Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
FOR THOSE WHO THINK Labour and the Greens are being too cautious, economically-speaking, I have only one word: “Venezuela”. Andrew Little may not resemble Hugo Chavez in the slightest. Nor are Labour and the Greens, by any stretch of the imagination, Bolivarian revolutionaries. But, to hear the Right tell the story, New Zealanders are being courted by dangerously left-wing political parties.
The New Zealand Jewish Council (NZJC) has declared its opposition to the idea of new hate-crime legislation. NZJC President, Stephen Goodman, explained the Council’s position, commenting that: “Freedom of speech is much too important to restrict, unless there is also a threat of violence involved”.
As the government does its best to squirm its way out of holding any inquiry into the killing of civilians during an SAS-led raid on two villages in Afghanistan its worth looking back at why we were there in the first place – or better still – why we shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
The book co-authored by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson, “Hit and Run”, contains allegations that some people have said could amount to war crimes.
Why does it matter? Horrible things happen in war, so let’s just get over it. Right?
Q+A with Nicky Hager on war crime allegations
The shocking events described by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson in Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour are not without precedent in the history of New Zealand’s military engagements overseas. In the tiny Palestinian village of Surafend, in the final days of 1918, New Zealand troops participated in what was indisputably a serious war crime. The parallels with the SAS “Revenge Raid” of August 2010 are striking.
In any case, whilst my affection for the Roy Morgan poll is well known, it is certainly not the only game in town. And the Reid Research material out the same day makes for some decidedly interesting comparison-work between the two analyses.
Fuck it, I’ve seen enough. Morgan’s shown himself to be just another latter-day Procrustes*. If the TOP man has his way, New Zealand and New Zealanders will, once again, be “restructured” to fit the ideologically-determined dimensions of Morgan’s Procrustean bed.
In the last week, high profile mainstream media personalities have raised the issue of suicide and mental illnesses that can lead to it, mainly on the back of the suicide of a friend of one particular personality, Jono Pryor.
To date, New Zealanders have been mostly apathetic as the government build up it’s ability to spy and store personal information on us. Most of the government’s “targets” have been so-called “terrorists”, immigrants, criminals, student-debt defaulters, and those on welfare benefits or living in state houses.