally being a “state sponsor of terror”, it’d be the Americans.

On Bolsonaro’s Ahistorical Naziism

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  April 11, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  2 Comments

Several days ago, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made headlines for his visit to a Holocaust memorial in Israel. Not so much for the visit itself, of course – it’s the sort of thing that is almost de rigueur for newly minted world leaders heading to that particular country on political pilgrimages. But rather, for his ensuing statement upon exiting the remembrance center, about those archetypal villains of the narrative of the 20th Century, the Nazis. Namely, that they were of the “left”. 

From ‘End Of History’ To ‘End Of Democracy’ – Why Fukuyama Et Co Now Like China

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  April 3, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  10 Comments

In the past week, comments have surfaced from Francis Fukuyama – aka the man who propheceyed that the perceived ascendency of ‘liberalism’ in the late 80s and early 90s meant history was now ‘over’ – claiming Chinese system is a “real alternative” to ‘Western democracy’  

On The National Party’s “Emotional” Indecision As To Migration Pact Petition In The Wake Of Christchurch

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 20, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  10 Comments

Yet someone in National was plainly aware that the ‘optics’ of the matter … were not going to look particularly good, in the blood-tinged aftermath of our worst-ever terrorist attack. And so – whether motivated by a sense of compassion (or, as Bridges put it today, the result of being both “emotional” and possibly also “junior”), or simply a desire to limit the potential finger-pointing post-facto from a PR perspective … somebody chose to remove the petition from public view.

Will NZ Also Initiate Legal Action Against Turkish Politicization Of Christchurch Footage?

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 20, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  4 Comments

According to yesterday’s Herald, Turkish President Erdogan, is using footage of Friday’s atrocity as part of his party’s ads for a currently occurring suite of elections being held in Turkey…

Christchurch Terror Attack – “God Defend Our Free Land” – For Us, The World Has Gotten A Little Bit Darker

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 16, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  7 Comments

We can but hope that those fundamentally, quintessentially Kiwi characteristics of an inexorable resiliency of spirit and cast-iron commitment to community, mean that at least here – here of all places, in what should otherwise be (but sadly, often isn’t), “the best of all possible worlds” – “the lights” may be dimmed somewhat … but that they do not , *cannot* , go out in perpetuity.

Why Raymond Huo Wants Prof Brady Blocked From Speaking To His Select Committee

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 8, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  6 Comments

Placing Huo in charge of what has turned into the effort to track, monitor, and where possible, to *counter* PRC malfeasance within our polity – is not entirely unakin to asking a mosquito to go off and find the cure for malaria. 

India And Iran – United In Struggle ‘Gainst Perfidious Pakistan?

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 5, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  2 Comments

For some time now, I have been writing upon the strong viability of Indian-Iranian geopolitical co-operation; particularly in light of shared security concerns, and a most unfavourable ‘short schrift’ from the Americans meted out towards both on matters economic. 

Subtlety Is Not Jordan Williams’ Strongpoint…

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  February 26, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  5 Comments

But thanks to Williams’ screeching abrasive would-be prognostication … if it keeps up, there is a very real risk that the only ‘entrails’ being read, will be those of the Tamihere campaign.

The Increasing Absurdity Of “White Supremacy” Allegation-By-Association Attacks In US Politics

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  February 14, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  2 Comments

So earlier this week I happened across a headline: DAVID DUKE ENDORSES ILHAN OMAR, or words to that effect.

Now, for those unaware, David Duke is a rather well-known figure due to his previous infamy in association with the KKK. 

On “Facing Up” To The “Whole History” Of NZ Pre-1840

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  February 7, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  5 Comments

I see Don Brash was quoted in yesterday’s Herald calling for broader education about New Zealand history, and in particular history here prior to 1840. This .. was somewhat unexpected, but the next few lines gradually made clear what he was on about:

On Venezuela And Judith Collins’ Sudden Inexplicable Enthusiasm for Democracy

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  February 5, 2019  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  8 Comments

There are a few things to be said about this attack-line from the National Party’s Judith Collins. One of which, is that Collins either doesn’t know, or more likely simply doesn’t care about the facts of the situation. Juan Guaido did not contest the 2018 Venezuelan Presidential Election. It is therefore impossible to truthfully call him the “rightful winner” of said Election.