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Remembering New Zealand's Missing Tragedy
Monday, 9 June 2025, 5:38 pm | Keith Rankin
The forgotten tragedy was actually a twin-tragedy; two smaller (but not small) tragedies may more easily fall below the memory radar than one bigger tragedy. The dates were 22 July 1973 and January 1974. More >>
On Free Speech And Anti-Semitism
Monday, 9 June 2025, 1:14 pm | Gordon Campbell
For the record: the haka in Parliament did not disrupt the taking of the first reading vote on The Treaty Principles Bill. It occurred after the votes from the other political parties had been cast and tallied, as the footage from Parliament clearly shows. More >>
Bad Old Habits: Israel Backs Palestinian Militias In Gaza
Saturday, 7 June 2025, 3:17 pm | Binoy Kampmark
With Hamas now the target and sworn enemy, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu feels that the same, failed experiment adopted at stages since the 1970s can be replicated: backing and encouraging yet another group of Palestinians to undermine any sovereign ... More >>
Equity Rights: UBI, SUI, BUI, HUI, Or GUI?
Friday, 6 June 2025, 5:20 pm | Keith Rankin
The missing ingredient from the capitalism that most of us know is 'public equity'. The crisis of capitalism can be addressed through development of public property rights, which we may call 'public equity'. It is the establishment of public property ... More >>
New Cartoon From Adrian Maidment
Friday, 6 June 2025, 1:37 pm | Adrian Maidment
How many times do I need to tell you - 'Slow & Steady' are out. 'Frenzied & Erratic' are in! More >>
Gaza's 'Humanitarian' Façade: A Deceptive Ploy Unravels
Friday, 6 June 2025, 1:13 pm | Ramzy Baroud
In Israel's thinking, any aid mechanism that would sustain the status quo that existed prior to the war and genocide starting on October 7, 2023, would be equivalent to an admission of defeat. This is precisely why Israel labored to associate the UN ... More >>
The Inevitable Souring: Elon Musk Falls Out With Donald Trump
Friday, 6 June 2025, 12:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Trump’s response to Musk’s latest gobbet of accusation proved almost melancholic. “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.” He went on to praise “one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.” More >>
Psychedelics, Mystical Experiencing, And Organized Religion
Thursday, 5 June 2025, 11:16 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The project of leading desperately thirsty religious leaders to the holy waters of mystical experience through psychedelics will not satisfy the thirst of the dwindling flocks they’re trying to lead. More >>
Postscript On Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide And New Zealand Recognition Of Palestine
Wednesday, 4 June 2025, 3:29 pm | Ian Powell
The heading I gave the post was Reasons for supporting ethnic cleansing, through genocide, in Palestine. This was my attempt at irony; by exploring the reasons that underpin the support for the genocidal ethnic cleansing in order to rebut them. More >>
On Why The Regulatory Standards Bill Should Be Dumped
Wednesday, 4 June 2025, 11:21 am | Gordon Campbell
If you blinked on a recent Friday afternoon, you might have missed the passing under urgency of the first reading of the Regulatory Standards Bill. The Bill purports to be a kind of legislative WOF test that all of us should welcome, right? More >>
In The Spirit Of Natural Justice
Tuesday, 3 June 2025, 3:06 pm | D C Harding
In the presence of “doubt” and natural justice, can such a harsh sentence be handed down? Can the current NZ government stand on moral ground in the future & hold another government to account on the validity of their decisions if they choose ... More >>
Off To War We Go: Starmer’s Strategic Defence Review
Tuesday, 3 June 2025, 12:36 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Despite a mammoth majority and a dramatically diminished Tory opposition, the Prime Minister acts like a man permanently besieged, his Labour Party seemingly less popular than Typhoid Mary. His inability to be unequivocal to questions of whether he will ... More >>
Thieves In The Kitchen: The Stealing Of Recipes
Monday, 2 June 2025, 3:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Iconoclastic Jonathan Meades rightly notes that the pathology of originality arises from the emergence of the cult chef, the God creator in the kitchen. More >>
New Cartoon from Adrian Maidment
Monday, 2 June 2025, 12:42 pm | Adrian Maidment
I've finally found something relatively cheap in New Zealand. More >>
Animal Encounters During Meditative States
Monday, 2 June 2025, 12:37 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
To grow into human beings, we have to be able to effortlessly quiet the movement of thought within ourselves. Then we are whole, and can communicate with animals. More >>
Gisborne Hospital Senior Doctors Strike Highlights Important Health System Issues
Sunday, 1 June 2025, 7:49 pm | Ian Powell
Today’s dispute is in response to the uncompetitive conditions of employment, particularly salaries (there is a pay gap with Australia of around 65% on base 40-hour salaries). More >>
Humanitarian Camouflage: The Debut Of The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Saturday, 31 May 2025, 8:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In both practice and spirit, this seedy, cynical enterprise violates the four essential principles of humanitarian action: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. More >>
Mister Netanyahu, Have You No Sense Of Decency?
Saturday, 31 May 2025, 1:26 pm | Jeremy Rose
We’ll be waiting a long time for the wanted war criminal Netanyahu to show any decency, but could we be approaching a tipping point where the establishment finally calls off a witch hunt after realising no one is safe from false accusations? More >>
On Why Leakers Are Essential To The Public Good
Friday, 30 May 2025, 4:46 pm | Gordon Campbell
For obvious reasons, people in positions of power tend to treat the leaking of unauthorised information as a very, very bad thing. But, the history of the last 100 years has been changed – very much for the better – by the leaking of unauthorised information. More >>
Global Backlash: How The World Could Shift Israel's Gaza Strategy
Friday, 30 May 2025, 1:42 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Things began to change when US President Donald Trump slowly grasped that Netanyahu's war in Gaza was destined to become a permanent war and occupation, which would inevitably translate to the perpetual destabilization of the Middle East – hardly a pressing ... More >>
Writing In The Time Of Genocide
Friday, 30 May 2025, 7:53 am | Eugene Doyle
"I don’t want to live in a country that turns a blind or a sleep-laden eye to one of the great crimes against humanity. I have come to the hurtful realisation that I have a very different worldview from most people I know and from most people I ... More >>
Who, Neither Politician Nor Monarch, Executed 100,000 Civilians In A Single Night?
Thursday, 29 May 2025, 4:51 pm | Keith Rankin
The main reason for the executions was some kind of 'impunity'; they did it because they could. The more they failed to bring the war to an end, the more they persevered in doing the executions that hadn't achieved their stated goals. Just one more city. More >>
Roads To War: The EU’s Security Action For Europe Fund
Thursday, 29 May 2025, 2:59 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The broader militarisation agenda is confirmed by linking SAFE with broader transatlantic engagement and “complementarity with NATO.” More >>
Why New Zealand Should Recognise Palestine
Wednesday, 28 May 2025, 6:10 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses why New Zealand should officially recognise Palestine in the context of the reasons for supporting ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians. More >>
On Wealth Taxes And Capital Flight
Wednesday, 28 May 2025, 1:32 pm | Gordon Campbell
In the wake of the Greens’ alternative Budget – and the criticism levelled at it – it seems pretty obvious that when it comes to tax policy, Labour’s only election campaign concession to left wing voters is going to be a capital gains tax ... More >>
Squabbling Siblings: India, Pakistan And Operation Sindoor
Wednesday, 28 May 2025, 7:53 am | Binoy Kampmark
The only ones to be notably ignored in this display of subcontinental machismo were the Kashmiris themselves, who face, in both the Pakistan and Indian administered zones, oppressive anti-terrorism laws, discriminatory practices and suppression of ... More >>
Using Cuba 1962 To Explain Trump's Brinkmanship
Tuesday, 27 May 2025, 6:19 pm | Keith Rankin
Two longstanding mercantilist economic nations (China, European Union) and one mercantilist leader are slugging it out to see who can export more goods and services to the world; the prize being a mix of gold and virtual-gold, the proceeds of unbalanced trade. More >>
The War On Gaza Is A War On Our Humanity
Tuesday, 27 May 2025, 11:32 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Whether Hamas is using the Gazan people as human shields or not, Israel has no right to mass murder. And just because Hamas has distributed food and medicine, Israel has no right to use starvation as a weapon or bomb hospitals. More >>
The Killing Of Israeli Embassy Staffers: Netanyahu’s Antisemitism Canard
Sunday, 25 May 2025, 2:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Fanaticism diminishes the horizon, leaving human beings bare, and hollow, and naked. And that baring is currently underway with remorseless intensity in Gaza. More >>
“I Can Confirm They Are Hypotheticals Drawn Largely From Anecdotes And Issues The Minister Has Heard About.”
Friday, 23 May 2025, 7:02 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses when health professions regulatory authorities policy is shaped by second hand anecdotes and issues. More >>
Chinese Jet Shoots Down France’s Best Fighter; NZ And Australia Should Pay Attention
Friday, 23 May 2025, 1:21 pm | Eugene Doyle
China’s manufacturing output is now at least double the U.S. China builds 40% of global shipbuilding by tonnage, compared to less than 2% for the U.S.. When it comes to warships, the rate China can build a ship is many times faster than the Americans, ... More >>
The Only Good Catholic Is A catholic With A Small ‘c’
Friday, 23 May 2025, 12:28 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
To idealists, imagination is the greatest gift and highest capacity we have as human beings. It isn’t, insight is. But imagination is what leading lights of the left believe is the fount of spirituality and a just world. More >>
On Budget 2025
Friday, 23 May 2025, 9:48 am | Gordon Campbell
Underwhelming, as promised. All week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis had actively reduced public expectations by saying that her second Budget would not be filled “with rainbows and unicorns” although – somewhere over the rainbow – it would ... More >>
Pakistan & China Down 6 Indian Warplanes
Thursday, 22 May 2025, 1:15 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
Since the mid-20th century China has been arming, investing in, and helping to construct Pakistan which is a crucial nation in Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and a non-NATO ally of the U.S. More >>
Zero-Sum Fiscal Narratives
Thursday, 22 May 2025, 11:34 am | Keith Rankin
Business sector deficits were substantially the norm in the twentieth century, but not since about 1990. Government balanced budgets were possible – though not normal – for much of the previous century. More >>
War In Sudan
Wednesday, 21 May 2025, 5:52 pm | Keith Rankin
The present Sudan Civil War is an international 'proxy war'; fuelled by extra-national powers – regional if not global. More >>
The Ethnic Cleansing Of Gaza: Israel’s Operation Gideon’s Chariots
Wednesday, 21 May 2025, 2:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The extent of the horror has now reached the point where it is being acknowledged in the capitals of Israel’s close allies. A joint statement from the UK, France and Canada affirmed opposition to “the expansion of Israel’s military operations ... More >>
US Warship In Wellington Harbour Symbol Of NZ Vassalage
Wednesday, 21 May 2025, 11:31 am | Alison Forrest
Last Friday May 16th the USS Blue Ridge, Flagship of the US 7th Fleet, sailed into Wellington Harbour and is moored at Aotea Quay until this Thursday. Hopefully it is not bristling with nuclear missiles, but if it is we, the citizens of nuclear ... More >>
Netanyahu's Endgame: Isolation And The Shattered Illusion Of Power
Wednesday, 21 May 2025, 7:42 am | Ramzy Baroud
It remains uncertain how long Netanyahu will remain in power, but his political standing has significantly deteriorated. He faces widespread domestic opposition and international condemnation. Even his primary ally, the United States, has signaled a shift in its ... More >>
The Aratere And The New Zealand Main Trunk Line
Tuesday, 20 May 2025, 3:01 pm | Keith Rankin
After all, for over 100 years, before 1960, Wellington to Lyttelton was the essential 'main trunk' link between the two islands. More >>
Starvation Of Gaza A Continuation Of A Decades-old Plan
Tuesday, 20 May 2025, 2:37 pm | Jeremy Rose
“A famine might jeopardise the continuation of Operation Gideon’s Chariots aimed at eliminating Hamas.” More >>
Celluloid Exploitation: Immigrants And Reality Television
Tuesday, 20 May 2025, 12:37 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Why not act out the entire migrant experience with reality television individuals with particularly xenophobic views? More >>
On NZ’s Silence Over Gaza, And Creeping Health Privatisation
Tuesday, 20 May 2025, 11:31 am | Gordon Campbell
Since last Thursday, intensified Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed over 500 Palestinians. And, $164.5M health spend over 5 years for a digital health service, and $164M over four years for after-hours care – are supposedly going to reduce ... More >>
Imagination And Stories Are Impediments To Revolution
Monday, 19 May 2025, 7:43 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A revolution in consciousness is not a revolution of the imagination. Half-measures such as telling better stories about the relationship between humans and nature, or imagining a different world than this one, are escapes from the tremendous challenge ... More >>
Rehabilitation And Confidence Tricks: al-Sharaa, Trump And Sanctions
Sunday, 18 May 2025, 4:29 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Things have come full circle. The Assad dynasts, who kept a watchful eye on fundamentalist Islamists, are gone. The Islamists, with their various backers, Turkey and Saudi Arabia being most prominent, are now nominally in charge. More >>
Predictable Smear On Senior Doctors
Sunday, 18 May 2025, 2:24 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses a predictable smear by a right-wing blogger on salaried senior doctors employed by Health New Zealand. More >>
Gaza's Graveyard Of Illusions: How Israel's Narrative Collides With Military Failure
Friday, 16 May 2025, 1:27 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Humiliated by the failures of his army & intelligence throughout the Gaza war, and facing immense pressure from a deeply discontented public, Netanyahu knows that his legacy, which he had hoped would be remembered as the greatest among all Israeli ... More >>
Trump, Planes And The Arabian Gulf Tour
Friday, 16 May 2025, 12:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In a shameless effort to outdo Riyadh, the Qatari royal family threw in a luxury 747 plane worth $400 million for the US Department of Defense, intended for Trump’s use as a temporary substitute Air Force One. More >>
Unprecedented Times
Friday, 16 May 2025, 12:25 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The survival of the individual and humanity requires the emergence of human beings of insight. The psychological, spiritual and ecological crisis of humankind is unprecedented, demanding an unparalleled response. More >>
Radio New Zealand’s Report On Its Israel-Gaza Coverage Is Not Credible
Thursday, 15 May 2025, 3:24 pm | Jeremy Rose-Eugene Doyle-Ramon Das
Given its self-limiting scope and its conclusions (which we do not agree with), the report risks appearing to be a quick sanitising exercise that ended in a predictable finding of, “Nothing to see here; you’re doing a great job.” More >>
On The Mock Horror Over Political Profanity
Thursday, 15 May 2025, 2:32 pm | Gordon Campbell
A female journalist (the fearsome Andrea Vance) used a bad word to refer to female politicians who had just extinguished the ability of about 150,000 women to get fair pay for the work they do. The nation reeled, and expressed its outrage More >>
Gender Pay Inequity Perpetuation And Venality
Wednesday, 14 May 2025, 6:53 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the Government’s unexpected decision to rush through Parliament legislation gutting gender pay equity claims. More >>
Commemorating Mummy: Reflections On Mother’s Day
Tuesday, 13 May 2025, 2:00 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The day itself denigrates the mother in false respect and guilts the family for ignorance to that fact. It sanctifies a family relation for reasons of commercial worth. More >>
On The Parental Panic Over Young Kids Online
Tuesday, 13 May 2025, 10:06 am | Gordon Campbell
Creating a policy group to investigate a R16 ban on social media provides the government with a perfectly designed soapbox. The findings don’t have to end up suggesting anything useful, let alone a practical course of action. More >>
Lisa's Underwear & Rosa Parks? Mystery Solved
Monday, 12 May 2025, 3:49 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
"None of the individuals depicted in any of the garments are Rosa Parks or other well-known figures from Black cultural history. They are all people from Henry’s own life," Louis Vuitton's statement to Vulture said. More >>
For The Love Of Sycamores
Monday, 12 May 2025, 8:59 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
For a year there was no sign that the fire did any lasting damage, but then saplings sprang up around the base of the tree, and the next year its limbs began to fall off. First small branches, and then bigger and bigger limbs dropped off. Like a leper ... More >>
A Timely Call For A Social Contract In Health
Sunday, 11 May 2025, 6:45 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the relevance of a timely editorial in the New Zealand Medical Journal advocating the reconstruction of a healthcare social contract. More >>
White Smoke And Speculation: The Election Of Pope Leo XIV
Sunday, 11 May 2025, 3:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
A mischievous remark was once made by an Australian commentator on Church matters that you would have better chances picking a winner at the Melbourne Cup horse race than the next pontiff. More >>
Make Deficits Great Again: Maintaining A Pragmatic Balance
Friday, 9 May 2025, 3:28 pm | Keith Rankin
Just as the deficit countries are the world's 'spendthrifts', the surplus countries are the world's 'misers'. The global economy maintains a successful equilibrium so long as the willing spendthrifts balance out the insistent misers. More >>
Bratty Royal: Prince Harry And Bespoke Security Protection
Friday, 9 May 2025, 1:07 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The latest tremor of narcissistic display on the Duke’s part involved an interview with the BBC which could be billed as confession and advertisement: “I confess; I advertise”, with an afterthought of “Please Forgive Me Daddy” while funding ... More >>
