Ani O'Brien: Manifesting the racial divide

The Secret, a self-help manifesto about essentially wishing things into reality [simplified] was published back in 2006 and quickly became somewhat of a cult classic. All over the world people focused their minds on ‘telling the universe’ exactly what they wanted from life with the expectation that it would be made manifest.

I am sceptical by nature and at the time I was deeply cynical about the book and the ideas it promoted. However, I was considering the practice from the point of view of individuals attempting to wish success, love, and wealth into their lives. In 2022, we are seeing a very different process of loud, collective, and negative manifestation and I now hold genuine fears that this more pernicious enactment of The Secret’s techniques might actually be successful.

Fiona Mackenzie: Who are these Maori?

With recent claims of Maori ownership of water, wind and the digital spectrum - combined with the concerning prospect of a new, race-based constitution being developed for our country - I am left pondering: Who are these “Maori”?  Who are these people who want to separate themselves from other New Zealanders while thinking they are entitled to take more than their fair portion of the public pie?

I look around at those I share my life with - in our families, our neighbourhoods, at the shops, in school, at the gym, wherever – and can’t imagine how this separatist policy is supposed to work at street level.