TPPA: From a Market Economy to a Market Society

By supporting the TPPA, NZ First, the Labour and the National party all said yes to protecting investors’ rights over and above the interests of an ordinary citizen.
Read More →Simon Bridges likely to treat Māori the way John Key treated state house tenants

I think having a Maori political leader is a very positive and hopeful step only if that leader uses his position and influence to dispel destructive stereotypes about Māori – not perpetuate them.
Read More →Iran unrests: why I remain skeptical

Like me, many other Iranians participated in the 1979 revolution without fully understanding the endgame or the nature of the forces that propelled it forward. The result of that blind participation was that people’s dream of a secular democracy turned into an oppressive theological nightmare.
Read More →An open letter to Lorde

Dear Lorde, your decision will make a difference. Please stand on the side of justice.
In the wise words of Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situation of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”.
Read More →Why Trump’s misnaming of the Persian Gulf has angered Iranians

It was not the decision to decertify the Iran’s nuclear deal that has left most ordinary Iranians incensed but the US President’s misnaming of the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf. Many Iranians have taken to the social media to express their rage and disappointment at the President’s failure to refer to the Persian Gulf by its proper name.
Read More →Gareth Morgan’s TOP: My Hopes and Doubts

Although I remain interested in TOP’s policies and hopeful about their prospects in the upcoming general election, I am not without my doubts.
Read More →Child Poverty: Facebook Post Shows The Nats Don’t Care

Maybe, the real problem is that privileged Young Nats have bought into the myth of meritocracy, believing that they own their successes and, by extension, the poor should own their failures.
This cruel point of view completely disregards the cognitive ability and the circumstances that people are born into and the fact that most children born poor will remain poor and most people born rich will remain rich.
Read More →Squatting statute of the Environment Minister Nick Smith is protest art at its best

Seven years on, Environment Canterbury (Ecan) is yet to return to full democracy but surely its chief executive Bill Bayfield can at least pretend democracy matters by not rejecting an artistic expression of a legitimate protest.
Read More →White Wednesdays: an emerging resistance of Iranian women against the compulsory hijab

A new campaign designed to challenge the compulsory hijab law in Iran is encouraging women to show their support by wearing white headscarves in public every Wednesday.
Read More →Iran’s democracy is a sham but here is why I voted in the Presidential Election

My friend and I cast our votes for the Iranian Presidential Election in Christchurch last Friday knowing full well the election was effectively rigged in advance by unelected clerics who had decided who could and couldn’t run.
Read More →Commission gets it right by declining NZME/Fairfax merger

This week New Zealand Commerce Commission released its final decision to refuse the proposed merger of two of the countries biggest newspaper networks: NZME and Fairfax. This is a decision worth celebrating, as the proposed merger would have seriously weakened an already diluted quality of news and diversity of voices in New Zealand media.
Read More →How to sabotage bad politicking

Appealing to the voters’ emotions, rather than their heads, is exactly what is wrong with politics today. Just think John Key, Brexit and Trump!
Good politicking is about demonstrating, clearly, how policies are actually going to make meaningful differences to the citizens’ wellbeing.
Read More →In defence of Gareth Morgan’s TOP – a response to Chris Trotter

I think TOP is worth paying attention to and here are my main reasons:
Read More →Gareth Morgan’s three-word response to why people should support his policies

Gareth Morgan’s knees are hurting. I can tell because he keeps bending down to rub them- and it is no wonder, he has been on his feet since 4pm and it is close to 9pm before he gets a chance to sit down and sink his teeth into a burger at Christchurch’s Smash Palace. Morgan is here as part of a roadshow to win hearts and minds- well maybe just minds, as he does not seem to do the hearts bit very well.
Read More →5 things to take away from Marama Davidson’s remarkable journey on Women’s boat to Gaza

On Monday night, clad in a traditional Palestinian dress, which was presented to her by a Palestinian woman, Green MP Marama Davidson addressed a packed audience at Workers’ Educational Association in Christchurch.
Read More →Why isn’t there a graduation ceremony for mothers?

Surely the huge achievement that is raising a child deserves the same acknowledgement afforded to university graduates.
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