Guest and sponsored opinion pieces published on The Daily Blog, offering diverse perspectives within clear editorial guidelines.
It is not acceptable that hard working Kiwis must face violence and abuse at work and it is not acceptable that our youth are so lost they think smashing up shops for no more than a couple of bucks is a good idea.
Lower Hutt, and especially Petone, has had some of the purest aquifer water anywhere in the world and people came from many miles around to fill their bottles at a communal tap. All that has disappeared, in an instant, as it were, and it doesn’t look as if we are ever going to get our pure water supply back. Clearly there are a lot of angry and upset people who are no longer able to access pure water, free of chemicals, for their families.
Some of the ridiculous things claimed by the mainstream media last week over the Labour’s Party list was really disappointing and reminded me how voters need to always be wary of media personalities more interested in putting their so called ‘style’ into the story rather than sticking to the facts.
TV3 Political Editor Paddy Gower is one such media personality.
Branding is important. If this is the way the world works, then we should do our best to be the better for it. The bill put forward by Browning would work only in our favour – New Zealand companies, and even individuals who enter the market, would find their products proudly displayed with a “New Zealand” label.
Bravo Rachel Stewart for taking on the ‘sour Old Men’. It is true that a few ‘grown-up boys’ chose to lecture her in public. That is their problem. Not that I mind being a sour old man. What I am sour about is not the end of ‘democracy’ but the general ignorance about ‘democracy’. That is not confined to any particular gender or generations, but to all those in thrall of what passes for democracy in capitalist society.
Ja Rule’s attempt at a luxury festival: Fyre Festival, in the Bahamas recently turned into total chaos as struggling locals turned on the partiers. The festival goers, who paid between 7 to 17k for a ticket to the festival, were mugged at gun point, sometimes by security guards at the festival. The inequalities of the Bahamas have reached the point where public safety is at risk. Only last year there was coverage highlighting the dangerous levels of inequality in the Bahamas and how poverty rates had increased in all age categories.
In the past few weeks, we have been in touch with a close friend who lives in Berlin, having moved there from New Zealand several years ago.
Deliberately sabotaging the rail corridor to Auckland International Airport is one of the most irresponsible acts I have witnessed during my time in local government.
April 17 was the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners. Some 1500 detained Palestinians began a hunger strike on that day, with the aim of calling the world’s attention to Israel’s illegal system of mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
I find it difficult to not be frustrated, disappointed and a little angry every year when ANZAC Day comes along.
It’s not just the anguish of losing tens of thousands of our best and brightest in historic conflicts or the pain of the families they left behind or the damage these wars caused our communities and wider society.
It’s the way our Government treated so many Maori when they returned from war that still makes me angry all these many years later.