Bruce Moon: Racial Privilege at Otago University

“Ethnicity is not shaped in the womb but in the head.”
- David Miles, The Tribes of Britain, 2005, p.178  

The current active discussion on policy for selection of entrants to the University of Otago Medical School reveals much of the accelerating racism which blights our once fair democracy of New Zealand.  

That policy as it stands grants preferential entry to students who claim Maori or Pasifica ancestry and the first question that it raises is just what in fact that qualification may be?  

Who, in short, is a Maori?

Kate Hawkesby: Why isn't the PM social distancing?

Today the rest of the country will most likely get to Level 1. Aucklanders, not so much. Our restrictions are likely to remain in place, which is annoying for Aucklanders but also problematic for campaigning politicians.

They'll be hoping Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extends gathering sizes as promised, so they can mingle in bigger crowds. But will that include easing restrictions on social distancing?

Because here's the thing, the Prime Minister herself doesn't seem to want to abide that rule.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 20.09.20

Sunday September 20, 2020 

News:
Auckland Museum translates online war records into te reo Māori
An online military database has been translated into te reo to honour Māori servicemen and women.

Auckland War Memorial Museum has introduced the changes to the user interfaces of its online cenotaph and collections in time for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week

Gerry Bowler: Go Woke, Go Broke

The world is in the midst of a cultural war known as The Great Awokening. 

Armies of young progressives, media personalities, journalists, bureaucrats, and academics have seized the moment to demand that the rest of society must have only one set of correct thoughts about race, gender, and sex. Should you express the opinion that all lives matter instead of Black Lives Matter or call someone a coloured person instead of a person of colour, you risk losing your livelihood or being visited by a mob intent on changing your mind by intimidation.

Many businesses have decided that they had better get ahead of the wokerati and openly declare themselves on the side of the new righteousness. 

Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.09.20

Saturday September 19, 2020

News:
Iwi stand in solidarity over allegations of institutional racism at Waikato University
Meanwhile, the university announced this week it had secured almost $27 million in funding from the MBIE Endeavour Fund for three projects with a predominantly Māori research focus:

• Tikanga in Technology: Indigenous approaches to transforming data ecosystems: $6m.

Bob Edlin: Maori Party reports a pandemic of racism

Our daily check with the Beehive website draw a blank.  Nothing has been announced there since the PM announced the offender responsible for the Christchurch terror attack on 15 March 2019 has been designated as a terrorist entity.

But elsewhere in our monitoring of the political scene we found the Māori Party is hot and bothered about goings-on in the education domain .  The item was headlined Racism In Education, Second Pandemic In Aotearoa

The Māori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga, Tākuta Ferris, and Waiariki candidate, Rawiri Waititi, said in the statement they “believe institutional racism within the education system is holding this nation back”.

Kate Hawkesby: Will we see that economic bounce back?

So we got the GDP figure yesterday - the one we've been bracing for. The one Treasury predicted could be as bad as 16 per cent

Banks thought it would be around 7 to 13 per cent. It's landed at 12. A drop of 12.2 per cent to be exact. Officially, it's a recession.

Which we knew anyway didn't we? Seven weeks in lockdown doesn't make for pretty reading on economists' spreadsheets.

We knew it from the struggles we saw around us - from the local greengrocer to the hairdresser to the butchers to the cafes and the retail stores.

Lindsay Mitchell: Stuff says, "Little evidence of child poverty coming down"

Stuff is writing a series called 'The Whole Truth' running up to the election. It aims to fact-check campaign claims, party policies and achievements. 

Today they feature a piece on child poverty which also appears in the Dominion Post. I've included the entire short piece (because it is the simplest summation of the measures I've read) and added  a few of my own comments:

"There is little evidence, on the Government’s own measures, of child poverty coming down.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Government's books shows wasteful spending has to stop

The government books have been opened and it’s pretty much as grim as forecast.  

In the short term, the economic shock looks slightly better than expected. But in the long term, it’s a bit more gloomy.  It’s going to take longer to come out of this than we thought. 

According to Infometrics, GDP won’t be back to pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2022, which means we have two whole years of tough times ahead of us. 

NZCPR Newsletter: Taxing Choices

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter, we question whether raising taxes will help New Zealand recover from the recession caused by Labour’s hard-line lockdown, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Kerry McDonald outlines how poor political leadership has contributed to New Zealand’s economic decline, and our poll asks whether higher taxes or lower taxes are the best way forward for New Zealand.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

GWPF Newsletter: Satellite Observations Reveal Decreasing Trend in Global Wildfires

 

Solar Cycle 25 To Repeat Low Cycle 24, Scientists Predict

In this newsletter:

1) Satellite Observations Reveal Decreasing Trend in Global Wildfires
GWPF Observatory, 16 September 2020 

2) Solar Cycle 25 To Repeat Low Cycle 24, Scientists Predict
GWPF Observatory, 16 September 2020

Mike's Minute: No Prime Minister, the economy is not back to level 1

You can feel the incredulity meter ramping up.

Good on all those who spoke out yesterday calling out the Prime Minister over her claim on Monday that the economy was back to level 1. 

Theodore Dalrymple: Much Ado About Nothing - pledging allegiance to identity politics.

The killing of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis launched a new global epidemic, one not deadly like Covid-19 but perhaps as infectious—that of insincere breast-beating that, oddly enough, has given new credence to the term institutional racism. 

One of the institutions busy institutionalizing racism is the Folger Library in Washington, D.C.

GWPF Newsletter: Nuclear Power And Hydrogen Four Times Cheaper Than Renewables, New Report

 

EU Threatens China With Trade War Over Costly Climate Policies

In this newsletter:

1) Nuclear Power And Hydrogen Four Times Cheaper Than Renewables, New Report 
The Sunday Times, 13 September 2020

2) EU Threatens China With Trade War Over Costly Climate Policies
EurActiv, 14 September 2020

Garrick Tremain: Sales

 Here is Garrick Tremain's latest cartoon commentary!

Chris Talgo: ‘BLM’ Organizations Say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ but They Mean ‘Be Like Marx’

The Movement for Black Lives and Black Lives Matter, colloquially known as “BLM,” are Marxist organizations whose views are in fundamental opposition to the values that America was founded upon. 

And no, I’m not talking about racism. I’m talking about individual liberty, free markets, and the Constitution. 

How do I know this? Because I went through the unprecedented, incredibly difficult task of going to their websites and reading their platforms.

Clive Bibby: The Age of Double Standards

In spite of the fact that the evidence is mounting in their favour, the Swedes are struggling to make headway convincing a world that is dominated by media fixated with a pandemic narrative that is quickly running out of credibility.

We could have seen this coming.

Tragically, but perhaps unsurprisingly, when the true nature of the Carona virus first became known, it was already too late for most countries that did not enjoy natural borders like New Zealand to take meaningful action in mitigation.

Indeed, the most vulnerable, especially those who had been most exposed to the disease before the Chinese came clean about their little gift to humanity, were in an impossible situation of trying to shut the door after the horse had bolted.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Science, pseudoscience and ethnoscience

Bob Edlin’s article “Biodiversity, science and a Maori world view” (Breaking Views 14 Aug - see HERE) reminded me what an imprecise entity ‘science’ is in comparative linguistic and cultural contexts.

Those of you who remember your high school French may already realise that the word ‘science’ means something rather different in that language from what it means in modern English. French universities have departments devoted to the ‘Science of the Humanities’. To anyone acquainted with only English, this comes across as silly. I mean, ‘science’ is physics, chemistry, geology and all that stuff – nothing to do with literature, history, philosophy and all that stuff….. isn’t that right?

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.09.20

 

Saturday September 12, 2020

News:
Hawke's Bay 'flying The Flag' For Te Wiki O Te Reo Māori
The five councils of Hawke’s Bay have collaborated to fly bilingual flags to celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori Māori Language Week.

The bilingual flags, ngā haki reorua, can be seen proudly flying in locations in Wairoa, Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay.

NZCPR Weekly: Living With Covid-19

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter, we share strategies from around the world on living with Covid-19 and suggest its time our politicians provided their plans to voters, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Steve Waterson – commercial editor of The Australian – outlines why the authoritarian approach taken by politicians is too heavy-handed, and our poll asks whether you believe a vaccine will end the pandemic or will we have to learn to live with Covid-19.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
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