Werewolf Edition #35 : Is There A Doctor In The House?

http://werewolf.co.nz/

Enter the Wolf!

Hi and welcome to the 35th issue of Werewolf, in which our cover story seeks to find out just how hard it is to sign up with a doctor close to where you live , and discovers that the Health bureaucrats don’t have much idea of how readily available the access to a local GP is, and in what parts of the country it is a problem. Werewolf wrote to every DHB in the country, and contacted several PHOs as well in what became a test of how robust and well-informed the Health system’s commitment to primary healthcare really is. Not well-informed at all, as it turned out. In some parts of the country, access to the local medical centre remains only an aspirational goal.

Elsewhere in this issue, Alison McCulloch follows up on a controversial Christian values programme running in some Bay of Plenty Schools and on the backlash it has inspired -— and she puts this in the context of past battles waged in New Zealand against the inveigling of Christian religious tuition into our secular education system, In a separate article, Alison looks back at the Affco labour dispute, and the precedent it may have created for a new partnership between iwi and trade unions , and based on their common struggle against poverty and exploitation. As the uprising in Syria rages on, Jonathan Broadbery pinpoints the plight of Palestinian refugees from Syria as they seek refuge in Lebanon, only to find that UN definitions are barring their access to the aid they need. This month,we also treat café life as an example of retailing in trouble - as cafes face pressure in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, government cutbacks, internecine café competition and earthquake re-structuring costs - and Werewolf explore how one veteran Wellington café proprietor has been managing the minutiae of survival.

Horror movies attract and repel people in almost equal measure – and in this issue, we do a long wide-ranging interview with New Zealand expatriate Elric Kane , currently the co-host of a hugely successful online horror movie news and chat show in Los Angeles. Co-incidentally this month, film critic Philip Matthews analyses the meta-slasher comedy thriller Cabin In The Woods . Speaking of Hollywood, Werewolf this month takes a hard look at the workplace conditions that foreign film and TV productions are seeking to impose on New Zealand actors and technicians – and analyzes the medieval conditions fostered by the fine print of a contract for the current Power Rangers production shooting in this country.

In his column From the Hood this month, Werewolf satirist Lyndon Hood finds uncanny parallels between Voltaire’s Candide and the citoyens of a certain paradis in the South Pacific . You will never see the words “ quantitative easing” in quite the same light ever again. Finally, in our column The Complicatist, we celebrate a few killer examples of the rockin’ white trash sounds of rockabilly music .

Thanks to Lyndon Hood 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 and would like to talk over some story ideas, contact me at gordon@werewolf.co.nz.

Cheers,
Gordon Campbell
Werewolf/Scoop
gordon@werewolf.co.nz

The contents of this edition are:

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FEATURES:
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When Local GPs are a Closed Book
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/when-local-gps-are-a-closed-book/
Does the health system know (or care) when people can’t sign up at their local Medical Centre?
by Gordon Campbell

When Teaching Becomes Preaching
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/when-teaching-becomes-preaching/
A fresh campaign to get religious instruction out of state primary schools has reprised a very old debate.
by Alison McCulloch

Acting Under Orders
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/dealing-with-mistah-hollywood/
Does John Key know the conditions facing Kiwi workers within US film and TV productions here?
by Gordon Campbell

Bureaucratic Blind Alleys
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/bureaucratic-blind-alleys/
Palestinians escaping Syria find little relief in Lebanon
By Jonathan Broadbery

A Broader Union
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/a-broader-union/
Can an iwi-trade union alliance help change the economic equation in favour of workers?
By Alison McCulloch

Elric Kane, Master of Horror
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/elric-kane-master-of-horror/
An interview with the New Zealand-raised host of Inside Horror
by Gordon Campbell

Punishment Park
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/punishment-park/
Five attractive teenagers, a remote cabin in the woods … What could possibly go wrong?
by Philip Matthews

Café-Nomics in Hard Times
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/cafe-nomics-in-hard-times/
Life behind the café counter, post GFC
by Gordon Campbell

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COLUMNS:
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From The Hood : Qui, Jean, Ou Est La Growth?
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/from-the-hood-qui-jean-ou-est-la-growth/
If Planet Key did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.
by Lyndon Hood

The Complicatist : The Spirit of Rockabilly
http://werewolf.co.nz/2012/10/the-complicatist-the-spirit-of-rockabilly/
The sound of white trash contenders, from over 50 years ago…
by Gordon Campbell

THE IMPORTANT BIT - WHY WEREWOLF?
from Scoop General Manager Alastair Thompson

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