Werewolf Edition 24 - Corporate Welfare and Tax Fraud

http://werewolf.co.nz/

Hi and welcome to the July edition of Werewolf. In this issue, we outline the imperative for reform in the mindset of New Zealand business – given its track record of dependency on government assistance.Werewolf’s interview with business commentator Rod Oram traces how the private sector exhibits many of the traits routinely claimed to characterise welfare dependency – ie, a business culture geared to instant gratification, a willingness to rely on the state to do things it can and should be doing itself, a reliance on poor role models etc …All of which has left our export sector locked into exporting much the same raw, low value-added agricultural commodities as it did 100 years ago.

Elsewhere in this issue Alastair Thompson shows the unintended consequences of planned gift duty tax legislation , which seem to include making money laundering and other unsavoury practices immeasurably easier. Given the context of an ageing population and medical advances, Cushla McKinney analyses how the health system may manage the costs and ethical issues involved in decisions about whether to prolong life. An interview with Wellington architect Ian Athfield retraces his collaboration with US superstar Frank Gehry on their rejected co-design for Te Papa - which remains a lost cultural and economic opportunity for Wellington, and New Zealand. New Werewolf writer Sarah Robson takes us into the weird and wonderful heartland of farming’s annual showcase event at Mystery Creek and in his Letter from America, James Robinson suggests that ignoring Sarah Palin may be the only way of making her go away.

In another welcome addition to Werewolf’s stable of writers, Philip Matthews analyses the enduring appeal of the Martin Scorsese movie Taxi Driver 35 years after its original release – and the film promises to be one of the main attractions at this year’s NZ International Film Festival, in a stunning new print. In his Milestone Movies column, Brannavan Gnanalingam salutes the trail blazing documentary Nanook of the North, and the new bio of its director Robert Flaherty, also screening at the Film Festival. In his column From the Hood, satirist Lyndon Hood finds some stirring modern parallels between the Arabian Nights and our own blessed realm. This month’s classic children’s literature column features Neil Gaiman’s 2009 smash hit The Graveyard Book, while in The Complicatist music column we turn the spotlight on Modest Mouse, who will be touring here (at last!) next month, after 18 years as one of the most singular and impressive bands in the business. In Talking Sport, James Robinson reports from Boston about his experience of being swept up in ice hockey's Stanley Cup final fever.

In Cartoon Alley Mark P. Williams discusses (with SF and so called New Weird examples) just what the adjective “contemporary” means these days in contemporary fiction. There's new work by Brent Willis, Tim Bollinger and the duo of Mike Brown and Mat Tait, while Tim Bollinger has also provided a terrific backgrounder on the Spielberg/Jackson film version of Tintin, due at year’s end. Thanks as always, to Alastair Thompson for helping me post this online. Werewolf is a thank you to Scoop readers and is intended as an outlet for local writers and artists. If you want to be involved, contact me at gordon@scoop.co.nz
.
Cheers,

Gordon Campbell

Werewolf/Scoop

gordon@werewolf.co.nz

The contents of this edition are:

The case for corporate reform
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/the-case-for-corporate-reform/
An interview with business analyst Rod Oram
by Gordon Campbell

Living With the Cost of Prolonging Life
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/living-with-the-cost-of-prolonging-life/
The health system is facing some important life and death decisions
by Cushla McKinney

Opening the floodgates to tax fraud
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/opening-the-floodgates-to-tax-fraud/
Is the most significant change in property law in decades slipping through Parliament virtually unnoticed
by Alastair Thompson

Cartoon Alley : Tintin in Wellywood
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/tintin-in-wellywood/
In anticipation of Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of Unicorn due December 2011
by Tim Bollinger

Frank Gehry and the Lost Vision for Te Papa
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/frank-gehry-and-the-lost-vision-for-te-papa/
An interview with Wellington architect Ian Athfield about the other design for our national museum
by Gordon Campbell

Letter from America : Sarah, Forever
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/letter-from-america-sarah-forever/
Outrage at Sarah Palin is gasoline to a forest fire….
by James Robinson

Taxi Driver at 35
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/taxi-driver-at-35/
In the 1970s, New York (and Martin Scorsese) were a lot sleazier and scarier…
by Philip Matthews

Farming’s Big Day Out
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/farming%e2%80%99s-big-day-out
At Mystery Creek, agri-business comes out to play…
by Sarah Robson

and from last edition….

Funding The National Religion
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/05/funding-the-national-religion/
Keeping score with the cost of the Rugby World Cup
by Gordon Campbell

From the Hood : The Antipodean Nights’ Entertainments
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/from-the-hood-the-antipodean-nights-entertainments/
Like 1001 nights in the Caliphate of Key…
by Lyndon Hood

Left Coasting : Doing the Charleston
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/left-coasting-doing-the-charleston/
In which our correspondent shares a multimedia experience of Charleston, South Carolina
by Rosalea Barker

Milestone Movies : Nanook of the North (1922)
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/milestone-movies-nanook-of-the-north-1922/
The birth of documentaries as real life fictions…
by Brannavan Gnanalingam

The Complicatist : Thinking About Modest Mouse
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/the-complicatist-thinking-about-modest-mouse/
Desperation has its funnier moments
by Gordon Campbell

Talking Sport : Stanley Cup Fever
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/talking-sport-stanley-cup-fever/
On and off the field
by James Robinson

Cartoon Alley : Manifestos for the Present
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/cartoon-alley-manifestos-for-the-present/
Grasping the ‘Contemporary’ in Contemporary Fiction
by Mark P. Williams

Classics : The Graveyard Book (2009)
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/classics-the-graveyard-book-2009/
Neil Gaiman’s brand of horror lite is aimed at parents, as much as kids
by Gordon Campbell

Cartoon Alley : Tim Bollinger (Including Little Eye)
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/cartoon-alley-tim-bollinger/
Tim Bollinger is a Wellington cartoonist with a thirty-year career drawing and writing comics.
by Tim Bollinger

Cartoon Alley : Mat Tait & Mike Brown
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/cartoon-alley-mike-brown-mat-tait/
Mat Tait is a South Island based cartoonist and illustrator. Mike Brown lives in Wellington and is currently writing a PhD thesis on New Zealand vernacular musics.
by Mike Brown & Mat Tait

Cartoon Alley : Brent Willis
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/cartoon-alley-brent-willis/
Brent Willis currently lives in Lyall Bay, Wellington and has been making underground self-published comics since the mid 1990s.
by Brent Willis

* * * * * WEREWOLF ISSUE 23, May 2011 * * * * *
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/werewolf-issue-23-may-2011/
The April 2011 Edition of Werewolf
by Werewolf

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