Ananish Chaudhuri: Rule-breaking by the police and why it matters

A look at how everyday rule-breaking creates the conditions for police scandals and public distrust.

The World Bank has long defined corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain. Transparency International defines it as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Many commentators and politicians are shying away from referring to the current scandal engulfing our police as corruption. Regardless of what label we apply to this behaviour, dishonest conduct by powerful people carries broader societal implications.

Professor Ananish Chaudhuri: Death and displacement in Gaza are heart-breaking but

I see progressives, both in New Zealand and overseas, routinely excoriate Israel for carrying out “genocide” in Gaza. In fact, accusing Israel of “genocide” has become a rite of passage in establishing one’s bona fides as a progressive. Except, as with many other contemporary progressive shibboleths, there is little factual basis to this claim.

How is genocide defined?

Ananish Chaudhuri: There is a free speech crisis at our universities

A recent article in The Post by two University of Auckland academics makes three primary assertions. First, there is no free speech crisis at our universities. Second, universities are autonomous and should be “allowed to make this judgment call”. Third, universities should not be forced to “bend the knee to an external agency of the state.”

The authors are wrong on all three counts.

Ananish Chaudhuri: Why are high achieving teens headed overseas and why this is not necessarily a good idea

Why are high achieving teens headed overseas and why this is not necessarily a good idea

Part 1: Why are high achieving teens headed overseas and why this is not necessarily a good idea

Part 2: Why going to study overseas, particularly Australia, is not necessarily a good idea

Ananish Chaudhuri: The sheer lunacy of contemporary progressive politics or How I became a right-wing extremist

With Kemi Badenoch taking over the leadership of Tories in the UK, newspapers have been replete with how this represents a radical turn to the right. Similar headlines appeared when Labour was booted from power in New Zealand.

There was a time when I would have thought: “Shame. Why can’t these people not be more progressive, more empathetic, more caring of the less well-off and the downtrodden?”

Ananish Chaudhuri: Is New Zealand in danger of lurching towards constitutional impropriety?

Lately, I am seeing a lot of articles that accuse the current government of imperiling New Zealand’s democracy. One of the more recent entries is by former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer arguing in Newsroom that “New Zealand is in danger of lurching towards constitutional impropriety.” He also writes that he is “concerned that our democracy is being weakened by the methods this Government is using to achieve its goals.”

Ananish Chaudhuri: Winston Peters has a point about media bias

Winston Peters has suggested that mainstream media were “bribed” by the previous Labour government. Members of the media are outraged.

Peters, true to form, is being provocative.

Ananish Chaudhuri: Labour stuffed up. That’s why they lost. Deal with it.

With power about to change hands, I see more and more commentary about how this election was somehow unfair. There was Rob Campbell, Chancellor of AUT pontificating in the Herald that this election was “bought”. Then more recently David Williams of Newsroom weighed in about the influence of the Tax Payers’ Union and its anonymous donors. The list is long. I find it bizarre that people who continually denigrate Donald Trump for his false claim about the stolen election (and Trump is lying, even he knows it and three of his lawyers have admitted this in pleading guilty in Georgia) are perfectly happy to claim that the election was stolen when their side loses.

Ananish Chaudhuri: Claims about New Zealand saving 20,000 Covid lives are inaccurate and meaningless

In a recent article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, Michael Baker and his co-authors claim that New Zealand saved at least 20,000 lives from Covid death. This article has received a fair amount of media exposure. 

Given that this is a “viewpoint” article, I am not sure whether the paper went through peer review or not.

The article provides an overview of the progression of the Covid pandemic and various associated issues. Most parts of the article are uncontroversial as it presents a series of facts. There are bits of opinion thrown in that might raise some eyebrows such as:

Ananish Chaudhuri: Why Winston Peters will be returning to Parliament in October

On October 14th, Winston Peters will most likely be back in Parliament. The reason for this support is simple: he showed up at the Wellington protests.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter protests flared in the US. This was in the middle of the ongoing pandemic. Progressives were all strongly supportive of those protests. It was important to protest such systemic injustice.

Ananish Chaudhuri: The collateral damage from our zero Covid mindset

Ashley Bloomfield was Knighted recently for the role he played in New Zealand’s Covid-19 response. His response relied primarily on the use of extensive and stringent lockdowns.

But were our lockdowns worth it and was our covid response appropriate? A Royal Commission of Inquiry is currently underway to establish lessons learned from the country’s Covid-19 response.

Ananish Chaudhuri: Legitimate Grievances Must Be Heard

We shun protesters at our peril

I am not a fan of Brian Tamaki. But one does not need to admire or respect Mr Tamaki to concede that many of those gathered under his banner have legitimate grievances. It is folly to write them off as misguided, racist, homophobic, transphobic or antisemitic. Of course, some of them are. But then all political parties harbour such elements within their ranks.

In many ways, the support for Mr Tamaki mirrors the support for Donald Trump in the United States and this is driven by similar motivations.

Commentators have tended to write this off as a clash of cultures; right-wing values espousing entrenchment of the traditional patriarchy against progressive values arguing for greater inclusivity.

Yes, there is a clash of cultures here, but it is not what most commentators think.