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To Be (a) Liberal
Thursday, 18 January 2024, 2:12 pm | Keith Rankin
I enjoy Bryce Edwards' Political Roundup as a succinct and pertinent summary of current New Zealand politics. But, in The Liberal v Conservative anguish over the direction of NZ politics ( NZ Herald , 3 January 2024) Edwards corrupts the word ... More >>
Cancelling The Journalist: The ABC’s Coverage Of The Israel-Gaza War
Thursday, 18 January 2024, 9:49 am | Binoy Kampmark
What a cowardly act it was. A national broadcaster, dedicated to what should be fearless reporting, cowed by the intemperate bellyaching of a lobby concerned about coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. The investigation by The Age newspaper was revealing ... More >>
On Charter Schools, And The Ghahraman Blame Machine
Wednesday, 17 January 2024, 12:07 pm | Gordon Campbell
According to Act Party leader David Seymour, if we gave 16 year olds the vote and allowed teachers to teach civics classes in high school, the result would be… Well, let Seymour himself paint the picture: The final recommendations of the independent ... More >>
Provisional NCEA results show pass rates drop for third year in a row
Wednesday, 17 January 2024, 11:56 am | RNZ
The Qualifications Authority said three years of Covid-related disruption were probably to blame. More >>
US Lessons For New Zealand’s Health System: Profiteering, Hospital Adverse Events And Patient Outcomes
Monday, 15 January 2024, 4:48 pm | Ian Powell
Although not guaranteed it is likely that the ugly head of ‘Public Private Partnerships’ (PPPs) will be raised again in Aotearoa New Zealand’s public hospitals following last year’s election of a new National-led coalition government. Profit maximisation ... More >>
Israel’s Argument At The Hague: We Are Incapable Of Genocide
Monday, 15 January 2024, 4:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Israel’s relationship with the United Nations, international institutions and international law has at times bristled with suspicion and blatant hostility. In a famous cabinet meeting in 1955, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion famously knocked ... More >>
Genocide As A Concept: Binary Or Analogue?
Monday, 15 January 2024, 1:46 pm | Keith Rankin
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) – based in The Hague, in The Netherlands – is being asked by South Africa if the 100-day (so far) slaughter by the Government of Israel in Gaza constitutes a 'genocide'. Thus 'genocide' is presented as a binary ... More >>
On The Gaza Genocide Hearings
Monday, 15 January 2024, 12:42 pm | Gordon Campbell
Don’t hold your breath for a final judgement from the International Court of Justice as to whether Israel is, or isn’t, committing genocide in Gaza. Since 2019, the ICJ has been mulling over whether Myanmar has committed genocide against its Rohingya ... More >>
Tall Tales And Murderous Restraint: Blinken On Gaza And Israel
Thursday, 11 January 2024, 3:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The role of the US State Department regarding Israel’s continued obliteration of Gaza is becoming increasingly clear. As the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces continue, the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is full of meaningless statements ... More >>
On Biden V Trump, And The Taiwan Election
Thursday, 11 January 2024, 11:28 am | Gordon Campbell
If the allegations against Golriz Ghahraman are found to have substance – or even if they merely result in an official Police investigation – then resignation looks the only option. The Greens brand is based on its claims to hold itself to a higher ... More >>
Holstering A Career: Wayne LaPierre Resigns From The NRA Executive
Tuesday, 9 January 2024, 3:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The now departed chief executive of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) should know. Wayne LaPierre’s time had come to resemble a dictatorship in a hurry, pinching the silver and stomping ... More >>
Circle Of Secrecy: The Iraq War’s Missing Cabinet Documents
Monday, 8 January 2024, 6:48 pm | Binoy Kampmark
They are unlikely to be revelatory, will shatter no myths, nor disprove any assumptions. Cabinet documents exist to merely show that a political clique – the heart of the Westminster model of government, so to speak – often contain the musings of invertebrates, ... More >>
On Immigration’s Role In The Gaza Carnage
Monday, 8 January 2024, 12:17 pm | Gordon Campbell
If the world was in any doubt about what Israel’s endgame in Gaza might be, this (Google translated) Christmas Day report in the Israeli media made it pretty clear: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed [today] at the Likud faction meeting ... More >>
NZ Just Threatened The Houthis.
Friday, 5 January 2024, 2:50 pm | Eugene Doyle
New Zealand has just signed our name to a letter threatening death and destruction to the Houthis of Yemen. More >>
Funding The Imperium: Australia Subsidises US Nuclear Submarines
Friday, 5 January 2024, 1:57 pm | Binoy Kampmark
AUKUS, the trilateral pact between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, was a steal for all except one of the partners. Australia, given the illusion of protection even as its aggressive stance (acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, becoming ... More >>
Killing Australians In Lebanon: Selected Targets; Selective Morality
Thursday, 4 January 2024, 3:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The killing of an Australian-Lebanese national Ibrahim Bazzi, his Lebanese wife Shorouq Hammoud, and his brother Ali Bazzi by the Israeli Defence Forces in a missile strike in southern Lebanon, has been an object exercise in selective outrage, selective ... More >>
Palestinians In Hebron, West Bank, Live In Constant Fear As Violence Surges
Thursday, 4 January 2024, 11:30 am | Doctors Without Borders
“The situation has been bad for years here. Israeli soldiers search our houses day and night, vandalise and arrest people without any warning,” says Alma*, a Palestinian woman from Hebron, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, in ... More >>
The Economic Incentive: Blocking Israel’s Supply Chain
Tuesday, 2 January 2024, 5:27 pm | Binoy Kampmark
If demography is destiny, as Auguste Comte tells us, then economics must be current, pinching reality. The Israel-Gaza conflict is invigorating a global protest movement against the state of Israel which is seeing various manifestations. From an economic ... More >>
Criminal Assumptions: The Howard Cabinet And Invading Iraq
Monday, 1 January 2024, 3:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When war criminals can daub canvasses in blithe safety, rake in millions of dollars in after dinner speeches and bore governments to death with their shoddy words of wisdom, the world is not so much as it should be, but merely as it is. Former US ... More >>
Amoral Compass: Palantir and its Quest to Remake the World
Friday, 29 December 2023, 7:19 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Finance analysts free of moral scruple can point to Palantir with relish and note that 2023 was a fairly rewarding year for it. The company, which bills itself as a “category-leading software” builder “that empowers organizations to create ... More >>
Constitutional Violations: Julian Assange, Privacy and the CIA
Thursday, 28 December 2023, 6:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As a private citizen, the options for suing an intelligence agency are few and far between. The US Central Intelligence Agency, as with other members of the secret club, pour scorn on such efforts. To a degree, such a dismissive sentiment is understandable: ... More >>
A Growing Butcher’s Bill: Israel’s War Spending
Wednesday, 27 December 2023, 7:34 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron is worried. He is keeping an eye on the ballooning costs of his country’s war against Gaza and the Palestinians. Initially, the Netanyahu government promised to increase its defence budget by NIS 20 billion (US$5.48 billion) ... More >>
Red Sea Deployments: Canberra Says No
Tuesday, 26 December 2023, 6:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The failure of the United States to convince the Australian government to send one vessel to aid coalition efforts to deter Houthi disruption of international shipping in the Red Sea was a veritable storm whipped up in a teacup. The entire exercise, ... More >>
Regulator moves on telco comparison shopping
Sunday, 24 December 2023, 7:43 pm | Digitl
Download Weekly - December 23 2023 - ComCom calls for greater price and coverage transparency in bid to boost competition. Spark to offer broadband failover service. Handset sales still weak. More >>
Nelson residents test 2degrees cell towers in space
Sunday, 24 December 2023, 12:30 pm | Digitl
Download Weekly - December 23 2023 - 2degrees moves on to more extensive satellite to mobile testing, Tū Ātea buys Broadtech, Network for Learning’s year of cybersecurity. More >>
Day X Marks The Calendar: Julian Assange’s ‘Final’ Appeal
Friday, 22 December 2023, 1:49 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Julian Assange’s wife, Stella, is rarely one to be cryptic. “Day X is here,” she posted on the platform formerly known as Twitter. For those who have followed her remarks, her speeches, and her activism, it was sharply clear what this meant. ... More >>
Message To Health Minister: Get The Foundations Right Beginning With Being ‘Relational’
Thursday, 21 December 2023, 7:54 pm | Ian Powell
When the Labour led coalition government came into power in October 2017 it inherited a health system in crisis, primarily due to the interlocked pressures of rising acute demand and severe workforce shortages compounded by underfunding. Unfortunately that ... More >>
A Merry AUKUS Surprise, Western Australia!
Thursday, 21 December 2023, 7:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The secretive Australian government just cannot help itself. Clamouring and hectoring of other countries and their secret arrangements (who can forget the criticism of the Solomon Islands over its security pact with China for that reason?) the Albanese ... More >>
Political Culture And Close Elections
Thursday, 21 December 2023, 4:31 pm | Keith Rankin
When countries' national elections are closely fought, it means that the median voters critically determine the parliamentary or congressional outcome. But, though depending to a considerable extent on the prevailing political culture, the centre-of-gravity More >>
On Nicola Willis’ Impersonation Of A Finance Minister
Thursday, 21 December 2023, 11:05 am | Gordon Campbell
“ I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support [the poorhouses].... They cost enough, and those who are badly off must go to them.” – Ebenezer Scrooge, in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas ... More >>
The Shipping News: Lyttelton Versus Picton, And Other Stories
Tuesday, 19 December 2023, 4:36 pm | Keith Rankin
Last week the new government effectively cancelled the plans of Kiwi Rail – in the form of 'The Interislander' – derailing its intended Picton rail and road expansion. The plans were judged to be too costly; in particular, the rate of cost escalation ... More >>
Cardinal Crimes: Absolute Rule And Fleecing The Holy See
Monday, 18 December 2023, 3:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Like a bank with branches everywhere, the Catholic Church will go after its own when circumstances permit, wherever they are. In other instances, it will take the opposite tack, shielding the detractors or deviants from local scrutiny, and concealing ... More >>
On The Government’s Politics Of Nostalgia
Monday, 18 December 2023, 11:46 am | Gordon Campbell
There’s a thin line between “conservative” and “reactionary.” The former strive to retain the best of current practice, while the latter want to pull everything down and revel in memories that have been marinated in nostalgia. Clearly, we’re ... More >>
Wealth Accumulation – ‘Big Sugar’ And Little Barbados: A Lesson In Struggle And Consciousness
Sunday, 17 December 2023, 5:41 pm | Ian Powell
If New Zealanders undertook four basic public health measures they would not only live longer, they would significantly reduce the pressure on their badly politically driven overstretched health system. Three of these measures involve doing moderate ... More >>
False Transitions and Global Stocktakes: The Failure of COP28
Sunday, 17 December 2023, 3:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The time has come to treat the sequence of UN Climate Change Conferences, the latest concluding in Dubai, as a series of the failed and the abysmally rotten. It shows how a worthless activity, caked (oiled?) with appropriately chosen words, can actually ... More >>
Flirting With Nuclear Energy Down Under
Friday, 15 December 2023, 3:09 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was a policy that was bound to send a shiver through the policymaking community. The issue of nuclear energy in Australia has always been a contentious one. Currently, the country hosts a modest nuclear industry, centred on the Australian Nuclear Science ... More >>
On The Ferry Follies Of Nicola Willis
Friday, 15 December 2023, 10:59 am | Gordon Campbell
Cook Strait can be one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. Thanks to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, New Zealand is now going to have to rely for the next decade or more on a couple of car ferries leased or purchased on the second ... More >>
Te Pūkenga, Universities, And Unitec
Friday, 15 December 2023, 10:05 am | Keith Rankin
Tertiary education is in crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand. Vocational education, the domain of the Polytechnic 'Institutes of Technology'; and Science and Humanities' education, the traditional domain of the Universities. 2023 was an election year, ... More >>
‘Let It Be A Tale’: On Refaat Alareer And The Martyrdom Of The Gaza Intellectual
Thursday, 14 December 2023, 2:50 pm | Ramzy Baroud
What is taking place in Gaza is meant for the history books: an epic tale of a small nation under a long, brutal siege for many years, facing one of the greatest military powers in the world. And yet, it refuses to be defeated. Not even the ... More >>
Commerce Commission opens fibre deregulation debate
Thursday, 14 December 2023, 12:06 pm | Digitl
Download Weekly newsletter December 8 2023: Commerce Commission opens fibre deregulation debate, 2023 Telecommunications Development Levy charges, Spark hits million connection milestone with smart meter IoT. More >>
Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves In Gaza
Thursday, 14 December 2023, 9:26 am | Eugene Doyle
I was wandering up the Tip Track in Owhiro Bay today listening to a playlist of favourites. On came “Va, Pensiero” by Giuseppe Verdi - The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves – from Nabucco . It stopped me in my tracks. I have heard the piece innumerable ... More >>
A Flawed And Dangerous Presence: US Troops In Syria
Wednesday, 13 December 2023, 11:48 am | Binoy Kampmark
Despite a focus on boxing China in the Indo-Pacific, US involvement in the Middle East continues to be widespread and problematic. While Israel is given its regular steroid diet of murderous arms, US military personnel find themselves scattered throughout ... More >>
When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Outcome Is Perversity
Tuesday, 12 December 2023, 8:47 pm | Ian Powell
In 1959 The Platters , an early rock-and-roll era group, released the song Smoke gets in your eyes (first sung in a 1933 Broadway show: ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’ . The song is a sweetly romantic metaphoric song about falling in love and then breaking-up. ... More >>
Censoring Israeli Violence: Western Media Outlets Capitulate
Tuesday, 12 December 2023, 12:57 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The cathedral of censorship is a vast, airy one. In its embrace, texts are abridged, images removed, ideas scrubbed. Historical inconveniences are filed and rendered inaccessible. The only sermons tolerated will be those satisfying and serving the ... More >>
On How The State Aims To Dictate What The Unemployed Are Allowed To Buy
Tuesday, 12 December 2023, 11:43 am | Gordon Campbell
At first glance, ACT deputy leader Brooke Van Velden might seem an odd choice to oversee workplace relations. However, if the aim is to atomise workplace relations and reduce them to the level of individual firms and individual workers – just ... More >>
Churchill’s Dog And Why I Will Be Rallying For Gaza
Monday, 11 December 2023, 9:57 am | Eugene Doyle
This Tuesday at midday, people of conscience will rally at Parliament in Wellington to call for an enduring ceasefire in Gaza. Please let people know. Everything you need to know about Gaza can be encapsulated in one seldom-daylighted quote by Winston ... More >>
Accidents Of Eccentricity: Israel’s Pacific Hold
Sunday, 10 December 2023, 7:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Cunning, subtle, understated. Israeli policy in the Pacific has seen United Nations votes cast in its favour, the foreign policies of certain countries adjusted, and favours switched. While China may be considered the big, threatening beast competing ... More >>
The View From Washington: Let The Killing In Gaza Continue
Sunday, 10 December 2023, 4:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify ... More >>
The View From Washington: Let The Killing In Gaza Continue
Sunday, 10 December 2023, 4:17 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify ... More >>
Scoop Post Election Podcast: River Of Freedom Review
Sunday, 10 December 2023, 12:05 pm | Scoop Election Podcast
After recording a River of Freedom review the Scoop Political Podcast went into hibernation. Now with a new Government formed it’s time to dust off this forgotten silver. More >>
On The Skewed Media Coverage Of Gaza
Friday, 8 December 2023, 11:33 am | Gordon Campbell
Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website. If he did, Peters would find MFAT celebrating the 25th anniversary of how New Zealand alerted the rest of the world to the genocide developing in Rwanda. ... More >>
Dunne's Weekly: Meagher Hits The Mark
Friday, 8 December 2023, 9:56 am | Peter Dunne
New National MP James Meagher broke the long-standing convention that Maiden Speeches should be non-controversial. His speech not only raised a few eyebrows but also would have struck some raw nerves. Meagher described himself as a "walking contradiction" ... More >>
Dying To Be Free: Releasing Palestinian Captives Is Not A Numbers Game
Thursday, 7 December 2023, 9:16 pm | Ramzy Baroud
The whole thing may appear to be an exercise in futility, but there is a point why Palestinians are keen on releasing their prisoners, despite the heavy price they continue to pay for their freedom. It may seem rational to ask the question: what ... More >>
Actuarial Justice: Released Refugees And Secondary Punishment
Thursday, 7 December 2023, 2:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In most instances, the justice system of a liberal democracy presumes absence of arbitrary and cruel treatment by the State. Punishment, when levelled, is finite. It might see out the term of a convict’s natural life, but that would only be for ... More >>
Shadows of Children
Wednesday, 6 December 2023, 3:00 pm | Embassy of Israel
The worst nightmares could not have prepared the care providers and hospitals for the day they received 39 children who were torn from their cribs and beds and dragged to hell, barefoot and half asleep, some with only one of their parents, some completely ... More >>
On The Government's Assault On Maori
Wednesday, 6 December 2023, 2:10 pm | Gordon Campbell
This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Even so, Christopher Luxon has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. In the NZ Herald, ... More >>
COP28: Where Fossil Fuel Industries Go To Gloat
Wednesday, 6 December 2023, 1:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The sequence of COP meetings, ostensibly a United Nations forum to discuss dramatic climate change measures in the face of galloping emissions, has now been shown for what it is: a luxurious, pampered bazaar for the very industries that fear a dip ... More >>
Refreshing The Camelot School: Kennedy Hagiography At Sixty
Tuesday, 5 December 2023, 12:41 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Camelot, the sweetly sentimental shorthand for a shortened US presidency, has generated a mythopoetry so rich it turns the stomach, clogs the intestines, and soils the historical record. With its effacing tendencies, its soppily loyal hagiographers, its ghastly, ... More >>
ExxonMobil Wants To Start A War In South America
Tuesday, 5 December 2023, 12:07 pm | Globetrotter
Vijay Prashad On December 3, 2023, a large number of registered voters in Venezuela voted in a referendum over the Essequibo region that is disputed with neighboring Guyana. Nearly all those who voted answered yes to the five questions. These questions ... More >>
On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle
Monday, 4 December 2023, 11:36 am | Gordon Campbell
The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this ... More >>
