Peter Winsley: Resolving arguments about opening meetings with karakia - A modest proposal

Debate continues on whether meetings should open with a karakia, and if so what rules might apply. Some oppose their purported religious content (karakia can be secular). Some argue karakia must always be translated into English. Others value Te Reo Māori for its emotional power, its meanings ineffable in English, or simply because of how it sounds.

Peter Winsley: The Green Party’s plans for public and private lands

The Green Party wants to facilitate the transfer of more public (or “Crown”) and private land to iwi, hapū, and whānau. The intent is to address inequities arising from Māori land loss, especially in the 19th century.

The New Zealand Constitution Act 1986 marks the point that Parliament became sovereign and the British Crown’s role became limited to the procedural and symbolic. “The Crown” in practical terms means all New Zealanders, or at least their elected members of Parliament. Whatever costs “the Crown” incurs in Tiriti-related processes are paid for by New Zealanders, not by King Charles.

Peter Winsley: Education as Master, not Servant of Artificial Intelligence

Knowledge accumulated over Generations

When past social or technological advances are discussed young people sometimes disclaim all knowledge and remark “I wasn’t alive then”, as if nothing can be known without having been lived through. This is not Hayek’s “pretense of knowledge” so much as the misguided view that nothing is real except what you have seen, touched and can vouch for in person. In fact, learning accumulates and is passed on through the generations. For example, a first-year university Mathematics student stands on the shoulders of generations of mathematicians from many cultures. The known evidence suggests that mathematics originated in Mesopotamia in around 3000BC and advanced greatly within the Islamic world of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, “but I cannot say for sure because I wasn’t alive then”.