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Second Endings: Terminating Neighbours (Again)
Saturday, 22 February 2025, 2:51 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Fremantle’s hunt for the cash for continued production will have to start in earnest, but short of returning to a British backer, the prospects look decidedly final for a show that has lasted well beyond its time. More >>
Dunne's Weekly: It's Now Lowest Common Denominator Politics Instead Of Informed Political Debate
Friday, 21 February 2025, 9:49 am | Peter Dunne
The demise of political debate as it used to be, in favour of the fervent, dogmatic statement of party opinion as incontrovertible fact as we have now, has dramatically changed the nature of political discourse around the world. More >>
Gaza Has Changed The Discourse On Popular Resistance, But Are We Truly Listening?
Thursday, 20 February 2025, 11:00 am | Ramzy Baroud
As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began marching from south to north on January 27, they celebrated their return, defined as a collective victory against the Israeli war machine and a victory for the people themselves, who produced a new model of ... More >>
What Is A Human Being?
Thursday, 20 February 2025, 10:48 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The idea of “my country” being primary is anathema to the human being. Though the vast majority of humans have identified with particular groups for thousands of years, a small minority of human beings has always emotionally realized that they ... More >>
On The Fall And Rise Of Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid
Thursday, 20 February 2025, 9:25 am | Gordon Campbell
Good to see that this year, the New Zealand film societies are celebrating what would have been Sam Peckinpah’s 100th birthday with what they are calling “Peckinpah’s West” – a tribute consisting of screenings of The Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett More >>
On Why Europe Is Being Made To Go It Alone
Tuesday, 18 February 2025, 11:43 am | Gordon Campbell
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Trump and Vladimir ... More >>
Feeling Very Fine: Picasso The Printmaker At The British Museum
Tuesday, 18 February 2025, 8:42 am | Binoy Kampmark
In 1905, the print Salomé announces a serious yet teasing effort by Picasso to depict the body of the naked dancer before Herod much “like a blind man who pictures an arse by the way it feels”. The outstretched leg suggests the Moulin Rouge. More >>
When Overlaying Fact In Health Systems With Fiction Morphs Into Embellishment
Monday, 17 February 2025, 1:43 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses what happens when facts get overtaken by fiction to become embellishment in the context of the current direction of New Zealand’s health system. More >>
Trump’s Gaza Plan: A Green Light For Ethnic Cleansing?
Monday, 17 February 2025, 11:09 am | Ramzy Baroud
The new US administration, however, seems oblivious to Palestinian history. Given the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948, no Arab government—let alone the Palestinian leadership—would support another Israeli-US effort to ethnically cleanse ... More >>
Does Cosmic Intelligence Care About Humanity?
Friday, 14 February 2025, 11:27 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
No amount of activism or number of mass movements can meet the crisis of man. The undivided individual contains the whole of humanity. More >>
Far From Benign: The US Aid Industrial Complex
Friday, 14 February 2025, 9:06 am | Binoy Kampmark
To provide aid suggests a benevolent undertaking delivered selflessly. It arises from charitable mission, an attempt to alleviate, or at least soften the blows of hardship arising from various impairments. But the provision of aid is rarely benign, ... More >>
Chinese Criminals' International Scams & Kidnappings
Thursday, 13 February 2025, 2:25 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
“The United States and China [are] the two most strongly affected victims of the online scamming industry,” USIP said in a 2024 report on Chinese-dominated transnational crime based in Southeast Asia. More >>
Is Health New Zealand Becoming An Audit Office Frequent Flyer?
Thursday, 13 February 2025, 12:02 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses whether Health New Zealand is becoming a frequent flyer for the Auditor-General and why that might not be such a bad thing given the circumstances. More >>
Gordon Campbell On Why “golden Visas” Are A Losing Bet On Growth
Thursday, 13 February 2025, 11:57 am | Gordon Campbell
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious. For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to ... More >>
Dunne's Weekly: Next Election Still National's To Lose
Thursday, 13 February 2025, 9:15 am | Peter Dunne
The National-led coalition is more precariously positioned at present than each of the last two Labour-led governments were at similar stages in the previous two Parliaments. More >>
Gordon Campbell On Surviving The 47th US President
Tuesday, 11 February 2025, 1:40 pm | Gordon Campbell
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. After only three weeks, it is already exhausting. The media is being propelled into a sustained state of Attention Deficit Disorder. More >>
The Billionaire Who Could Not Be Stopped
Monday, 10 February 2025, 3:41 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
Mr. Thaksin is now so larger-than-life that many allege he manipulates Thailand's government through his seemingly timid daughter Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 38, who was elected by Parliament in August and appears to eagerly agree with his ... More >>
The Great March Of Hope: Gaza’s Defiance Against Erasure
Friday, 7 February 2025, 2:01 pm | Ramzy Baroud
While many, including some sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, openly challenged the Gazans' view of their perceived 'victory,' they failed to appreciate the history of Palestine—indeed, the history of all colonized people who wrested their freedom ... More >>
Relations Between Canada And America Are At Their Lowest Point Since The American Revolutionary War
Friday, 7 February 2025, 11:54 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
This Nationalistic Race to the Bottom Is Compelling a Global Summit More >>
More UK Lessons For Labour Party In New Zealand
Thursday, 6 February 2025, 3:23 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses The Lessons Of A Recent Dramatic UK Political Poll For The Labour Party In New Zealand More >>
Dunne's Weekly: Corporate Tax Reduction Overdue
Thursday, 6 February 2025, 8:36 am | Peter Dunne
Only two business tax reductions in the last 36 years & the last one nearly 14 years ago, at a time of considerable change & turmoil not only shows how badly NZ has lagged other countries, especially at a time when the international movement of capital ... More >>
Why Fly In Europe? The Dark Triumph Of The Ryanair Effect
Thursday, 6 February 2025, 8:12 am | Binoy Kampmark
With the triumph of the Ryanair model, ruthlessly emulated by belt tightening carriers who seem to treat their passengers as mere units of income, taking the plane in Europe is no longer an interesting, let alone palatable prospect. More >>
On The Government’s Epic Fails In Jobs And Housing
Wednesday, 5 February 2025, 12:55 pm | Gordon Campbell
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. More >>
Israel, Hostages, Thailand & Jobs
Tuesday, 4 February 2025, 8:42 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
Thailand was involved in delicate diplomatic efforts to gain their freedom, "so it does not want to create any problems that will cause any misunderstanding among parties involved in the conflict," then-Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said. More >>
Trump, Tariffs And Russia: A Very Muddled Policy
Tuesday, 4 February 2025, 10:08 am | Binoy Kampmark
When it comes to dealing with Russia, though, the matter of tariffs sits oddly. In 2024, US imports of Russian goods came in at US$2.8 billion. What is imported from Russia is certainly of value: radioactive materials indispensable for US power stations, ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On Trump’s Tariff Wars
Monday, 3 February 2025, 1:51 pm | Gordon Campbell
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong USD (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad ... More >>
Reti’s Velvet Glove Wore Too Thin For PM’s Iron Fist
Friday, 31 January 2025, 2:11 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the sacking of Shane Reti as health minister and the appointment of Simeon Brown as his replacement. More >>
Dear World: This Is What Palestinian Unity Looks Like
Friday, 31 January 2025, 1:58 pm | Ramzy Baroud
By cultural revolution, I mean the defiant and rebellious narrative evolving in Gaza, where people see themselves as active participants in the popular resistance, not just mere victims of the Israeli war machine. More >>
Funeral Atmospherics At The British Library
Friday, 31 January 2025, 1:51 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The exfiltration of data was also accompanied by an encryption of data and important operating systems, a devilish effort effectively shutting out staff and users from any engagement. Certain services were also destroyed to frustrate recovery efforts ... More >>
Dunne's Weekly: ACT Looks Backwards
Friday, 31 January 2025, 10:34 am | Peter Dunne
The focus on this new entity would be on the buildings and would exclude the delivery of health and education services and staffing so as not to compromise the continued public ownership of those services. It would be solely about managing public assets ... More >>
History Is Not A Game
Friday, 31 January 2025, 9:13 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
That conclusion manages to be both redundant and wrongheaded at the same time. A game indicates an eventual outcome, and there is no final outcome to human history, unless we drive our species into extinction, as Homo sapiens is driving half the ... More >>
Reckless Disregard Or Cruelty (Or Even Trumpian!)
Thursday, 30 January 2025, 6:26 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the sudden decision to remove the evidence based equitable age for Maori and Pacific eligibility for the national bowel screening programme. More >>
DeepSeek, And China’s Inexorable Rise
Wednesday, 29 January 2025, 1:32 pm | Gordon Campbell
The week’s big story has been about China’s DeepSeek low-cost AI model. Because DeepSeek requires fewer advanced chips, its advent has had a huge impact on the fortunes of US chip-making giant, Nvidia – which immediately lost $600 billion of its value. More >>
The Transcendent Brain
Tuesday, 28 January 2025, 12:43 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
After having been immersed in the childish rituals of the Catholic Church growing up, I became averse to rituals & belief systems by my middle teens. Therefore I had no interest in methods, systems & traditions of meditation, which are fabrications ... More >>
Frankfurt Airport: A Special Kind Of Loathing
Tuesday, 28 January 2025, 8:41 am | Binoy Kampmark
The errors begin with a rather jaunty announcement by a cabin crew member that the flight from London is ahead of schedule. “You will have plenty of time to make your connecting flight. Take your boarding pass and head to the gate. That is all ... More >>
Gaza's Unbreakable Resistance: A Historical Perspective On The War And Its Aftermath
Tuesday, 28 January 2025, 8:29 am | Ramzy Baroud
Gaza's history is one of both pain and pride. It stretches back to ancient civilizations and includes great resistance against invasion, such as the three-month siege by Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army in 332 BCE. More >>
On The Government’s Gaslighting About Growth
Monday, 27 January 2025, 10:46 am | Gordon Campbell
Trump and Luxon have in common a lack of any experience in how to kick-start economic growth, especially in the wake of a recession. Their real expertise lies in deal-making i.e. in the re-packaging of wealth that’s been created by others, and on selling ... More >>
Localism Is A Dead End; It’s All Glocal Now
Friday, 24 January 2025, 3:29 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The cliché “local solutions for local problems” becomes nonsensical without awareness of the planetary crises facing all of human beings. By refusing to see and deal with things as a whole, localism exacerbates of the very problems it purports ... More >>
Gaza Ceasefire At Last: How Israel's 'First Defeat' Will Shape The Country's Future
Thursday, 23 January 2025, 4:14 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Unlike previous military campaigns in Gaza—on a much smaller scale compared to the current genocidal war—there is no significant strand of Israeli society claiming victory. The familiar rhetoric of “mowing the lawn”, which Israel often uses ... More >>
Pity The Poesy: Mark Rutte, NATO And Spending For War
Thursday, 23 January 2025, 9:49 am | Binoy Kampmark
A chief function of NATO’s public relations efforts lies in justifying its own existence. Instead of dismantling or finding more peaceful pursuits at the end of the Cold War, it became the groomed emissary of US power in Europe, while never being ... More >>
Parliament's Annual Rituals Are Underway Again
Thursday, 23 January 2025, 8:39 am | Peter Dunne
When Parliament resumes next week, the first item of business will be the presentation of the Prime Minister’s Statement, which is supposed to set out the broad thrust of the government’s legislative plans for the year ahead. More >>
Gutting Specialised Health Teams Follows ‘slash And Burn’ Strategy
Wednesday, 22 January 2025, 3:23 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses Health New Zealand’s plan to disestablish expert national health teams as part of its Commissioner’s ‘slash and burn’ strategy. More >>
On The Looming Conflicts Within The Trump Presidency
Wednesday, 22 January 2025, 10:46 am | Gordon Campbell
How long is it going to take for the MAGA faithful to realise that those titans of Big Tech and venture capital sitting up close to Donald Trump this week are not their allies, but The Enemy? After all, the MAGA crowd are the angry victims left behind ... More >>
The Wasted Interregnums Of Obama And Biden
Wednesday, 22 January 2025, 10:26 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Since neither Obama nor Biden was capable of speaking from the clarity, insight and passion required for meeting the psycho-spiritual crisis in the USA, both interregnums were wasted. More >>
Justifying The Egregious: John Howard And Spying On East Timor
Wednesday, 22 January 2025, 8:53 am | Binoy Kampmark
The best assessment offered of this episode in Australian history comes from Galbraith: both Howard and his foreign minister, had shown themselves to be mere “shills for the corporations”. This amoral approach towards a country in dire need undercut ... More >>
Friend Or Foe? How Trump’s Threats Against ‘Free-Riding’ Allies Could Backfire
Tuesday, 21 January 2025, 7:14 pm | The Conversation
Donald Trump wants US allies to spend more on defence and has threatened NATO members with coercion. But allies have agency too, and are already planning their responses. More >>
The Fight For Dignity: Reshaping Gaza’s Post-War Narrative
Tuesday, 21 January 2025, 10:52 am | Ramzy Baroud
The latest Israeli war on Gaza was not ordinary, but then, no previous wars have been anything but destructive and lethal. For Israel, it was a genocide—a war aimed at exterminating Gaza's population through mass killings and driving the survivors ... More >>
On The Rise Of Simeon Brown
Monday, 20 January 2025, 11:33 am | Gordon Campbell
Replacing Shane Reti with Simeon Brown as the new Minister of Health is a signal that the gloves are coming off in this crucial portfolio. Alarmingly, PM Christopher Luxon even used the term “ruthless execution” to describe how Brown will be carrying ... More >>
Good Does Not Fight Evil, But Stands Firm And Dispels It
Monday, 20 January 2025, 10:26 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The die is cast where Trump, the United States and the post-World War II order are concerned. The failure of insight and imagination by academic, media and political elites, exemplified in the moronic “good Trump, bad Trump” fantasy, feeds the ... More >>
Bitter Harvests: The Gaza Ceasefire
Sunday, 19 January 2025, 6:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Whoever claims credit for these latest developments hardly lessens the bitterness of the harvest. The prevarications, delays and obstructions have permitted massive destruction and loss of life to take place. Cowardice and bad faith have been the ... More >>
Situation Critical: UNRWA And Its Continued Operations
Saturday, 18 January 2025, 6:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Any ceasefire, already soured by the killing of over 100 Palestinians since its announcement, does little to address the institutional chasm that will be left were UNRWA to cease operating in any meaningful way. More >>
Waiting For Trump: How Bad Will It Be?
Friday, 17 January 2025, 10:37 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
There aren’t two America’s anymore than there are two political parties. There’s just one, and it’s Trump’s America. He will do his worst. More >>
The Gaza Genocide: The Fall Of Israel’s Immunity
Thursday, 16 January 2025, 3:46 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Numbers, though helpful, are rarely enough to convey collective pain. Using a new data-collecting method called ‘capture–recapture analysis’, the report indicates that by the first nine months of the war, between October 2023 and June 2024, 64,260 ... More >>
On More Threats To Democracy From David Seymour
Thursday, 16 January 2025, 11:55 am | Gordon Campbell
Early reports indicate that a temporary Israel/Hamas ceasefire deal is due to take effect on Sunday. And the Regulatory Standards Bill is another vehicle for constitutional change that’s being launched under the guise of sensible, garden-variety law-making. More >>
When Politics Gets In The Pocket Of The Gun Lobby
Wednesday, 15 January 2025, 4:19 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses when a government gets in the pocket of the gun lobby. More >>
The Darkest Hour Before Dawn Or The Sum Of All Dark Ages?
Tuesday, 14 January 2025, 10:27 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Given the global ecological, psycho-spiritual, economic and political crisis of humankind, is there a latent exaptation that can be released which will enable us to meet the present climacteric? Yes, the universal capacity for flashes and states of insight. More >>
AUKUS: Flawed And Sinking
Monday, 13 January 2025, 1:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Announced in September 2021 as “an enhanced trilateral security partnership”, AUKUS has hobbled and stuttered its way into 2025. Commentary from the pompom holders for war at such outlets as The Economist continue with such mild remarks as “ambitious ... More >>
On The History Of Doo Wop Music
Monday, 13 January 2025, 11:01 am | Gordon Campbell
The decade between 1952 and the early 1960s was the peak period for the style of music we now call doo wop, after which it got dissolved into soul music, girl groups, and within pop music in general. More >>
Israel Destroyed Gaza ‘For Generations To Come’ And The World Stayed Silent
Monday, 13 January 2025, 8:58 am | Ramzy Baroud
The worst-case scenario has actualized in a way that even the most pessimistic estimates by Palestinian, Arab, or international groups could not have foreseen. Not only is Gaza now beyond "uninhabitable", but, according to Greenpeace, it will be "uninhabitable ... More >>
Detained Without Charge: Eleven Yemenis Leave Guantánamo
Friday, 10 January 2025, 3:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
They are reminders about what the German jurist and Nazi enthusiast Carl Schmitt called a state of exception, a rather sinister way of saying that states, and leaders, can behave abominably if their position enables them to do so. More >>
